Jeezejody: why blog?

Why indeed, gentle readers.... Well, for starters so I can write pompous nonsense like that.

Three good reasons:

1. The truth is I am basically unemployable. There is no job out there for me. Eleven years ago I was a lifestyle journalist for the Evening Standard in London and now I would be hard pressed to find work folding t-shirts at The Gap. I have no skills. I have absolutely no computer skills. I say this without false modesty. For two years, my 12-year-son, Harley, tried to teach me to forward a link. He gave up: I still could not forward a link. My 10 year old son, Jackson, was handed the baton and every day after school he trained me to forward links. Bingo - after just two months, I was forwarding links willy nilly!


2. Being a blogger will get me out of volunteering at my kid's school. Can be a bottomless pit if all four of your kids go to an Oakland Public School (albeit a wonderful one) Endless field trips, writing workshops, teachers, weekly PE run to the lake ? Jody? Three little words: "No time, sorry -I'm a blogger."

3. Like you, I'm incredulous that anyone would want to read about the doings of me, a slothful housewife living in Oakland. But delving into the mommy blogs, I realised there were people reading about other peoples' children's earaches. And good on them. My friend Sue says: "There's no accounting for taste. That's what you've got to count on".

BTW, the picture above shows me on my stairs, heading out to join my friend Anne at the ebullient new Japanese restaurant Kakui in Montclair village in Oakland. Review to come. I'm wearing my jade-coloured knitted possum fur poncho from Sea Breeze in Whakatane, New Zealand. (It's okay, possums are like rats in New Zealand and need to be eradicated). The pendant is paua (abalone) shell from the Ohope Craft Market and stretch striped booties from Sayulita, Mexico , made by a family in San Miguel, amazingly comfy. Jeans by Marc Jacobs.