A New Year in the Making...

So - 2 years of unbroken blipping. It's flown by. Due to 2012's leap year, our red balloon was a day early. Many, many thanks for all the comments on yesterday's photo, we made it to Spotlight for the first time in quite a while.

Above all, blip has shown the absolute power of practice. We were both pretty much beginners when we started, and have progressed enormously through the power and discipline of taking a photo a day. Take a look at the contrast between this (Annie, a few days in), and this (Chris, a few days ago) - it's hilarious! Or this (early on) compared with this (recently).

We enjoy sharing our journal, and boggle at anyone who keeps it up by themselves. That being said, the last seven months have been almost exclusively Chris, so he has progressed more (due to Annie's work commitments - more of which later).

We've had some really stand-out moments in the year:

- Annie got her degree in Psychology from the Open University;
- A 20th anniversary tribute to Annie's late mum (one of our most popular blips ever for the write up);
- Chris starts a new job;
- A 40th birthday for Annie (with a BIG party), and other friends' 40ths to celebrate during the year too...;
- The school where Annie is Chair of Governors climbs two levels from "Special Measures" to "Good" Ofsted rating in just 19 months - very unusual;
- Chris' runs, with a half marathon at Silverstone race circuit, a 10K in London with Mo Farah, a 5km at Waddesdon Manor, the Royal Parks Foundation Half-Marathon in London and the traditional Aylesbury Boxing Day 5km;
- Watching old friends Mimi and Dave and Mark and Evren get married;
- A blipmeet at a disused airfield in Oxfordshire and in London;
- A hard drive failure leading to the potential loss of all pictures (luckily not actual loss - but remember to back-up properly, kids);
- An obsession with the Bristol Gromits (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and most importantly here);
- Live gigs with Depeche Mode, The Killers, Glastonbury Festival, V Festival, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Gabriel, Marillion and (somewhat more embarrassingly) The Big Reunion;
- A trip to the BBC;
- A trip to Wimbledon;
- Beautiful Bluebell hunting;
- A trip to Cheeseminer's railway;
- A long weekend in Berlin;
- A drive to Barcelona and family holiday in Spain;
- An obsession with yellow lines in Swindon (here and here);
- The Bristol Balloon Festival;
- A trip round 10 European countries in 4 days in classic Triumph cars;
- A 24-hour cycle ride (on static bikes) for charity;
- And we said goodbye to two cars (Chris' and Annie's).

Last year we really enjoyed getting our book of the year from blip - it was fabulous to remember the year like that, and we can now flick back through it. Just need to get putting another together, this time for 2013...

Although our journal was very much a shared journal for the first year and a half, for the last seven months I (Annie) have been covering my boss' role at work as well as my own due to her illness. I'm so very pleased to say she'll be back on the 6th January (she's fab), so my life can return a bit more to normal. It's been a hard slog covering two roles, and in a quiet moment today (more for myself than anyone) I totted up it had included since June 1st:

- 11,955 miles travelled for work;
- 47 nights away from home;
- 1,372.5 hours working (130% of my contracted hours, but only 27% of all hours there were - it felt like more!);
- 59 days working in Bristol, 7 in Edinburgh, 6 in London, 3 in Leeds, 2 in Halifax and one in Reading;
- 3,462 hours on IT standby cover (not working, but ready in case our systems go wrong).

Finally, we find our list of most frequent tags says a lot about us: Aylesbury, London, Switzerland, Bristol, torch, Iceland, flower, sunrise, theatre, rain, squirrel, Tuscany, snow, Chilterns, macro, Gromit Unleashed, sunset, Olympic, moon. We also, apparently, mention "Autumn" 53% more than the average Blipfoto journal. Well, well.

Thanks for all the comments and everything this year. Sorry for not always being responsive commenters - chances are we're on a motorway somewhere at the time. We love looking at your journals, even if only occasional commenters. We've loved the last 2 years (and not a day missed!), and look forward to the next 365...

Happy 2014, everyone! I hope it goes well for you all - we'll look forward to seeing and reading all about it.