Well who would have thought I'd still be churning out this stuff more than eighteen months later? I know I write the stuff, Bonzi has a problem hitting the keys on a laptop - but I have little control over the characters, they just do what they do and I watch and write it down. This goes to prove that I'm totally bonkers, I suppose, nothing new there then.
I get enough messages of support to keep it going for a while longer, which is bad news for those who don't like serials, especially of the monster variety. In writing so much, it has given me space to explore issues which some shorter stories can't do or don't have time for, which I consider a privilege.
I must thank Erin for allowing me to fill up so much server space with my nonsense, and for encouraging me to keep it going. Thanks also to all the readers who have enjoyed it and commented, voted or written to me. It's quite a variable number, from several thousand on the early numbers to six or seven hundred on more recent ones.
Some have even used it as some form of endurance event, seeing how quickly they can read the lot - three days was the record, a couple of hundred episodes ago. Three weeks is more likely today.
Anyway to all of you, friends, readers, staff and Bonzi lovers a huge thanks on this the six hundredth episode, which is I suppose something of a milestone - though to what, I'm not sure.
Lots of hugs,
Angharad & Bonzi(I'm Cool)Cat.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Comments
Way to go A & B!
I'm one of the many who daily clog the server between 5 and 6 PM local time (your time zone may vary) continuously refreshing the home page, waiting for our daily dose of British insanity and mayhem. By turns I'm laughing, snorting or crying after finishing the daily read. Don't know what I'd do if I didn't get to read it each day, but I'm sure it wouldn't be pleasant or pretty (for somebody).
Give Bonzi a scritch for me, of course he's cool!
I don't like serials much but ...
... I maintain that this isn't a serial - it's a soap opera which occurs in what passes for real time and hence doesn't need an end. I usually listen to the Archers on BBC R4 and don't expect that to come to any conclusions either. Though it does exasperate me quite often, it's also broadcast as SWMBO and I are either eating or doing the Grauniad crossword together so it fits quite well. 'Bike' is similar in that it's posted just before bedtime when I'm too knackered to do anything remotely productive.
Having said that I can only stand back in admiration at Angharad's perseverance over such an extended period. It'd be an achievement even if it was total crap - which it isn't (except, of course for the Kiki poo episode earlier this week :) )
Thanks a lot Angharad
Geoff
Wish I could meet Bonzi
He is really a beautiful cat and I am most enthusiastically a cat person.
I bet he would also like to be the recipient of a bottle of salve to fix up those paws of his as this is episode 600. That's FIFTY dozen episodes BTW.
Thank you so much for this wonderful soap opera.
Kim
Angharad bonzi is sooo cute.
Angharad bonzi is sooo cute. lucky you!! hugs kirri xxx
Cute?
He's a furry killing machine! But I still love him.
Angharad
Angharad
Ok
I bet I'm not the first to say you have a beautiful pussy.
I'm talking about the cat, dammit, get you mind out of the gutter!
As for the story, I'll comment once I've read it, which I haven't yet.
As for me, I LIKE my mind in the gutter
The adolocent boy in my mind is snickering and getting off on your cool *pussy* joke.
As for Bonzi, can't go wrong with your basic black cat, they *go* with any outfit.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Nah, John
It's just that you don't want to admit your ears are stuck in the grate. ;-)
KJT
"All lies in jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest"
The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
>> bad news for those who don't like serials...
On the other hand, it's been a tremendous opportunity to cultivate spiritual discipline and non-attachment for those who insist upon waiting for the story to be complete before starting it.
One imagines, of course, that this task, if left unfinished, might be mentioned in a last will and testament as a condition of inheritance if (sadly) mortality intervenes before the patient, but uninitiated, reader feels able to start, something like a requirement for a posthumous novena.
Sympathetically,
Puddin'
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Who thought I would be
Who thought I would be reading this story some 18 months later. I started reading right out of my surgery to make me into a lady just as cathy. I love this story as well as snafu which I have been reading even longer. THANKS< THANKS THANKS.
Addicted
Having read this story from the start I must now admit that I am an addict.
I never thought I had an ‘addictive personality’ as such. I mean, I do not smoke, I enjoy an alcoholic drink but I can take it or leave it, the same goes for chocolate. Well ok that bit about chocolate isn’t true, and I usually shake my head in pity when my friends start discussing soaps. So why am I hooked?
Is it the mix of laughter and tears the characters in the story evoke? or the knowledge gained in such arcane areas as dormice recognition? or the insight I have found in expressing emotions? perhaps.
I believe it is just damn fine writing
Thank you so much for this saga Angharad (And Bonzi)
Anne G
Milestones ...
Okay, I know that it is unwise to compare one's self to others, however ...
... it's me that's doing the comparing.
Sometime in February, "Off A Bike" passed, in size, what was heretofore (to the best of my knowledge) the second largest TG serial/series, Rebekka deMere's "Eight Dragons", which ran 351 files and approximately 4.2MB.
Maddy Bell's is a close third - I think - with 218 episodes, and maybe 4.0MB. It may be even less than that - the 4.5MB I have includes HTML formatting, which could take as much as half the total file size.
Of course, Ellen Hayes remains the longest running s/s, with only 142 episodes since its inception in 1997, but totaling over 7MB.
And there's a new Bike episode almost ~daily~!
Hey, ~I'm~ impressed.
Deni