Sunday, July 19, 2009

The Sunday Roast

This Talented Grand Dame Brings Us Deja View

This week's interview is with Moannie,
who writes the blog The View From This End.


Here's the first of the standard questions. Why do you blog?

When I was about ten years old I went to spend some time with my Aunt Margaret and Unca Harold. He was a lovely man, big and bluff and happy. When he wasn’t smiling he was laughing. His hands were large, the finger tips square, the skin scarred from his work as a tool maker. On the landing at the top of the stairs, in a corner against a wall was a ham radio and, every evening after supper Unca Harold would sit in front of this, to me, massive machine and those large square fingers would turn dials infinitesimally until, emerging from the crackling static would come a voice, from Africa or America or Australia with their call sign and a brief conversation would ensue, fading sometimes so that he had to move the dial a millimetre and the disembodied voice would return in time to say "’til next time Harold, over and out."

He was linking around the world, to people he would never meet, hearing brief snippets of their lives and sharing his own. Linking. This is what we do in the wonderful infinite space of the Blog Abyss. And my own fat fingers tap my way into the lives of so many people around the world and they are welcomed into mine.

What is the story behind your blog name?

I had no name as I wrote my very first post on being reminded, by the death of yet another friend, of the fragility of my own mortality. I ended the piece saying that I had no intention of going just yet and that meanwhile I would ruminate on "the view from this end" of life, and that was it. Moannie is of course short for Mollyanne.

What is the best thing about being a blogger?

I am sure that blogging means different things to each of us-for me it is the fact that whatever I write may touch another person. And every day I am moved, amused and sometimes maddened by posts I read.

What key advice would you give to a newbie blogger?

I am hardly an old hand myself, barely a year has passed since I first ventured a comment, but the advice I read in just about every Sunday Roast is to read as many posts as you can-and comment too, we all love to receive comments. One day you will read a post that inspires you to write one of your own ... and you are off and running. Don’t badger anyone to "come and visit you"; if you have written a comment that is friendly, witty, apt and interesting, the blogger will return the visit.

What is the most significant post you have ever read?

Everyone seems to have trouble with this one, don’t they? There are so many I cannot list them all. Saz at Fat, Frumpy And Fifty of course, as it was she who set me on this path; You, David, are our ferret hound; Suldog who is even better than he thinks he is; Erin who is the Woman In A Window whose writing is a wonder to behold; Halo at Beautiful Spectrum is bitter-sweet, Lime at House Of Lime, well, I "heart" her ... there, you see, I knew I shouldn’t have done that ... I have left out so many.

What is the most significant post you have written?

Papa, Can You Hear Me?, simply because ...? Because I am now quite old and he died seventy two years ago and I cannot think of him, of what I have missed, still miss, without that old familiar lump in my throat.

Thank you David for this honour, it has taken me an age to write.


Today's Sunday Roast with Moannie is the 76th in a weekly series of interviews with bloggers from around the world.

22 comments:

Maggie May said...

Oh how delightful to see my fellow blogger Moanie, who's work I hold in high esteem.
She looks lovely and the pretty name Mollyanne is very unusual.
Always good to see someone I *know*!
Good interview. I enjoyed it!

smittenbybritain said...

Please don't take this wrong way because I regard people older than me as being much wiser and worthy of honor for all the experience they have. I think it's great to find older (as in age) bloggers on the blogosphere. You prove that it's just not for the young but for the young at heart as well. Congratulations!

smittenbybritain said...

Oh, I forgot to add that you look fantastic!

Everyday Goddess said...

I am so pleased to meet Moannie. I'm going over to her blog to read more!

Btw, I have scheduled a post to come out on Sunday asking for the top 3 reasons why people choose to blog. We must be on a similar wavelength. :)

Maureen said...

Ah what a lovely interview. Love the story of your uncle and his ham radio; what a great analogy to today's blogging!

Yay! I now have yet another blog to go and visit!

Akelamalu said...

What a lovely interview and a new blog to me, so I'm off there for a visit. :)

Brian Miller said...

wonderful interivew and great analogy with the ham radio. my uncle was the same way and i remember many a christmas eve talking with the jolly man in red...oh well. have a wonderful weekend, both of you.

Susan English Mason said...

I love Moanie's blog! I had no idea Moanie is short for Mollyanne. I agree with the advice to new bloggers. I love the rush I get when I read a post that inspires me.

Hilary said...

Moannie, so good to see you here. You're one of my absolute favourite bloggers. You never fail to make me think.. and feel. And geesh.. you're absolutely beautiful!... inside and out.

Saz said...

well of course I am biased, and as by now most people in the particular 'snowflake' within the ice storm that is blogland,which I seem to catch a ride on....most seem to have caught on one way or another that Moannie is my Mum!

So happy that you and I have now been honoured by David on his Roasting session.

ANd Moannie that was a great read, ahh great Uncle Harold! he was lovely wasn't he, not a mean bone in his body!

You sure look real perty in this lovely photo!

Enjoy your day!!

FFF x

Anonymous said...

What a lovely interview. Moannie is one of my favourite bloggers and I have to say, the picture of her is beautiful.

CJ xx

Ayak said...

What a lovely interview...and Im off to look at Moannie's blog now. So many blogs...so little time!

Lori ann said...

Great interview David, it's fun to read these and meet new people, Hi Moanie!

Janie said...

I love Moannie's stories. It's a delight to learn more of the person behind the posts.

Anonymous said...

Dear David, thank you so much for this honour, I was worried, but it turned out ok after all, I think.

lime said...

moannie is such a treasure and i am so glad to have found her sometime ago. i just loved hearing her story about unca harold and the ham radio. i have often mentioned pen pals from around the world as a parallel and a defense of having friendships with "faceless" people but the ham radio thing is even more apt.

lime said...

oh and i really must thank her for the kind words to me. i'm blushing. thanks!

Thumbelina said...

One of the most beautiful, gentle and far reaching of these interviews I have read. I heard her voice in there. I know I did. Must go and tell her...
(She is a fabulous blogger)

Leslie: said...

I think "Papa, Can you hear me?" was the first post I read from Moannie. I immediately added her to my blogroll because her writing sent shivers down my spine. If anyone hasn't read her yet, they simply MUST go over and introduce themselves!

introspection said...

Beautiful, beautiful interview with Moanie. So insightful too. Thanks David and Hi Moanie. Glad to have found yet another great blogger. I am off to read your blog.
Cheers...!!

Shrinky said...

Ah, what a super interview, Moannie is one of my favourite bloggers to visit, and what great answers she gave in here, too!

Cynthia Pittmann said...

David, I enjoyed your "Sunday Roast" feature so much but especially when you highlight some of the blogs I regularly visit but also when you introduce new blog places for me to discover.

It's astounding how your simple direct questions bring out information I never knew, such as where Moannie-the name-comes from. I know it's silly but it has been perplexing me for a long time.I wondered if it had a special meaning and why it was spelled with two "n"s.

Her current post about PACO (her computer)resonated with me too, because recently,I had to send my computer to the tech-doctor, for the same problem. I was glad to learn about the genesis of her blog name too.

David, thanks for hosting this interview series.