One million viewings

Done it. At 4.27pm (or possibly 4.28pm) this afternoon my blog viewings reached one million.

I wonder who the millionth viewer (and presumably faithful reader) was?

It wasn't me! I was carefully watching this magic total approach, but made sure that I didn't steal the 'honour' of being the millionth viewer. I was only the very next viewer, the million-and-oneth.

Here's the build-up. 999,994 at 4.14pm:

999,998 at 4.25pm. Getting exciting! I had been thinking about an afternoon kip, but this was no time to snooze off.

999,999 at 4.27pm. I was trying to do other things, but clearly couldn't. And shouldn't!

I gave it half a minute, then took a peep. Aha! Somebody had done the deed. Good for them! And I must be the 1,000,001th viewer.

Well, the show's over, folks! We can all go home now...

Actually, I hope that all the people who have ever looked at my blog will stick around and glance at some of the posts yet to come. The last time I saw a blog get up to a million viewings the author closed it down almost at once, saying that this was a great moment to do so, bowing out with a big target reached so to speak. Besides, he claimed to have run out of things to say. Well, not me. I've got plenty to left to do and experience, and places to discover, and gadgets to buy and write about, and things in the news to comment on, and I'll be writing posts about all of that. (Yes, I'm now going for the two-million total. Another eleven years at least, surely) 

Meanwhile, thank you if you have enjoyed the blog so far. If you are a long-term reader, you'll have put up with some pretty awkward, embarrassing, or contentious posts! They were very prevalent ten or eleven years back. I think the posts got better as time passed, but I could be wrong about that. I never actually got into fatally deep water with anyone, but certainly I offended a few - whether it was the text I wrote, or the photo I included. It's easy enough to cross lines and annoy. But I'm still here, still keen to write.

One million viewings... 

I should perhaps add that since starting in February 2009, I've written 2,227 posts, made up of very nearly 2,000,000 words (the word-count total had reached 1,973,986 by the end of March). That's what you can do when you are retired, live alone, enjoy life, and have much to say about it. 

All these figures are however eclipsed by the photo viewings on Flickr. The 30,878 snaps I've uploaded there for public contemplation have garnered 2,870,169 viewings. I conclude that I must be a whole lot better with a camera than with a keyboard. Sigh. 

And I have an idea for a book. Perhaps I'd best not waste my time!