5000... well, nearly...

I don't mean to be cryptic. 5000 (or actually at time of writing - I should say 4959; Joel would be very unimpressed with any inaccuracy, especially related to numbers...) refers to the number of page views on my blog.

I wrote once before about the exciting (if slightly geeky) joys of having available statistics on my blog.  I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you who read my ramblings; especially those of you who comment encouragingly, or (insert fanfare here!) actually dare to publically 'follow' my blog.  It does seems odd having 'followers' - a strange, cult leader-ish term I know.  But it is lovely to know who I'm writing to...

Over the course of the last five months people in the UK, USA, Thailand, Burkina Faso, Germany, Finland, Canada, Russia, Spain, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Australia, France, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Croatia, Slovenia, The Philippines, Singapore, Colombia, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have all read my blog.  I'm very honoured that anyone reads it at all, to be honest - let alone people in parts of the world I've never been to, who I've never even met.

So thank you for taking a minute out of your busy day to read this.  And do feel free to say hello!

Hello Djibo, this is Rugby calling...

Something slightly mystical (OK - mystical to me) happens once you've been blogging for a month.  The good burgers of Google add a new feature to your blogging set up which enables you to find out all sorts of fascinating things; they call this bit 'Stats'.

For example, it tells me where in the world people are reading my blog - hence the title...  I have some friends living and working as missionaries in Djibo, Burkina Faso (Hello Mark & Cheryl!) - so I have a pretty rock solid idea that they are the Burkina readers...  However, amazingly - there's people all over the world reading my humble little blog.  Who are the people in the Netherlands / Italy / France / USA / Canada / New Zealand etc etc reading my blog?  How many countries can one blog get to anyway?

I can also tell you how many people read each blog post.  For example, the most popular one so far was 'So here's the thing...'  A blog about keeping romance alive in long term relationships.  I'll be writing more about that soon - so watch this space.

I even know whether people are using Windows, Macs, iPhones or blackberries...  I know - it's bonkers.  What am I supposed to do with all this information?  (Don't worry - I can't see what colour your eyes are, or tell what you're thinking...  Big sister is not watching you!) I have to confess to loving the fact that it all appears in pretty graphs and tables though; who knew statistics could be so addictive?

I would love to know where you are reading this - and who you are - whether you're somewhere exotic, or somewhere closer to home.  Please add a comment at the bottom (even if it's 'in the bath in Bognor!')

Oh - and Thank you to all of you who have clicked on an occasional interesting advert on my blog.  It does make me a few pennies, and I am very grateful. xx

The mobile phone saga

I'm not a technophobe, but I'm not a techie either...

Over the Bank Holiday weekend, my mobile phone was playing up.  Some of it's functions were working fine - but it was stubbornly refusing to receive any text messages.  This was a bit of a nightmare, as I tend to organise my (& the boys') social life via texts...

I tried getting people to reply to texts I sent - but this didn't work.

After talking to my husband (who is several degrees up the techie scale from me) I tried deleting some messages to make sure there was space to receive things.  Deleting messages one by one from the inbox takes an unbelievable amount of time, and I couldn't just delete the lot as I needed some of them.  I barely scratched the surface of my inbox if I'm honest.

I then hit upon the master plan of deleting my Sent Items.  I even worked out how to delete them all by only pressing a couple of buttons...  (I know - I'm a genius!) My phone - bless it - then proceeded to delete them, one by one, all by itself, all 2648 of them.  This, as you can imagine, took a few more ages...

After all this space saving, my phone still didn't want to play.  I was mentally bemoaning how everything seems to break when you haven't got the money to replace it.  I was working out where to purchase a new hand set...

And then, super husband (he really is a genius...) remembered the golden rule of all electrical equipment, the first commandment of anything with batteries, the mantra of anything technological:







If it doesn't work - switch it off - then switch it on again.

I am happy to say that the phone is now healed of all it's ills. Fourteen text messages then staggered into my inbox having been running round the ether, and I''ve saved a few quid.

I'll remember what to do next time! :)