Facing The Roadblog - A Reality Check

Let's face it - we blog to show off our prowess - how good we are at things we do: How well our trees grow; how big and healthy our vegies have become; how bountiful our harvests have been; how the chickens have grown, and our children somehow refuse to; how far and wide we have travelled; how we have mastered new strokes with our artwork, etc.

Or we simply enjoy telling a good story, real or fiction. And that's cool.

And we bloggers love to share. While it is not always possible to share our harvest with everybody across the globe, we can always share the joy, the trepidation, and the occasional heartaches of whatever we do.

Not all blogers (now, is that with one g or two?) will admit it, but the reality is we thrive on others in the blogsphere reading (every single word if possible) what we have written. It gives us so much pleasure, so much joy. So much so that it makes us stay up and do more posts.

I hit the ground running some six weeks ago starting this blog, and have not looked back and kept looking back. I read and reread every single post that I had painstakingly written, and wondered if you guys (feminine gender very much included here) really liked them. It is very sweet of some of you to have come out and said so.

So before continuing with my Krabi adventure I thought I pause for a while, 

and reflect on how I am doing in terms of getting you people's attention. Remember, I thrive on it, ok.

At first look, I am not doing too badly for a blog that is only as old as my banana.

A deeper analysis of my visitors reveals the following:

The US is fast catching up with, and will soon overtake the Malaysians, yes, people from my own country, with the most number of visitors to my blog. Hmmm... I wonder why. The only reason I can fathom is that Malaysians are busy reading socio-political blogs (Rocky, Harris Ibrahim, and Marina M come to mind) or writing one themselves! (Like Pisau dot net - for stabbing who, you know where...).

I can't say Malaysians do not like agriculture as we are supposed to be an agricultural country, and the govt is spending money like there's no to-morrow (or like water, some people might say) funding agriculture projects...tsk, tsk, tsk);

The only consolation is if we take into account the fact that the population of Malaysia is a tenth of that of the US.

Of course people might say that it is because I have friends and families in the US. But I have friends and families here too! Damn it! 

Ok guys, all together now...Malaysia Boleh!! (Meaning Malaysia can - yes, we can the pineapple, the longan, etc....kidding...)

Australians made up the second largest group. Yes, give yourself a pat on the back mate! I have always liked Australia. All our children are educated there. Number three may continue his studies there this summer (Australian summer, that is).

In terms of numbers there are not many visitors, but that is because there are far too few bloggers in Australia to start with, and from a population as small as ours. Too busy surfing, I guess.

I hope Great Britain, the country that we owe our administrative and language legacy to, will catch up. It is a great pity not to use such beautiful language, if you don't blog.

I may just give Martin, Bruce, John and a few others a call, just to speed things up a bit.

Canada is not doing too badly, very close behind the UK. And I really hope they will catch up too.

I am a little disappointed with our neighbours Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand. Singapore I can understand, there are only a couple of million people there, and they are all busy making money. But Indonesia has a population of 200 million and Thailand 40 - so what gives??

I am encouraged by visitors from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Italy - and hope to receive and entertain many more.

My greatest disappointment is France - the country of fine wine and cheese - one that I enjoyed pilgrimage to once or twice a year for many years, to give an account of how the business was doing in the Pacific Rim. I remember fondly the long lunches we had with those calling the shots, in Chazay, Lyon.

It makes me wonder now - aren't there any blogger in France?


[With apologies to my Thai friends, somebody just called me up to say that the Thais are busy planning another coup de tat. Come to think of it the Thais do change their govt once or twice annually]