Cor Blimey Guvnor - Number 701

While perusing at the inner workings of LLD, which frankly are merely a load of draft posts and some bits and pieces about layouts and things, I noticed a statistic lurking in a corner that surprised me. It was crouching rather meekly in the corner with a shy but "look at me I'm so special" demeanour.

I like statistics, though I have one foot firmly planted in the camp that thinks 98% of all statistics are rubbish. They can be used for prediction and forecasting and I've even got an 'O' level in the subject, though I can't say there's much call for a drummer with a stats 'O' level these days. I'm also a firm believer that the past isn't necessarily an indication of the future.

Sure, if every time you hit me on the right ear my left foot twitches and I fart, then it's quite likely that it'll happen next time, but it's not always the case. It's also quite likely I'll just fart without being hit in the right ear. If a fellow burst into my office with a gun and forced me to write down my five hobbies I reckon farting would be in at about number four.

The statistic that jumped out and grabbed me with the surprise and stealth of a Sri Lankan tuk tuk driver appearing at the door of a 5 star hotel just as I leave was the fact that I've written seven hundred posts on my blog. This absofuckinglutely astounded me, though I'm unsure if it includes draft posts or just ones that have been published.

Like a Sri Lankan wedding, it's all relative, but seven hundred is a large number. Not, I suppose if you compare seven hundred years with the age of the solar system, or if you were a seemingly respected member of a country's upper eschelon and you swindled lots of people for a total of seven hundred Rupees. That would be a piss poor performance and probably get you thrown out of the conman's club. Seven hundred blog posts, for me, on a blog that I started to do on a bit of a whim is quite big.

I won't bore you with details you either know already or just don't care about, well maybe a few, but I started to do this blog just to see what would happen and now I suppose I've done quite a bit of writing. If they were printed out the posts would take up a not inconsiderable amount of pages, unless I used a really tiny font size of course. It would be a crap one but, with the addition of some cartoony line drawings or some evocative pictures of Sri Lanka and drumkits, my kids and touristy images of London landmarks, it might get up to a hundred pages or so.

But the thing is that I've come to quite enjoy this writing lark. I've read so many posts by the bloggers I admire and read regularly in which they write about their struggle to find inspiration, time or the inclination to come up with posts and it's not an issue I've faced. I think that's one of the benefits of not being a proper writer.

I have a faint recollection of being told how to write stories at school and I'm sure there was some sort of thing there about starting with a plan or a structure and then going from there, filling in the gaps so to speak. Well my plan for writing a post is just a little bit looser than that. Usually it involves starting with a title and a very, very vague subject that takes my fancy. Then I start and crap just flows.

I find that putting pen to paper, or finger to keyboard as it is in this day and age, just spurs on the very act of writing. Sometimes I sit there and ponder on what to write about and get no response from my brain. But then, once I eventually think of the topic of the moment, usually things will flow, as long as I make that first step of writing something, just anything. Having teenage kids, a Sri Lankan family and a sense of humour as sharp as the pins that religious people all over the world are poking into their Dinidu De Alwis dolls also helps.

And here I am, seven hundred and three posts later, as I've written another two in draft since I started this. Since we first met all our lives have changed I guess, I know I've been through many big things, divorce easily being the biggest.

I hope you've enjoyed the ride and honestly, hand on heart and slightly girly and emotionally, I'd like to thank everyone who has read, commented, linked to and inspired me.

RD