One

*Blows out candle* *Eats slab of cake*

Yes, hard to believe it, but this little blog of mine is one year old today.

Like most, I suspect, I started blogging on a bit of a whim. It was the last day of a week off work, the last week I'd have off work before becoming a father. It was raining. I was bored.

I wrote this post, hit the publish button and commenced my journey. I was quite surprised to find a few people actually read it. Whoever you were, thanks.

Those first few posts were awkward, stilted. They make me cringe when I look back on them now. A review of a TV programme? For funk's sake.

I don't know whether the posts got any better, but more people started reading them, which was nice. I even started to get some comments. I went out and met some other bloggers on a night out in Bristol.

Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that the best thing to happen to this blog was the birth of Cam. I wrote about his arrival, I wrote about his first night at home. I had two months of writing posts for my baby blog without a baby. It was much easier once he turned up.

Babies do loads of stuff that's great for blogging about. Some of which is pretty staple stuff. For a long time, my most read post was this one about poo. I've also done dummies. Standard.

As much as I love talking about Cam, I'm also (increasingly, it seems) a grumpy lefty, so on occasion I blurt out a bit of a political post too. By blog's bestest ever day in terms of stats was the one where I posted about David Cameron's parenting classes.

Time has marched on, and Cam has become ever more mobile and demanding of attention (selfish, these babies). The prolific early days of posting something nearly every day seem a long time ago. I've considered stopping this blog completely at times. But I still enjoy it when I write a post, still enjoy the comments I get. Still love being part of the enormous community of bloggers.

I really didn't think, when I wrote that first post, that I'd still be doing this a year later. I'd like to thank everyone who has read a post, everyone who has ever retweeted something I've written, subscribed to the blog, left a comment or said something nice about it. This little corner of internet has been a big part of my life for the last twelve months, but it wouldn't have been if no-one had engaged with it.

Oh, and I suppose this is probably a good time to mention that I'd quite like some nominations in the MAD Blog Awards please. New Blog or Baby Blog seem to be the ones for me (although if you want to nominate me for best writer or just outright best blog I wouldn't complain...) The nomination form is here. Vote for me and earn my eternal love and gratitude. I'll also throw in your choice of a hug (I'm good at them) or an emphatic high five (I'm good at those too) should we ever meet.

*goes back to chasing a baby around the house*

Memeology - My Birthday Meme - 14th July

Last time I did a meme I got more visitors to my blog in a day than I ever had before.  It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, like an inverted teddy bear which had been microwaved for a bit.  So, when I saw that I had been tagged in another one by Mr @SAHDandproud my heart fair jumped for joy at the prospect.  It’s quite obvious I’m still new to this blogging lark isn’t it?

So here’s the basis of this meme:  Kate, of The Five Fs Blog, is compiling a list of birthday related information for each day of the year.  This is dead good, because not only do I not have to think of a topic for a proper post but I also get to learn stuff about what happened on days.

I’ve known of one event that had the audacity to be on the same day as my birth for some time.  But now, thanks to my in depth and time consuming research* I have learnt that the day of my birth has, historically, been quite eventful.  Without further ado then, I present to you “The My Birthday Meme”:

When is your birthday?

I made my earthly debut on the 14^th of July 1982. 

Pick three people who share your birthday and share what you know about them.

Former US President Gerald Ford (1913) – The only US president to achieve his place in office without being elected, he replaced Richard Nixon (who was ahead of the phone hacking curve, should have been a NOTW reporter) and subsequently didn’t do anything all that noteworthy.

Billy McCool (1944) – I have included Billy McCool because of his name.  He definitely has the best name of anyone born on the same day as me.  Had he been a good example of nominative determinism he could have been as awesome as James Dean (or a refrigerator salesman).  But actually, he was a fairly mediocre baseball player.  What a wasted opportunity.

David Mitchell (1974) – English comedian and writer of funny columns in the Observer.  Star of popular sitcom Peep Show, as well as numerous other lol-worthy productions.  David is half Welsh, has a hairstyle disconcertingly close to Hitler’s and currently sports a beard which is a little bit dodgier than mine.

Is anyone listed as being born on the same day as you (ie the same year). If so, what do you know about them?

Outrageously, yes.  Dmitry Chaplin, a Russian born American dancer.  He was a finalist in “So You Think You Can Dance”.  Does this explain why I can’t dance?  Did Dmitry get all the dance skills that day?  Perhaps.

List three people who died on your birthday and tell us what you know about them?

Billy the Kid (1881) – A frontier outlaw in America’s “Old West”.  He killed people, somewhere between four and twenty-six depending on who you believe, and was killed himself after a bounty of $500 was placed on his head. 

Richard McDonald (1998) – Co-founder of the McDonald’s fast food empire, purveyors of dirty cardboard burgers which aren’t very nice but do a good job of dissipating a raging hangover.  Didn’t die sat on a toilet eating a Big Mac.

Octave Lapize (1917) – French cyclist from the days when cyclists were proper hardcore, not espresso sipping, leg shaving, EPO doping prima donnas.  Won the Tour de France in 1910, on a bike with one gear and racing on unsealed roads.  Accused some of the tour officials of being murderers while doing battle with the Col du Tourmalet, though in fact he actually died seven years later after being shot down while he was a fighter pilot in WW1.

List three notable events that took place on your birthday.

1789 – The rising of the French proletariat!  Storming of the Bastille in Paris is the flashpoint for the French Revolution.  They were mostly after gunpowder to put in their muskets, but I expect the seven prisoners held there were pretty pleased.  France is now well known for making tasty cheese and wine, and for that we should all be glad.

1933 – The Nazi Party passes a law which makes all other political parties illegal.  No flippant remarks on this one, as we all know what this (and other things) led to.

1965 – Mariner 4, an American space probe, takes the first close up photographs of another planet in the solar system.  Largely dispelling the idea of life on Mars, which probably made a lot of people sad.  Still, pretty cool.

Tell us about a holiday that falls on your birthday.

It’s a flag day in Sweden, what with it being the birthday of  Victoria, the Crown Princess of that fair nation.  How nice.  Maybe I’ll move there so I can have the day off.

There we go, meme memed.  It just remains for me to tag five fortunates to further the fun.  Here they are:

@_firsttimedaddy – because revenge is a dish best served via the medium of meme ;-)

@mycuntrymanor – because I have no doubt she will just tell me to fuck off and I respect her candour.

@thecrumbymummy – because she put the theme song to the Poddington Peas in my head yesterday with this blog post and…oh, dear, this is revenge again isn’t it?  Seriously though, lovely bloggage over there, you should read it.

@bodfortea – because I didn’t tag her in the other meme and then felt bad about it.  Which is probably the direct opposite of how she felt about it. 

@OneDad3Girls – he took a picture of a tiger which made me smile.  Also I think he’s just tagged me in something…

*Looking on Wikipedia for a bit.