To Blog Or Not To Blog...

I read a blog advice book in WHSmiths once, and it strictly said that 'one should never write a blog entry when one has nothing to say'. Fair enough. However, at the bottom of the same page was the phrase 'never leave your blog too long without posting because your readership will plummet'. Once again, fair enough. But fairness doesn't dismiss the backwardness of the author's message. He gives us the ultimate catch 22. To blog or not to blog, when and for what reason. Indeed, half the time when I start writing an entry these days, I find myself in an awkward position. "Should I bombard my readers with descriptive essay-like entries about my daily life (just so they know neither my blog nor I am dead in a ditch somewhere), or should I hold back and wait for something truly revolutionary to happen before I let my fingers loose on the keyboard and risk losing all readership?" It seems that the ONLY way to maintain a successful blog would be to have something exciting and interesting happen to you every other day at least, and having the skill to write about it. Being in England at the moment, it has been fairly easy to fill each post with something a little bit exotic, but how will I keep my readers once I am back in Canada? This is not a question to be answered, just a drifting notion. It is with this, I take you into another of my entries from abroad, just hoping that my timing and content has been good enough for all of you, and for the writer of that book.

The past few days, as you know, have been spent with my cousin Amanda. With both of us in the state of out-of-workedness, our days have been filled with dips in the pool and trips downtown to shop. In Amanda's case, she is waiting to start teacher's college and no one will hire her for only the month of August. And I don't feel guilty since I know that the next two years will be non-stop work, completing possibly a very stressful year abroad and returning just as the new semester starts in Canada. Today, particularly, was a lot of fun since Amanda's best friend Andy came over with his friend Ian. I made a crumble especially for the occasion being the newly domesticated woman that I am (har har), and for dinner we ordered in Chinese. No one was really sure how the dynamic of the four of us would work out, but surprisingly we all got along extremely well. The best part was when we brought out the guitars and piano, and sat down for a sing-a-long. Andy played the instruments as we sang to some of the newest British pop hits, and a few oldies like California Dreamin' and A Little Respect. We also played a game called Boy Girl where everyone writes a list of general things (boy, girl, movie, clothes, etc.) in one column, and using one letter from the alphabet, thinks of a word for each column (i.e. if R were the letter, Rodney could be used for the category 'boy'). The game really gets funny when the topics become a bit more raunchy, but I'll leave that to your imagination.

Yesterday, my cousin Mary and my aunt Sheila came over for a swim. It was lovely because Mary has finally started to warm up to me a little bit. I think there is a touch of shyness in our blood, but we had a real breakthrough when Mary showed me the piano piece she learnt from Amanda, and I, in exchange, showed her my laptop and the pictures we took that day. It was real cousin bonding! I suppose I regret having lived so far away because I have never experienced what it is like to be a role model to a younger family member. It's a great feeling when a kid hangs on your every word and strives to be like you. It's flattering, but at the same time, it takes your mind off of the selfish issues you might be dealing with because you are giving to another person. The experience has almost given Amanda and I the motherly urges (but not quite!).

Tomorrow is Bath so I am sure I will have something to say about that. After all, it appears to be the place of miracles going by my friend Steph's story about her uncle and his fiance reuniting there. I though that was so lovely. Anyway, we shall see...maybe my Romeo is waiting there for me! :P