Sunday, March 28, 2010

Birthday Blog - a personal thank you

No news today except for the fact that the blog is 6 years old today and I am 46. Ouch! As a whole last year was a pretty horrid affair. and I was glad to turn my back it. My father celebrated the end of 2009 by breaking his ankle on New Year's Eve! Says it all really :-).

But in spite of the hours spent in Accident and Emergency in north Wales (an interesting anthropological experience in its own right) we are both feeling that 2010 is already a much better place to be. I am very much enjoying working on the online magazine with Kate, and most of my other projects have come back to life too. Looking ahead, my father and I are booked into one of Jane's apartments in Luxor for two weeks at Christmas this year, which we are both looking forward to SO much! Do get in touch if you're planning to be there at the same time.

I would like to offer serious thanks to all those who emailed and posted comments in September last year when I was going through a seriously bad patch and fell of the face of the planet. I was quite unable to respond at the time but you cannot believe how all your comments motivated me to get off my backside, stop feeling sorry for myself and re-join the real world. I would almost certainly have given up the blog without all of you, and that would have been a bad thing for me. So . . . . . .



Vincent Brown remarked to me a couple of weeks ago that blogging builds communities of people who have never met, and recently Kate Phizackerley posted to her visitors a thank-you message for making her blog a real living community. I too have plenty of experience of having great online conversations with visitors with whom I have never met. A blog seems like such a static thing until people start responding and discussing matters and offering moral support, and then it seems anything but static or abstract. There's nothing abstract about a web community! It is something that continues to surprise and really delight me. I hope that the magazine will build on that and encourage even greater involvement.

I am up in Wales with my father, with a case of Pouilly Fume, another of Rioja and a bottle of pink Champagne. It's promising to be a very good extended birthday!

Is it just me or is 2010 flying past at a staggering rate? I cannot believe we are at the end of March already. Perhaps it's just a sign of getting old!


Huge hugs to all
Andie
xxxxxx


13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday to you, Andi and the Egyptology Blog.

I really enjoyed reading it for the last year (and can't complain about the exciting things that happened ... especially the mummy sequencing project) and look forward to the new year ... maybe even without broken bones and A&E.

all the best,

YB

Anonymous said...

Andi:
Happy B-day! I have enjoy checking your blog several times a week for the last year or so, and have found it to be very rewarding. Please keep up the good work!
Yours,
Patrick F. Houlihan

kat newkirk said...

Happy Birthday Andie! I think you're right, this new year will be better for all of us.

Love,

kat

s. stockwell said...

Happy, happy day Andie and YES you have created a community. You are so much appreciated. I do not fully understand the deep passion that come with a love of Egyptology? Almost feels inborn? You feed this so brilliantly. Thank you & have a big party with all those spirits (just the two of you?). We may need to give you a week or so blog grace to revive?

Paula Veiga said...

Happy Birthday to both of you!!!

Timothy Reid said...

Happy Birthday Andie

I told you the older you get the faster it goes, welcome to 46 and thanks for the Egyptology news.

Cheers ;)

Anonymous said...

You're not getting older. You're getting better! At 68, I have to believe that one.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY. And I'm so glad that you kept on truckin'. Look forward to many more years both with the blog and you.

Can't get the Google to work again. Alice

Vincent said...

That's right, we're almost at the end of March, it IS hard to believe!

Happy birthday to Egyptology News! I would have baked a cake and topped it with 6 candles but I don't think it would have fared well on the trip from South Australia. So I baked you a virtual cake instead.

I hope your Dad's health fares better this year, the remaining 3/4 of it that is.

...oh and happy birthday to you too Andie!

Love,

Vincent.

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday Andie, you are very much appreciated and if u r in luxor much into the first couple of weeks in Jan then we might meet up, daveh

Margaret said...

Happy Birthday Andie!!! I hope you have a wonderful time up in Wales celebrating with your dad! Thank you so much for all your great work on the blog. It's a really impressive achievement and enjoyed by so many people- you should be very proud of yourself!
Cheers & all the best,
Margaret

Andie said...

Thank you everyone! I had a great day and the Champers went down very nicely, as did Vincent's virtual cake :-) Take care and do stay in touch.

Ben Morales-Correa said...

Happy Birthday, Andie! Muy feliz cumpleaƱos para ti.

Jane Akshar said...

arrgggh I can't believe I missed it. all the best people are born in march, happy belated birthday blame essay writing for missing it