It’s a funny thing. You write these words because you’ve set yourself the challenge not only of starting a journal but of putting it out into the world for people to read and comment on. You hope it’s going to be entertaining, useful, informative, possibly even funny. But you carry on anyway. And then you look at the statistics.

WordPress is wonderful for tracking this sort of thing. How many people have visited your site, what did they look at. And you get to wondering… Why did that post only get one or two views? I publicised it as much as the one the previous Monday and that got twenty. Why do more people look at my blog on a Thursday than a Tuesday? I find myself having a peek at the site statistics a couple or three times a day. Alright, I’ve got the dashboard pinned to another tab as I write this. I’m a tad obsessed.

Then something like this happens.  I received an award.  For my blog.  From a complete stranger.

This came completely out of the blue from Tom Briggs at http://diary-of-the-dad.blogspot.com/. I’d not heard of this, didn’t go into blogging for the awards, but it gave me the most wonderful warm and fuzzy feeling inside! Someone not only read my blog, they liked it enough to share it with others. And that’s absolutely magic.

Part of the rules around this Kreative Blogger award is that I now have to nominate ten of the blogs I follow for this award, inform them of the fact, and impart ten facts about myself. So, my nominees are as follows:

1. Bringing Up Charlie. In no small part this man is responsible for this blog being here. If I hadn’t stumbled across his post about how to build a Gup-A it might never have occurred to me to get this up and running and, more than that, keep it going.
2. Him Up North – Call yourself a northerner? Southern nancy, more like. Come to the proper north and see what it’s like!
3. The Moiderer – Funny, poignant, great to chat to on Twitter, Starbucks-on-tap.
4. Reluctant Housedad – There but for the grace of God go I. From what I read on his blog he’s making a better fist of it than I would.
5. She Means Well, but… – Another ex-pat, this time a little further afield.
6. Sticky Fingers – Originator of The Gallery (click the icon to the right to find out more about that wonderful gem).
7. Paperback Writer – This is where I would like to be in the future. Writing professionally. I’m a long way off that right now.
8. Mocha Beanie Mummy – Originator of Silent Sunday (another icon over to the right)
9. Katie Ganshert – First Line Fridays.  No graphic or icon yet but that doesn’t stop First Line Fridays!
10. This is where I run out.  I’m actually out of blogs I follow religiously.  So I need a recommendation (or two, three or more!)  I mean, obviously I follow Diary of the Dad but I can’t do a return nomination, can I?  This would just get stuck in a perpetual loop!  Hmmm.  If we could somehow harness the energy such a loop would generated we could power the Internet!

That was pretty difficult, actually. Turns out I don’t follow anywhere near as many blogs as I thought I did! I know some of the nominees above have been nominated by others, but that’s just confirmation of what wonderful people they are.

And now the 10 facts about me…

1. I’m not a great fan of heights.
2. I’ve bungee-jumped both Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) and Blaukrans Bridge (South Africa)
3. I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with my wife after watching a TV programme where the presenter did just that and had horrendous altitude sickness and hated every second of his trip. I, on the other hand, didn’t suffer and loved it.
4. I was told by my English teacher that my handwriting was appalling and that I should do something about it. I did. I took a touch-typing course and, on a good day, can still do 60-70 words per minute.
5. At school, I hated sports. Hated, loathed, despised them. I still can’t abide team sports (football, rugby, etc. all leave me with a burning desire to be somewhere else) but it would surprise my old gym teachers to know that I’ll be running my 3rd Half-Marathon this June.
6. I am a computer magician. I fix things simply by standing behind the user and getting them to repeat what went wrong last time. 99 times out 100 this is followed by “Well, it didn’t do that last time.”
7. I broke my nose on a water slide in Slovakia
8. I have known (and been together with) my wife for over half my life.
9. My favourite city, of all the wonderful places I’ve visited over the years, is Edinburgh.
10. I am a Browncoat.  And I’m proud of it!

So there you go.  10 nominees, 10 facts, and a massive thanks to Tom Briggs.