I woke up early this morning and was on the computer by 7.20, because last night all hell broke loose with my stats and I was getting over 60 hits an hour. The majority were in relation to this post. Which is odd because it had been up since Saturday morning and although there was some increased traffic and it was my top story there was no explanation for the sudden surge. I thought that perhaps a top site had linked to it, but Technorati had not picked it up if this was the case. I checked Google and it did head their list of stories in relation to the tags in the posts title. It was a nice feeling to find that I had pipped the Times, a national newspaper, to the top slot. I was that chuffed last night that I emailed my blogging friend Not Saussure and suggested that he check both our stats out to see who was in front for the day. The other week I beat him for the first time since I have been stalking his stats, and now I chalked up a second victory. Its a good sign that you have arrived when you start receiving visitors who are top bloggers themselves, and I set myself the small target of reaching stats like Not Saussure receives. Respectable, but not over the top.
About 9 o'clock I took Rocky for his morning walk and we have to cross the normally busy Beverley Road (A1079), and could not believe how deserted it was both ways for as far as I could see. I momentarily thought that it was a Ground Hog Day situation and that it was a Sunday, but I remembered that that was yesterday. Spooky. Pearson Park was also deserted. I was trying to figure out why everything was so still. I thought, perhaps something untoward had happened last night and that I was the only person left on earth. True the weather had suddenly turned chilly and I had to put the heating back on.
Princess Avenue had signs of life, a few people and cars were about, still it appeared pretty much dead. Shops had shutters down. The local butcher was closed and the notice on the door said it opened Monday to Satuday 8-5, and it was gone 9 on a Monday morning and it was still shut. Perhaps, it's a Bank Holiday Monday, I thought. Sainsbury's was open and the staff in there confirmed that it was in deed a holiday. I could put my mind at rest as that had solved the mystery. Then I remembered that last week I had received a letter from the DWP informing me that I would receive my money early because of a holiday. I remember that I had checked the dates and thought that the letter was late in arriving, and put it out of my mind. Then I thought that I would just go and check the cashpoint across the road to see if there was any money in my account. Lo and behold, there was £150! That's nice as I was down to my last tenner.
Adventure over, a bacon sandwich a cup of coffee and back to the computer.
UPDATE: I was looking for a picture to go with this story and simply typed Ghost Town into Google and was directed to this brilliant site. Check it out.
Another update: Just discovered why my stats went crazy, somebody posted a link to me on the Daily Mirror online forum.
