Did you miss me?

Most blogs (for this is what you have on your screen in front of you) go through several phases over time.

I've seen many that start in a fervour of excitement. The owner spends hours finely crafting the look and feel of the site, then gives birth to his first post, mewling and puking, onto the web.

If we're very lucky, some days later we might see a second post. But often we don't; the blogger decides not to carry on blogging. It's hard work. He needs to think of something to write. He is generally not getting paid for it. There's bound to be something fascinating involving crab fishermen on the telly instead.

And when I use the words 'his' and 'he' in those previous paragraphs, I'm being deliberate. Us male bloggers seem to be the worst at keeping our blogs going. There's always something else happening. Female bloggers seem to have more longevity. As in most things in life. Ahem.

So if you've been blogging for more than say, six months, you're doing well. Especially nowadays, as Facebook and Twitter allow anyone with a keyboard to share their innermost feelings with strangers without the heavy lifting that comes with slapping together 300 or 400 words.

I've been going for over three years now, which makes me a bit of a greybeard, relatively speaking. But that doesn't make it any easier. In fact, that's why there's been a bit of a hiatus with posts recently. I've been spending too much time thinking about writing, worrying about whether something is deserving of being written. I've had hours when I've been considering the direction of the blog. "Should I go for laughs all the time?", I've asked myself. "Is there a brand?", I considered. I know. Seriously. But in all that time I didn't just sit down and write something.

I am a colossal pillock.

So I'm sorry, to both of my readers (time was when that would be a joke, now I'm not so sure). Make Lard History is back in business. I'm not going to be so precious about what qualifies for inclusion and what doesn't. You might not like everything you read - tomorrow is going to be a bit of a doozy, for instance - but hopefully we'll all get something out of it.