It takes a village to write a blog post

For every entry I manage to post to this blog, there are dozens more that go unwritten except in my mind. I'd like to pretend that this is because I'm sparing readers all of the really boring parts of my life in London, but when you look at some of the junk that I actually do post, it's obvious that this is not the case. In truth, I'm just unable to keep up with my best intentions. I'll do or hear or see something interesting, fully plan to write about it and then get all caught up in some long meandering post about something far less fascinating and completely lose track of my more appealing subject matter. As a result, I'm sure that reading this blog gives the impression that I do little more in London than sit on the sofa with laptop in hand and contemplate my existence for hours on end.

Fortunately, while my failures at recording the details of my London life in painstaking detail are completely my own, I am not alone in making the attempt. An expat stint is one of those life experiences that seems to inspire people to write things down, and the opportunity to share with friends and family back home makes blogging a popular medium for our scribbles. I have a number of friends here who have been kind enough to share their blogs with me (and, I suspect, quite a few others who are also blogging but keeping their own links under wraps). Reading about life here through their eyes is nearly as fun as recording my own London musings, but it can also be guilt-inspiring when I see them writing about the things that never quite make it on to my Blogger dashboard.

Upon reflection, however, I'm beginning to think that my friends' dutiful efforts to record their experiences might turn out to be my savior rather than my undoing. I could look at the fact that Christine and Chris have both blogged about our girls' day out at Trooping The Colour and feel badly that I never got around to writing about it. I could note that Chris also wrote about the outing she and I took to the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms last week and feel even worse. Or... and tell me I'm not brilliant here... I could just link to their posts and go make myself a sandwich. So here. What she said. And what she said. And what she said here. Now you're all caught up to date on my life.

Phew. I feel much better now. This blogging thing really isn't so onerous when you get the hang of it.