He's really happy about something. It's not a big thing but he's happy about it.
Because this is the 100th post on his blog. 100 posts. He is enjoying that immensely. We might not even get a post written because he's so happy about it.
Now you might be confused at this point. Wasn't it just a fortnight ago that Blob was writing his fiftieth post and celebrating his little jubilee? You might be wondering that. You would be correct. Fourteen days ago Blob was celebrating that milestone.
And today, fourteen days on, he is celebrating his 100th post. He's written fourteen more posts and now the total is 100 and he's currently bouncing up and down on the sofa so much that if he was a heavy human rather than a lightweight soft toy the sofa would be totally wrecked.
100 posts. Wow.
At least, it's 100 posts in base 8. Blob Thing doesn't always want to count in decimal. In base 4 this is his 1000th post. And in binary it's his 100,000th post.
Most people will of course not care in the slightest about that. But Blob Thing cares. Perhaps he cares too much. Most people count in decimal because - at least that's the story - they have ten fingers to count on. The Babylonians used base 60 because they had sixty fingers each. No Blob. That's not right. And The Simpsons and other animated people count in base 8, octal, because they have eight fingers each. No Blob. That's not right either. They still use decimal unless there's a counting joke written into the script. Blob says that The Simpsons should use base 8. He says that if his person were Marge Simpson she would be wildly celebrating his 100th blog post too.
[But I'm not Marge Simpson am I? I'm not an animated character written by one person, drawn by another and with the voice of yet another. At least, I don't think I am? I don't feel like a cartoon. This might all be a bizarre dream. But it's definitely not a cartoon. And within the dream I have ten fingers to type with so I can't be Marge Simpson. Anyway, my hair is not blue and it isn't several feet tall. It'll never be that tall. But it might look good if it was blue. It would match my clothes today. Point is, I'm not Marge. I'm still happy for Blob but I'm not wildly celebrating. He does look funny though bouncing around like that.]
Blob says his person should shut up now. He wants to get on with telling you about his next adventure. Especially as most readers may have been more than a bit confused by everything she just said. Perhaps even slightly confused by his insistence that his 64th post is his 100th. Right. Focus now Blob Thing. Talk about your adventure.
He was having a very good surprise day with the people from Sunderland who were walking for refugees. Blob had been expecting to go to a rally for refugees that evening. Spending a day with refugees and their friends was a completely unexpected bonus. And now here he was walking all the way to North Shields.
The walkers had enjoyed their little break and Blob's person had enjoyed the thought of walking without a rucksack. Now they had to continue walking. The path soon left the road and stayed very close to the sea. There were some beaches on the way and at the flat area at the top of one of them there was an amazing stone labyrinth. Blob wished that he could have had more time to go and explore.
The church minister leading the walk told him about some amazing sea caves under the cliffs and Blob wants to go there too - being very careful not to get cut off by the tide. The minister said that nobody should go there alone in case anything happened. Blob thinks that's okay because he would be going with his person so he wouldn't be alone and he would probably have his sister with him too. All good. Blob's person says that's not quite what the minister meant and that ideally two or more humans should go there. Blob's person would be able to help Blob if he fell and got into trouble. But what would Blob do if his person got into trouble under the cliffs? How would he call for help? Blob admits that his person has a point.
Parts of the walk felt quite rugged to Blob and he was glad that he had all his best clothes for walking. It must be admitted that Blob only has one dress. But it is his best one for walking in and if he had feet then he's sure that they would be totally comfortable in that dress no matter how far he had to walk. His pink bottom doesn't get sore - except perhaps when prickled by plants - so his imaginary feet would be fine too.
The path opened out and the green grass got greener and the weather was wonderful. The day was perfect. And there in the distance Blob could see a building of some kind, rising out from the ground. It was a tower with red and white stripes. Whoever would build a tower of stripes? Unless they were building it out of play bricks like a small child. Or like an adult who has always thought they were too adult to play with bricks and then finds they monopolise the bricks belonging to the child so the child has to go off and play with a toy duck.
Blob got closer and closer to the red and white tower. He didn't know what it was. It seemed a funny thing. When Blob got very close to it Blob's person told him that this was a lighthouse. Souter Lighthouse. He learned that it had been built to warn ships where the coast was so that they wouldn't crash into it and that this stretch of coast was historically among the most dangerous in Britain. Later the internet told him that there were an average of forty-four shipwrecks for every mile of coast. Blob Thing is amazed. That's one shipwreck every 36 1/2 metres. A lot of wrecked ships.
Here's Blob outside the lighthouse.
And here's a picture that makes Blob Thing laugh and laugh. This is his person. Outside the lighthouse. It was a little bit windy and his person is totally terrible at remembering to carry anything that could tie her hair into place. That day she had actually remembered to do it. But then had left the hair tie in her rucksack. Blob finds it so funny. Her hair got so messy and she complained so much afterwards when brushing it. [Blob needs to stop laughing so much now so he can finish his post. I'm putting a lot of work into typing his blog for him. He should stop laughing at me so much. Unless he wants to type his own blog. Okay, so it was quite funny, I admit it. But it wasn't that funny.]
Blob wants to go back to Souter. He didn't have time to explore inside the lighthouse because the walk was long and North Shields was still far away. He wants to see inside. He also knows that Blob's person has been to another lighthouse this year, St. Mary's, and he wants to climb to the very top of that one. Now that he knows what lighthouses are he thinks they're amazing. He also wants to visit holy wells. He read his person's blog yesterday and it talked about a well. And his sister is named after a saint from a well. Saint Winefride. A good name. Winefride.
Blob Thing has decided that he needs to have a new name. He just doesn't know what it should be. His person says that there's no rush and it took The Doctor in Star Trek Voyager several seasons to choose a name and he still didn't manage to find one that suited him. Blob Thing wants a name though. He is a very dignified soft toy except when he's bouncing around enough to break sofas and a dignified toy needs a dignified name. Blob Thing is not dignified. Not at all. Blob's person says that he can choose himself a name and can even change it later if he wants. After all, she changed her name.
After eating a lunch provided by the organisers of the walk, Blob and his person continued on the route back to the north. They looked back once at the lighthouse. Adventuring inside could wait for another day. Blob believes that he has many days of adventuring to look forward to.
The walk ahead looked good. Blob hoped that he would be able to manage the rest of the journey. Without help. He was glad to be with his person because he knows that if he gets too tired she is happy to carry him some of the way. In fact she now has a bag she bought especially to carry him in on a walk. She has a problem now though. What if Winefride wants to come on an adventure too? The bag is only big enough for one soft toy. She does have another bag that fits two toys but it's not ideal for a long hike. Blob says that his person needs to remedy this problem very soon. He doesn't want to go back to riding in her rucksack all the time and doesn't want Winefride to have to ride there all the time either. It's too easy for his person to forget him if he's there. Too easy for it to be a day when she is out adventuring and Blob doesn't get to see a thing. Blob doesn't want that for himself. And the thought of it happening to Winefride is almost heartbreaking.
Blob was happy. The day was brilliant. The people were brilliant. The lunch had been great. And he knew that there would be more adventures for the afternoon. He just didn't know what they were yet. North Shields was just a name. He thought they were all walking in the right direction. The minister said they were and Blob believed him. But he didn't know quite what North Shields was and he couldn't have imagined that later in the day he would not only have his first ever ride on a boat but he would get to fight with a dragon. Blob's day was about to get even better.
[1782 words]
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