So, I’ve had this blog for a year now, pretty much. I began in September 2007 with the vague plan that I felt like chattering into this void called the internet, and that if anybody felt like reading along then so much the better.

It’s been fun. I have enjoyed casting words into the void. I get the appeal of this blogging phenomenon. But a year later, I’ve decided to retire gracefully. There are a few reasons why. I find the concept that anybody I know could be reading what I write here to be quite stifling. It’s one thing to chatter away about your life to strangers, but quite another to chatter only about things you wouldn’t mind your 94-year-old Grandad reading (he is disturbingly internet-savvy for a nonagenarian), or your Mum (hi Mum!) or your boss. 

And I also find that the busier I get, the harder it is to find time to write the requisite three worthwhile posts a week. But when I’m not busy, I don’t have anything to write three posts about. It’s a perplexing problem, and I salute those of you out there who have managed to overcome it.

Ultimately though, what it comes down to is that this just isn’t fun anymore. I started out loving the freedom to just rabbit on about whatever was in my head, but over the last few months, blogging has started to feel less like an outlet and more like an obligation.

If you care to read what I’m writing, or more accurately, if you care about my thoughts on the latest BBC reality-TV abomination, I’ll still be reviewing British telly in my regularly scheduled spot over on Pop Vultures. And I hope to expand the work I do for Marcia over there in the next six months or so.

And more importantly, I’ll still be reading all of your blogs as avidly as ever.

For those of you who came along for the year, and for those of you who dropped in occasionally, and even for those of you who ended up here accidentally after Googling ‘blue gym knickers’ (STILL generating a terrifying average 50 hits a day people), I thank you. I have loved having your company and getting to know you.

But it’s time to go.