A 100,000 Thank-You's

Some time during the Christmas period, my blog went past the 100,000 mark in terms of ‘hits’ – people visiting the site. My youngest daughter tells me that this is a rather modest achievement when compared to other social media sites, but I’m grateful.

A 100,000 thank-you’s to all those that have visited, read, commented and posted.

I started out on 6^th December 2006. I was 51 years old and the blog address reflects this: Mountain50. 

The title of the blog, Mountain Climbing for Beginners, comes from a preach I did at the time, at KingsGate Church in Peterborough. It reflects my favourite Old Testament character, Caleb. At 85 years old, he climbed a mountain and defeated what seemed an impossible enemy that had held back the children of Israel for 40 years.  (Joshua 14: 12, 15: 14). As I grow older, I want to be a Caleb- still taking mountains in this life at 85.

As I write this, I am entering my 65^th year. I used to work in pensions, so the age of 65 has always been important to me- traditionally the UK’s ‘normal retirement age.’ In fact I left the pensions industry a few years ago now and have moved on to more book writing, working with Mission24 and other charities and with our amazing church, Chroma.

Looking at those that read the blog- I have some diagnostics on there – it tells me that my many friends around the world look in on me- India, New Zealand, Slovakia, United States, Canada, Argentina, Ghana, South Africa, Eswatini and more. Some are more puzzling- quite a lot from Russia. Are they real people or the famous Russian ‘bots’ checking in?

My most read blogs continue to be the ones on sacrifice, Laminin and being an introvert. My most controversial are the political ones- I’m an unrepentant Blairite and await some reasonable leadership to arise in the Labour party!

Anyway. Thank you. Thanks for reading this. And thanks for being among the many. A 100,000 thank-you’s.

Sometimes the Mountains are Real

I started this blog nearly 10 years ago. Having reached the age of 50 then (60 now!), and having seen my first child married, I wanted to put into words the ‘meaning of life’ as I saw it, woven from stories, pictures, faith and news items. And that’s what I’ve done.

Once in a while, a mountain climbing clothes store or a mountain climbing club comes along and asks if they can advertise on my site. I’m flattered that anyone would want to advertise on my blog, but clearly all they have done is read the headlines!

But now and again, the philosophical meets the literal. I’m just back from a delightful week in Wales with friends. Fitter than me, they liked the idea of climbing mountains, so there I was one day, at the top of Cadair Idris, Wales’ second highest mountain.

Literal or metaphorical, physical or philosophical, may I continue to encourage my readers to reach the heights!

Approaching 5000

As I write this, my blog is just two away from its 5000th visitor. Not a bad result considering when I set out, I wasn't sure anyone would read past the first week!

There are many blogs with thousands more visitors of course (though I keep mine honest, only recording separate visits, not separate page clicks as many do), but a modest celebration is due I'm sure. So three cheers and let's crack open half a shandy then, to the start of a blog the day after my daughter got married (and I felt old!) back in December 06.

And a little thank-you to those who have read this far. Copy my email down the page a bit, send me a 'well done on 5000' email and your address and if you are in the first five to do so you will get a free copy of the book 'God-Life'.

Cheers!

Finding My Real Age

I couldn't resist. There it was. ‘Fill in this questionnaire and find out your REAL age'. So off I go. Blood pressure. Weight. Height. Exercise. Job profile. On and on it went.

I was hopeful. I think I’m fairly fit and I think I look okay for my age. The blurb on the web page showed someone who was sixty with a 'real age' of forty-five.

So here we go…. Press the button, let the software do its calculation…

My actual age is 54 years and one month. And what did this wonderful ‘real age’ programme calculate me as? 54 years and two months. Hmmm.

Praise You in the Storm

A couple of months back, I had the privilege of speaking at KingsGate Church, my home church in Peterborough. As part of my talk, I used a short dvd of a song. A number of people have asked me what the song was and whether there was access to the dvd presentation. The link is below.

The song, ‘Praise You in the Storm’ by Casting Crowns, became very precious to me over a three year period. It was a period of turmoil in my life with two redundancies. Plus I turned 50. This was something of a shock! I coped with turning 40 without a problem but 50 was something else!

I determined that age would not be a barrier to life (and this blog was one of the results- the blog address refers to the mountains I intend to climb in my 50’s and beyond.)

Back to the song. In the hard times, the words expressed so well where I was at. Some times all I could do was sing the first verse- it just felt like it was still raining, so many things unresolved. Other times I reached the chorus- I can be thankful, even in the storm!

Enjoy the song.

Starting to climb

Well this is it. I've got there. Started a blog that is. It's taken a while but I got there in the end.

It's not really about mountain climbing. It's more to do with continuing to climb in life after the age of 50. I'm 51. I feel like i'm 31! How did I get this old?! But there is so much more to do. Many more mountains to climb in this life.

I'm not sure whether anyone will ever read this stuff. Not sure at this moment it will be worth reading! But i'll give it a go. I've kept a daily diary for over 30 years so it shouldn't be too hard to keep this up.

The first of my children got married this weekend. That's a bit of a watershed in itself. Managed that mountain ok. The speech went well enough, the weather was good, and she looked beautiful. Onwards and upwards....