The Daily Page

Ok, so I thought I wouldn’t have time to blog until my departure, but here I am again. I was muttering to myself early this morning after feeding a couple of big black glossy chooks (belonging to my neighbour – I’m feather sitting for a week).

Blogging is an odd business. I do it to tip out thoughts at the end of a day, like I did as a teenager into a Boots “Page a Day” diary. I still have my hormonal ramblings locked up in a sea chest in our living room.

There’s really no rhyme or reason to it – but the addiction developed partly when I started to see random visits from Heaven Knows Where on the blog counter.

How on earth do people wander across my middle aged, overweight, chocoholic ramblings? In addition to folk I know visiting the blog, others have popped in from Buenos Aires, Batangas in the Philippines, Salt Lake City, Delhi, Islamabad. Welcome and Bless You, but Who Are You?

I have a list of about a dozen bloggers I visit regularly, most of which were complete strangers to me until a year ago. Their opinions challenge mine, their humour brightens my day and their “favourite blogs” list has had me wandering all over the planet to meet yet more strangers.

I have wondered why these random connections are so important to me. Is it because I live a sneeze away from Antarctica and feel less isolated when I can “drop in” on acquaintances as dispersed as the FSU, M. East, USA and E. Europe? Perhaps it is the convenience of being able to bother a blog friend in the middle of their night, without disturbing them, or reading their alternative take on world news after you want to throw a brick at CNN and the BBC.

I suppose I’ll never know. But before I cook pancakes for some “let’s do breakfast” visitors, I thought I would stick my head round the door to say hi.