Bank Holiday Catch Up

Here in the UK it’s a Bank Holiday (Public Holiday to those outside of my little island) and I have decided to use it to catch up on all the blogs I follow and find out more about the new followers I have received over the last few weeks. So please comment with links to blog posts of yours I should be reading so I can; catch up, comment and follow!

My First Exhibition

After a few lengthy months with sparse entries the title finally tells you what I’ve been up to.

Yes its finally happened, I’m having my own exhibition, and while its been an ambition of mine and in fact on my bucket list I never thought it would actually come about.

I will of course be posting updates as the days and weeks progress but this blog is an invitation to you all.

So save the date: 24th – 27th of May. If you’re in the UK please come down to The Burford Gallery in the Cotswolds. I would love to show off what I’ve been snapping for the past few years. For the full information about the event follow this link.

The photographs will be mainly of the Cotswolds and from around the UK although I will be slipping in some shots from the rest of my travels.

So please come along, the Cotswolds are worth a visit regardless and I’ll be incredibly pleased to meet you out of the virtual world.

 

Here is the first batch of photographs getting mounted and ready for the exhibition.

100th post and still going

On July 6th 2010 this blog was born. Born out of my desire to carry on writing following my graduation which meant I couldn’t write for student papers anymore. It began as a creative outlet, when my creativity felt stifled by other parts of my life. It has become so much more than that though. Now the blog has recently surpassed the ripe old age of 100 (and now has photographic sibling) I thought I would celebrate by looking back and thanking you, the reader.

Since 2010 a lot in my life has shifted and transformed irrevocably yet this blog has stood sentinel, unchanged. Some of those events have been documented on here like working as a journalist in India or moving to London. I’ve written about crazy things (my secret love of braces, being questioned by the visa police and even wearing fancy dress to beat writers block) and more somber subjects (the Japanese earthquake, religious unity and Tibet). I’ve been awarded Freshly Pressed twice and the Versatile Award, not that I’m bragging (much). The best thing, however, is reading comments and getting stopped in the street (truthfully this has happened twice now!) by people who like my blog and say that it made them laugh. If you want to understand my reasoning for blogging read my 10,000th hit post, as you can tell I like hitting milestones!

It’s only survived past the 2nd post because of you, the readers. I don’t want to go on like Kate Winslet at an awards ceremony but thank you readers and commenters, you’ve kept me sane and motivated.

I would urge anyone to start a blog, you’d be surprised where it takes you. You can be as thick as custard but as long as you have something to talk about, it will work. Just make sure it has heart, I’ve read some blogs that are just written for the sake of writing and it’s painfully obvious. Words written without heart read hollow.

So thanks for reading and here’s to the next 100.

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 3 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 59 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 110 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 116mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was July 10th with 2,032 views. The most popular post that day was Train Etiquette – A grumpy 22 year old’s code of locomotive conduct..

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were wordpress.com, facebook.com, WordPress Dashboard, alphainventions.com, and twitter.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for banksy logo, james dunn blog, banksy, thinking bulb, and train etiquette.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Train Etiquette – A grumpy 22 year old’s code of locomotive conduct. July 2010
166 comments and 56 Likes on WordPress.com

2

What’s this about? July 2010
9 comments

3

My Accidental Love of Braces (the trouser variety) July 2010
16 comments and 4 Likes on WordPress.com

4

Why a university degree is still worth its weight in debt July 2010
18 comments and 4 Likes on WordPress.com

5

I can see the whole world from up here…. September 2010
16 comments and 3 Likes on WordPress.com

I’m still Alive!

I must apologize for my lack of writing in the blogosphere in the recent weeks, the reasons are as follows, I’ve been lazy, I’ve been writing nonstop (book and newspaper) and I’m in India.

Since returning from ‘peacefully’ Delhi a few weeks ago the metaphorical ball has begun to roll. I wouldn’t say that Delhi was a peaceful time to think about the book, quite the opposite. With floods, blistering heat and a ‘life flashing before your eyes’ taxi ride back from Agra (4 hours to get there, 8 hours to return) my brain had little else to say except “bloody hell its hot here” and “can we leave soon”. Since then the book has begun to take shape with interviews with Tibetans springing up all over the place and their stories have been compelling and writable. Without spoiling too much of the book I’m sure you are all going to buy (hint, hint) the stories of people who have been through fear, oppression, torture, pain and finally freedom never failed to bring a tear to my eye. The interviews are taking place and weird and wonderful places including; a coffee shop, someone else’s balcony, a classroom and an alley way but with my trusty Dictaphone I have successful got their words saved, safely. I can honestly say that I am looking forward to getting it finished so everyone else can share these incredible stories of people searching for freedom, while they carry scars of their oppressive past, both metaphorically and literally.

I have also been filling my days working for a Tibetan newspaper called The Tibet Post International. I began only a week ago but I completely love the work, my role is reporting on the recent news coming in that refers to anything Tibetan. It then gets translated into Tibetan and Chinese for the website. Topics I have covered so far are the Dalai Lama’s trip to the US, China’s reaction to the Nobel Peace Prize, Tibetan torture victims to name but a few. To read any of my articles head to http://www.thetibetpost.com/

That’s it for now but I have many blog entries swimming round my head and I promise it won’t be this long till you can read them.

Until then in case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight.

And away they go….

Just a quick post to keep all your followers in the metaphorical loop, today is D-Day (or rather I-Day) as I begin my adventure back to India. The last few days have been frantic, a haze of goodbyes and shopping buys and now the day has finally come I’m sad to say goodbye to England and everyone in it. However, I know that I’ll have such amazing times ahead and hopefully England should still be here when I get back! So the bags are finally packed (and bulging like somethings trying to escape!) and I’m ready for it all to begin, stay tuned and I’ll see you on the other side.

Final Check list:
Clothes….Check
Camera….Check
Passport….Check
A lorry full of notepads….Check
Buckets of excitment….Check
Not a clue what to expect….Check

A tree of veins…