Celebration!!

Now how can I even start to tell you about this photo today.  There is such a story behind it, but I'll do my best.  For eleven years from 1991 I ran a walking business in Sydney called Club Ped.  I ran it as a club and at one stage I had well over 150 members enrolled.  We had a lot of fun and I used to go on a holiday and take many of them with me.  We had adventure after adventure, including 5 trips to New Zealand.  It was like organising a bunch of friends in the end and I became very close to many of my members.

I am so thrilled to share this image with my blip buddies today.  CCN and I woke up early and headed across to Balmain to surprise the group who are still walking, can you believe it.  It's 15 years since I ceased running the business and there's a group that still meet every Saturday.  On the far right is Nan.  Nan is the reason we made it to the surprise reunion this morning.  Nan and her sister Sue are great mates of ours and we don't see them often enough.  Sparkling in red are Frank and Mee-na.  They are a story in themselves.

They were two of my most loyal members and we had so much fun reminiscing over many of the funny things that had happened on our treks.  Frank was famous for playing his harmonica and on one occasion  when we were doing the Milford Track in New Zealand the guide asked Frank if he could play a rendition of "Amazing Grace" while he held his walk talky next to his harmonica.  He thought it might help an exhausted member of the group who was really struggling half way to the top to  make it to the top of McKinnon Pass.  I will never forget it.  We were all in tears when Alfred finally made it into the hut.  I think when he heard the strains coming through the walky talky he thought he might be in heaven already!!

So many stories and I have been inspired by our reunion today to select some of my memorable images and put them into a photo book so that I can capture the spirit of those 11 years forever.  

Isn't life wonderful.  We mustn't waste a minute.

PS - After I moved to the Blue Mountains in 1999 I continued running the business for a another two years however eventually I realised that it would be too difficult to sustain the travelling up and down, it was taking its toll.  Today I felt like time had stood still and it was a magical moment for me to meet up with my walking buddies again.


Tiny Tuesday - Celebration
This week is a very special Tiny Tuesday.  It is the start of our second year of blipping macro images on a Tuesday and what a year it has been.  I would love to know how many new macro lenses have been purchased over the past twelve months.


I would love those macro maniacs who are so loyal to the challenge to create an entry this week that "Personifies a Celebration".  You'll have to put your thinking caps on and come up with something spectacular.  We have so much to celebrate as blippers and it's just wonderful that we are heading into our second year with the knowledge that we can blip our little hearts out for years to come.  The tags for this week are TT53, TinyTuesday53 and Tiny Tuesday.


I'm hosting Tiny Tuesday for the month of June and will be hounding many of you to throw your hat in the ring to take on the hosting roll in the weeks following.  Even if you can manage a week or two, don't be shy because it's a fun thing to do and you meet a lot of new blippers.  
Cheers from the Wombat.