I wanted to record the moment I’d written three million words on this blog but, unfortunately, I missed it. As of today, before publishing this post, I’d reached 3,006,733. Given it’s 6,733 since hitting the magic 3 million, and I average 573 words per post, it was around January 24 this year that I did it.
It has taken a while, and I do wonder how many books I could have written if I’d devoted as much time to writing fiction as I do this blog. Still, I do enjoy looking back at my life.
For instance, back in November 2020, we first went to dinner at a restaurant called Toscanini. We went a few more times before we returned to the UK. And tonight we went back. The last time we went was in June 2021, so we suspected a few things may have changed. We were wrong.
The head waiter, the jolly Turkish guy, was not only still there and in charge but he remembered us, greeted us like old friends to be exact, and showed us to a table. We were handed menus that, apart from the prawn entrée, seemed exactly the same and had food that was just as good as it used to be.
Back in 2020, during the pandemic, the business was suffering. On quite a few visits, it was like we were one of the few couples still going out for dinner. The head waiter was concerned that the restaurant could survive. But survive it did and, if tonight was anything to go by, it’s doing very well.
There was a big group celebrating a birthday as well as lots of diners keeping the noise levels nice and high. It was a lovely atmosphere, a lovely meal and lovely being remembered.
And that’s a good enough reason to keep a blog going – remembering. I love looking back over the years. My actual memory isn’t that good, so having a published version really helps a lot.

For some reason, the only photo I took today was my BeReal as we walked to the restaurant. So there it is.