Not the polder model

I've been a bit ratty this week. Working 5-6 hours a day on the same turgid, repetitive and extremely lengthy piece of writing (and trying to get it finished before I go on a week's break), dealing with lots of admin (UK and Dutch) and arranging lots of small jobs around the house and office. Sometimes it feels like being a hamster on the treadmill constantly trying to get to the carrot. It will pass - but seems to take a long time. (Actually I shouldn't grumble I was amply indulged over the weekend).

Anyway from this slightly jaded position I read one of Mrs Robinson's blogs about team building. I laughed and laughed and laughed. Thank you Mrs R for cheering up my day.

Normal service will be resumed

I have had a few comments recently telling me that the text on my blogs has centred itself, the blog roll disappeared to the bottom of the screen and other layout features have gone to pot. I can't see these problems at all on my screen and the blog still looks completely normal. Does anyone have any tips on how to find out why the layout has altered itself and how to change it back?

On having readers

Last week I was at a gathering and met with a colleague who I have met maybe twice in the course of three years and he started asking me about Buddhism and movies that I had seen and I slowly realised he was an attentive (if not avid)reader of my blog. And even though I have been published as an academic and a travel writer it gave me pleasure to think that I have "readers" - who stop by and find the time to read my thoughts, ideas and occasional rants. Thank you. I know from my counter that this blog gets 12-15 hits a day - but have no idea whether there are the same suspects with boring jobs and too much time on their hands visiting daily or whether it is 70 different people visiting every week. So please- passive visitors- who drop by without leaving a comment - just say hi and let me know if I know you and what you think of the show so far, which bits you like and which you don't. It's nice to know who one's readers are.