15 September 2021 – Auckland.
There is some sort of symmetry to being back in Auckland for the tenth anniversary of the creation of the wheresphil blog and its first short post, The Plan. There is also some symmetry with my life as it was 10 years ago in that I am once again in a state of flux, though this time it is a ‘we’ that is in flux rather than an ‘I’, sorry Eleanor. 10 years ago I was about to sell my house and go travelling and now we are back from travelling and are looking for somewhere to live.
Anyway, 10 years. 10 flipping years!!
I genuinely cannot believe I am still writing so long after starting this thing, nor how much I enjoy the writing, particularly over the last 16 months as we have lived through a variety of levels of lockdown. The blog gives me a reason to go out and do things, take photos and go for walks and those things in turn gave me something to write about. Writing this blog for me rather than for the clicks, likes and comments means I am not tied to any specific cycle of posting or any particular subject, I write what I want and when I want. I like that.
I have not really done much with the site over those ten years. Though due to the volume of photos I have imbedded, I was forced to move to a paid-for version of WordPress. This has also meant I can have my own URL ‘wheresphil.org’ rather than the ‘wheresphil.wordpress.com’ address I had for most of those ten years. While I am not working I will have a look at some changes to the pages. Maybe teach myself some WordPress as I go. Maybe.
I very rarely go back and read old posts, other than to link to them as a reference in a new piece. On those rare occasions that I go back I get a little embarrassed about the number of typos, the poor grammar and sometimes garbled sentences. I have been tempted numerous times to just re-write entire posts, though I’ve never done so. However, I’m not above the odd tweak.
Happy birthday blog; you have grown and are doing well, and here is to a few more years. xx
Where is Phil now? 