2010 in review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 36,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.
In 2010, there were 391 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 392 posts.
The busiest day of the year was November 25th with 692 views. The most popular post that day was Day 275 – Falling off the line.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, twitter.com, en.wordpress.com, alphainventions.com, and mail.live.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for lost in notation, lostinnotation, charity dresses blog market harborough, lostinnotation.wordpress, and http://www.kamasutra.com.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Day 275 – Falling off the line October 2010
About me December 2009
24 comments
Day seven – for whom does a woman dress – seduction, intrusion and the art of attraction January 2010
Day 32 – Swapping clothes, stroppy men and a really rather good gig February 2010
4 comments
Day 183 – Why Simon Amstell made me cry on my half way day July 2010
Day 365 – The Mind Project
The end is near and the last dress of the year has been worn, removed and is lying screwed up at the end of my bed. It is a black dress from Dorothy Perkins, a little low but not too short and on loan from my sister’s friend.
The aim of the project was to wear a different dress a day but there have been some days where this was not possible due to shortages of donations and the days on which I was too depressed to get dressed.
There have been highlights of the year and the project, in particular I loved the festival dresses and the ball gowns in the snow of Chamonix back in the beginning.
One day perhaps I will regret being so open about the highs and lows of bipolar, perhaps I will have cause for wishing I could scrub away the tales of suicide, sections and scraps, but at the moment this is not the case.
What I was aiming to do with this blog, other than raise money through the sale of the dresses, was to raise awareness of mental health issues and the fact that you shouldn’t feel ashamed if you have one.
Throughout the whole project I have received incredible support with keeping the blog going from friends and family. In particular I would like to thank my mother and the boy who were willing photographers; the fairy, Sarah Hibbert, HP, Helen Perthen, the Polish Princess, the boy’s mum, Danielle Star, Monica Kenny and Hannah Cantrell for generous dress donations and all of my friends and family and work colleagues for being so supportive during the dark days.
The dresses are now on sale and can be bought by contacting me and telling me which dress you’d like. Alternatively if you can wait a month I am hoping to get the dresses on ebay season by season but first I’m going to pour myself into a nice pair of Calvin Klein jeans.
Day 364 – The way back to work
I have missed so much during the last three months that I feel as though I might well have lived in a submarine or a wartime bunker. Usually I am a big follower of tweets and Facebook updates but with the depression came withdrawal and all of a sudden I find myself three months behind on the news.
This is not a good place to be for a journalist and with this in mind I was rather worried about my first day back at the Mail. There are more than 13 editions of the paper of which I have missed and while I have been away court kept happening, grasshoppers were found in a Sainsbury’s salad bag, awards were granted and documents kept on leaking about the Conservative council.
I need to go in slowly of this everyone has been clear but today it was almost like my first day again and there were times that I could not quite remember how to write. Feeling as flat as I do the inspiration does not come easy and picking up the phone to check in with a contact can feel like a big chore.
I am lucky however as I have so much support behind me that though the day was tiring I managed to make it through.
One thing that left me scared while I was sitting in my chair today staring at the screen was whether or not I will ever be able to write with confidence and creativity again. I am scared that the reason I could write was because I was high and fear that now I am being kept level all my skills will leave me. Did my introductions with alliteration and rhyme come from a place which thanks to the drugs I am on I will no longer be able to access? I do not know but I want it back, whatever it was that let me write without thinking.
Day 363 – Musical mania
Once upon a time someone was silly enough to suggest that I could sing and in my heart this lie has lay heavily. I cannot sing at all and yet I absolutely love to and when a little tipsy la la I have tortured many a taxi driver with my questionable vocals on the way home.
My favourite singing buddy is Ms Anna Clayton of Laughter In The Rain fame. Luckily, this musical theatre genius can sing and most of the time her honey like voice is loud enough to drown out my squawking. To her credit she has never told me to shut up and is very supportive of my after one too many mojitos singing.
When I am not singing in taxis and, the tube (sorry London), there is nothing I like to do more than stick on a CD and sing my heart out. There is something so wonderful about belting out a ballad when you are feeling low and lonely and I can strongly recommend Kelly Clarkson and Celine Dion for blues banishing purposes.
I am currently doing everything in my power to lift myself from misery and today a sing song with the aid of a hairbrush and a mirror fell into the tragic category of things to cheer me up.
Generally I am not a melancholy person and with the aid of Glee, a bit of Gwen Stefani and some Pink I started to feel again a little like me.
