Why I keep this blog

Lately I’ve begun to wonder why I keep a blog.   It started out as a record of life on a tiny island, Ilan Life, where I was a visitor, albeit a long-term one.  I had a foot in both camps, the Islander one and the European one, not belonging to either.  

     Life was more interesting in the Torres Strait and a hell of a lot more unpredictable, something I relished including the rabid dogs, politics and supermarket debacles.  Everyday occurrences were worthy of recording as anecdotes. And it was great writing practice.

     Life here has routine, something I am not comfortable with.  The kids do tennis on Monday and Thursday.  I work at school on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Tony works on Monday and Tuesday.  The routine is hard to take. Even the checkouts in supermarkets have routinely correct prices!  I have both feet firmly in the white majority camp yet don't feel I fully belong.   Life here is normal.  It's reality.  It’s taking me a long time to adjust, so long I wonder if I ever will.

     Lately I’ve also thought about giving up writing.  I don’t have the time and when I steal a few moments that should be devoted to something like doing the 2011 Payroll Advice for the ATO (that I should be doing write now), I don’t write very well.

     But at the moment, the only writing I do is for the blog and somehow it keeps me sane, partially filling that biological urge to write.  

     Of course, the blog is a visual record of our lives.  Recently, Kibby wanted to find the blog post about camping on Goodes Island two years ago and bow hunting pigs.  Together we trawled through the archives of posts, checking out long-forgotten events that must have happened because I’d recorded them and there were photos as proof.  We laughed and laughed at some of the entries.

     I’d like to change the name of the blog to Big Ilan Life, but I don’t think I can. And I don't have the time to work out how to do it or set up a new blog.

     In the meantime, I’ll keep plugging away at Ilan Life trying to come to terms with life on the big island, reality, and keeping up writing practice for when I finally get to use it.