When I started this blog, way back in March 2012, I predicted, and in fact pronounced in the tagline of my blog, that it would become ” … tumbleweed within a month”. I was wrong, it took just over a year before the tumbleweed rolled into town.
April 2013 was my last entry and it’s now November 2013, some 7 (seven) months on. That’s how they do it on the football vidiprinter, for large numbers they spell the number (word) just in case you can’t believe your eyes.
Vidiprinter: Barnsley 7 (SEVEN) Huddersfield 1. “Is that a ‘7’ or a ‘1’? Was it a draw? Surely Barnsley didn’t score SEVEN did they?? But wait, if you look closer, they actually spelled it out S-E-V-E-N, it really is SEVEN-ONE to Barnsley!”
And that did in fact happen in November 1998, and this was the best goal of the match, no the season, no, ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UdBOgZPHLw See, told you.
I tried to work out why that happened. No, not Darren Barnard’s screaming volley, I will never understand why or how that ever happened, but rather why did I stop blogging? I had a year to get used to the fact my blog wasn’t going to set the world alight, and anyway my enjoyment came from the writing, not from the responses. ‘Good job!’ I hear you heckle, but fair heckle, for indeed the responses were indeed spartan at best. In fact if I had a penny for every response I ever got, I would have about 13p. I’m guessing, I really haven’t counted but it’s a low number, certainly not one worthy of spelling out on the vidiprinter of “Blog response” scores on a Saturday afternoon, that’s for sure.
I changed jobs in February 2013, and then again in May 2013, and such changes are always quite significant. On both occasions I had to adjust to commuting again after years of being a homeworker. That was very significant. Going from a 2-minute commute to a 4hr round trip commute certainly has an impact on one’s work/life balance. Something had to give and I think the blog was probably a casualty, but is that really an excuse? A long commute means a lot of down-time, a lot of sitting, surely there was time right there to do some blogging? Damn you and your logic …
So what else changed? Probably the biggest change (after commuting) was travelling. My Feb 2013 job was entirely UK based, in stark contrast to the transatlantic jet setting life oft blogged about before. In fact the May 2013 job was also UK based and involved no overseas travel .. until last month. Last month involved a trip to New York. This month has seen trips to Germany, Poland and France, and more are planned. And here I am, blogging again.
I’ve said it before, I love travel, in fact I said it at the very beginning of this blog. For sure I find it stressful, tiring, sometimes a little lonely, occasionally a bit scary, but I really do love it. It feels like it’s always meant to be there. My first ever job, way back in 1986, was an international job, and ever since I have gravitated towards international work. It’s like the travelling awakens the blogger within. Sitting on a BA plane isn’t that different from sitting on a First Capital Connect commuter train but it certainly feels different. You feel part of a bigger world, you meet new people, you hear different news, encounter different problems. You experience different cultures and hear fresh perspectives, and you see your self differently too, and I think it’s that essence of travel that sparks my desire to be more introspective and therefore to blog*, more than anything else. More than anything else in the whole wide world in fact.
*This blog was written on a Paris to London Eurostar train on 14th November, 2013.
SpinningHead 