This is a sort of mini update post as feel I need to after my prolonged quietness. The past few weeks have been a bit mad not in part because I’ve been out of the country for one of them. The week before I left work was hectic so I had to put blogging on the back seat (you know it’s bad with me when that happens). Lots had to be sorted as I was heading for America thanks to a client. I’m now back and despite a bit of a case of jet lag getting settled into what I missed in my mini Spring break.

This trip was my first time to America and it may have been a client trip but I was lucky enough to be shown a bit of Austin and the surrounding area. All I can say really is wow along with a big thanks to the people that made my trip wonderful, it is an amazing part of the country - ok I don’t have much else to gauge being a US virgin. The irony of being a few weeks late in the place where SXSW occurs was not missed on me either. I’m going to be posting a fair chunk to flickr over the next few days / week as I get through the inevitable back log caused by dropping off the radar for a week or so.

The flip side effect of my break has been I feel much better about a number of things that were weighing heavy on me before I left. The week or so before I left the blogsphere seemed to go through a bit of a soap opera moment with bloggers being threatened, missing, mudslinging, 9rules bashing and various other emotional episodes. I wasn’t directly effected apart from a few weeks ago being quoted as a mindless 9rules groupy, an event that at the time enraged me but has now left me not even giving that person the grace of a url as they certainly don’t deserve it or the rant that I could go into. Whilst my love of blogging never went I felt that I didn’t want to blog between this a mad work load and a few personal events that meant I really relished the break that my trip gave me. I don’t do personal really in-depth on this blog but lets just say most things are sorted now.

I’m back now and so is my luggage - like me my luggage seemed reluctant to come back to the UK. I apologise for my lack of posting to those that have supported me and feel sorry for the unexplained absence. All I can really say is it has done me the world of good (and I say this even though my body and brain are jet lagged today). The sun is shining outside and I feel renewed by my break. I’ve been thinking a lot about my place in the blogging world and design in general while I’ve been away. One thing I’ve come up with is that this blog is still where my heart is and despite feeling rather numb about design after a run of mediocre numbs and lows I now want to experiment a lot more. Whilst the few weeks isn’t much by a break standards, if you read this blog regularly you’ll know that this time without a post is actually not something that has happened before.

So, what impact does this have for diary of a website? Really none but partly some. I have a new design brewing which may or may not make it for may and I have a renewed energy about investing more time in things like webspiration and colourspiration. The general rule in my life is when I am not happy the things that are closest to me get ignored the most - odd rule but it’s sadly true. 9rules is still close to my heart and this also suffered from my lack of energy with blog club again being a casualty of my apathy and my notes interaction tailing off into near zero. I have a lot to get through after this break but once I do expect me to take the slack up on all these fronts and be back on track again. Normal service isn’t really something I want to resume as it wasn’t something I was happy with, but I am drawing a line in the emotional sand and taking the new energy and seeing where I go with it.