Something to grab on to

At long, long last, the January Blues are over and done with.

It began with an early-morning (well, 11.00 is early for me) with one of my regular clients. He'd contacted me last week enquiring about my availability to work on this year's version of an annual report I do for him each year, and also mentioned a once-off glossy promotional brochure which he needs fairly urgently. We get on well together, and we had a good chat today. The annual report is breaking earlier than usual this year, and -- inevitably enough, as with things like this -- work on that will proceed at the same time as the brochure. Before I went out to this meeting I'd emailed another client I dod a quarterly magazine for to ask about the timing of the next issue. When I got back, it was to find that this job is also needed soon (to go to print by the end of this month). So I'll be working on three jobs at once for the next few weeks -- and suddenly I feel great about it, and I'm looking forward to it all. Scheduling is also complicated by the fact that I'll be away in Nice in the South of France for a few days at the beginning next month, so I'll need to be well on top of things by then so I can go away with my mind at rest.

After the meeting I went in to town for one of my bank visits. It was a bit cold and windy, but not too terribly unpleasant, and certainly not cold enough to make me wish for gloves to keep my fingertips warm while doing some blipping. I enjoyed the blipping enormously, buoyed up by my found-again feeling of positivity. It wasn't exactly a wide-ranging expedition, just a walk down Lad Lane across from the bank (a spot which is chock-a-block with photo ops), taking in this door set into a pebble-dashed wall, renovations in progress, and one of my perennial favourite through-a-dark-alleyway sort of shots, finally returning for some wide-angle fun around the public plaza of the Bank of Ireland HQ building, where my bank branch is located.

Back home later on the sun came out for a half hour or so and I even popped out into my disorderly front garden for a quick garden macro. At the end of the day, though, today's blip just had to be this view of one of the handrails on the wide expanse of steps which leads up to the main entrance to the Bank HQ.