Since my technical daughter Caitriona wired me in to Stat-Counter last February I take a certain voyeuristic satisfaction every so often in peering at these statistics and seeing where the people who read my bits and pieces come from.
As well as recording my “words” pieces the counter tells me who has been reading my recipes (there are 550 of these on my site) and even more satisfyingly which of these recipes these people have been downloading.
I hasten to add that they do not tell me who (at least not in ways I can interpret) but just where they have come from.

Last night’s check reveals that some one in Japan has downloaded my Mussel and Fennel Soup, that there is some one in Texas who has been reading all of my potato recipes –does he want a new way of doing potatoes for a dinner party?- and someone in Sheffield obviously has just bought some Celeriac and is wondering what the hell he is going to do with it.
A family in Canada are possibly even now enjoying my Irish Stew and it is possible that someone in Israel is searching the shops for Cardamom with the intention of making my Cardamom cake.
There is someone in London who is agonising as to whether they will cook my Brown Stew or my Beef Stew with Shallots and there is even some one in the Sonoma Desert who has cooked my “Irish” variation of Huevos Rancheros, Ranchhouse Eggs; I know this because they wrote to tell me!

Fascinating isn’t it!