And so it begins.........

.....I never really saw myself as a blogger. But then, I never really saw myself as a DVD owner. Or a cell phone user. I just didn't need them. After all, we had a perfectly good phone on the table out in the hallway, a VHS video thingummy [after they told me that they couldn't get any more Beta tapes] and a two megapixel digital camera that I won on NZ Wheel Of Fortune back in the nineties.

My life turned upside down when I was finally dragged kicking and screaming to the computer store, only to leave with Windows ME, a CRT monitor the size of a fridge, and even less memory than a senile goldfish. I'd never need all that anyway....I just wanted to be able to read emails.

6 months later, I was hooked. After compulsively staring at a Solitaire screen for many hours a night, waiting for the emails to come pouring in, I discovered the internet. And when I grew tired of looking useless information up on Google, I figured out that there was other stuff too.

I discovered forums. I discovered that I could say the first thing that came into my head without getting it knocked off. I discovered personal messages and instant messaging. Finally I discovered that I didn't have to say the first thing that came into my head........... And someone discovered me. We spent many nights together, bouncing off each other's posts, sharing inside jokes on IM, and sharing such wonderful ideas as 'why my boss is a bigger jerk than your boss.'

It was really nice having someone to come home to in the wee small hours after the graveyard shift, even if she was in another timezone, on the wrong side of the international date line on the other side of the planet. Then one day, she suggested that we get together. I was reluctant. That's just the way I am.

The beloved one has a way of being politely persistent. We've been married a while now. I met her at Auckland International airport at an absurdly early hour. I tried to appear relaxed, casual, with a great sense of humour. I'm guessing it would be closer to the truth that I made Mr Bean look suave and sophisticated. Fortunately, we survived the first week with only sixty stitches between us.

We were both pretty new to technology... I was still using my little digital camera as if I'd have to pay to develop the pictures. Gradually we became more adventurous, and after a steady string of slightly more daring digitals, my beloved is now the keeper of a Fuji Finepix S5600. Don't let this sudden burst of techie jargon fool you - I only know what to call it because it's sitting on the desk next to me.

So anyways.....I started using it. Reluctantly. Just for snapshots of my beloved at first, after all, what use is a camera for, other than family snaps? occasionally, I would capture a landscape, just for the thrill of seeing it frozen in time on the little LCD screen. As often as not, I'd forget to upload and view the image once we got home.

Now, we've been together for three years. The camera has become as much a part of our hand luggage as a drivers' licence or a wallet. Reluctantly, I have become a photography enthusiast.

My wife has been blogging for over a year, and I see more and more of my digital daliances appearing on her posts. Today, she set up this blog jobbie thingummybob for me. She's been nudging me towards starting my own collection of scruffy pixels for a while, so today, I'm giving it a go. Not sure how long it will be before I post again, but if my life story is anything to go by, I guess I'll be in it boots and all before too long.