1827

1827 was famous for many strange things. A giraffe walked from Marseille to Paris. In The Fly Whisk Incident in Ottoman Algeria, Hussein Dey slapped the French consul Pierre Deval on the face, eventually leading to the Invasion of Algiers in 1830. Joseph Smith claimed in 1838 that on this day he had taken the Golden plates from the place where they were stored, and that he began writing down the Book of Mormon from them the following December. John James Audubon begins publication of the 10-volume The Birds of America although for some strange reason he writes it in Britain. And Englishman John Walker invents the first friction  match which he names Lucifer. 


I didn't have a giraffe or a fly whisk or any of those other things, so I thought I would celebrate 1827 with one of Mr Walker's matches. And why celebrate 1827? Well I have been blipping for five years as of today. That's five years and a day plus the leap year extra day, so 1,827 days.


A lot has happened in that time. I did a summary this time last year so won't repeat it, but the last twelve months have been notable for a lot of people passing away, including most notably the amazing Aged P who died in January. If you were to ask me how I feel now compared to then I would say angrier: with this terrible government that has no understanding of how to govern and ensure a fair society; with the idiocy of the Trump phenomenon; with the insanity of possibly leaving; Europe; with the nastiness that has crept back into our society. I feel like I'm living in Middle Earth as Sauron has crept back into Mordor and started making trouble again.


On the plus side my personal life remains full of love and laughter: family, friends, colleagues at work. And these amazing times and people continue to be recorded in my blips. So I shall soldier on. I haven't missed a day in five years and have no intention of stopping. Stubborn, me. And I shall try not to worry. After all Mr Walker's Lucifer did find his way into one of the most upbeat songs of the twentieth century so I shall take my inspiration from that:


Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag / And smile, smile, smile / While you've a lucifer to light your fag / Smile, boys, that's the style / What's the use of worrying? / It never was worth while / so / Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag  / And smile, smile, smile...