Finally, I have made up mind and I have decided to make good on my long-delayed resolution to start my own blog. Why have I thus decided to add another blog to the millions already in existence in cyberspace?
First an aside: interestingly, there is not even a reliable estimate of the number of blogs around available as, for instance, the number of new blogs being posted that is computed by Realtimestatistics.org (as quoted in an article on the Internet by the BBC), and which stands at some 320,000 plus, seems to vary widely from the figure posted on Worldmeters, which stands at 2 million plus.
So to come back to the reasons I have decided to start a blog, I would list first and foremost the pleasure that I have had in helping out my wife with her own blog (which has been up and going for about two years now). In fact, I have even used her blog (http://ctzan.wordpress.com/) as a platform for writing posts on subjects of interest to me.
Naturally, this has made my fingers itch many a time at the thought of being able to do the same, but under my own address at wordpress.com. However, I was put off by the fact that I am well aware that blogging is an undertaking that requires a serious commitment in terms of time as I will want to do things properly.
The second reason is the same as for my wife: it is the desire to share experiences, thoughts, musings with potential readers, sometimes living in countries more than 10,000 kilometres away, thanks to this marvellous Internet-based technology. This is not anything new as a couple of years ago together with my brother and a very good friend of mine I had even set up a city guide on my hometown of Geneva (now unfortunately only available through the Internet Archive).
Yet the two main reasons that have prompted me to follow up on my desire to start a blog are, firstly, that I have just come back from some holidays in Singapore and that I would like to share some of my impressions as well as secure feedback on them, hopefully from people living in that city-state, and, secondly, that my brother-in-law in Singapore has decided to take part in this year’s Standard Chartered marathon in Singapore to celebrate his 42nd birthday year and that, having myself decided to go for the equivalent race here in Lausanne (which is the city where I live) for my second marathon ever in October of this year, I thought I would be able to share some training tips with him over the wordpress blogging platform.
In the forthcoming entries, you should thus expect to find the following topics being featured: running, Singapore, Switzerland (its cities, its mountains, its social and economic landscape, etc) as well as book reviews (I am a book lover despite my intention to use the electronic word to convey my passion for books) … plus the occasional entry written in French, as this is the language people speak here in the area where I live. Incidentally, the phrase ‘à la mode de chez nous‘, which comes from a French nursery rhyme and loosely means ‘as is the fashion over here‘, is to draw attention to my intention to use this blog to explore transcultural dimensions as I live in a country which has four national languages, am married to a Singaporean of Javanese and Chinese descent and am myself of English and Italian descent.
I hope the above will entice you to come back to this blog from time to time in future.
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Entries I have posted on my wife’s blog:
- ‘Scuba plage’, a summer beach near our home, at Sallaz …
- Any idea what these are
- Two generations apart …
- Good news for the plants while we are away …
- Chance discovery
- Balcony garden update in absentia of the chief gardener
- Wasimolo 2011… 30th edition…
- From Morges to Lausanne-Vennes… running…
- Blécherette centenary celebrations…
- Mudac…Stefan Sagmeister…
Some entries on my wife’s blog which I co-wrote and like very much:
- Back on Lac de Joux…
- Back in Aletsch… to walk across the suspension bridge over the Massa…
- Back in Aletsch … our stay at Villa Cassel …
- Our trip to the glacier of Aletsch from Riederalp…
- Our Italian escapade… the ‘must see’ in beautiful Venice…
- Our Italian escapade… the sights and sounds of Siena…
- Our Italian escapade… visiting Villa d’Este at Tivoli…part 2
- Our Italian escapade… visiting Villa d’Este at Tivoli, part 1…
- Our Italian escapade… roaming the streets of Rome…
- As seen in Lausanne… a small flotilla in the park of Mon Repos…