I WISH A VERY HAPPY AND, ABOVE ALL, HEALTHY 2026 TO ALL MY READERS
.....assuming that I still have any.
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
I have just realised that it it is two months since I last posted on this blog. I'm pretty sure that's the longest gap since I started the blog in 2007 - 19 years ago. In some of the early years I also had my New Zealand blog for half the year.
Life has been very busy and despite still being able (thankfully) to keep going from getting up around 7am until bedtime, usually between 11pm and midnight, I haven't had to resort to afternoon naps yet. Which is a good job because more often that not I'm not at home! Falling asleep in shops or when visiting friends isn't a good look.
I am also finding it more difficult to find something interesting to write about. Perhaps it was always like that but my standards of what was interesting were lower. Who knows? Is there anyone left out there who cares?
What is worse, is that I'm losing touch with all those in Blogland whose blogs I also used to read. After all, that is, or was, what blogging was all about and so many friendships have been made over the last couple of decades.
This morning as I write this I am also listening to (and sort of watching) the New Year's Concert from Vienna on the television. Wonderful. Oh how I miss the years when I was between 16 and 30 and had a friend (now very long dead despite being of an age with me) with whom I used to go every week in the season to the wonderful Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Liverpool's superb Philharmonic Hall.
Thank God you are alive and ready to embark upon another year long voyage across The Sea of Time. There be dragons! Happy New Year and do not leave it so long next time Graham. I kept worrying about you!
ReplyDeleteThank you, YP. I genuinely cannot understand how I have not made time in recent months to visit and read the blogs I have so enjoyed for years. Hopefully whatever it was/is will now make way for time in Blogland.
DeleteOf course you still have readers, and you know it.
ReplyDeleteAs for finding interesting things to write about, one person‘s ordinary life is another person‘s interesting read.
Afternoon naps? For decaded, I didn‘t know what a nap is. Since 2018, I struggle when I can‘t have 20 minutes or half an hour to myself early afternoon. Life has somehow become much more exhausting since then.
Anyway - welcome back, and Happy New Year to you, too!
Ah, Meike, you are always so forthright - a quality I love and admire. I wish for you a very happy years ahead too. Thank you for your good wishes.
DeleteI am so very pleased to see you back here again. As Meike says, other bloggers' daily lives are of great interest to many of us so keep on doing whatever you do and tell us all about it!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you x
Thank you, JayCee. Hopefully I will manage to put aside less important things to enable my blogging to carry on.
DeleteYP, Meike and JayCee have said it all. Happy to see you back. Reading about the small moments--good and bad--in others lives of people like you (and YP, M and JC) is, frankly, more valuable and interesting than the mindless chatter of so-called (and usually vacuous) influencers. Write on!
ReplyDeleteWishing you good health and lovely sunsets.
Thank you, Mary. I've never quite got to grips with understanding the power of 'influencers'.
DeleteHappy New Year!🎉
ReplyDeleteWhenever you post, it is a good day.
The world atmosphere is grim compared to years ago. Thinking of interesting things to post about is easier when the sun shines.
Watching camping and hiking videos on Youtube is a brain exercise delight. Several channels I watch are based in the UK. Imagine prepping veggies by a campfire. It has me wondering why not prep at home; and, why is this entertaining!? Out of the usual is good in moderation.
Be well and enjoy 2026!
May
Maywyn, you are absolutely correct about thinking of interesting things being easier when one is in a sunny fame of mind. Noone wants to read a blog in order to leave it in a more dismal frame of mind that when one started. I like to be happified. I like to happify others.
DeleteWelcome back to blogland...all the best for 2026. 🙂
ReplyDeleteThank you Gwynneth. I hope that your artistic juices flow freely for you this coming year.
DeleteI am pleased to see a post from you as I am always interested to see what you are up to and we have been friends for many years in blogland.
ReplyDeleteIt's taken me a short while to work out but it's nice to know that we are re-united.
DeleteHappy New Year, Graham! I hope this means you've added "more blogging" to your list of New Year's resolutions? For my own part I feel like I've been asleep or half asleep more than awake during this holiday period, but luckily Blogland is still only a few clicks away... ;)
ReplyDeleteMonica, years ago I made New Year Resolutions and then I stopped. I must try and find out when I last made a 'public' NY resolution. I'd be interested to know what it was. I am hoping to be back in Blogland for a good while yet.
DeleteGraham, I was really teasing more than being serious about the NY resolutions. I do remember you saying before that you don't make them... ;-) (I don't either, even if a new year can often be a good starting point if one has some kind of change in mind...)
DeleteThere is nothing like a good bit of teasing, Monica, to bring me down to earth!
DeleteHappy New Year, Graham! I'm glad to see a post from you and happy to hear that all is well!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ellen.
DeleteJust hours before you posted i wondered if I might be able to find an obituary for you, I was so sure you must be incredibly sick!
ReplyDeleteI find that when I blog often, any topic will do and when I have a hiatus, nothing is exciting enough to re-start.
May you have a spectacular, healthy 2026!
Kylie, you have read my mind. Then, all of a sudden, a New Year seemed like a good opportunity.
DeleteSo very pleased to see this post and hear you're well! May 2020 hold good health, kindness, and contentment for us all.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Damselfly. PS 2020 was, so far as I can recall, a Good Year but I'm hoping for even better things in 2026 🤣
Delete2020 saw anti-COVID measures being introduced, some of whichwe would never have expected to see in our lifetime, such as a curfew ordering us home by 8:00 pm ans schools, restaurants and hairdresses closed…
DeleteSorry about the typos - I only have my ipad here, and I much prefer typing on a proper keyboard.
DeleteYou always have something interesting to say even if you think you don't and find it difficult to find a topic.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Red. You are always so positive. I will try and remember that advice.
DeleteI am so pleased to see you back as I’d worried about you.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing more from you
Happy New Year
It's very good to read your words but there is something frustrating about anonymity.
DeleteI managed (eventually) to watch Carols from Kings on iPlayer. I never miss it, and love the singing. It was very good this year with some excellent soloists. My Christmas wouldn't be the same without it. Best wishes, Cro.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cro. I used always to watch, or at least listen, to Carols from Kings but I completely forgot about it this year......it's been a very strange year culminating in an unusual Christmas.
DeleteCan’t believe it’s been two months but your lovely Xmas card arriving means I wasn’t worried…. I do feel guilty that I don’t blog these days myself. But still here and still reading :) happy new year to you… may it be peaceful and healthy.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Fi. You are still an important part of my memories of New Zealand and, in particular, South Island.
DeleteWelcome back, Graham. All the best for 2026 - joy, good health and fine whiskey!
ReplyDeleteThank you David. I wish the same for you. I toasted in the New Year with a wee dram of (Scottish) whisky !!
DeleteBest wishes for 2026. You made it, now for the next target, 2027.
ReplyDelete