Well, would you jolly well believe it? This blog has just had its fifth birthday. My very first post was on June 23rd 2005 on a warm summer's day. The weather has been similarly warm in Yorkshire this week. When starting out as a blogger, I had no idea where the journey would take me or how long the habit would last. I was just giving it a try.
Five years later I reflect on all the people I have "met" through blogging. How they write and the things they write about are many and varied, demonstrating that yes - we are all a little bit different from each other. In the first place I wondered if anybody would ever look at my blog and now - as if by magic - I notice that I have had 122,485 visitors. Quite amazing!
Thanks to everybody who has dropped by and to anyone who is reading this particular post. People who don't blog may think of it as a "sad" egotistical activity but I don't give a damn about that. Blogging allows people to speak freely in a world where there are so many stultifying restrictions. It gives us a voice and allows us to connect with other citizens of the world. In short, from my five year experience, blogging can be enriching - a stimulating adjunct to everyday life. A way of waving from the jungle and saying , "Hey! This is me. I exist!"
Many congratulations, YP.
ReplyDelete'Happy Blogging to you, Happy Blogging to you, Happy Blogging, dear Pudiiiiiiiiiing, Happy Blogging to you.'
Who could have known that because I had my camera on the wrong settings when I visited Fountain's Abbey, thus ensuring that all my photographs had a purple haze, that I would go searching on google in the hope of finding someone I could beg, borrow or steal an image from and that I would inadvertently fall upon your blog? My post about the Abbey never materialised, but finding my way to Lord Pudding's virtual abode made the search more than worth while and, as a mere novice at this blogging lark, I am continually impressed and inspired by the variety and richness of your posts. It has been a priviledge getting to 'know' you over the ether and, yes, I sometimes wish I'd been acquainted with Hornsea night-life in my younger days.
Like you, I started out in January, with the intention of 'giving it a try' and, for the most part, I've found blogging to be stimulating and enriching - one of those exercises where you invariably receive far more back than the effort expended. I can't envisage that I shall ever have the hordes of groupies hanging on to my every word as you have...but then, I'm not a good-looking hunk of English male testosterone. Perhaps unlike you, I have had days when my finger has hovered over the delete button and I suspect I won't be blogging five years down the line, but for the time being, you're one of the reasons I hang in there. Thanks for the encouragement, humour, serious questions, earthiness and the irritating, but necessary, habit of correcting my spelling. Thank you for being you.
Here's to your future...be it in the blogging world or not. xx
One of my regular reads - keep the posts coming. Five years is an impressive achievement for a blog.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
ReplyDeleteI'm coming up to my first blogging birthday and like you I have found the experience very enjoyable. I'm surprised how quickly I have found friends and how quickly I have become comfortable "talking " to them every day.
Blogging has enriched my life in many ways and I can't imagine not doing it. I think it's like penfriends of the 21st century.
Cheers
Helen
Congratulations, YP. Yours is one of the blogs I look at pretty well every day and I am pleased to have met you, both on the 'net and in real life.
ReplyDeletePS Don't let Elizabeth's compliments go to your head, now!:)
Jennyta, notice that I didn't go over the top and call him 'a real English gentlemen' as did "Sunshine" on a previous blog...there are limits(!),and although only you can tell us the truth of this as only you have met him in the flesh, I suspect that part of YP's charm lies in the fact that he isn't totally the gentleman but has a loveable rogue quality about him. Am I right? x
ReplyDeleteYes, but I alone account for 17,643 of those visitors...or are you talking about 122,000+ distinct and individual visitors? Wow, I'm impressed! I would not go so far as Elizabeth and call you "a good-looking hunk of English male testosterone" but drop the "good-looking" and change testosterone to a much shorter noun, and I might agree.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, congratulations for a job very well done. The Rapa Nui photos alone were worth the entire five-year voyage.
Will you be revealing your real name sometime during the next five years?
Many happy returns Yorkie -- my how time flies. I've just gone back to read your first post and you know, it's still too bloody hot!
ReplyDeleteVery touching though that it should be a Lancastrian, Cosmo Smallpiece, that you should quote.
Congratulations! 5 years is a hell of a long time in the technological world, did you start out on a Sinclair ZX81?
ReplyDeleteI agreee with you, blogging has "something", I did not originally see the point a few years back when friends were raving about it, but finally I got drawn in to reading them on a regular basis, maybe 2 years ago, before actually venturing forward with mine just over a year ago.
Keep up the good work!
Meanwhile, I'm googling to see if any Spanish / Catalan tv channels will be showing tomorrow's Big Match for free ... :(
Elizabeth, you could be right although the 'in the flesh' bit - well, I couldn't possibly comment! ;)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations....and many happy returns. Blogging is a curious thing...and gives happiness to so many people...and a little bit of happiness is never a bad thing really. Carry on!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations YP!
ReplyDelete5 years is quite a good record.I'll bet you hardly saw the years go by.Keep up the interesting work.Ta!
ELIZABETH Thank you. I'm glad I have helped to get you hooked on blogging. My cranium has enlarged threefold as a direct result of your comment and now there's no way I will ever find a motorcycle helmet to fit me. The lads at the pub will no doubt take to calling me "Humpty"!...."Loveable rogue"? You mean like Dick Turpin or Robin Hood?
ReplyDeleteSHOOTING COCAINE Thank you old chum! BUt....Les Dawson was from Barnsley so Knickers Knackers Knockers to you with brass knobs on!
MICHAEL Thank you. Some time soon I may do an advert for your Sydney blog if that's okay.
HELEN/HELSIE Thanks. So pleased that you have also found blogging to be an enriching habit.
JENNY Too late! The compliments have already given me ideas of becoming an MP or maybe applying for "Britain's Got Beefy Talent"
RHYMIE "change testosterone to a much shorter noun" Whaddya mean? Such as "perfection" or "splendour"? My real name is... (BLOGGER CENSOR CODE 2317).
BRIAN Thanks for your backhanded compliments. No I did not start out with a Sinclair ZX81, I had an abacus and a dynamo attached to my bike. I hope you get to see our lads thrash the krauts this afternoon. Come On England!
LIBBY Thanks for dropping by. I will be checking out your blog a little more really soon. Nice photo of you with your sometimes infuriating mother by the way.
JEAN Thanks. You're right - five years is like five minutes. If only we could hold on to life and never let go but the waves will take us all in the end.
I don't think so Yorkie. As far as I know Les Dawson was born and raised in Collyhurst, Manchester.
ReplyDeleteHappy blog birthday, YP!
ReplyDelete