Four years ago today, on a cold, grey November morning, I made my first tentative blog post. My God, who is that man with the short hair in that post?



In the beginning I was very hesitant to start blogging. I didn't think there was any way I could come up with much to write about. I guess that fear was unfounded. Lars-Göran encouraged me as I think he hoped I'd share my loud mouthed opinions with the rest of the world rather than with him. He was only half right as I still share them with him as well as with you.

I can hardly believe that I'm still blogging away after such a long time. I have a friend who is thinking about starting up a blog. Our conversation about blogging opened up some questions about how I feel about blogs in general and why I write here. It seems that the original reasons still exist, I have friends and family all over the world and it has been a good way to keep in touch with them. Our emails now are not so much in order to fill in the details but more as conversations about life in general - conversations we would have had if they were connected to my life locally and I saw them every other day (waves to Pauline - I really miss our weekly cappuchino therapy). Of course, I still don't have as much information about their life but I tend to be the one writing the long, drawn out, babbling emails with ten thousand questions anyway. Are you surprised? (I can feel Lars-Göran grinning already).

As I think about why I write this thing here and who reads it, I have stumbled across some pretty interesting points of view around the net.

There are the regular articles that talk about the evolution of blogging such as Rebecca Blood's history and perspective and the impressive (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything. As well, there are the numerous critiques of blogging in posts like Quantum Tea's excellent Cardinal Sins of Blogging and Why I $%*&ing Hate Weblogs. I agree with some points of both of these critiques, specifically Quantum Tea's #2 and #4.

So, I've been writing this for four years now and although I'm still here, do I want to be a "blogger"? I admit that I love writing and I love to read blogs. I love seeing the world through other people's eyes. I appreciate that they write these things, even if their design and literary talent threatens to deprofessionalise the media.

What I don't like about blogging these days is the validation therapy that some seem to thrive on. Is this all some sort of self-absorbed babble? I don't think so, or I certainly don't think this is what it is about for me. I don't scrutinise my statistics to see from where and with what link people are reading my blog. To tell you the truth, I used to get a little freaked out when people I didn't know were reading it and frankly, it surprised the hell out of me - why are you here? what could be interesting about what I write?

From my own point of view, it is nice to look back and see the progression toward acclimatising to Sweden. And for our sailing trips, the archives are what ultimately keeps me writing and are very precious.

This blog has become a part of my life and it is hard to separate it from everything else. I've also met some pretty amazing people and have grown closer to friends I think I would have lost otherwise. That said, this really isn't that personal. It has been a little strange letting other people in my life know about this page. Right now, blogging is it's own little sub-culture and I know it must seem strange to many of you that I write online about my family and myself - but I do, I enjoy it and have met some wonderful people through it all.

I'd like to say a big thankyou for all of the emails from people who have read something here and sent me a line. The most important thing to remember about this blog is that it is only a story about an ordinary person doing really ordinary things. If you do not know me or are not interested in the things I do in life, you will quickly become bored. I most certainly do not write this for mass entertainment - as I'm sure you have noticed.




The main joy for me has been the people I’ve connected with, who are constant sources of inspiration and encouragement — all of them — and who I didn’t know existed this time four years ago.

And now I think I'll talk Lars-Göran into a special afternoon tea at one of the nice cafés in town.