Today I read through every old post on this blog. The reason is that I had cause to look at an old entry and noticed a mistake in it. Then I noticed a mistake on the one above it. At that point the anal retentive side of my personality took over and I went through the whole lot correcting all the spelling and grammar mistakes.

Actually, the mistakes were more often typing mistakes than spelling mistakes, and some of them can be blamed on my keyboard, which has had so many hot drinks spilled on it that some of the keys are a bit stuck.

It was an interesting thing to do, as I noticed a few things:

• Certain words, phrases or constructions have been over-used.
• Certain words get mis-typed nearly every time. One of them is ‘because’, which often comes out as ‘becasue’. Its a common mistake that a lot of people make – probably something to do with keyboard layout. Unfortunately, ‘because’ is one of the words I over-use.
• There is a fair amount of repetition, with some subjects cropping far too often
• There were very few entries without a single typo on them

One thing which gets mentioned a lot is how I used to be a local councillor and, reading all the entries, it does look as if I dwell on this a lot. If I was a stranger reading this blog I would assume I was obsessed with it. The reality is that the time I spent had quite a large impact on my life and attitudes. It introduced me to a lot of ideas and a lot of people and organisations which I choose to keep in touch with, and I realise that some things which now mean a lot to me are things which I might never have come into contact with if I had not had that experience. I guess the truth is that I am still a bit angry and a bit depressed that this particular ward no longer has a Labour councillor, and I do look forward to the elections next year when we will get one, but I am not eager for it to be me. I wouldn’t mind doing it, but I can take it or leave it.

I am going to make a conscious effort to try and avoid mentioning the fact unless I have to: it make me sound bitter and twisted when really I am quite cool with my new-found leisure time.

My other resolution is to use the preview option more and be thorough with my proof reading.