Why blog

Disclaimer: This post is one I have unashamedly stolen from my "other" blog. I wrote it and then decided it would be perfect here for Monday Musing (and it is even a Monday) but wanted to keep it where it was written too. If you happen to read both please feel free to ignore! Or maybe skip to the very end because I do have something to add on there!

"People have been keeping diaries for years. Centuries even. Hmm ... 'centuries' might be a slight exaggeration. I can't really think of the earliest diary I have read or heard about. Although clearly this became more likely once literacy levels were improved and the means to physically write became more easily accessible. Regardless, can you imagine how different history would be to study if more ordinary people had kept diaries in years gone by?

I don't know about anyone else, but I think of keeping a diary and my automatic mental image goes to a young girl. Similarly, I think of someone writing their memoirs and I think of an old man and probably one who was in the military. I also have a vague picture of a sick mother writing her story for her baby who she may not see grow up. I  have to admit when I think of someone who blogs, I think of a woman automatically and probably one with children. Clearly these are all stereotypes! And I am in no way suggesting most people fit these moulds. I would be very disappointed if they did. But it is just funny the way you get embedded with stereotypes even if you don't mean to be!

I did a fascinating assignment on the diary of a Victorian working-class woman years ago. (Embarrassingly, I can't remember her name. I was very pregnant with Erin at the time. This is my excuse and I am sticking to it). I also remember being inspired to keep a journal of my all activities when I was about 9 after reading someone Lady Baden-Powell had always kept one. I kept this up until I was about 14 I think. (I am sure this will be very useful for writing my autobiography one day!). I've read 'The Diary of Anne Frank', perhaps the most famous diary of all, and a number of biographies and autobiographies. Some of which I am sure were written with the help of people's personal diaries.

But regardless of this publication of diaries and journals and letters, did any of them really ever think what they were writing was going to become public property?

So this all brings me back to the question of why blog? I have to admit I feel a little egocentric thinking that anyone will actually care about the waffle I write on here. And of course, I had to start not one but three blogs.

The flip side of this is, I love reading other people's blogs. Just about the random stuff they say and do. However at times this feels incredibly voyeuristic. Especially when I was in the 'lurking stage'. By the lurking stage I mean when I was reading blogs and reading the regularly, but didn't follow them. In all fairness, at that stage I wasn't following any blogs but this is not the point. (Hello to any lurkers I may have, please feel free to say hi). This information is obviously in the public realm and I assume people like to have their blogs read, so I am not feeling bad about this!

So why do I blog? For me I think it is about getting back into the feel of writing for fun. For enjoyment, after years of writing for study. It is a way of feeling validated. That I have something worth saying (and I don't know why my lovely followers keep reading and keep commenting, but it really makes my day when you do! Thank you). And now I am at the point where I think I am ready to start writing down some of the stories that have been haunting me for years, blogging has been a way for me to begin to write regularly. There is instant gratification with a blog post!!

Damn.  Now I have finished this, while I was re-reading (yes I do re-read even though it might not seem like it) I have a horrible feeling I may have written something like this before? I am going to hit 'publish' anyway though because I am sure it is so fabulous you all want to read it again! (Humour me on this one).

So blogland friends. Why do you blog? And how on earth to you keep track of what you have written about before and what was just something you were thinking, but never actually blogged about?"

This blog is for a slightly different purpose. The other reasons hold true of course, but this is the journey of something specific and the idea is that it is helping with motivation. Plus it is such a big thing for us that I think it will be fun for us to look back and see how and why we did things!

Ten months and two trips

Before you get too excited, no these are not "The Plans". I am pretty sure there would be lot more notice if we were at real planning stage. Not to mention there would have been a lot more posting about a whole heap more stuff.
But for the moment, I do have some travel plans. My big two girls have the opportunity to go to an Australia wide jamboree in Tasmania with Girl Guides. We have been talking about this for a few years now, but suddenly it is a reality. Their applications are in and here goes an intense year of fundraising.


And you might wonder what the littlest one and I are planning on doing? Well we are going to Melbourne. One of my closest friends lives there so it is too good an opportunity to go while I only have one of my girls with me! Perth is (apparently) the most isolated capital city in the world. It is certainly very isolated from the rest of Australia, so it makes any planned trip just that little bit more expensive by the time you include airfares.

But that is just one trip. I also got a facebook message today that my primary school is having a reunion for its 50th birthday. Coincidentally, this it will also be 20 years since my class graduated. So we have a road trip planned for September as well! Well vaguely planned. Maybe 'to be planned when I get some information' would be a  more accurate way of describing it, but either way it should be fun!

To go back to basics, as excited as I am about our upcoming trips, there is something to be said for the dreaming stage. You get the fun of planning without the stress of how you are going to finance it!