Thank you

To those of you who continue coming back in the forlorn hope of finding something new, thank you. It's been two weeks since the last entry now and my guilt complex is growing. I see from the stats (my new favourite occupation) that the incredible increase in readership is continually growing. However, the longer the gap between posts, the steadier the decline in readership. Pretty logical I know, but having gone on for the first few months with virtually no readers and little interest in how many I may attract, it's not so easy to suddenly fill a gap that you didn't know was there. I hope that doesn't sound arrogant, but I'm one of those lazy sods that doesn't like to be put under pressure. Don't mention that to my boss, by the way. The job I do is such a combination of hectic stress and necessary adaptability that pressure is a mild description of why exactly my particular job title is something that is always in demand in this little country. We whinge and scream about the amount of Germans we have here in Rösti-land (pronounced "rerschty" but without the second "r" and indicating one of the traditional dishes over here: grated, fried potato, DELICIOUS!), but we couldn't do without them, because there are simply too few qualified Swiss to manage all the construction going on. That's not to say there are too few qualified Swiss in general, rather there are about five million over-qualified Swiss, but somehow the construction trade doesn't grab the young anymore. A result of our overwhelmingly "information technology" world of today, I suppose. Ok, here comes my usual, favourite and true phrase: I digress! How unusual.

I always like to come onto the blog with something new and interesting, or even something old and interesting. Sometimes though, I get the urge to just talk, much like writing in a diary in the old days of pen and paper. I try to resist this, because I am convinced that there is not much in my everyday thoughts that a zillion of us haven't already thought or worried about and don't really need to see written down here by some arbitrary twat (pronounced "twot" and used in South African dialect to denote a prize prick. It's real meaning probably lies hidden in Afrikaans somewhere, but in my day it meant the same as that terrible English word "C*NT", and has the same connotations).

Anyway, I wanted first of all to thank all the people who come back to this blog. I'm really surprised. Truly. Thank you. Secondly, about the poll that I posted. There was no reaction for a while until someone I know complained that she couldn't get the thing to work. I had promised myself that I wouldn't do any voting for myself, but this was too much. I logged in at work and did the unthinkable. It worked fine. So there I was, one miserable little vote and done by myself. I felt terrible! I even considered voting for "mediocre" or "as boring as hell", just so that I couldn't be seen to be furthering my own cause. Couldn't bring myself to do that though, so I voted for "interesting". There, it's out. Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I logged on a few days later and found that there were now four votes! Four whole votes!! It was a 50/50 result. Two "interesting" and two "good for a laugh". Subtract my own "interesting" and the likely "interesting" of my aquaintance and you have two "good for a laugh"'s. Pathetic, yet intensely gratifying, I must say. Once again, thank you to the two unkowns who made those votes.

To outline another interesting aspect (for me), I have seen that it's the stories about the past that attract the most attention. I would have thought the day-to-day life of a foreigner in Switzerland would interest most people, but I have been proved wrong by the stats, which show that the two tales of the past have attracted about 70% of the close to four hundred viewings I've had. To this end I have decided to include at least one tale of yore per month.

I think it's time to clarify a little of that which I intend here on the blog. I have spoken about it before, but it could be made a little clearer. I wish to relate the things that have happened to me that could have happened to anyone the world over. The difference is, most of us either remember the events fondly and go on with our lives without ever mentioning the occurrences again, or we simply don't have the capability to retell whatever it was in an interesting enough manner to capture and hold our audiences attention, or we are not the type of person that feels that our own particular experiences are worthy enough of telling. I have learnt from the likes of James Herriot, Alex Haley and many world war two soldiers that everyday experiences or personal history can be extremely interesting or funny if expressed in precisely the way that the author perceives it. This requires a certain talent at writing. I like to think that I have that talent. I'm not sure if I do have it, but nonetheless I will continue to try here. That is the essence of this blog. To write down my memories and experiences and see if anyone else finds it interesting. I certainly find some of the life experiences I and others that I know have had to be noteworthy and therefore I wish to record them. I have a number of past stories written down and saved on old floppy discs, but this seems like such a better place to store ones memories. Here people can enjoy them "live" and they can still be recovered for personal use, rather than lying about in a cupboard somewhere in the house on software that could become obsolete in the near future. I'm under no delusions that there is a wealth of people out there just waiting to hear all my personal tales and hence I am so surprised and pleased that (once again, for me!) so many of you read what I have to say. Once again, thank you. I hope that the regulars from South Africa and America find something from my past that meshes with their own memories, and I wish the Danish and Swiss readership lots of fun exploring the mentality and past of an ex "old South African".

Of course, it could be that my most faithful readers are the two from Hong Kong who reappear every single day (I doubt that there are enough interested parties in Hong Kong for there to be a continual couple of views daily from different people each time...or is it the same poor loner who is so devoted that he/she goes to my page twice a day? If so, keep it up!). Whatever the case is, I won't thank all the rest individually. The bulk of the readership seems to be from the USA, Denmark, Switzerland and South Africa. The rest are minor, but appreciated.

Well, that's it for this entry. I have now spent a log in on myself and the blog, something I don't wish to do to often. I haven't checked up on what I wrote last, but I know that there is a lot to do with this type of thing and at least one complete banality. The next will be a story of the past.

Yours, ...