Sorry for disappearing

Hey guys, really sorry for the unplanned hiatus. I know, it's not like me to suddenly disappear without saying anything. Well actually it sort of is and sort of isn't. I've been here eight years now and in the first five years or so I would sometimes have longer breaks away from dA, often over the summer. But the last 2-3 years I've had more responsibilities and commitments and it's not a fair thing to do. Even when I've been busy I've at least checked in and kept on top of anything urgent - or, when I've known I'm going to be away, I've notified my groups in advance and made arrangements.

So what happened this time? Well first of all work got really busy, which set me back for a week or two, but it wasn't a big deal, I was going to log in and catch up. But then suddenly my grandma went into hospital and I had to get a flight down to where my parents live to go and see her. It wasn't a great time - she died in the nursing home that she was in, and then there was the funeral - I was down south for over 2 weeks in the end and of course it was all totally unplanned, I literally dropped everything and got on the next flight I could. And didn't know when I left that I was going to be there for so long. The last week or two I've been catching up with everything else including work whilst knowing in the back of my mind you guys deserved an update but not being able to face the backlog. Sorry about that

I'll do my best to get caught up with messages/comments first then catch up with things in my devwatch. I'll take care of the group stuff as well but I'll talk about that on the group blog - that update will come within the next hour.

I know there were a bunch of you who were worried about me and I'm really sorry about that. I didn't mean to disappear without warning, it was all very sudden Sorry again