I first took up blogging in June 2005. I can't really remember why. I think I had stumbled upon a couple of blogs while exploring the net and probably thought, "I could do that". Having dabbled in writing since childhood and being an opinionated so-and-so, I saw that blogging could be both a release valve and a means of publishing without the hindrance of editors or publishers. More recently, I have enjoyed using my blog to share photographs with visitors.
Essentially, making a blog can be like making a diary. When I look back on the last six years, I see how my life has proceeded. Many notable things have happened. My beloved mother and oldest brother died. My football team made it to The Premiership. I escaped from my teaching career through early retirement. Frances got her A levels and went to university - then joined the rat race. Shirley and I visited India, Morocco and Hong Kong. My brother-in-law, Norman and my mother-in-law, Winnie died. Boris, our cat, disappeared. We had a family holiday in California. Ian bought a house. I took up an unexpected opportunity to teach in Thailand... Without this blog, those events, those moments would have mingled in the swamp of my memory. The blog has allowed me to mark them all.
Visitors have come and gone like other blogs I once I enjoyed. Thank you to my regular visitors who have stuck with me for a long time now - Jenny in Wrexham, Robert in Georgia, Ian at "Shooting Parrots", Katherine in NZ, Elizabeth, Lord John Gray, Jan at Sloughhouse, Helen in Brisbane, Michael in Sydney and to the people who visit but never leave comments - Oldham Mike, Mick, Richard in Minneapolis, Sofia, Tricky Trev etc.. Thank you all.
It's like a journey. When I set out in June 2005, I didn't know how far my blog would travel or for how long. Perhaps I'll still be writing it on my deathbed. "Nurse! Nurse! Bring me a laptop!"
Getting sleepy now. The morphine gives me bizarre dreams. They say
I've only got a few days left, perhaps hours, perhaps min.... shit! So adiós amigos!
Since 2005!!! I'm impressed.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed too - I think I may have said that to you recently (Oh no now I'm repeating myself! Don't let another old age affliction overtake me - or did I think it and forget to say it? Yikes now I'm really worried !!! )
ReplyDeleteWho would have thought that we would be "talking" to people on a daily basis who we hadn't met face to face? - and possibly would never have found a connection with if we had met that way. Blogging allows you to get to know people in a different way doesn't it? Gives you the opportunity to observe, pull back a bit sometimes, laugh with them (or at them without giving offence as may happen face to face ). I love how it gives us a glimpse of different lives - and shows us how similar we are too.
Cheers
Helen
You left out kidnapping postal employees, one of your highest achievements. I hope I'm still around when you blog from your deathbed, I'm sure you'll have a fresh perspective on the experience and I'll be saying to myself, "Now why didn't I think of that?" Happy anniversary, friend.
ReplyDeleteYou've hit the nail on the head about blogging....and congratulations on the anniversary.
ReplyDeleteIt's always a pleasure to read your blog, YP. It's one of the first I turn to. (Oh dear! Head will grow even more, now...) ;)
ReplyDeletePudding of Yorkshire, I want to add my congratulations to those of others on your longevity in Blogland, your very evident photographic prowess, your inimitable way with words, your fearless approach to life, your embrace of new places, etc., etc.
ReplyDeleteNow if I just knew your name, my life would be complete (a slight exaggeration). Let's see, there's Shirley, Frances, and Ian, but who are YOU???
And what does 200000 represent? Not days (2190), hours (52,560), or minutes (3,153,600). Comments, maybe? Individual visitor hits? Trips to the loo? Enlighten me, please!
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ReplyDeleteKELLY Thanks for dropping by and keep up the good work re. animal husbandry.
ReplyDeleteHELEN You are right. A different way. Obviously not the same as live face-to-face friendships but that doesn't make these connections second rate - just different.
JAN Not postal workers Miss Cosumne High but traffic/parking enforcement officers. Too many Hawaiian cocktails methinks!
LIBBY Thanks. Like Cynthia Payne, I should have included you amongst my "regulars".
JENNY Yes my head may expand like John Merrick's! All bone! But thanks for travelling the bloggers' journey with me.
RHYMES WID DE CAMPTOWN RACES Two hundred thousand visitors or maybe that should read visits as about fifty thousand were from yourself and Jenny alone! Around a hundred thousand were by Miss Ermintrude Guthrie from The Beeches residential home in Worthing, Sussex. I always delete her comments as they are of a perverted nature. She was a dancer you know.
ELIZABETH To blog or not to blog
That is the question
Whether 'tis nobler on the screen to suffer
The barbed comments of outrageous Brague,
Or to type out one's thought bubbbles,
And by opposing end him? etc.
At least half of those visits must have been by Mrs Trellis of North Wales.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, It seems only yesterday that we rekindled the War of the Roses.
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ReplyDeleteI did not know that Miss Ermintrude Guthrie from The Beeches residential home in Worthing, Sussex, was a dancer, but now I do. I always learn something worthwhile when I visit Pudding Towers, and that is why I keep coming....
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