Shrinking World

I find it astonishing that people from 43 countries have read this Blog. The highest number of readers come from in descending order; the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Ghana, and Brazil. In the last couple of days, readers from six States across the Pond have been reading the Blog. That’s interesting because I didn’t think that any of the recent posts were particularly relevant to my American cousins.

Then again, what attracted those readers from Turkey, Romania, Poland and the like? It’s just wonderful, not that so many people read my rambling, but that we are in the position to ramble and to be read.

It wasn’t that many years ago that I entered a department store in Bristol and as I went up the escalator, a chap was descending on the other side with a box in one hand, a lead coming from that box, and a phone in his other hand on which he was talking to someone. I gazed at him in awe. Me, the chap from the gasworks who had to walk two streets to push my coins into the telephone kiosk, after my statutory twenty minute wait stood in the cold and rain with others in the queue waiting for someone to run out of money and end their call.

Who could have thought at that time that we would have a thing call the Web, and hand held phones that would access the Web or call and text anywhere in the World. Oh gosh the words ‘Web’ and ‘Text’ would have caused serious confusion at that time. We have progressed at a phenomenal technological rate, to a position where we have the facilities to readily and effectively engage with others throughout the world. It’s simply astonishing.

Statistics

Since I began writing the Blog back in 2008, readers from a total of 39 countries have read the material. The Blog Reader leader board by Country is taken up by the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Ghana, Brazil, and Canada. Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, India, and Italy also appear in the top ten countries.

Visitors from 204 cities in these 39 countries have read the Blog.

The most number of visitors live in the cities of London (England), Birmingham (England), Cardiff (Wales), Accra (Ghana), and Chicago (USA). Readers from overseas are led by those from Accra and Chicago, but there is also a strong readership from Pelotas (Brazil).

Readers also come from all sub parts of the Continent of Africa i.e. Northern, Western, Southern, and Middle Africa. But for natural reasons the predominant readership of this Blog on the African continent is from Western Africa, and in particular, Ghana.

Christmas Time

Wow, I am absolutely bowled over. My Blogger statistics on Google Analytics show that access to the Blog is up by almost 200% since I last checked. Normally in any given period there are visits from 3 or 4 countries, but on this occasion readers from the following ten countries (in no particular order) have popped along to have a peek. The United Kingdom, the United States of America, Ghana, Macedonia, Germany, Finland, Iraq, Poland, Canada, Brazil.

Now I can write a bit about most of those countries: I live in the United Kingdom, although when I drill down into the Google statistics I sometimes come across names of communities that I either did not know existed, or knew the name but could not place them on the map. As for the good old USA warm greetings once again to everyone across the Pond. I have always wanted to visit the States, but instead financed two of our daughters having a great week in New York. Lucky them, and maybe, just maybe, one of the Presidents will invite me over for a chin wag. Another President that I would like to sit down with and share a cuppa is the President of Ghana. Now there’s a lovely country, which is full of lovely people. Now Macedonia is a bit tricky, as to my eternal shame, like some of the communities in the UK, I am unable to picture Macedonia on the map. My job for the day is to locate Macedonia (not that it's lost) and to learn a little bit more about the country. Now everyone knows a bit about Germany, and we have stopped on three occasions at a lovely hotel in Germany. Once again, great people, great food, great scenery. But I have never been as far afield as Finland, although I was signed up to a Finnish modelling site once. No, I’m not a good looking Nordic sought of chap; this was a 1/35th and 1/72nd scale model site. Iraq is the same but without the modelling website. I can imagine that it would be quite cool (or is that hot) to pop along and see the country, but not in the current political climate, and certainly not without an armoured car that can withstand an IED. Now Poland brings back fond memories, very fond memories indeed. Not that I have ever visited Poland. No, it’s because my first two girlfriends were Polish and throughout my life there has always been a twinkle in my eye for any Polish lass. Canada is my prime must go and see location. I have no excuse now as we have friends living in Canada and another friend with a property for holiday letting. I suppose my ‘all star’ trip would be Canada and the snow, and a several day train journey with good food and scenery. And as for Brazil, well one of my lovely followers comes from that country, so there is no more to be said than it must be a lovely place.

Oh, there is just one thing to add: wherever you are, and whatever your first language; Nadolig Llawen i bawb – Merry Christmas to everyone.

Mandaluyong

The City of Mandaluyong in the Republic of the Philippines is the latest City to host a Blog reader who has visited this Blog. Wiki cites the name as (Filipino: Lungsod ng Mandaluyong). The official website for the City of Mandaluyong informs us that Benjamin C. Abalos, Jr. is the City Mayor.

According to the official Website, the City of Mandaluyong is in the heart of Metropolitan Manila. It is plausible that the Website statement that "Mandaluyong has several places of interest that tourists and visitors can see while in the city" is a gross understatement. There are probably a host of significant and wonderful delights meeting the lucky 'tourists and visitors' that grab an opportunity to visit Mandaluyong. I think it's more of an understatement than a lack of attractions, and on that point, I send greetings from Wales to City Mayor, the Blog reader, and the people of Mandaluyong.

Italy

Visitors from the 24th country to read this Blog came from Italy. Or to be more specific the reader came from Sicily. This is really cool, as we are trying to book our summer holiday to include a one week stay in a villa in Sicily. I will of course update the Blog as soon as we receive confirmation of the booking and will also try to maintain the Blog as we travel from Wales next Saturday on an 18-19 day European adventure.

The last time Pauline and I ventured into Europe; we ended up staying in a lovely hotel in Siena and clocked up 2800 miles in the Volvo S60 D5 aka the Beast.

The Beast is booked in for a service later this week and I am also having the Tom-tom satellite navigation system hard wired into the dashboard. It’s to cut down on the number of electric leads trailing from the cigarette lighter across the dash to the various components. I have cleaned the car, and the leather ready for this year’s adventure. I even intend to have another haircut just before we set off. As is always the case in my life, everything is so last minute. But we are really pleased with the property that we have found and now have to wait for the confirmation.

23 AND Rising

Readers from 23 countries have now read the Blog. The latest addition is from Spain. Which is really cool as I had lunch in a Spanish restaurant yesterday and enjoyed a bar of Spanish chocolate the evening before. 'Viva La Espana', I say. Welcome to the Blog and enjoy the read. It's all about Africa, Wales, the Civilising Process and Human Rights. Oh, and with a few personal stories thrown in for good measure.

Dakar

I have had my first visitor to the Blog from the city of Dakar in Senegal. The Blog has also been recently visited by people from afar afield as Chile and India. The full list of countries from which visitors come from is shown below. This list has been extracted from Google Analytics and shows that there have been 500 visits from 22 countries:

United Kingdom
United States
Ghana
Brazil
Canada
Hong Kong
Netherlands
Australia
Germany
Chile
Japan
Honduras
India
Ukraine
Ireland
Vietnam
Sweden
South Africa
Russia
Senegal
Singapore
Antigua and Barbuda

Google Analytics

A quick look at Google Analytics informs me that 212 different people have visited this Blog (Africa, Ghana and all things Accra) since I began writing the Blog back in 2008. Google Analytics also informs me (amongst an awful lot of statistical data regarding these Web pages) that these 212 different visitors come from 20 different countries. It even provides a World Map that you can drill down into for more detail regarding viewers and their behaviours online when visiting this site.

Leaderboard
Country with the highest number of different visitors first

United Kingdom
United States of America
Ghana
Brazil
Canada

Amongst the other 15 countries, I have managed to attract visitors from the Ukraine, and from Russia. I only found this out tonight, which is pretty cool as I am currently reading an academic book on Statecraft and Security and Russia features quite heavily throughout the text, and the Ukraine was a key country in the chapters that I read today.

Indeed, today has been a particularly grand day. I managed a very long walk along the promenade in the glorious sunshine. Spanish Breakfast in my favourite restaurant. Coffee and a Chapter of my current book on the decking at home. 40 lengths of the swimming pool. Unfortunately that is not at home! And coffee and another Chapter of the book in Costa later in the afternoon. Oh, plus a good nosh up for dinner and a great Ghanaian themed evening watching their Quarter Final clash.

Robinson Crusoe

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Well folks, those that know me, also know that I believe in fate. And that I like to try and link each post in some way to the preceding one. So there I was just finishing my 23 May 2010 post about the boat and messing about on water, and what do I find? Well you never; I have my third Blog follower. Not any old follower mind you, but, Raquel Crusoé from MC in Brazil. Great timing Ms Crusoé, I doff my cap to you. For the un-initiated, MC stands for Montes Claros. And Ms Crusoé is a native of Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brasil. And to trump the fate thing; I sold a pen on Ebay tonight to someone who was enquiring if I would post the pen to Brazil. It's a small World isn't it? Even without a boat.