This is a quick apology for my lack of activity in the last month. No excuses, it’s just been a busy month and the couple of times I did have a chance to get out it was shedding down with rain and I couldn’t face it.
It’s weird, No one asked me to do this, no one is paying me to do this, yet here I am with a sense of responsibility to those of you who read the blog. Anyone who follows me on twitter knows I’m still alive, but lately it’s been about anything but @Benandthebuses.
A couple of times I’ve thought about posting my thoughts on here about various things, but this blog isn’t for that and I don’t think I should go off-topic just for the sake of keeping it updated a little more often. This entire venture is taking a lot longer than I planned, so I suppose it’s just the nature of the beast.
All change today, however, as I am back out on a couple of routes, beginning with the No 19, from Battersea Bridge to Finsbury Park. Updates on twitter, as ever. Byeeeee!
Actually I think the readers of your blog would like to hear your thoughts on various things. That’s what blogging is about … it is not a “duty”. When writing this blog starts feeling like a duty for you, it will feel like a duty for people to read it.
Blogging is personal, it’s about persons. Put some personality into it. Who is this guy who gets on all these buses? Why does he do it? Does he have OCD? How does he keep motivated? Where does he find the time to do this? What do you do on long bus journeys that are boring? Do you use that time to think? To read? Or do you just listen to your iPod? Are there routes you’re scared of doing? Parts of town where you wouldn’t want to get off the bus? … And how come that you don’t hate buses, like the rest of us? They’re slow, they shake, the air is stuffy …?
Keep blogging.
Thanks Lucie. Point taken. I think I’m paranoid about making it about me. My default position is ‘why does anyone give a toss about me?’ But then isn’t all writing is about the writer to some degree? Someone clever said that once I’m sure. Besides, twitter has blown the narcissist’s door wide open.
I’m less that a quarter of the way through the routes, so still time for me to find the right balance.
I agree with Lucie, I wouldn’t mind at all reading anything else you have to say. If it’s something I’m not interested in I’ll stop reading the post but it won’t make me delete your blog from my reader or anything. I’d say the same about the buses actually, since like you say no one’s making you do it, then I would say just do it whenever you feel like it even if you’re still not finished by the time your son turns 20. I’d hate to read posts on bus routes where it’s evident that you’re not enjoying it and that you’d much rather be anywhere else than on the bloody bus (although I understand that’s inevitable sometimes..).
Not all of us hate buses though, I love them! I go on ‘chain bus trips’ regularly, plan a journey that starts and ends near my neighbourhood, and I always enjoy it, both the planning and the actual journey.