Photo by: Maria Reyes-McDavis
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November 1^st, it seems like a long time ago. That was when I embarked upon this blogvember challenge and I’m pleased to say that with this post I’ve completed it: 30 posts in 30 days.

At the end of October there were 10 posts on this blog and now there are 40 (there’s no doubting my mathematical ability). Over the course of the last 30 days I’ve written 18,571 words including the ones in this post. The shortest post I wrote during this exercise was a pithy 382 words (about Platini and the Qatar World Cup) and the longest was 1,006 (debating the question: which is the best league in the world? Answer: the English Premier League, just).

It’s actually been quite exhausting and there were definitely a few evenings when I came very close to going to bed without a post written. I’m glad I stuck with it though as I feel I’ve learned a few things.

Most importantly I’ve learned that it is possible for me to find the time to blog regularly. I have a full time job which involves quite long hours, two young children and in the last few weeks I’ve also been training for two 10k races (the second of which is next Sunday). I’m not asking for a medal – I get one every time I finish a race – but it’s been good to prove to myself that I can write on a regular basis.

I have quite a few writing projects that I want to undertake and this month has shown that I can churn out a reasonable amount of words reasonably quickly. I think the overall quality has been reasonable too although I am conscious of a few places where tiredness is evident and inspiration a bit lacking.

That was actually one of the most difficult aspects of the challenge, finding something new to write about every day even with a subject as fast-moving and talked about as football. The posts in the last month tended to be topical but there were still quite a few that weren’t.

The topics covered have been quite diverse – everything from my love of Italian football to the prospect of the Football Manager computer game being added to the physical education curriculum in some Scottish schools (a terrible idea in my view). I’ve covered Moyes’ move to Spain, Messi becoming the top scorer in La Liga, the absurdity that was the Argentina v Portugal friendly, Rooney and the England captaincy, and much more besides.

I hope you’ve enjoyed at least some of it. By far the most popular post (most popular of all time so far on the blog and not just the last month) was the one I wrote about my audition for the role of a footballer in a movie. I’m still awaiting the casting decision and will keep you posted. Other popular entries include the one that announced the blogvember challenge on the 1^st of November, the one about which league is best, and Rooney.

It will probably be a few days until the next post arrives on this blog. I’ll be taking a short break but I aim to settle into a schedule of two posts per week. That should seem quite easy (I hope) after the last month. Thanks for reading and if you like it, please feel free to tell your friends.