Indulge me a bit more, please

A lot of fuss has been made over me and the WOYWW 600. I’ve loved it, been totally surprised by its apparent importance and revelled in the attention. Of course I have, I’m a human bean that loves to have friends. Please also though, pat yourselves on the back, there is no WOYWW blog hop without you and your blog posts! 

Jan has a place in the story too, bigger and more permanent than she’ll even realise. Despite our differences, and there are loads, we have a solid, enduring friendship. And it is our friendship and her giving that has enabled WOYWW in several ways.

There was a big chunk of time when I was too poorly to post the central link around which we all meet. Jan did it, for months. With good grace and cheer of course. And when it was the right time, she handed it back. Indeed, it was she that noted that getting back into the groove of WOYWW would probably be good for me. And it was.

The Crop movement was motivated by Jan too. Whilst I avoided it and thought no one would want to bother to travel for a day of meeting strangers from the internet, Jan bounced every excuse back at me until I had none left, and found myself believing it could be fun.

And then, as you know, she organised and catered and I hope, enjoyed. She certainly is good at it!

Totally appropriate, the box that the gin arrived in!

I am also indebted to her for some timely straight talking. See, I thought that WOYWW 600 was really only to be noteworthy because of the satisfactory number, after all, we’ve celebrated and had a big old tenth anniversary, so the 11th and 600 would be good evidence of longevity. It was she who told me that there were a few Deskers who thought more of it than that because the community was worth celebrating. It’s not that I’m humble or shy, but I do sometimes need these things to be pointed out, as much as I want it to be all about me, all the time, I don’t always recognise the opportunity. And because she’s my friend, Jan does and points me at it.

And then of course, there was yesterday and those wonderful gifts. Co-ordinated and thought about by Jan. With I might add, quite some subterfuge. Not a word, not a hint, and we speak and message fairly often as you can imagine. So please raise a glass to Jan too, for quite often, I do the talking and she does the walking. 

Note too that however much love and respect she commands from me, I have not actually officially said that she was right.