I always think of myself as something of a rebel. I have a really bad tendency to do the opposite of what I’m told and to relish doing things that I know I shouldn’t do. Sometimes though, I realise that people tell me to do stuff that could benefit me and today I’m celebrating one of those.

Three people, independently of one another and without knowing the other two, have told me to go for the same thing in recent weeks.

It started with Sarah (WHL Sarah) on the last home game of last season. She mentioned a competition and suggested I entered it. She told me all about it and I decided I would probably have a go at it. Unfortunately I couldn’t get my hands on the paper that the competition was advertised in (because it was sold out) and so I tried to work out how to enter from their website. No joy. There was an article about the competition but I couldn’t see any obvious way to enter or even see the entry criteria.

I’d kind of given up on the idea when a pbaser (Eric Hewis) pmailed me and also suggested I enter. He sent me a link to an electronic entry form so I thought this was too much of a coincidence and would take it seriously again. But, you know what life is like – 100 miles an hour on a slow day!!! So, again, I had good intentions then thought I’d probably not end up going for it because of lack of time to prepare it.

Then I bumped into a colleague from work in the corridor and he asked me if I’d had the post today because he’d sent me some information on a competition that he thought I should enter. Guess what? Yep – it was the same one! Finally, I heard properly what people were saying to me.

Three people all urging me to go for it and I suddenly felt galvanised into action. The three people had all thought of me when they saw it (which suggests they think I stand a chance of winning). More than that, they’d all gone to the trouble of contacting me to point it out and suggest I go for it. Now all of a sudden I feel under pressure. I’ll let them down if I don’t do it.

It is of course a photography competition and I have trawled through my foodie pics, taken some new ones and chosen a selection to enter. They’ve been printed, I’ve filled out the forms, packed them all up and sent them off today for the competition closing date is this weekend. Phew. I am so glad to have got myself off my backside and done it.

Now I wait to see the outcome. If I were to win (tiny glimmer of hope), it’d be a huge honour of course and a step towards my ambition (to get a pic in one of Delia’s books) – I could use the winning status to approach her. If I don’t win, I have at least tried and I’ll know I need to do better to achieve my ambition. Whatever happens, I’m glad I entered because my friends had faith in me to push me towards it and I feel that the simple fact of entering goes some way to repay that faith.

Let’s face it, I’ve been so lucky this year that it can’t keep rolling along in this wonderful way for me. Sooner or later it has to run out and this is probably that time. But, as I packed the photos for posting today, I looked at them and felt pleased with them. They may not end up winners but I still feel great about them.

These lychees are not part of my submission because I’ve taken this photo today and my entry has already gone but they are a classic example of the type of food shot I do and they’ve already featured in my rainbow shot so they have provided me with great ‘value’ for the 30p they cost me!!!

Two years ago, I told of my Dad's roots and last year I was also expressing my rebelliousness!