When you write a personal blog, after a while you begin to look at every experience you have as a potential post. The great thing about this is that it allows you to be much more circumspect and philosophical about adversity.

All the time I was having difficulty returning from New York on a dreadfully budget airline, I kept thinking to myself ‘at least this will read well on the blog’. Getting lost in France became an adventure and an opportunity for personal growth, rather than an ordeal.

Where this becomes difficult of course is at the point at which the interesting experiences start to come thick and fast. You have a succession of fascinating encounters, meet a parade of interesting characters, have an amazing array of unique opportunities land in your lap, go to a bunch of interesting places and see a whole lot of remarkable things all back to back — and the wheels start to fall off.

As someone trying to have an interesting and abundant life, it’s an absolute dream come true. As a blogger, it’s a complete pain in the arse.

The camera runs out of batteries on day 1 of a 3-day excursion to the South Island. The most blog-worthy events and stories get necessarily reduced to a single line of asides, and incidental characters that turn up and take the story down interesting side paths and sub-plots get left on the proverbial cutting room floor.

It’s also difficult to manage. Generally speaking, the blog serves as a journal where I can record the things I think are personally noteworthy, and reflect upon them. Sometimes those things are interesting for other people, which is nice, but don’t be under any misconception that I write this blog for you. I write this blog for purely selfish reasons.

It’s like a photo album I leave out on the coffee table. You’re more than welcome to browse through it — but I took those photos for me.

But sometimes, in order for me to get the enjoyment of satisfactorily capturing my personal experiences and thoughts, I pretty much have to take notes just to keep up so that nothing of real significance gets missed out along the way.

In other words… would you all stop being so bloody fabulous for five minutes so I can catch up with the writing?

Tags: travel, blogging, new zealand