The Last Post (?)

The blog becomes a book

It's almost nine years since I started this blog -- and yes, it seems to have come to a grinding halt recently.

There's no particular reason, other than being very short on time both work-wise and family wise. And, with children growing up, having less desire to put them in the public domain.

The Littleboys (can I still call them that? Well maybe just: they are 11 and 10) are thriving, doing well both academically and in other matters. Littleboy 2 has decided to become an actor after a star turn in a school play, while Littleboy 1 is becoming an accomplished musician. Both seem astonishingly well-behaved at school (I take no genetic credit for this: I think I was quite naughty at that age, so it must have been inherited from the Doctor) and, although loud, are pretty good at home too. So far, there is no sign of nightmare adolescent behaviour (and indeed, Littleboy 1 is pretty scathing about people he sees as "teenagerish"). I'm sure we have it all to come, though.

The Littleboys finally know I have a blog, by the way. The reason is that I decided to make the family a little Christmas present. Thanks to some advice from my friend M at Circles in the Sand, I investigated turning some blog posts into a printed book.

The result is Nappy Valley in New York, a coffee-table sized tome that contains all my blogging from May 2009, when we moved to America, to July 2013 when we returned. I blogged twice weekly during most of this time, so this is truly a record of our time abroad as a family, and my hope is that when the boys are older, they can treasure these memories of their childhood. The book, which I ordered via this website, looks great (see above.) The only shame in a way is that the collated posts are published without all the wonderful comments I got from friends and readers over the years - but that would have made it far, far too long.

So it's the end of 2016 (what a year, eh!) and I think this might be a fitting time to definitively say that blogging is finished, for now. I am not saying categorically that this will be the last post ever, ever, ever. But for now, I am taking a break. I will keep on reading the blog posts of those of my internet friends who are still blogging. And I'd love to keep in touch with others via email if you'll let me. It's been an incredible decade of my life, and just looking through the book reminds me how much fun I've had being part of the blogosphere. So it's au revoir, for now, but certainly not goodbye.