One year ago I started my blog. I logged onto Typepad and started filling in the details etc and then was faced with the question: What is the name of your blog? Totally stumped. I had not even thought that far. 'Elaine's Blog?' hardly original, hardly snappy. 'Colchester thoughts?' 'Diary of Elaine aged 59¾'? Again hardly original and it would soon be untrue anyway and then I would have to rename my blog each year and let's face it Diary of Elaine Aged 95 (should I last that long) would not really sound too snappy either. In the end I settled for Random Jottings, simply because I could not come up with anything better at the time and now I have got used to it and love seeing references to me on other blogs 'Popped over to Random Jottings the other day', 'If you want to hear all about Wagner pop over to Random Jottings' . Simply thrilled when this happens or when another blogger refers to something I have said. If you read below, my very very first entry on this blog you will see why I am surprised and delighted at how many people do visit.
"When I was a teenager I kept a diary. I purchased it in Woolworths. It had a bright red plastic cover and had a lock with a tiny key and I kept it hidden in my bottom drawer in my bedside table and wrote in it every day. I cannot think that any of the entries were of any interest to anyone but me, or were of literary merit, but I do remember the joy of opening a blank page and putting pen to paper. This diary disappeared many years ago, probably just as well as I am sure I would be acutely embarrassed if I read it now, and it is with some trepidation I embark on this cyber diary. Will anybody want to hear my thoughts and opinions on anything? Will they be interested? Will they respond? Well, there is only one way to find out and that is to start blogging and I hope that this is going to be the first of many entries."
Now, I am not going to go all touchy and feely on you all and I am not going to say this blog has changed my life. What is has done is enhanced my life. All the things that I had before, friendship, kinship, love of books, enjoyment of all things literary, opera, music, theatre, have been expanded and have given me even more pleasure simply because I am sharing with others.
Readers of this blog will know that I worked in a library for years, loved it, adored it and you would have thought the ideal place to meet other book lovers. It ain't necessarily so. Yes, I met some but not a lot and in my working and social life since my teenage years, finding kindred spirits has been very very difficult indeed.
Now, imagine you have met people at a book group who when you mention a particular book said Oh yes I loved that book too and then you start talking and you realise you are on the same wavelength. Imagine the joy at not being looked at as if you are a total freak because you love Dickens or Austen or anybody? The sense of relaxation is wonderful. Then you discover the blogsphere, you start your own and suddenly all over the world people are dropping by from the USA, Jamaica, Singapore, Australia, Vienna, Scotland, Skye, Canada, Ireland (have not had anybody from Wales yet HELLO...) and you are talking about the same things. Imagine going to Chicago and meeting up with two fellow bloggers who you have never met before and who spend the next four days in total amity, non stop chat and happy to spend hours wandering around bookshops with nobody getting impatient because you are taking too long. Imagine going to a dress rehearsal of an opera simply because you met the General Manager of an opera company via your blog. Imagine a person receiving books from publishers to review, people who trust my judgment and who think I am capable of doing this. Imagine my delight at that. Imagine taking OU courses on essay writing and studying Shakespeare because other bloggers have encouraged me and told me I am perfectly intelligent enough to cope. Imagine all this. And now I have listed all this I realise, I am wrong. Being a blogger HAS changed my life and for the better.
So after yesterday's upset, let us forget all about it. Danielle has said in a comment on my previous post 'Can't we just talk about books? Isn't that what it is all about?' and yes it is, and yes we will. She is right.
So onward and upward and I look forward to my second year and lots of reading and enjoyment and opera going etc etc and you will just have to all put up with my forays into 24 (Series Six out on DVD in November); ER (still going strong), Strictly Come Dancing (new series in autumn) Dancing on Ice (ditto) and my occasional shouts of 'Up the Blues'
God Bless us every One
