Yesterday, as I was about to fly home, I wrote a lengthy, self-indulgent load of tosh about my ‘journey’ as I’d ventured into the world of blogging. Actually, I didn’t really call it ‘a journey’, but it was a load of tosh and, on revisiting it as I complete the final leg of my long haul home on a train back down to Exeter, I’ve sent it to the bin.

The few paragraphs preserved below were all that was needed. I got a bit carried away with myself but I’m better now.

---

The only thought that I’ve really had about how you end a blog is that it has to be on a positive note. I’ve had an amazing time, so there’s no other way. But rather than reel off all the highlights, some of which are in the blog anyway, I’m going to end on the positive thought of seeing friends and family, and generally catching up with people when I’m home, which will be a real treat. I’ve booked some in already.

And just because I can, I’m signing off with a tune, just like on the telly at the end of a show (no credits – too many to mention). Some may dismiss it for having cheesy lyrics, being too poppy, too soppy, too hetro-centric, or whatever. But for me it’s pure sunshine.

It’s a hot, teenage summer. School’s out and we’re lazing and fooling around on the grassy bank by Keeper’s Pool, chart hits crackling out from tinny trannies,* sap rising and a big wide world out there waiting for us. And it still is.

Bar any hard-nosed curmudgeons, who’ll probably have switched me off anyway, I defy anyone listening not to be just a little uplifted and to have the tiniest spring in their step. It puts one in mine.

So that’s how I’m ending my blog. Hope you enjoyed it and my trip as much as I did.

Over and out.

https://youtu.be/iz1QIZX-EOY          (This YouTube video was embedded last year but no longer is – not sure why and I can’t fix it).

* trannies = transistor radios.

For anyone too young to know, it meant something else in the late 60s/early 70s. They were tiny radios and every hip teenager had one.