I am happy to announce that this post is the 1,000th blog post on HTBS. The first post was published on 12 March, 2009, and up to writing this, HTBS has had slightly more than 145,000 visits (and slightly more than 252,500 page views) by readers from more than 100 nations; not bad, I guess, for a blog on rowing history!
And to celebrate, what could be more appropriate than a photograph of HTBS's own London correspondent Tim Koch at the Olympic Rowing Regatta at Eton Dorney holding the Olympic Torch. Where he got it from I don't know...
Göran,
ReplyDeleteOne thousand posts coinciding with the end of the Olympic Regatta! How is that for timing? Many, many thanks for setting up ‘Hear The Boat Sing’ and for the more difficult achievement of keeping it going. Lots of blogs soon falter and die because, after an initial enthusiasm, it is found that the two or three posts a week that are needed to keep people visiting the site regularly become too much to cope with. I think thanks are also due to your wife, Ellen, for her tolerance of the time you must spend on HTBS and also for her technical support. Was it not her that persuaded you to start blogging in the first place?
From a personal point of view, my involvement has been a marvellous experience. My writing and photography (such as they are) have improved a lot, I have met some great people (both online and in person) and I have gained access to some iconic rowing events including the Boat Race, the Doggett’s and the Wingfield’s. This has culminated in an invitation (along with you) to join the British Association of Rowing Journalists. I see that even the BBC are linking to us now: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00q4vrs/buzz
We are so fortunate to be interested in a so called ‘minority sport’ as we can mix with the ‘great and the good’ of rowing in a way that fans of say British soccer or American football could only dream of. We are also so lucky to follow a sport both with a fantastic heritage and a very bright future. I look forward to the two thousandth post.
My very best wishes,
Tim.
P.S. If the Olympic people come looking for their torch, you do not know where to find me.
Dear Tim, ~ Thank you for your nice message. Yes, what started more or less on a whim, with a very helpful push from dear Mrs. B., has now resulted in the one thousandth blog post. This is incredible, I think, and I am very grateful to have the support and understanding from the wife and our two young children, Ingrid and Anders. However, if it had not been for you Tim, Hélène, Greg, and poet Philip, and others who have sent marvellous stuff for me to post, I doubt that I would have been able to continue.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it helps to know that there actually are readers out there, who post comments saying: "you just wrote about my grandmother" and "you just posted an image of my step grandfather that I have never seen", or send e-mails asking questions that sometimes become blog posts, and sometimes not. There are many, many helpful people who would like to share their families’ rowing stories. And many are good, happy, and sad stories that needs to be told about our wonderful sport of rowing.
Yes, Tim, let's keep HTBS running – right now I am writing the 1,001 post to be up tomorrow, Tuesday! Ohh, and yes, twenty years from now, when you are selling the Torch on eBay let me give you an offer first!