I noticed recently that someone had mentioned this site in a post on the Preserved Diesels forum, but had pointed out that it was boring. Now, firstly I accept the charge fully - there's not a lot here thats really engaging or enlightening. It's a record of my travels, my visits and my thoughts which might be of interest to a few people who know me. I also understand that some people like the pictures. I'm sure some people enjoy the London related text more than the railway journeys, or perhaps like everyone who reads other's blogs, people are seeking the vicarious thrill of some controversy or salacious happening being mentioned? To quote briefly from the About MikeGTN page:

"I suppose I could go on in traditional personal website style to list whole pages of music and books which I enjoy, but I'm not sure how helpful or interesting that would be. Things which I find diverting or life-affirming make it onto the site. If you've accidentally arrived at this site, I hope you found something to interest you. If not, I won't be either surprised or offended."

So am I writing this because I'm actually offended and disappointed with the description? Not at all. I'm writing this because I'd like to have put something similar on the forum in response, but days after the post it moved to a new host and old threads are locked. I also wanted to puzzle out why I continue - indeed, sometimes it does seem odd to record every last detail of some railway journey, or to expose the grandiose theories I concoct on wanders around London to others. I don't blog much about politics or some other aspects of my life because I try to keep the content fairly factual and neutral these days. Perhaps I should be more honest? My theory is that blogs are the 21st Century manifestation of the storytelling tradition. A global story where you can switch viewpoints with a mouseclick. In every group of storytellers, there is one who gets bogged down in the insignificant background detail. That's me!