Thanks - Half a Million!

This blog started in January 2011, just over 2.5 years ago.  I'd written several "twitlongers" on various subjects (mainly legal or political points) and people were encouraging me to write a proper blog instead.  I thought that kind of them, but that it would be a little self-important of me.  I also wondered who on earth would want to read my musings.

Then, my grandmother died.  I was in shock, to be honest, and just really wanted to get the story of her life on record and to share it, and various photos of her life in West Prussia, with my friends and followers.  I sat there and didn't stop until I'd written it all, in one go.  The result was my first blog post.  I found writing that piece incredibly therapeutic.

I wrote it both for me, and to share it with others.  That's exactly the spirit of all my posts since: I often really enjoy setting out my thoughts on things, and find that ordering them in the form of a post helps me work out what I actually think.  It's a bit like essay writing, which I loved so much at school and university, except I get to choose the title.  Frequently I really enjoy it, sometimes I find it cathartic and healing, and I miss it when I'm do busy to do a post.

I write about all sorts, from abseiling lesbians, a practical guide to Twitter (it's not just for beginners!), Julian Assange, thoughts on absence, gratitude and loss and to the serial fraudster I helped uncover, Matthew Brown.

"Daddy's on his bloody computer again, rather than walking ME"

I tend to steer away from politics (too much strife and argument) and from law (I don't know enough about it any more, not having practiced in years).  Often it's deeply personal: sometimes a bit too personal and I've removed two posts subsequently for that reason.  People online tend to be very kind and good, but I've had some nastiness in a couple of comments and I don't want to attract that if I can avoid it.  Sometimes I think "Oh god, now I've written that I don't have anything else to say and probably won't blog again".  Then something pops into my mind, usually when I'm walking Oscar, I plan it in my head, and I write the thing out.

I don't have advertising on my blog: it's for pleasure not money-making.  I'd personally feel a bit cheap if I were promoting my stuff to get a few pence back in advertising revenue.  I'm flattered when people give me positive feedback and of course I love it when posts are RT'd.  I write for my own pleasure, but of course I like others to read it too.  If no one read my posts, there would still be value in it, but it adds something big when others enjoy them too.  I like the blog to be colourful and fun: I shove in loads of pictures and I often make the tone a little tongue in cheek.

I'm genuinely so humbled that I've just hit an amazing 500,000 views on the blog.  I've been watching the little counter going round this morning and am so glad I managed to screen shoot it.  That's an average of over 16,000 hits a month since January 2011, which is heck of a lot of hits on a private blog about nothing in particular.  I do only have 4500 followers on Twitter, so I wonder where all the traffic comes from at times.

Anyway, thank you, all of you who have ever read, RTd, or commented on here.  You've actually made me enormously happy.  Here's to a million! *beams from ear to ear*

Peter x