Exactly two years ago I posted this brief welcome message and embarked on the exciting adventure of being a blogger. The purported thrills turned out to be less than thrilling and whatever illusions I had been harboring about my writing aptitude have been long dispelled. But look at the bright side! Which is… well… erm… ok, how about this: Whatever illusions I had been harboring about my writing aptitude have been lo-o-o-ong dispelled.
In case anyone was having misconceptions about it, the blog was intended as nothing more than an occasional journal chronicling our family expat adventures. It was created, if you will, as an excuse to avoid writing multiple email responses to various friends’ and relatives’ inquiries of “How is it going in England?” nature. From Day 1, I could just point an interested party to my very simple URL and worry not about providing an on-demand recount of our doings and goings.
While things were new and curious - from a “foreigner in a strange land” point of view - things were going swimmingly, even though I limited myself with no more than a couple of posts a week. But as we gradually settled into more or less standard routine, I kept finding fewer and fewer topics to write about. And at some point not very long ago, spurred on by the realization that my devoted audience was altogether too small, I changed tack a bit and started to post more often in general but considerably less frequently about what was the original purpose of the blog.
Which helps explain why of the 424 articles that I produced to date, only 23 are on what I’d term expat topics, only 32 are on things that characterize England, and only 50 relate to things to do in London and its environs. That’s almost exactly only a quarter of my output.
The posts chronicling our life overlap with the above categories a lot, so despite the fact that I count 170 of them, the overall number of posts having directly to do with “What do Burlaki do on the Thames?” likely does not exceed two hundred much. That is partially mitigated by further 36 posts describing our travels.
The rest is inconsequential musings, internet quizzes, YouTube videos, etc. You know, your run-of-the-mill cop-outs for days when I have nothing to talk about but want to maintain my “post [almost] daily” record. Like this very post, for instance.¹
I can only promise more of the same.
I know of a few expatriates, both current and prospective, who found things of value in my posts. And I actually made a number of friends through my blog. That’s the main thing that keeps me motivated to continue blogging. Through over 700 comments - ok, half of them are by my Mom, but it is still a respectable number, - I know that a surprising number of people check out my little corner of the blogosphere at least periodically.² I thank you all wholeheartedly and hope that I can provide enough entertainment to make you smile (most of the time), roll your eyes (way too frequently) or reflect on something (definitely not often enough - and I’ll most likely keep it that way). And I swear that I will not stop blogging as long as I have you as my faithful audience.
So, basically, you know what to do if you cannot suffer me any more 
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¹ Ok, this post celebrates a momentous occasion, and I actually initially planned to talk about my “couch potato” Sunday capped with шашлыки at our friends Valera and Zhanna’s house. So, no, not a good example!
² I check my overall stats regularly, but I have no patience to dig out specific details about who reads what on my site. When it comes to other people’s blogs, I am mostly a lurker rather than a commenter, so I realize quite well that the number of comments is in no way a gauge of the size of the audience. That should not prevent me from beseeching my own lurkers - very presumptious of me to think that I have any, don’t you think? - to out themselves and say hello. I promise to hello right back at you.
