Since I have been writing my blog some people have said to me that my blog is so good I should write a book and become rich and famous. Well I used to tell them that really was the stupidest thing that anyone had ever said to me but of course I had nothing to back it up with - but now I do.
Now I could say that between 22 April and 5 May more than 13,000 people viewed my blog at an average of about 1,000 per day. Since 6 May – when I disappeared from the Blogs of Note page – the average daily viewing is about 100.
That is – 13,000 people found my blog so fascinating, so absorbing, and so hilarious that they could not wait to leave it – forever – leaving a trail smoke and of burning rubber.
Unless of course they are all afflicted with paroxysms of laughter and are rolling helpless on the floors of their lounge rooms and studies – unable to get back onto Vienna for Dummies for trembling so much with mirth and fascination.
Anyway the locusts have feasted and departed - and it’s just us left. Back to normal. But from the 13,000 or so casual visitors who arrived from my unexpected burst of ‘Blog of Note’ publicity I seem to have picked up a a few new regular readers.
I am not sure if these are stayers because a quick trawl through the new ‘followers’ reveals some of them to be committed Christians - so when I am roused by some bible bashing lunatic who wants to flog gays or garrote lesbians -  and I go on one of my rants - they will vanish quivering into the night clutching their rosary beads or whatever weird shit they do when they are terrified by us pagans - and abandon me forever. I expect to be de-followed quite often over the next few months. I have girded my loins in anticipation of these bitter blows. 
As for some others – well this follower has got to be a bit suspect. The profile on the blog page says:
‘GOLDEN PHOENIX -A CHINESE RESTAURANT at Tangra Township, Kolkata. We will treat you like 'guest' at our premises. Car Parking Available’
Next time Cate is in Kolkata I will ask her to pop in and check to see if they are regular readers. And there are a few others like that – and there are others that are completely impenetrable.
I am undismayed. I started the blog for my children and a few friends when I came to Vienna. I blog because – like William – I enjoy blogging. It keeps Cate amused when she is away – which is a lot of the time – in far flung and often gruesome places.  I have attached a picture of her in the gear she is wearing today in a country full of very strange men who are so frightened of women they cannot bear to look at them.
There is nothing that makes me happier than when she says that she enjoyed my blog. Well – actually Caramel and Pecan ice cream will almost do it. Not that she does it very often because she does not like to spoil me – or else I may not try hard enough.
About once a very twelve months she says that she enjoyed my blog so much it made her laugh. That makes me so happy I usually rush out and buy a new Mac. Hey – maybe that’s why she doesn’t say it all that often.