OneHundredOne AND One

All in the same go. 101 posts round up year 1 on this mighty machine humbly known as the blogosphere. I'm glad I made it this far. I admit it has not been as easy I thought it would be. I think I began by thinking this would turn out to be an opportunity to see if I had any 'creative writing' genes, a book in me and a vent for the endless rubbish floating around in my head. It's turned out to be an tree-huggers diary, the online-ness offering up the opportunity to replace/save the numerous notebooks I scribbled in. It's my space, where I've jotted in stuff that I find amusing interesting, not so trivial, very trivial; reviewed books and restaurants that have caught my attention or not so much; but mostly its where I marked the start of my 30th year.

In 101 posts:

• I have never received more than 6 comments per post - and even then the author had stumbled and deleted 3 of their comments - I still like to think my highest ever comments was 6
• I have never been tagged
• I feature on fewer blogrolls than every other blog I read - and being jobless I read a lot.
• I have had 9037 visitors to my blog - of which half are probably me checking to see if I have any non-existant comments and to check how many bloggers looked me up.
• I had had my profile viewed 586 times - again that's probably me one third of the time.
• I can confirm that I am doggedly going to continue - this blog is for my pleasure, not a book deal, money or awards

I am resolute in what this blog is for me. My 30th year marches into 2006, happy healthy and my mind is still full of ideas on what I want to say. Whether anyone but me ever reads it or not. Happy 101/1 to me.

Talking of resolutions. As the earth finished yet another chakkar around the sun, we're mostly making silent resolutions on how we'll change our own worlds next year (silent mainly for fear of people thinking us sissies who need time to define their being; "you can and SHOULD begin resolutions when you think of them, not wait till the 1st" crap). Some of us will keep resolutions till the middle of January or just be-fore/yond, others will strive for the middle of the year or obscene goals such as losing 200lbs. Either way many of the hours without will feel like a sci-fi movie where time forgot about us. But make no mistake, resolutions are being made every minute of this past week, even in the heads of the cynics, the uber-cool, the grouchy. I wish you luck all. It's not always about the result but instead the race.

I made some pretty big resolutions despite being stared at (as if I had just landed from Mars) and told how it was unrealistic, childish, extreme (think up the remainder similar adjectives) and how I would never manage to honour them by almost everyone I told them to (except by V who is my hero). Well I really don't care who says what; I still have a list all pinned up and so far being stuck to (It's only the 3rd but I'm an eternal optimist).

I like the idea of New Year and resolutions walking hand in hand. As for begining them anytime during the year, yes you could do that but then you could just as easily discount New Years and pretend that the calender does not exist. Let Jan 1st be any other day, don't party, stay home and sulk some more. Be an optimist. Imagine that the same way your birthday marks the start of another year in your life, the New Year is just a common birthday for people to celebrate together. A handle on what went by and a clean slate on which you can write your next year. Resolutions whether kept or not will boost your spirits: give up something, take up something new, plan a holiday, smile more. Something will last. Or atleast you'll have the rest of the year to plan next years resolutions.

Meanwhile I hope you usehered in the New Year with gusto whether at home (as 20 new-baby-families probably did) or watching fireworks or at a party. More importantly I hope you brought in 2006 with a smile on your face and with friends by your side. We certainly did. With friends, champagne, music, merriment and laughter. And are all the better for it. Although we needed to sleep off the exhaustion all day on the 1st after rolling home at 6.30am! What a year this promises to be...

May 2006 glow!