Post Number 780 - A Reflection Or Two

Which scares me a bit. The constant pressure to write things that are slightly funny, occasionally insightful and mostly dull sometimes gnaws at me with its blunt teeth. Cerno's post about his 675th day as a blogger and Lady D's about her 300th post have got me thinking and looking back, just a bit.

I'm not going to list them here but I was thinking about the happenings and events that have happened and, well evented, in my life since I started this blog. They're big and major and you, the anonymous or perhaps not so anonymous, reader have shared these things with me. I've told you things about me and my life and tried to do it with two premises; that things remain positive and that I only ever write things that I'd be okay with both my daughters reading in time to come.

Though they remain blissfully unaware of their Dad's blog they've both been key "characters" in my pimped up diary, as that Blacker fellow titled it. K in particular had achieved fame, or infamy, that would stun most but she would just take in her stride.

A couple of weeks ago I looked through some old posts, some of the first ones, and was intrigued by the change in me, or in the way I write. Fuck me, I think I might have developed some kind of style, I don't know where it came from, it certainly wasn't through some sort of conscious effort. Whoever would have thought that so many people would be so interested in toilet habits and stealth poos?

Writing with a humorous twist has developed seamlessly for me, but I don't want to give you the impression that I think of myself as some kind of comedic genius. I'm still scared of clowns so I guess that would never happen anyway. It's quite easy to think of a sentence in my head, then come up with a humorous metaphor or simile to put into it to make someone smile. I wish I was this funny in real life, but real life and real conversation have that annoying habit of taking place in real time. What a bummer.

I've also made some great friends through this blogging lark. The whole nerdy geeky blogging crowd thing is the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. Us bloggers are as diverse as a bag of different things and the only commonality is the fact that we all blog.

Cerno wrote about seven things he learned from blogging. My single biggest lesson is that I've learned a bit about writing, of the beauty of chaps and chapesses who paint with words. These days I can enjoy a book through the author's writing and language, even if the plot's as weak as a chicken korma in an English Indian restaurant.

Poetry however, remains one of life's mysteries to me, which is also a mystery. I study myself, as you know, and the other day I wondered exactly why it is that poetry by and large leaves me cold and bewildered yet it's so closely related to music, which I love so much. Maybe it's significant that the lyrics of a song rarely matter to me except as hooks for the drum part, maybe the answer is in the question.

As I write this it's Saturday evening. I dropped the girls back with their mother a few hours ago and I'm sitting in the sitting room with my parents, God love them. For all their good intentions they test one of my premise, the one about staying positive. I know DD is a wise one when he says that I should be grateful to have parents that give what they give, and he's right. But the lack of privacy at the moment is something that's driving me just that little bit mad.

I've got stories to tell you that I might not tell, but my plan to sort the issue in the short term involves a sort of parent swap with Mr Blacker. He can come and stay here with my ones, he can do whatever he wants in London and I'll even let him use my drums. In return I'll nip over to Colombo and stay with his parental unit. I think there may be lots of happy people.

January will see me flat hunting and you'll probably share it with me. I'm really excited at the prospect of getting a great place and the market here is ripe for that.

There we are, some random ponderings on a Saturday evening. I'll get back to preparations for the 2008 Blogging Awards now. They're coming soon, bigger and better.