Robert & Neha are two of the most gorgeous, kind and wonderful people that I know. I am so lucky to have them both in my life.
I arrived in Leeds on Friday night. We talked, catching up on the last few years, drank wine and had the most awesome handmade pizzas by Robert.
On the Saturday we had a mooch around town, visited the oldest pub in Leeds (well it would be rude not to!) and had a game of Monopoly.
Monopoly!
I was the first out of the game, Neha had Lady Luck on her side, but in the end Robert won. We watched some of the wedding video, some Netflix and ultimately chilled.
This is what life is all about, I thought to myself on more than one occasion throughout the weekend. Spending time with people you love and care about. Having the time to converse and connect. To share good times with one another.
We’ve promised each other to do this more often. So Robert & Neha, if you’re reading this, my turn to host next time. I doubt I’ll be able to top the superb job you did. But I look forward to giving it a try and having another fantastic time.
Some days are special. Some days are when memories are made. Today was one of those days.
Blackpool Tower
My mum, my brother, his girlfriend and my nephew went to to see Peter Pan’s Musical Adventure at Winter Gardens in Blackpool. We got into town early and headed to the amusements.
My mum and nephew took to the 2p machines with eagerness. They took their tubes of 2ps to the machines, started to feed them and collect tickets (that would be later exchanged for toy prizes).
Mum quickly got hooked and was like a crack addict getting their fix (joke!). At one point mum and I were looking for the others, she saw a 2p machine and made a be-line for it. Mum’s face, full of concentration and determination (to get more tickets), made me smile and chuckle no end.
The 2p Machines.Mum feeding the 2p machines and feeding her habit at the same time.
Peter Pan was fantastic! Modern music, enthusiastic cast, lots of adult humour and plenty of flying. Children and adults alike throughly enjoyed the show from start to finish.
Peter Pan Poster at Winter Gardens, Blackpool.Peter Pan the set (1).
Peter Pan the set (2).
Next year’s performance will be The Wizard of Oz. Are you a friend of Dorothy’s?
Spending the quality time with family today made me feel really blessed. I am greatful to have such close relationships with my wonderful, awesome and fabulous family.
Lets have a look on how they compare against My Blog Stats for 2016. The number of blog posts was 71 in 2017 and 82 in 2016, meaning a decrease of 11 posts. However the number of comments have increased by 23 comments, with 58 comments made in 2017 versus 35 comments made in 2016.
In 2016 my blog had 1, 811, 905 hits. I don’t have data for 2017 due to switching hosting providers partway through the year. However the number of unique visitors in 2017 increased by 8,863 (35, 363 in 2017 versus 26, 500 in 2016).
The top referrer in both 2016 and 2017 was search engines. However in 2017 StumbleUpon past Facebook. Android-app remained in fourth place in 2017 as it was in 2016.
Twitter dropped off the Top Referrers list in 2017, which was disappointing as I increased tagging of relevant users, used hashtags better and tried to engage more with people on Twitter. But it was replaced with PLU Blogs which I listed my blog on as a bit of an experiment. It was also replaced by Pinterest another site that I had experimented with in 2017.
This year (2018!) I would like to exceed the number of posts written in 2017. I’d like the comments to remain high, as well as the hits and unique visitors to continue to increase.