It’s my birthday. It’s also the birthday of the actress Demi Moore, the Italian actor, Luca Zingarelli, and my niece, Elizabeth, so Happy Birthday to one and all. It’s Remembrance Day too, and many will be sparing a thought for those lost in the Great War. Did you know that Ned Kelly, the Australian bushranger, was hanged in Melbourne on the eleventh November? I doubt you would know such trivia unless it was your birthday too.

I awoke this morning to beautiful sunshine; I drew back the curtains and looked out on the pool – yes, we are in warmer climes, Spain – “Oh we do like to be in sunny Spain!”

Now before we go out for the day I wonder if you would like to read the humorous poem Chris wrote for my birthday? It is meant to be read to the tempo of the song “A Modern Major General”, by Gilbert and Sullivan…..

THE BLOGGISTA’S REFRAIN

 

I am the very model of a blogger on the Internet

My website’s up and running and on Google I’m not hard to get

I’m always at the ready with the best blogging material

On matters often physical but sometimes quite ethereal

 

I sit at my computer seeking subjects inspirational

I’ll faithfully impart them in a manner conversational

I’m searching high and low to bring you something “fascination…al”

And hope that all who read it will regard it as sensational

 

I’ve followers in Germany, Espana ans Australia

I aim to be successful as a blogger, not a failure

And hopefully the folks who come to read my daily offering

Will buy my books and paintings and assorted works I’m or offering

 

My younger brother Robert thinks my blogs are simply “drivel…ling”

And that my written words and thoughts are sure to bring on shovelling

But when I asked if he’d studied all five hundred blogs of mine

He looked askance; admitting that the maximum he’d seen was nine!

 

But who cares if a brother lacks the necessary sympathy?

He may be great at piano, and can recognize a symphony

But what he doesn’t realize is there’s method in my twittering

To reach the buying public one relies on blogs and Twitter ing

 

You see, to be successful as a writer and a novelist

I hear the modern way no longer uses just the pen-and-wrist

Progressive scribes today now live and die quite electronically

We blog, and clog up Facebook, tweet and Twittering most chronically

 

And so, it stands to reason, I am told by the community

Of bloggers, great and small, that I must seize the opportunity

To maximise exposure and to practise self-publicity

And use my blog relentlessly, empowered by electricity

 

So when you’re on my website reading blogs with great tenacity

Just spare a thought, and realize that I write with true veracity

For, truth to tell, my blogging is another way to write a book

And soon, I hope, you’ll “get on down” to Amazon and take a look!