I've just spent the weekend reading someone's weblog* entirely from end to beginning. It was a lot like reading a book. A book written in an oddly eclectic backwards style, with no real plot, no climax and surprisingly very few surprises. In most cases the names of the guilty parties were held back and somewhat disappointingly all (most of) the pictures were missing which made for some frustration. There was of course all the normal life things like sick pets and an occasionally sick hero and the drudgery of work, eat, sleep, work. But there was also the minor victories and successes that most of us have in our own small ways. It was someone's life over a period of about 4 years rather interestingly documented. Although because I read it backwards, from end to beginning it was all some times confusingly revealed.

On the one hand I was envious of the freedoms a single person earning a good pay has. But then back in the living room with my family I realized I had something equally as (more?) valuable.

Given such a fantastically intimate view of someone else's life, I was pleased that other people (or one person at any rate) have exactly the same issues and worries as me. For some reason that gives me some kind of joy. Or was it relief?

It was kind of unusual to read it completely over the course of 48 hours or so. Normally you get to read these things a small instalment at a time. But reading it all together meant different insights and ideas emerged that would never have otherwise occurred to me. I wonder if anyone has thought to publish a blog as a book. I think it would make for interesting reading in some cases. Surely, of the millions of blogs published every day there is dozens of really great books just waiting to be turned into paperbacks.

Gabba locked me out of the house again tonight (this time for 2 hours). So I wandered around the back yard trying to find something to photograph that wasn't flowers or the cat. I partly succeeded. The roses are gone but the rosehips remain.

*No link as the weblog has been retired so I guess that means no extra exposure is required. It's the idea that's important anyway, not the blog itself.