The Glasgow Gallivanter

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gallivant: to go around from one place to another in the pursuit of pleasure or entertainment.

I think that might be a good description of what I do, no? When I started Anabel’s Travel Blog I had good reasons for choosing such a prosaic title which are no longer relevant. At first, it did what it said on the tin, but lately I’ve been writing a lot more about Glasgow and its surroundings. I’ve also found the title a bit restricting: I might want to write about something else occasionally and, indeed, I do on Adventures of a Retired Librarian which I now intend to – well, retire! Hence the change to The Glasgow Gallivanter.

So new year, new title – but before plunging into 2016, a quick look back at 2015. My page-views more than doubled, though I admit to suspicion about WordPress’s stats. I’ve had a few of those “Your stats are spiking” messages where investigation showed one post, or even one image, was getting multiple hits in a very short space of time. As an example, my top-read post in 2015 was apparently A visit to Cambridge. Huh? Written in July 2012, it has no likes and no comments – I hadn’t learned how to make friends yet – so how did that get there? Spam bots? I don’t know – but I’m happy to accept the upward trajectory even if I don’t believe the actual figures. I’ve posted more frequently and made more connections with all you lovely people reading this right now.

Thank you for your companionship in 2015. I look forward gallivanting with you in 2016.

 

Scotland, UK ,

60 Comments »

  1. Hi Anabel,
    I was intrigued by your experience of WordPress stats, as I’ve had a similar experience. My all-time best day was in September 2012 when 1,750 people Googled “Victorian Time” and found my blog (I don’t think!) Today I’ve got one visitor viewing 35 posts, but the country breakdown lists the USA, Malaysia, Ukraine and Canada. I guess we have to take these things with a pinch of salt!

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  3. I love the new title of your blog Anabel! My mother used to always chastise me for ‘gallivanting around the countryside’; a derogative comment for me never staying at home and doing, I don’t know, perhaps ordinary mundane things! So, bearing that in mind, I wish you a year full of exciting adventures gallivanting around the globe!

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  7. Great title! I know what you mean about wordpress stats, although they are more reliable than bloggers, which counts all the spam and bot visits. WordPress does filter them out, as it does from the author of the post, but recently I’ve spotted that it counts my own visits if I’m not logged in, which it didn’t in the past. Maybe it’s just confused.

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