Angela begins

We’re closing our beautiful blog. We’re putting it to bed after more than a decade of thoughts, ideas, musings and opinions. It’s been enormous fun and we’ve learnt a lot about writing and publishing. I remember the excitement when we first managed to upload a picture.

For my part, I’ve now got eight grandchildren compared to the three that I started off with. They are a source of immense joy and though the family is scattered throughout the world, somehow we manage to keep in touch. I live permanently in NZ now since Covid struck; no more gallivanting backwards and forwards to the UK, six months here and six months there. I don’t really miss the UK, though my husband does, even though he’s developed Alzheimer’s.

The great thing about our blog, which is a collaborative one, is that it has created a deep bond between us bloggers and I know that we’ll continue to meet as friends.

So if you have been, thanks for reading, and I wish you harmony, health and happiness.

Emily does the numbers

verbalberbal.com – our blog in figures:

•             11 years old (we began in March 2012)

•             3 bloggers that became 4 in 2017 with a combined age of nearly 300

•             266 subscribers

•             744 posts

•             900 comments

•             100s of images

•             9.5k views a year (peak)

•             1 book (published in 2016, get your copy here New Zealand – The Outsiders’ Inside Guide)

•             12 bottles of dodgy Bloggers’ Beer (brewed in 2014 – whose crazy idea was that?)

It’s been a fantastic ride, and while life has changed for all the blog’s contributors over the last 11 years, verbalberbal.com has remained a constant. Thank you, Trevor, for being the driving force, chairman, host of bloggers’ meetings and for being the cleverest and wittiest writer I know. Shout out to Ange (aka Mrs C) for learning all about publishing posts, managing the blog, and editing our pieces. Susan (Radical Susan), how kind of you to join us and add your musings to ours, keep fighting for the underdog and championing good causes.

A massive thank you to those who have read and commented on our posts over the years. Now, before I sign off, does anyone know how we can convert the WordPress site into a PDF?!

Reflections from Susan

I’m sad that we’re closing the blog.  The main thing I appreciated was being obliged to think up something to write about.  It was an amazing demonstration of the power of deadlines.  Now that I no longer have that looming over me, I don’t suppose I’ll write anything again.

The deadline is one thing, but knowing that at least one or two people will read it is another.  Writing into the void seems so pointless.  I know millions of people write blogs and send what they write into the ether, or post to social media, but that doesn’t appeal to me.  I’ll continue to send letters to the newspaper however, and it is very gratifying to see them in print.

The prize-winning novel continues to hide deep within the psyche, and I have a strong suspicion that it will stay there forever and ever. No sign of it bursting out anyway!

It’s been a real privilege to meet my fellow bloggers – Angela, Emily and Trevor and I’m sure we’ll stay connected.

PS and all that or Trevor’s last moan

I’m worried how many of you will cope from now on. Excuse the paraphrase but, ‘All it takes for bugger all to survive is mental stagnation’. I’ve lost count of the pearls I’ve cast before you over the years, but now you’re on your own with the fruits of your inactivity and the Four Horsemen are on the home straight.

Political leadership’s down to manipulative bullies, raving loonies or snivelling wimps. There’s no shortage of fire and flood and the odd bit of pestilence, all of which makes senile decay look quite enticing. God’s messengers don’t help much, some of the exotics are happy to consider women as chattels, while the bloke in Rome doesn’t think Putin’s right, but he doesn’t want to say he’s wrong either. In spiritual terms his attitude is laudable, but in the real world it just gives despots breathing room despite the trillions being spent to prove otherwise. Surely it’s time for the UN to grow up, get rid of the veto rights and form a Peace Corps with the powers to physically broker peace. How much human misery in the last century alone could have been avoided if power hungry dictators and religious zealots had faced more meaningful opposition than verbal disapproval at a Geneva or UN conference table?

It seems we’ve been indoctrinated to accept that violence at all levels is a tolerable part of modern life, manageable by dialogue and, if the good Pope is to be believed, prayer. In my 80 odd years, neither seems to have worked well. Look what happened after Neville Chamberlain tried to prove that the pen is mightier than the sword: the silly bugger thought he could beat the bastard with a Biro!

Nice to end with a bloody good moan. Here’s your inheritance kids; good luck!

Thanks Ange, Emily and Susan. It’s been fun.