Happy BlogDay to Me; Happy BlogDay to Me

November 11, 2006 I posted my first entry to Willy Or Won't He* and as I explained then:

I wrote my first blog back in 2000 while working at the Warsaw Business Journal. I found my job there as web editor through one of my best friends, Bev Toomer. She, her husband Kev and Silver and Sobie - the real important ones - are family. Distant family at the moment as she is Afghanistan, he's in Sri Lanka and the pups are on Galiano Island. But that's a story for another time.

Back then I promised readers a daily update of ex-pat life in Poland. That promise was well-intentioned but more often than not it was a broken one. Blogging on a regular basis can be time consuming and lets admit it most of us don't have that much excitement in our lives that warrant a daily post. Basically I've started this blog to keep a record of our trip to Vietnam in December. We'll see how that works out.

Looking at what I wrote much has changed but much has remained the same. I wrote that entry sitting in our Victorian home - charming but a money pit - in Aylmer - now I'm in Rome and the William Irish House is someone else's concern. Bev and Kev are still in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka respectively but Sobie and Silver now live in Colombo with Dad - and I still haven't written much about them. Laurent and I are still together - but he was living in Beijing and we were a common-law couple separated by 10,000 kms. Now we are married - yes Mom he finally made me legal - and separated by a dog's width! And we have gone through much with that width of dog as witness the Reese Reports. I did keep a record of the incredible trip to Vietnam but had trouble updating because of slow Internet connections (I believe I still have 300 pictures that I always meant to share.)

And there seem to be a goodly number of unpublished drafts in my archives. Those fascinating subjects that I knew were just going to grab every one's attention. They were put to one side simply because I just couldn't remember those snappy phrases that went through my head when I first thought of the idea. Often what I've published is the off-the-cuff stuff - a photo taken during the day, an article just read in a newspaper, a comment by a colleague or fellow blogger, something on You Tube.

There are family and friends who I thought would read the blog but seldom visit, which is a disappointment. But that is made up for by a stream (okay trickle) of other family and friends who click by regularly and comment - sometimes I might add rather rudely and I am shocked (yeah right, not in the lifetime of the reigning Monarch!) But even the rude comments mean someone is reading - and that's always nice to know.

The one thing that has not changed is that a blog is a great deal of work - and even in Rome not that much exciting happens every 24 hours to warrant daily postings. Of course maybe if I didn't spend so much time blogging I'd get out and find some excitement. I'll just have to see if I can locate that happy balance.

*The title is not a piece of witty word play on my part but a nickname given to me years ago by a colleague at Air Canada - Sue McAllister. Thanks Sue.

12 november - San Emiliano