September 19, 2006

Just over a year ago - I think it was in June - I started blogging for the first time.

My first piece said something like "Welcome! This is my first time etc etc" and had the obligatory "come back soon!" plea on it.

It's since been deleted, as have a few - although only a few - other posts, mainly because they were written in the dead of night with too many Jack Daniels inside me, and even I couldn't understand them in the morning.

Then, when I started to blog "proper", around October, everything changed. Very, very rapidly.

I remember getting my first comment, for instance. It was from Hobbit.

Remember the excitement of your first comment? For me, it was like seeing my name in print for the first time all over again, behind read by someone I didn't know sitting opposite me on the train.

But of course this was different.

This was proof that someone really was reading your stuff, and not just possibly you because you were part of that newspaper. And passing comment on it. Good or bad, it's a writing egomaniac's dream.

And I am an egomaniac, make no mistake about that.

I've been meandering back into a few old posts, and reading some of the old comments made on them. And it's cheered me up no end, I have to say.

From the lovely things people said on Boxing Day when I asked people to raise a glass to a friend of mine who died in the Asian tsunami...

To those amused by their hapless correspondent's tale of his (and Stratters') visit to an Argos store on December 23...

To the stunned but hopefully entertained people who had the horror of reading about my adventures with a Mum deodorant bottle...

To camping escapades in the Lake District...

To stupid things like blogability ratings, daft press releases, and waking up in old people's homes with women of a certain age...

And even the downsides have had their upsides.

The trouble with bastard accounts departments, the whole work three-day-week thing, the drinking, the breaking up with K, the smashing up of my face - all brought out the best in you lot, so thanks for that.

And it kind of encouraged me to write, too, so thanks for that.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is: Thank you for having me.

Here's to another 1,000 bits of trumpery.

If you can stand it...

Jellies, cakes and ice cream are over there.

Please help yourselves.

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