Buon Anniversario

Thursday's Child has Far to Go was born a year ago today. According to Google analytics, over the last 365 days, 8,744 hits originating from 33 different countries have taken place. There have been some comments (oddly, most of you to prefer to email me than post a comment) and I've been touched at how many of you stop by to read my scribblings.

It was my beloved mate Kurt who encouraged me to start this blog; he rightly pointed out that as a writer, it was high time I booked my passage on the digital express. And because I'm so violently opposed to Twitter and the Book of Farce (both feel too much like cults for my liking), the only other way to let family and friends across the oceans know that I was alive was to start a blog.

And so, on 30 May 2010, that's what I did: we'd just returned from a family wedding in Belfast, it was our first UK Bank Holiday for some years and I was still reeling from shock at how rubbish the UK job market and the Slum were.

And so I started writing, and kept going. I discovered how much fun, and how healing, it is to share your life with the world: from the minutiae of every day to things that amuse, irritate or confuse me. As I've navigated my way around a new country, jobs and friends, tried to flee the UK as much as possible and attempted (unsuccessfully) to make peace with an ugly home (the kind where lemon walls and a fridge the size of a postage stamp are acceptable), this blog has allowed me the space to share, vent and connect with a wide range of humanity.

It is, in effect, an extension of who I am. I don't think I'm so very different in person from what you read here: I certainly cuss as much (far too much for my mother's liking), I'm just as passionate, outspoken and sarcastic as I am in real life and, I hope, just as honest.

Back when I was a baby journalist, I remember a note one news editor had taped above his desk:

'Creativity is seeing what everyone else is seeing, but thinking what no-one else has thought'.

Those words have always stayed with me and it's a concept I've tried to live by; I hope that this blog, in some small way, measures up to that.

So ka pai for being on this journey with me, boys and girls. Here's hoping this blog can bring a smile to your face in the coming year...

(Pic: Google Images)