It’s hard to know exactly what to make of the review. At first 3 out of 5 seems disappointingly low but the site has pretty high standards (the big pro US magazines average around 3.5 an issue) so three doesn’t seem too bad a score. And you can’t really argue with the summary (well, I could but it would ruin the ending).

Somewhere in the middle of that my contributions to Illuminations also took a bit of a kicking (well most of my favourites did anyway) – I’m not complaining about the review, just noting that this week I’ve had the tendency to focus on the negative.

So, I’m still croaking from this chest infection, but back to work today and some nice news… Douglas Hoffman has reviewed “Home Protection” on The Fix and liked it

I know one is supposed to take these things with equanimity – but it’s always nicer to get a positive word. I wrote “Home Protection” a long time ago (maybe three years?) and looking at it now all I see are the things I’d like to change but I’ve always liked the idea at the heart of the story and it’s nice that some new eyes saw it and appreciated it.

More soon.

Well, it has been selected for the final vote over at Mark A Rayner’s site.

Now I’m not suggesting that everyone who reads this should rush over here and vote for my creation just so I can win – oh no, that would be cheap and below my dignity (and yours) – but I recommend that everyone should go and look at my fellow finalists (!) in the competition because the other entrants are just so darned clever… Then you should vote for me just so I can win!

I’m in a final… I’m in a final… I’m in a final (dances around singing in an annoying little kid/Eddie Murphy voice)

Which explains why I’ve been looking at my blog statistics (Ian Whates is still waiting on those film reviews I promised him a fortnight ago…)

More specifically I was looking at the countries of the top level domains of the people (and bots) who have visited the blog since January (and I want to review Quercus One: The West Pier Gazette here…)

So “hi!” to the usual suspects (you .com and .net robots – and few humans) – but “hi!” too to my plucky following from the Czech Republic and Israel (assuming, that is, that it isn’t the secret services in both nations still keeping an eye on me – let it go guys, it was a long time ago!). Bonjour to our French friends, hola! to the Spanish and ciao! to our Italian visitors (big fan of Florence, love what you guys have done to that place!).

A big shout out to Moldova, Poland and Switzerland. G’day and kia ora to our anitpodean friends in Australia and New Zealand (do Kiwis ever really say kia ora?). A hearty hello to our German, Dutch, Swedish, Austrian and Canadian contingents. And, to the happy few from Brazil, Japan, Latvia, South Africa, Norway, China (really?), Finland, Taiwan (that’ll put pay to the Chinese visits), Lithuania and Mexico, welcome.

Since the beginning of the year I’ve also had single hits from Bulgaria (I’m a big fan of Potev Plovdiv FC!), Andorra, Egypt, Greece, Croatia, India, Morocco, Malaysia, Russia and the Slovak Republic (it seems I’m much more popular in the Czech bit of the old Czechoslovakia, I wonder why?)

We even have occasional callers from Argentina, Thailand (love your food) and my favourite country in the world – Costa Rica (honestly, I know I’ve never been – but you should study the history of the place – the most liberal nation in Central America – a fantastic history of social reform, no standing military, the highest literacy rates in the region, traditionally a peacemaker, a beacon for decent government and some of the most astonishingly benign dictators in history. If I was going to get appointed as the benevolent dictator of anywhere, it would be Costa Rica – that’s a country that’s got things sussed. Buy me a beer sometime and mention Costa Rica to me, I can go on for hours, it’s hilarious!)

I’ve no idea what brought these travellers to my door, nor what they made of it when they got here, but come on in, sit a while, would you like a cup of tea? A biscuit? Ah go on. You will now. Go on.

Now excuse me while I pop off and write some reviews…

That brightened up my day, I can tell you.