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My 29th Birthday – No Plans, No Pressure and Plenty of Presents

By Friends & Family, Gigs & Shows, Happiness & Joy, LifeNo Comments

Recently was my 29th birthday. For the first time since I can remember I had no plans. That week I had gone back to work on a phased return, so although I was off work on my birthday I was exhausted. So I took it easy and did as little as possible. It felt great to have no pressure to do anything. But next year I’ll be making big plans, especially as it’s the big 3-0.

By 11:30am I was overwhelmed by the number of people who’d left birthday wishes on my Facebook wall. Mum and Ian nipped round after lunch time and that was it for my day. As always I was fortunate to kindly to receive many cards and presents off family and friends.

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My New Crystals: Christina, Chris and Quartzy. All on my new Clear Quartz Crystal Bed.

The presents were plentiful and are still coming. These included a clear quartz bed and three quartz crystals (pictured left). I’ve named them Christina, Chris and Quartzy like when Sid off Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs names the T-Rex eggs Egbert, Yoko and Shelly.

Simon got me a Yankee Candle (among other things) and we went out for dinner. Kay bought me Him & Me by Michael & Jack Whitehall (pictured below left).

I’ve started a Minion Family. Steve bought me the small wind up minion Bob (the one with the teddy). I was bought the medium-sized minions that flashes multiple coloured and the small wind up minion Stuart (the one with the guitar) (Pictured below right).

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Yankee Candle off Simon and Him & Me book off Kay. 🙂

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My Minion Family – New Minions are the medium sized one that glows different colours and the two smaller wind up ones.

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Books & DVDs Bought With Birthday Money 🙂

People were incredibly generous and gave me some money. With the money I bought some books, DVDs and a box set off Amazon (pictured left). Here is what I treated myself to:

Top Row: If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern, The Humans by Matt Haig and Gavin And Stacey – Series 1-3 And 2008 Christmas Special.

Middle Row: Jack Whitehall Live, Jack Whitehall Gets Around and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.

Bottom Row: Jerry Maguire and After Earth.

Jayne kindly bought us tickets to see Ruby Wax in her show Sane New World. There’s so much to say about the show that I’ll write a separate blog post. But words that spring to mind when I think about the show are: inspirational, funny and informative.

A huge thank you for everyone that sent me well wishes, bought me cards and presents. Thank you again. It is very kind of you.

At one point on my birthday, I felt a little sad that I’d done nothing and planned nothing on my birthday. But I’ve realised that as the year roles on I’ve got plenty to look forward to including:

  • Mum and Ian getting married and my mum’s 50th.
  • A fishing trip stag do.
  • Simon’s birthday.
  • Summer is coming which means warmer weather and more sunshine.
  • Watching Nina Conti live with Simon.
  • Watching Wheatus with my cousin Jenny.
  • Watching Southport Fireworks Championships Show with Simon.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Be part of the Democratic Revolution with The People’s Assembly

By Political, ThinkingNo Comments
the-peoples-assembly-logo The People’s Assembly is against austerity, which is ideological rather than essential. It’s against Britain being run for the minority of the wealthy elite and instead advocates running society for the majority.

I learned about The People’s Assembly through reading The Establishment by Owen Jones, see my review of the book here.

The People’s Assembly has The People’s Charter (below), which gives more detail on what they stand for:


the-peoples-charter

They are not associated to any political party and instead are more like a campaign group or national forum. I encourage you all to support The People’s Assembly and be part of the democratic revolution.

Want to get involved? Here’s how:

I’ve donated and am hoping that The People’s Assembly will do what it sets out to achieve – a fairer society for all.

Write soon,

Antony

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20,000+ Visitors in 2014 – Not Bad For A Little Personal Blog! :)

By Technology, The Web2 Comments
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Jetpack Annual Report 2014 – Crunchy Numbers

The numbers are in and according to my WordPress Jetpack Annual Report in 2014 I had 20,000 views of my blog. Not bad for a little personal blog! Click the image left to see the screenshot. Any image in this post can be clicked for full size.

My hosting provider Vidahost (who you can learn more about here) provide AWStats software. According to AWStats I’ve had (see image below):

  • 58, 101 unique visitors to my blog in 2014.
  • Who have visited 149,103 times in 2014.
  • And have resulted in over a million hits in 2014.
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AWStats from Hosting Provider Vidahost.

The WordPress Jetpack Annual Report reports that my biggest referrers in 2014 were from social media sites Facebook and Twitter:


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Jetpack Annual Report 2014 – How did they find you?

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Jetpack Annual Report 2014 – Attractions

The WordPress Jetpack Annual Report indicate that my five most popular posts in 2014 were:

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Jetpack Annual Report 2014 – My Posting Patterns

I’ve really grown my blog in the last few years, with Reviews of books, films and technology seeming to make the big difference to increasing the number of visitors. But what keeps my visitors returning seems to be blogging about my personal life. Below is the result of a readers survey undertaken in 2014. It that shows that readers enjoy the current content I create and would like more of everything. It shows that 80% of readers surveyed said that they would like more personal blog posts:


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Readers were asked: What sort of blog posts would you like to see more of?

I think these statistics are great. In the next year and beyond I hope to continue to grow my loyal blog readership.

The blog costs money to host and takes up a considerable chunk of my time. So if you have a product or service that you’d like to advertise on the blog, please don’t hesitate to Contact me. Your advert could reach 20,000+ unique visitors a year.

Blog soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Choices and Decisions

By Love & RelationshipsNo Comments
gay-love-large Some of you may question the choices I make and the decisions I take. I understand, so do I. But my choices and decisions are always made by following my heart and listening to my gut instinct.

I regret no choice or decision I’ve ever made. How can I? When all my heart wants is a life filled with joy, happiness and love. And my gut gives me instincts in the hope of keeping me safe.

After a lot of reflection, I recently posted the above as my status update on Facebook. Boyfriend-A and I have decided to end our relationship. I won’t go into the personal details here. But I wish Boyfriend-A well with whatever his future holds. I hope he finds happiness and love.

Take care and write soon,

Antony

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