{"id":779,"date":"2012-04-23T21:44:24","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T20:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/londonerfromafar.wordpress.com\/?p=779"},"modified":"2020-05-24T17:25:10","modified_gmt":"2020-05-24T16:25:10","slug":"birthday-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alondonerfromafar.co.uk\/birthday-takeaways\/","title":{"rendered":"Birthday Takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today, it is a special day. I started this blog exactly <strong>one year ago<\/strong>. I am still publishing! This<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" title=\"Birthday Takeaways\" src=\"http:\/\/writing.pinartarhan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/i_love_blogging-787805.jpg\" alt=\"Birthday Takeaways\" width=\"88\" height=\"88\" \/> is partly thanks to you, readers! I am indebted to those who read and to those who comment. I thought that some birthday takeaways would be in order here. There\u00b4s a bit of a present at the end too.<\/p>\n<p>Looking back, it is interesting all that went through my head when\u00a0I started. It was after a night out in\u00a0<span style=\"line-height:24px;\">London<\/span>. <!--more-->Digitally-focused as I was back then, I still had some doubts as to how blogging could fit in my\u00a0life and how useful it was for me. I had previously done some blogging and\u00a0quite a bit of online writing, for work purposes only.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This was quite different<\/strong>. Would I be able to publish any personal content? Even if it was just thoughts.\u00a0Obviously,\u00a0\u00a0there were so many bloggers that had been doing this for years before &#8211; and they were so interesting to read. Maybe, the trick was applying the social media principle of not publishing anything that I would be ashamed to have attributed to me.<\/p>\n<p>Now, my experiences in London and UK in general have been great so far. I do believe that they are interesting, up to a point. However, why would anyone else\u00a0find them interesting enough to read my blog every week? I bet others have plenty of fun, memorable, unusual experiences too.<\/p>\n<p>Also, there are so many blogs out there. How could I make mine appealing enough?\u00a0Would I be able to tell my readers the good story they deserve?<\/p>\n<p>So, after that night out, I opened my desktop and started this blog. It was fun choosing the\u00a0layout, sections, etc.\u00a0Even writing my <a title=\"Hello\u00a0world!\" href=\"http:\/\/londonerfromafar.wordpress.com\/2011\/04\/23\/hello-world-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first entry<\/a>\u00a0was good. I have never regretted it.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some things that I have learnt so far from this experience:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>One has to be <strong>honest<\/strong>.<br \/>\nIt is not worth writing something that you do not feel. Human touch is important. I cannot pretend.<\/li>\n<li>Keep an <strong>open mind<\/strong>.<br \/>\nSometimes, it is the contradictory points of view that matters. Someone might not be bothered at all by something that I <a title=\"Top 10 Annoying Stuff in\u00a0London\" href=\"http:\/\/londonerfromafar.wordpress.com\/2011\/12\/04\/top-10-annoying-stuff-in-london\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">might personally hate<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Content is important.<br \/>\nBut, <strong>content published periodically<\/strong>\u00a0is even more important.<\/li>\n<li>I believe that\u00a0blogging is a bit of a <strong>journey<\/strong>.<br \/>\nThere is always room for improvement.<\/li>\n<li>So many <strong>good\u00a0blogs and bloggers<\/strong> out there!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Open mind<\/strong> to criticism.<br \/>\nConstructive feedback is always welcome.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hard<\/strong> to keep up!<br \/>\nMuch that I love writing, squeezing blogging into my daily\u00a0life can be a\u00a0little hard sometimes. Apologies if I do not always publish twice a week, as I did mention before!<\/li>\n<li><strong>I still want to do it<\/strong>.<br \/>\nYes, I do.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hope you enjoy the video below. Thanks so much for reading, and hope to see you soon.<\/p>\n<strong>No share or id values provided for youtube shortcode.<\/strong>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/alondonerfromafar.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/signature.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-724\" title=\"A Londoner from Afar\" src=\"https:\/\/alondonerfromafar.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/signature.png?w=150\" alt=\"A Londoner from Afar\" width=\"150\" height=\"31\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, it is a special day. I started this blog exactly one year ago. I am still publishing! This is partly thanks to you, readers! I am indebted to those <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/alondonerfromafar.co.uk\/birthday-takeaways\/\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpupg_custom_link":[],"wpupg_custom_link_behaviour":[],"wpupg_custom_image":[],"wpupg_custom_image_id":[],"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[67,70,71,588],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Birthday Takeaways - A Londoner from Afar<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alondonerfromafar.co.uk\/birthday-takeaways\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Birthday Takeaways - A Londoner from Afar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today, it is a special day. I started this blog exactly one year ago. I am still publishing! This is partly thanks to you, readers! I am indebted to those &hellip; Continue reading &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alondonerfromafar.co.uk\/birthday-takeaways\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Londoner from Afar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ALondonerfromafar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ALondonerfromafar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-23T20:44:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-24T16:25:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/writing.pinartarhan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/i_love_blogging-787805.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Montse\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MontseCano\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MontseCano\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Montse\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Birthday Takeaways - A Londoner from Afar","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/alondonerfromafar.co.uk\/birthday-takeaways\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Birthday Takeaways - A Londoner from Afar","og_description":"Today, it is a special day. 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