Just as I was about to write this post, I noticed that this is the 500th post on the New Zealand Journal Blog and next week sees the second anniversary of the blog. I'm not sure I ever thought I would reach 5 or 50 posts let alone 500 but it is without a doubt the longest running "diary" I've ever kept. Though it may not constitute a personal diary in the normal sense, it has become a diary of thoughts of sorts on New Zealand matters.
In the opening post on this blog of 4th of July, 2008, the blog's purpose was stated as "anything and everything about New Zealand", allowing me the greatest scope to explore and ruminate upon (like a Taranaki dairy cow) anything I wished to related to the country and its people.
The blog's handful of readers will have observed over the ensuing months that the focus has shifted to a more historical bent, rooted in social history.
The original intent had been to provide a source for this blogger's American university students who could find short entries on various events and topics on New Zealand. As their attention has waxed and waned through two field tours of New Zealand and a couple of on-campus courses, I've tended to explore issues of more personal and professional interest to me.
In that bog known as the blogosphere, I've never expected much of an audience nor sought it but a very modest interest appears to have been generated by simply being "out there" in the middle of the bog.
Based on visit information, it seems some of the more frequently read entries have included the series on the history of the cycling craze in Christchurch in the early 1900s, the North Island Main Trunk Railway Line, Nurse Maude, bank deposit insurance (presumably because of all that "hot money" circulating in global markets looking for a safe haven), Ready Money Robinson and the Cheviot Estate, and more recently, the school dental nurse programme.
Like many bloggers, my interest ebbs and flows when it comes to posting to the blog and other matters press their claim on one's time ahead of blogging,
This past month of June has been a particular dry spell for posting here. An unexpected trip to New Zealand at short notice took priority (expats & sharp-witted folks will read the code here), but the good news is that it also gave me the opportunity as a collateral benefit of the trip to gather new material that allows me to complete some small projects that will show up as new posts in the future.
To those of you who have found something of passing interest here, to those who have left comments or sent emails letting me know of your own interests or offering additional information or thoughts, I offer my thanks.
On to post number 501.
4 comments:
Congrats on the 500th post, definitely a worthy blog to read and keep going :)
Hope the trip back home wasn't too bad.
A friend found your 'Shipboard diary of Richard Arthur Haydon' which I read with interest.
Richard was my great Uncle, brother to my Grandfather Peter Haydon.
I have family trees on both Genes Reunited and Ancestry and would be interested if you could put me in touch with any of his decendents.
Alan Douglas-Haydon
I am indeed one of Richard Haydon's descendants. He was a paternal great grandfather, died 1927. I'm in US, but most of his descendants (my generation) live in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Contact my under the profile section. I can tell you more, and I'd like to hear about Peter Haydon and that line of descent. cheers.
Though it may not constitute a personal diary in the normal sense, it has become a diary of thoughts of sorts on New Zealand matters.
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