Apologies for my abscess

 Hi,

I can’t believe nearly 12 months have passed since my last post, during which time I’ve changed jobs and finally moved house after nearly five years of trying. Both of these events have been a distraction and taken up quite a bit of my free time. But if I’m truthful, the main reason for my absence is the fact that I fell out of love with the blogging for a while.

Last September I suffered what I can only describe as a catastrophic hard drive failure which resulted in my losing countless half-written blogs, thousands of photographs and worst of all, the first draft of the book I hoped to publish on the Beatles’ Liverpool Locations.  I remember staring at the screen in disbelief, a sick feeling in my stomach as I realised years of memories and work had vanished in an instant.

A few friends advised me there were places where I could probably get the hard drive fixed, but oddly, after a while the despair turned to apathy, and I found I wasn’t really that bothered.  

That’s not to say I’d lost interest in The Beatles, or Liverpool, or taking photographs, but every time I thought about writing about them for a blog, I always seemed to find something better to do.  

Paradoxically, it was during this time that the blog achieved a million views. It’s had nearly 80 thousand more since, and this level of engagement helped convince me that it was something worth continuing with. 

I needed to find out precisely what I had lost in the crash. It took a long time, especially with the other life events I’ve mentioned, but I managed to recover a good portion – but by no means all - of my notes and photographs from backup drives and the cloud. I was able to re-take some of the photographs I’d lost, while adding hundreds of new ones to the archive. 

Now, as I look back on these challenges, I feel ready to return to blogging – perhaps with a fresh perspective and renewed enthusiasm for sharing my journey. I don’t think I’ll be writing the lengthy posts of the past – at least not yet - but I do plan to share some easier reads – quick hits if you like – about the places I’ve been and some of the great people I’ve met over the last 12 months. No matter where I go, it seems that one or more of the Beatles have always been there before me!  

Thanks for sticking with me,

Mark