Happy birthday, expatliv!

A year ago today, I was sitting at my desk staring at the "Publish" button. My finger kept getting close to it, and then hesitated... I left the desk, went to make a cup of tea, and then back. Should I press it? Go live? I took a deep breath, and pressed it. Help! My very first blogpost was "out there".

I started to blog for these reasons:

• To update people "back home". In my pre-blog life, I could post a picture from my India life on fb, and it created a lot of questions and comments like - What do you do there? - Tell me some more about that! - Write us an email. - More pictures! - You should start to blog!
• I have always had writing as a passion, and for many years I made my living from it. By blogging I could try a new way of writing, and the best of all: - do it "just for fun" 
• I took a course about blogging and creating a blog was part of that... so I was practically there already by the end of the course.
• It seemed like a nice way to digest the memories from our new life in India, and also to keep track of my everyday adventures here.

What a fun year it has been! The blog has now over 30.000 page-views and has readers from all over the world. And the extra bonus, which I did not anticipate, is how many wonderful people I have connected with through my blog. People who share my passion for writing and exploring and who enjoy what I do.

I feel humble and grateful. And as a people's person, I so enjoy discovering my readers and their world as well! And what a global world it is: the Canadian in Stavanger, the Greek in Melbourne, the Indian in New York, and the Swede in Bahrain - just to mention a few. I have been contacted by expats, prospective expats, visitors, tourists and companies. I have had great joy of connecting with my Indian blogger friends from whom I learn new things about India every day.

Being more a dialogue-person than a monologue person, these connections have meant a lot to me, and I am so grateful - also because I actually managed to push that "publish" button a year ago. So, to each and one of you, dear reader: thank you from the bottom of my heart for following, commenting and for reaching out. I appreciate every single one of you and wish you only the best.

PS: I have made some changes at the page- menu at the top. I made a "Mumbai-tips"page  (as a reader asked me to), and added some relevant overview of posts on the others. I also added Connect with Google Friends gadget:-) Hope you like it. Have a great day!