124. INDEX: Blog data, audience and top three blogs, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014

BLOG AUDIENCE

1.  Page Views
As at 23rd March 2015 there had been 30,083 page views for my blogs. My first blog was on 21st October 2011; 10,000 page views were reached on 5th August 2013, 20,000 at 6th July 2014, and 30,000 at 21st March 2015.

2.  Audience
The blogs have been viewed in the following one hundred and seven countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Papua and New Guinea, Paraguay, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zambia.

MOST READ TOP THREE BLOGS / LEAST READ BLOG 2011-2014
The top three blog readerships for each year from 2011 to 2014 are set out below together with the least read blog of that year.

2011

1  

In London In Love
(blog 19, December 2011; photo by Trevor Watson, Portfolio Gallery)

2

"Why Me? The History and Mystery of My Bronchiectasis."

(blog 21, December 2011, painting by Jacqueline Morreau)

3

Christmas Greetings and Reflections

(blog 18, December 2011)

X (least read)
Mr Oliphant's Tears: A Love Story
(blog 15, December 2011)

2012

1

Rupert Brooke and Taatamata

(blog 47, June 2012)

2

'Incicly Pedaary', Boarding School and a Demon of Arabian Mythology

((blog 48, June 2012)

3

Trips to National Women's Hospital, Piha and Auckland's West Coast

(bog 31, February 2012)

X (least read)
Rachel's Counselling

(May 2012)

2013

1

Beneath a Cathedral of Commerce: Harrods of Knightsbridge and My Gap Years 1958-1960

(blog 60, May 2013)

2

Between Mark Twain and Zadie Smith: My 1958-1960 Gap Years (2)

(blog 58, May 2013)

3
Wall's Ice Cream: My 1958-1960 Gap Years (3)
(blog 59, May 2013)

X (least read)

Gestures from the Heart: A Poem

(blog 76, November 2013)

X (least read)

Gestures from the Heart: A Poem

(blog 76, November 2013)

2014

1

Musings on Ageing and Dependency (plus a little Walt Whitman)

  (blog 89, January 2014)

2
Boarding at Wells Cathedral School 1949-1958
(blog 112, September 2014)

3

108 Charles Dickens and the Kiwi

(blog 108, August 2014)

X (least read)
Kim's Game
(blog 120, December 2014)

.

FULL BLOG INDEX

My first three blogs were posted under More Conversations with Myself in October/November 2011.

 1.  All I Need
 2.  Transitions
 3.  Inspiration and Sources

All subsequent blogs have been posted under BreathlessinOrewa.

November 2011
  4.   My Other Online World
  5.   Mogg's Bakery and Jack Blandiver's Clock
  6.   Stokely Carmichael, Black Panther
  7.   LitCriShit
  8.   A Place to Stand, A Place to Sit
  9.   The Adventures of a Banknote.
10.   Composition with the Devil's Tools
11.   "In the Name of God and of Profit"
12.   Words of Wisdom for Creative Writers
13.   My Mum and Other Huts

December 2011
14.   Sophie's Fan
15.   "Mr Oliphant's Tears"
16.   Mum and Dad's Golden Wedding
17.   Top of the Last Stairway
18.   Christmas Greetings and Reflections
19.   In London, In Love
20.   London Love Affair
21.   "Why Me?" The History and Mystery of My Bronchiectasis.

January 2012
22.   The Joys and Tears of Love and Passion (1)
23.   Holiday Ghosts
24.   Jesus v Lenin; the Unlicensed Tongue of a Teenage Boy
25.   "Rachel's Massage"
26.   This Day in 1973 (deleted)
27.   Blogging: Where the Truth Lies
28.   Self Portrait of a Clever Dick
29.   Holly Pandora's Big Day Out

February 2012
30.   Love, Death and Letters from My Mother's Hut
31.   Trips to National Women's Hospital, Piha and Auckland's West Coast
32.   Intrepid Journey - Summit Conquered
33.   Of Primary Schools, Pets and Pauper Lunatics
34.   Puzzle Pieces - What Was Postmodernism?
35.   Of Pain, Piles and Prostate Surgery
36.   "And There the Antic Sits". Cameron Gunn's Nightmare

March 2012
37.   One Wedding, Two Funerals, Three Letters, Thirty Years
38.   "Here Comes the Can-Can. Oh, Shit, the Tape's Running Out"
39.   "Soup for One"
40.   The Joys and Tears of Love and Passion (2)
  1.   Reprise: "All I Need"

April 2012
41.   Transitions (2)
42.   New Home (1) The Diderot Effect

May 2012
43.   "We Think that the Kitten is a Lady" - My First Letters
44.   "Rachel's Counselling"

June 2012
45.   New Home (2) Finding Don Juan's Happiness Spots
46.   On Love's Erosion
47.   Rupert Brooke and Taatamata
48.   'Incicly Pedaary', Boarding School and a Demon in Arabian Mythology
49.   Shedding Mr Nice
50.   Cross Cultural Sexual Personae: Eros Unbound
51.   The Joys and Tears of Love and Passion (3)

July 2012
52.   "Letter to Rachel"

September 2012
53.   Adrift on Poetry

November 2012
54.   Dr. Gachet's Blue Eyes: A Non-Poem for Sharon

April 2013
55.   1958-1960: My Gap Years (1)

May 2013
56.   Hibiscus Hospice
57.  "Francine" - A Short Story
58.   Between Mark Twain and Sadie Smith: My 1958-1960 Gap Years (2)
59.   Wall's Ice Cream: My 1958-1960 Gap Years (3)
60.   Beneath a Cathedral of Commerce: Harrods of Knightsbridge and My Gap Years 1958-1960 (4)

August 2013
61.   Italy - from Castle Top to Hedgerow Bottom: My Gap Years 1958-1960 (5)
62.   10,000 Page Views and Jack Blandiver is still Kicking his Heels
63.   Mistress Commodity and the Shop of Satan

September 2013
64.   The Hanging Clown
65.   How's Your Brand Image? Econolingua and Market Metaphors
66.   Former Clergyman Hanged 'in the Pett... in a Transport of Rage and Fury'

October 2013
67.   Memories
68.   Me and My Dad
69.   October 25th 1854: "Into the Valley of Death"; NZ Connection to the Charge of the Light Brigade

November 2013
70.   The Blue Monkeys of Akrotiri
71.   The Archaeology of a Box: Introduction
72.   Vignettes of Family Life in New Zealand: (1) Summer 1973/74
73.   The Archaeology of a Box; (1) Children's Drawings, Paintings and Cards
74.   The Archaeology of a Box: (2) Self-Portrait
75.   Brother and Sister, Worlds Apart (1): Dead Ducklings, War Canoes, Steel Works and a Leper Settlement.
76.   Gestures from the Heart: A Poem
77.   The Archaeology of a Box: (3) My Grandparents' Victorian Greetings Cards
78.   Vignettes of Family Life in New Zealand: (2) Summer 1979/80
79.   Blog Viewers in Sixty Countries

December 2013
80.   Vignettes of Family Life in New Zealand: (3) Summer 1986/87
81.   The Archaeology of a Box: (4) Old 45rpm Pop Songs
82.   Vignettes of Family Life in New Zealand: (4) Christmas/New Year 1975/76
83.   The Archaeology of a Box (5): NZ Values Party Manifesto for 1975 General Election
84.   Season's Greetings: The Birth of Love
85.   Vignettes of Family Life in New Zealand: (5) Christmas/New Year 1977/78

January 2014
86.  The Archaeology of a Box (6): Mementoes of a Working Life
87.  Vignettes of Family Life in New Zealand: (6) Christmas/New Year 1990/91
88.  War Baby: a brief note on my family background
89.  Musings on Ageing and Dependency (plus a little Walt Whitman)
90.  The Archaeology of a Box: (7) In the Public Eye - Dancing Cossacks, Angels on Pinheads and Rogernomes

February 2014
91.  The Archaeology of a Box: (8) A Valentine's Day Blog
92.  Brother and Sister, Worlds Apart: (2) Tiddlywinks, Happy Families and Christmas "Down the Creeks"
93.  A Wedding in Luxembourg
94.  The Archaeology of a Box: (9) Napoleon Buonaparte, Joey the Clown and a Chariot for Sale - All in the Day's News

March 2014
95.  Brother and Sister, Worlds Apart: (3) Vera Lynn, The Rolling Stones and Scrapping for Petrol and Water in Nigeria
96.  Childhood Dream - Second Childhood Toy
97.  Vignettes of Family Life in New Zealand: (7) Winter 1987

April 2014
98.  Brother and Sister, Worlds Apart: (4) Brotherly Love
99.  The Archaeology of a Box: (10) Elizabeth and The Queen
100.  COLLECTED POEMS (Illustrated)

May 2014
100.  BLOGS' DATA

June 2014
101.  Blogging on with Joey G and Fernando Pessoa
102.  Ace Spitfire Pilot crashes Boeing 737 at Whenuapai; the Archaeology of a Box (11)
103.  Our Tribute to Mum: The Archaeology of a Box (12)

July 2014
104.  Brother and Sister, Worlds Apart (5): Englishness Plays Abroad - Harold Pinter and John Mortimer in Lagos, Edward Lear in Auckland.
105.  Mementoes of a Lost Love: The Archaeology of a Box (13)
106.  Vignettes of Family Life in New Zealand (8), Summer 1982-83: Horse Riding in Eketahuna and a Milford Track Washout

August 2014
107.  Cricket, lovely cricket...
108.  Charles Dickens and the Kiwi
109.  Memory, a Long and Winding Lane: The Archaeology of a Box (14)

September 2014
110.  Mislaid Dreams, My Gap Year Souvenirs: The Archaeology of a Box (15)
111.  Certification: The Archaeology of a Box (16)
112.  Boarding at Wells Cathedral School 1949-1958: The Archaeology of a Box (17)

October 2014
113.  'Don't think about building a wall. Think about laying one brick perfectly.'
114.  Vignettes of Family Life in New Zealand: (9) Hot Pools in Waiwera, Snow in Happy Valley, Winter/Spring 1974
115.  Thinking about Thinking

November 2014
116.  Sister's Wedding and Antelope and Dodo for Supper: Brother and Sister, Worlds Apart (6): January/March 1974
117.  Chatlines
118.  The Self-Conscious Eye and the Internal Critic

December 2014
119.  A Wedding in Southall: The Archaeology of a Box (18)
120.  Kim's Game: The Archaeology of a Box (19)
121.  The Isle of Man - my 100th Country - and a 1955 family holiday
122.  Antipodean Holly: Christmas Greetings from New Zealand
123.  Pohutukawas in Pauanui

January 2014
124.  INDEX: Blog data, audience and top three blogs, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014

February 2014
125.  Piggy re-elected Prime Minister, a road trip to the Niger Delta and a detour on Black Magic: Brother and Sister, World's Apart: (7) Christmas 1978
126.  Photos from our Sunday in Orewa

123. Pohutukawas in Pauanui

Have just spent five days in Pauanui on the Coromandel Peninsula enjoying a family Christmas. The Pohutukawas seem to be brighter and darker than usual this year so here are some to add to those in my Christmas Greetings (blog 122).

And here's your intrepid photographer at the Pauanui-Tairua ferry.

122*. Blog 122 has been updated.

122. Antipodean Holly: Christmas Greetings from New Zealand

MERRY CHRISTMAS

In the nineteenth century the Pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa) was described as 'Antipodean Holly' and 'The Settler's Christmas Tree'. An evergreen tree in the myrtle family and one of twelve Metrosideros species endemic to New Zealand, it is now commonly referred to as the New Zealand Christmas Tree. It usually grows as a multi-trunked spreading tree, is particularly spectacular clinging to coastal rocks and cliffs and can grow up to 25 metres high. Its peak flowering season is mid to late December with blooms in various shades of crimson.

The pohutukawa has a cultural significance that predates European settlement by many centuries. In translation pohutukawa means 'sprinkled by spray', a reference to its common seashore location. In traditional Maori beliefs about death, the human spirit travels to 'the place of leaping', the headland above the 800 year old pohutukawa at Cape Reinga, the northernmost tip of New Zealand. From there the spirits of the dead slide down the roots of the tree into the sea below, descend into the underworld before emerging in the Three Kings Islands for a final farewell before returning to the traditioal ancestral homeland of Hawaiki.

Pohutukawa at Cape Reinga

There are a myriad of puhutukawa images on the web. The photos below were taken by me from my mobility scooter, all within a ten minute ride of home.

Young Pohutukawa, Kensington Park

Parkside, Kensington Park

Lakeside Drive Park

Orewa Town Centre

Nukumea Stream near Walnut Cottage 

Grut's Bridge

Views from our apartment.

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

121. The Isle of Man - my 100th Country - and a 1955 family holiday.

Douglas, Isle of Man (contemporary photo: The Guardian)

On the 13th December 2014 a reader in the Isle of Man brought the number of countries in which my blog has been read to 100.

Here is the full list:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Papua and New Guinea, Paraguay, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia.

I have been to thirty-one of these countries in person including the Isle of Man. This was on a family holiday in 1955 a week or so before I turned fifteen. Dad would have been 49, Mum 45, Elizabeth 17, Ruth 6 and Stuart 4.

I remember a number of things about our Manx holiday.

1950s Poster

We traveled by ferry from Liverpool to Port Douglas and by taxi from Port Douglas through Peel to Kirk Michael where we had rented a house. All the way in the taxi the driver pointed out each notorious corner and named the motorcyclist who had been killed there in one of the world's deadliest races, the annual Manx Grand Prix for which the island is famous. The Grand Prix was raced at high speeds on narrow, twisting streets, roads and lanes flanked by stone walls and buildings with around 200 corners to be negotiated at speeds varying from 130mph to 5mph. Rain and fog could also add to the dangers. 245 riders have been killed in the TT and Grand Prix races, the first an Englishman, Victor Surridge, during practice in 1911, the most recent another Englishman, Gary Firth, on the 29th August 2014, one of 5 deaths this year. There were two deaths in 1955, one in practice and one in the 350cc race.

The 1955 Grand Prix ran from the 4th to the 10th of June. In the days leading up to the main races there were early morning practice laps with bikes roaring through Kirk Michael from around 6am. We were staying only a short walk from the main road so Dad and I would get up to watch the action by standing on the corner of our lane. We tried to keep a track of the lap times of our favourite riders, chief among them Geoff Duke who won the 500cc race that year and recorded the fastest lap time of 22 minutes 39 seconds, an average speed of 99.97mph.

Geoff Duke, Isle of Man Grand Prix 1955

Searching for information on Google about the 1955 Manx Grand Prix I came across the story of Fred Cook from Stratford in Taranaki who also rode in that race. When they arrived on the island their manager drove them around the course and gave them a running commentary: "He was saying, 'This is where Les Graham got killed. Someone else got killed here. See that pole? So and so died when he hit that.' It was what you'd call a demoralising ride! But we weren't too put off." In the 350cc race Fred Cook 'got into a Granddaddy of all slides! The walls were rushing up at me!' He decided to pull his head in a bit and finished the race safely in 27th place. In the 500cc race he finished 18th at an average speed of 88mph.

The New Zealand Team to race at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy in 1955 (source: pukeariki.com)

Fred Cook racing in the 500cc Isle of Man TT in 1956 (source: pukeariki.com)

The New Zealand Team returned to Europe in 1956. One of them, Bill Aislabie, was killed when racing with Fred Cook in Ireland and Fred's brother Bob was killed racing at Aintree in Liverpool. At the end of that year Fred, who was engaged to be married, stopped racing and took up dairy farming. Seven New Zealanders have been killed racing in the Isle of Man, the first in 1958 and the latest in 2010.

I have other memories of our Isle of Man holiday.

It was there that I received a postcard with my GCE "O" Level results. I sat and passed six subjects but can only remember five of them - Maths, English, Latin, French and History.

Walking was a big feature of all our family holidays and we took long walks near Kirk Douglas. I don't know if Stuart was in a push chair or stayed at home with Mum but Elizabeth, Dad and I were all good walkers. Not surprisingly the same could not be said for Ruth who was only six years old so much of Elizabeth and my time was finding some way to cajole her to the next landmark with the minimum of complaining.

We also took a picnic to a beach near the village but it wasn't a lot of fun; it was cold and windy. In all the time there we never once managed a swim in the sea.

Another outing was to Ramsey on the north side of the island. My principal memory of that day was going in a rowboat on the lake near the seafront. Again it was quite windy and, believe it or not, I felt seasick - on a boating pond!!

Ramsey with boating lake in right foreground (contemporary photo)

During the war, when I was very young, we went to the beach at Girvan on the Ayrshire coast. I was given a ride on a roundabout and threw up so my propensity to motion sickness was clear before the Ramsey experience. It resurfaced in New Zealand on a fishing trip to the Poor Knights Islands. As soon as the fishing boat dropped anchor and started to bob around I took seasick, which lasted the three or four hours until we got back to Tutukaka. I have also felt sick travelling in an Austin Maxi with independent shock absorbers and hydrolastic suspension! Nor did I care for the water beds so popular in the early 1980s.

So it will not surprise you to learn that the idea of a cruise was never on my list of things I was mad keen to do. However, Sharon and I took a twelve day Meditteranean cruise in 2008 and it was brilliant. We booked a cruise where there was the maximum opportunity to get off the ship! with a new port visited every day bar one. And on the one day I had most dreaded, when we were at sea all day travelling from Rhodes to Malta, the Meditteranean was totally calm, spookily so at night, the sea inviting you to jump in for a swim.

One other memory of our Manx holiday.

I had a crush at the time on one of the girls in the St John's Kilburn church choir (my sisters will know who)*. She was six months older than I but we used to exchange letters when I was at boarding school in Wells. When in Kirk Michael I wrote her a postcard (the card was of the local train) but was too shy to send it. I kept it for many years but don't know what happened to it. I also bought her a little gift of some costume jewellery - a brooch I think of a thistle or some such - but when we returned home I was too shy to give her that too. Again I don't remember what happened to it.

Isle of Man Train 1950s

Finally, here's a contemporary photo from the Isle of Man for my grandson Dominic who is a big Thomas the Tank Engine Fan.

______________________________________________________________________

*Carol Singers, Kilburn Park, Christmas 1954

        There's no trace now of St John the Evangelist Kilburn, not even a google image
        No youth club for ping pong and petting games in the dingy crypt
        No corner pub with a Sallies' band and kids loitering at the bar door
        Just a new housing development and spruced up tube station.

        The obliteration of place doesn't erase memories of it
        And one in particular shines through the cold night of a 1950s winter
        Where, in the murky streetlight of a December night,
        Coddled in woolly hats, scarves, gloves, heavy overcoats,
        Our choir of carol singers,
        Stamping our feet between the songs to warm our toes,
        Brings the Christmas message to diffident onlookers.

        Within that choir you and I
        In the innocence of our scarcely teenage years
        Our ice breaths mingling in the still air
        Contrive to share a songbook in the candlelight
        And, as our heads draw close to read the words we know by heart,
        Strands of golden hair caress my face.
        I see your shy gentle smile and breathe you in
       To jump-start my heart with the first stirrings of love.

_________________________________________________________