Greetings from Wayne and 'Grumpychops' Unmasked.

And there I was thinking no-one actually reads this stuff! This blog started out quite innocently, as a simple outlet for whatever I feel the need to write about. While I have tried to write as if to an audience of millions, I presumed that realistically only the occasional 'e-wanderer' would actually stumble on this venue and even less actually find it's contents worth commenting on!

By September 5th 2008, I had received two comments on my blog: the first from my step-daughter and a second from someone who shares my love of rocks and rocky places which were nice to receive. However, the third comment arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning UK time and left me shocked, humbled and inspired in equal measure! On Saturday morning my wife alerted me to a new comment on the blog and urged me to quickly go and have a look at it as she thought I'd be quite excited by it! Hmmm!?! Intriguing!

It was with some surprise that I saw the name 'Wayne Ranney' leap out of my monitor and smack me between the eyes! Now, for the uninitiated, Wayne is the author of the book 'Carving Grand Canyon', a book I've mentioned several times already on this blog. Not just 'a book about Grand Canyon', this book takes a look at the complex theories as to how Grand Canyon was formed and tries to unravel the mysteries surrounding it's formation. In short, a superb book! Now I can only presume that Wayne has simply searched to see who might have his book listed as one of their favourite books in their Blogger profiles and stumbled upon my 'humble blog' that way.

What a small world we now live in eh? Little old me, waffling on about a geology book and then the author, thousands of miles away, visits my blog and leaves a message. It made my day, I must say and you can read Wayne's comments by clicking here.

WOW! It's not just the fact that he visited my blog, but that he's actually read some of it! "thanks for all your fine writing" he said! Crikey!

What more can I add except to repeat my reply to his message. Thanks again Wayne for your kind words. I am now inspired to take my 'humble blog' a lot more seriously and concentrate on the geology theme for the majority of the time. The 'moans and groans' that were the spur to start this blog will be confined to the past!

What did strike me as a bit daft though was the realisation that Wayne Ranney was writing a message to 'Grumpy Chops'! So, maybe it's time to lose my anonymity, at least partially and make this blog a bit more personal and friendly? So with that aim in mind, say a big 'Hello' to . . . .

Alyn

There! That wasn't so bad was it? Much more open and approachable than 'Grumpychops' is it not? 'Alyn' is a welsh spelling, courtesy of my welsh mother and has been both a blessing and a curse over the years. I've lost count of the multitude of different (incorrect) spellings of my name that i have been subjected to! Alan, Allan, Allen, Alain, Alun, Alwyn . . . . The list goes on, but Alyn is the name and the one you'll see on this blog from now on!

So that's it for now. Next time we'll be back to geology! Promise!

Cheers for now,

Alyn.