Hi there, readers
Yes, it's Thanksgiving in the United States: given how many of the people that follow me, or that I follow, are American, I think it's appropriate to wish all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving on this particular day a great time, whatever you're doing.
On the subject of followers, I should welcome two new ones, curiously both called Daniel:
- Daniel Jason Binks (Daniel's Life, posted almost daily, despite posts not appearing in my Blogger Dashboard)
- Daniel (Up and About)
Jay in VA's post today invited readers to consider their reasons to be thankful. I started to comment on it, but then I decided I had makings of a blog post of my own, so here goes...
Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Britain, of course, and my own view is that there is no-one to whom I should offer thanks, but nevertheless I think it's a good idea to pause once in a while and reflect on one's good fortune. As a particular example, I'm very glad to have found blog-land. In the last nine months, it has provided a focus and interest in my life that had been lacking for several years previously: it has been very good to look outward and think of others, instead of focusing on my own narrow circumstances. I have found a lot of people that I would like to consider as friends; it's a regret that so many live so far away from me (it would be nice to meet in person, as well as electronically), but it has also given me perspectives on life from other parts of the world that I would never otherwise have had. I hope that my own comments on others' blogs have returned the favour to some extent.
It is, I suppose, typical of the British frame of mind that I should next turn to something that I am not thankful for, and it should be the weather. The last few days have seen the very early, and largely unwelcome, arrival of winter: there's already snow in parts of Scotland and northern England, expected to head south over the next few days, and the rest of the country is enduring temperatures around freezing. No doubt many Canadian and US readers are wondering what I'm complaining about, but for Brits who would expect November daytime temperatures of at least 40F (5C), it's rather a shock to the system.
Anyway, I should probably post this while there's still something left of Thanksgiving, even over here in the UK.
Take care
Mark
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Thursday, 4 November 2010
He's off again
Hi there, readers
"What's this?", I hear you say, "Another Wandering Pom post? That's four in two weeks! What are they feeding him?" I'm afraid this one's much less exciting than the last several: principally advance notice of some more short-term disappearances from blog-land:
- tomorrow (Fri 5 Nov) to Sun 7 Nov: Dortmund (Germany) for some railway wanderings (again!) around the Ruhr area
- Fri 3 Dec to Sun 5 Dec: same again, this time around Munich (Germany)
- Fri 10 Dec to Mon 13 Dec: repeat visit to the friend in Jena (Germany) whom I called in on last month. This time I hope to see a lot more of the surrounding area.
Next, I should welcome some more new followers. I continue to be pleasantly surprised that anyone wants to read this stuff, but it's very much appreciated that you do. At least now there's something here to read, unlike for my first half-dozen or so followers! I have a bad memory for who started following when, but I think at least these people have come along since my last "welcome" post:
- Closeted Dave
- Jay in VA
- Aidan W (The Epitome of Inconsistency)
- JSL (too late for regrets)
- Jack (Confronting the Confused)
Please feel free to introduce yourselves :-)
Many thanks also to those who've commented recently; I'll try to respond with follow-up comments, but it's probably not now going to happen until at least next week. If you click that little "Subscribe by email" link below the comment box on any post that you're interested in, you'll get my comments (and anyone else's) automatically, instead of having to come back and look for them.
I think I also ought to say something about my own following and commenting on blogs (for me, the two go hand in hand: I almost always follow blogs that I've commented on). I'm afraid that I'm commenting a lot less frequently than I would like on many blogs at the moment. This is partly because there's more real-life stuff happening (all of it good, but it's still time away from blog-land) and partly because I'm following a lot more blogs than I used to (have a look at the blog list in my profile), and hence am spread rather more thinly, as it were. However, I'm still reading everything posted on the blogs I follow - this is probably not much consolation for those who would like to see my comments, but I am at least trying to keep up with what everyone's writing, and I have a mental list of posts I'd like to come back to.
Anyway, I think that's all for now.
Take care
Mark
"What's this?", I hear you say, "Another Wandering Pom post? That's four in two weeks! What are they feeding him?" I'm afraid this one's much less exciting than the last several: principally advance notice of some more short-term disappearances from blog-land:
- tomorrow (Fri 5 Nov) to Sun 7 Nov: Dortmund (Germany) for some railway wanderings (again!) around the Ruhr area
- Fri 3 Dec to Sun 5 Dec: same again, this time around Munich (Germany)
- Fri 10 Dec to Mon 13 Dec: repeat visit to the friend in Jena (Germany) whom I called in on last month. This time I hope to see a lot more of the surrounding area.
Next, I should welcome some more new followers. I continue to be pleasantly surprised that anyone wants to read this stuff, but it's very much appreciated that you do. At least now there's something here to read, unlike for my first half-dozen or so followers! I have a bad memory for who started following when, but I think at least these people have come along since my last "welcome" post:
- Closeted Dave
- Jay in VA
- Aidan W (The Epitome of Inconsistency)
- JSL (too late for regrets)
- Jack (Confronting the Confused)
Please feel free to introduce yourselves :-)
Many thanks also to those who've commented recently; I'll try to respond with follow-up comments, but it's probably not now going to happen until at least next week. If you click that little "Subscribe by email" link below the comment box on any post that you're interested in, you'll get my comments (and anyone else's) automatically, instead of having to come back and look for them.
I think I also ought to say something about my own following and commenting on blogs (for me, the two go hand in hand: I almost always follow blogs that I've commented on). I'm afraid that I'm commenting a lot less frequently than I would like on many blogs at the moment. This is partly because there's more real-life stuff happening (all of it good, but it's still time away from blog-land) and partly because I'm following a lot more blogs than I used to (have a look at the blog list in my profile), and hence am spread rather more thinly, as it were. However, I'm still reading everything posted on the blogs I follow - this is probably not much consolation for those who would like to see my comments, but I am at least trying to keep up with what everyone's writing, and I have a mental list of posts I'd like to come back to.
Anyway, I think that's all for now.
Take care
Mark
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
