hmm… i didn’t have the hugest response to my blogaversary faq request. am i too accessible already? too boring? self-obsessed? are you too uninquisitive? is there anybody out there?
those are my questions! now i will answer yours… i should say i am very grateful to the people who did leave/send in such intelligent questions… » more…
(have i mentioned it’s my blogaversary?! ok then.)
the observant among you will have noticed a significant sidebar change: the archives have all but disappeared! where did they go?
well, old boring posts were simply “let go”; sent off into cyberspace never to be seen again. but what one might, if one was being effusive, call my “best” blogging work has been collected together in a new home: posts from the past.
happy blogaversary to me, happy blogaversary to MEEEEEEEE!
yes, two years ago today i became a blogger. since then i’ve co-edited a books blog, written about blogging for online magazines, women’s weeklies and national newspapers and contributed to many many many blogs in a professional capacity, causing controversy on the guardian blog in my first post out of the blocks!
who would have thought? (clue: not me.)
as i said on this day in 2006:
this time last year, i wasn’t convinced i could sustain more than a very irregularly contributed-to blog… shows what i know!
look out for two more blogaversay posts later today (aren’t you lucky!)
and answer me this: how long have you been blogging for? and if you don’t, why not?
on trashionista now, my review of alice sebold’s the almost moon (which i wrote waaay back in august, two months before the book came out. i’m keen, me!)
i’m baaaack! only you can decide if it’s because my brain’s working again or i had a lobotomy…
anyway, i’ve spoken to a few people about it and now i feel moved to ramble write a bit about my journey weekend. (seeing as some of you asked).
but first, an apology: i know a couple of people in london who’ve said “let’s meet up next time you’re down here” and i’ve never taken them up on it because i’m always down there to do health-y stuff. (that means i’m anxious to the point of puking beforehand and light, airy and exhausted beyond belief afterwards). it’s nothing personal, i’m just not in a very sociable ‘place’ when i’m there.
moving on…
now, would you do me a favour and imagine something really jaw-dropping here — and here —? thanks. that’s in lieu of the stuff i can’t tell you about but really wish i could!
okay. so, i got to the hotel in kensington at 7.50 on the saturday morning, ready for 8.15 registration (and i thought i’d be late!). the event started at 9 and not 8.30 as the schedule had promised, so we stood around having tea/coffee/herb tea and meeting new people and all saying how nervous we were.
oh! i found this wonderful blog via ms mac: quickie book reviews.
mais oui!
i have LOADS (loads!) of ideas for posts for the blog, but there’s some kind of delay between brain and hands so that all i seem capable of posting are one-word memes (and i felt guilty about that because my answers weren’t particularly fascinating but it’s the best i can do because there’s the brain-hand delay thing which has rendered me incapable of writing anything interesting). which is a shame as i really need to get to work on my university application personal statement and i don’t think “uh… i… blahblah…er…” is quite what they’re looking for. i think my brain is tired, or maybe it’s because i’m premenstrual, but whatever the reason, my blogging is suffering.
but! just because i’m suffering doesn’t mean you should, too. here are some excellent blog posts that i could have written (probably), if only i wasn’t having trouble composing sentences:
joshilyn jackson claps for marsupial bears
caroline smailes (my new platonic bloggy crush) is NICE (argh)
always add an extra yolk! - advice to change your life
and of course:
(don’t read this one whilst eating) poopy head.
have a read of those while my brain sits in a pile of mush (technically i guess it is a pile of mush, ick) and i go and see the nanny diaries. (SO excited!)
either i’ll have a lobotomy or normal service will resume shortly.
…stolen! from keris who filled this in about 10 years ago.
1. where is your cell phone? bag
2. describe your boyfriend/girlfriend? non-existent
3. your hair? dark
4. your mother? here
5. your father? there
6. your favourite item? PC
7. your dream last night? weird
8. your favourite drink? water
9. your dream car? beetle
10. the room you are in? “office”
11. your ex? tory
12. your fear? failure
13. what do you want to be in 10 years? published
14. who did you hang out with last night? myself
15. what you’re not? finished
16. the last thing you did? type
17. what are you wearing? PJs
18. your favourite book? lots!
19. last thing you ate? eggs
20. your life? journey
21. your mood? changeable
22. your friends? kind
23. what are you thinking about right now? sleep
24. your car? none
25. what are you doing at the moment? this
26. your summer? cloudy
27. your relationship status? single
28. what is on your TV? aerial
29. when is the last time you laughed? 3-ish
30. last time you cried? tuesday
31. school? 2008
if there’s one thing that makes a person feel less depressed about their own troubles, it’s getting involved in something really worthwhile. (true fact!)
and when i read about something really terrible yesterday, i knew i had to do something.
what i read about is fistulas. funny word, funny thing. except not funny at all, of course.
imagine you’re giving birth (men, i know this won’t be easy, but imagine anyway). the birth is difficult, causing strain on both baby and mother. in the UK, you can have a caesarean lickety-split, and there you go - healthy mother and child. in the developing world, you just have to keep on pushing, perhaps for up to 10 DAYS - at the end of which the child will either be dead or very disabled, the mother in terrible pain and left with one or more fistula - which will leak urine, faeces, or both, for the rest of her life, leading to her being ostracised by her community, even her family.
at first, i thought i’d give $5 (£2.50-ish) to the UN’s family population fund campaign to end fistula - that’s enough to provide a week’s food to a recovering patient, and no skin off my nose. but then i thought, what if i could raise MORE? if i could find fifty-nine other people who would also give $5* then we’d have $300, enough to pay for one woman’s operation, including food and aftercare. we could give a small amount of cash each, and change a woman’s life.
are you up for it?
i hope at least some of you are - if so, carry on over the page for the donation details. (i *heart* you).
“don't worry about making a fool of yourself. making a fool of yourself is absolutely essential.” ~ gloria steinem
My first book's word count: 18,633
