Not quite a Simon & Garfunkel song title but it does put this post into context; I can’t sleep! You would think the first Sunday evening of a half-term holiday would lead to a seamless night of sleep that would last until perhaps the clock was back into double figures (although I have to admit that I am an early riser and cannot remember the last time I was still in bed come 10 o’clock), but no such luck. I woke at around 2am, read a little – Bill Bryson’s new book about the home; At Home – and then decided to crack on with the chores that I hadn’t done over the previous couple of days. The washing up is now sitting soaking in hot water in the sink and I know that my next Orange bill will be for £14.03 (surprisingly low you might think but this is after the £35 credit they gave me as a result of my recent argument with them – see earlier post). It’s now 5 o’clock and I’m still wide awake!

Perhaps my insomnia gives me an opportunity to write something worthy on this blog now that it has reached its 50,000 hits. I was a little premature in thinking that I would reach the milestone on Saturday; it was actually surpassed on Sunday following a plummet in my daily hit count over the last few days; perhaps people don’t really want to read about how popular blogs are and, not unsurprisingly, are more interested in the content of a blog. Good point. But if you will forgive me just a few more sentences on the popularity thing, I am proud to tell you that this blog (albeit listed under its very old name of www.puglia2010.wordpress.com – it has had three more names since), is, apparently, Berkshire’s 59th most popular blog. You can see the complete list here . I’m not sure how it is calculated – reference is made to www.wikio.co.uk but how they do it and whether it is just for www.puglia2010.wordpress.com and not www.eurovelo5.com , www.resycling.net or even, as it now is www.apsykes.com , I do not know.

What is interesting about the list is the other blogs that surround me. Top of the pile is John Redwood’s Diary. He is the Tory MP for Wokingham and subtitles his blog “Incisive and topical campaigns and commentary on todays’ issues and tomorrow’s problems”. Clearly not an optimist! John Redwood is the former Welsh secretary who didn’t know the Welsh words for some song that was being sung at the Welsh Tory Conference when they were last in power so he mimed. It makes cringe-worthy watching…. Here is a link! It’s the way his head nods from side to side. I’m sure he is a very nice chap.

My former Labour MP, Jane Griffiths is at number 14. I thought she had gone to Eastern Europe to teach English (perhaps she has). She seems to have written a book about her “explosive” times in politics and is selling it online for 10 quid. There are more politicians – I spot quite a few “cllrs” as I scan down the list.

Things only get interesting (of course) when you get down to the 50s. At number 52 are The Thoughts of Chairman Bill, who describes his blog as “The random, but sometimes surprisingly connected (but not necessarily lucid), stream-of-consciousness thoughts of an optimistic, heavy drinking, cantankerous, iconoclastic, foul-mouthed, devil worshipping misogynist who gets into fist-fights and lived in a damp barge in the arse end of the Thames and now lives in a caravan and loves to slaughter cats by the flinty light of a full moon while reading poetry“. OK.  He needs the relaxing therapy that number 53 offers; The Virtual Victorian whose most recent entry is about “Flesh and sex in Victorian art”. It links in with a recent Channel 4 documentary by Howard Jacobson.

I don’t think I’ll be off to Reading Geek Night, but good luck to them. If you are interested, a review of one of their recent events states that the evening “once again covered a wide variety of topics. There were four main presentations covering Flash hacking, hardware, F1 racing and robotics“. Form an orderly queue…

The techy evening of entertainment is, however, more popular than me in the blogging stakes as it sits at number 58 in the list. The other side of me is taken up by the Internet Psychologist. Make your own mind up on that one. And I am glad to say that I am more popular than both Prue Bray (62) Liberal Democrat councillor for Winnersh and Escort Sophie (76). Take your pick (although the fomer may be cheaper).

I’ll keep an eye on the list…