Dear Diary . . .

It is probably in the nature of things that the important events in life ultimately have only a passing effect whereas the seemingly trivial may prove life altering. This first entry is a case in point. It is a glorious July day and the city will be basking in the sunshine, the street cafés buzzing with conversations in myriad languages. I surmise this because I have not set foot outside the apartment all day. I am fixed firmly in front of my computer and the pleasure of Sunday afternoon in Budapest will have to wait.

It all began with a phone call from my partner in England.

"How do I make a blog?"
"I don't know, how do you make a blog?"

It's a joke, I tell myself. Take three meters of plastic guttering, the yolks of two eggs, half a cup of engine oil - it's a joke, please tell me it's a joke.

"I am serious"

Oh my God!

"I don't know", I reply honestly. "What do you want a blog for anyway? Who is going to read it? Who is even going to know it's there?"

I am clutching at straws.

"I need your help".

The rest of the conversation descends into tedium but essentially walking someone through a computer task in simple enough when you do it regularly yourself but when you have not done it before, there really is only one way. You do the same thing yourself. The result is that we both now have blogs. What the hell to do with them is an entirely different matter. Which brings me back to trivial things which can change your life.

I have never really seen myself as the Dr. Johnson sort. The idea of putting pen to paper day in, day out to record the mundane events of life against the possibility that a future generation might find it an important social document or possibly even a literary masterpiece has never really crossed my mind. To start with, I am too lazy. Keeping a regular diary takes discipline and dedication, qualities which have never been particularly obvious even in my limited catalogue. If I scratch around for some redeeming feature in my makeup, it possibly is that I hate waste. I am not a hoarder. If something really is useless, I will happily consign it to the rubbish, but if I have the sense that the day may dawn when I am glad I kept something, I tend to keep it.

Well now I have a blog. Will anybody read it or even know it is there? I don't know and, to be honest, I don't care but it might come in handy one day.