Blogiversary

So, we've made it around to one whole year since I started blogging properly.

Sure, I first signed up in the January of 2007. A recovering anorexic with very little self-esteem, who had so little faith in herself and couldn't see how anyone could possibly think she had anything worth writing about.

I just wasn't brave enough to put my fingers onto the keyboard - but read voraciously, discovering that I was not the only one with all these insecurities, desperately trying to survive within a failing marriage.

Then came the July... and it was like a tidal surge as the emotions came tumbling out of me, emptying the vortex of venom onto the virginal white screen.

I didn't know what to do with all this stuff. Surely to post every day would seem too eager. So I backdated a few things into the last few weeks of June which means that I don't know the exact day in July when I actually made my debut, but I suspect it was most likely the first weekend, accompanied and emboldened by a large glass of sauvignon blanc.

A week or so later I discovered my nemesis, the Statcounter. Which is when I truly began my Affair with you, dear Reader.

So, there are some thank yous to do.

To my mate, Ange, for persuading me to sign up in the first place and giving me a starting point as far as reading was concerned.

To my wonderful Ruf for so many things besides encouraging me to start tapping out my stories and letting me tell the world about our most amazing love affair.

To the American and the Voyeur, who allowed me to plunder their fantasies and relive them in my own words.

Not forgetting all my wonderful Blogfriends, from whom I acquire so much inspiration, literary sustenance and daily companionship.

But, most of all, to you, my Reader.

Over 200,000 times this year, you have rewarded me with your presence. Your constancy has given me the confidence to explore so many new possibilities through my writing. Your gentle encouragement has helped me to learn to love my body and bolstered my courage to flaunt it.

How perverse that this new-found and completely liberating exhibitionism should set me on the path towards putting a greater value on myself.

And, for that, mere thanks can never be enough x