I’m not one for marking such occasions (or for admitting that I do), but yesterday I made my 200th post at Global Voices. I had no idea when I was doing it, but it turns out that my 200th post linked to Nicholas, which is more than appropriate, as Nicholas, I’ve come to realise, is my blogging foil.

We’re often in the same place at the same time, usually because we’ve gone there together. In most cases I’m wielding a microphone and/or camera while he scribbles in his Moleskine (though more and more these days his tiny silver camera makes appearances). I’d say he’s the substance to my style, if that did not give the erroneous impression of a lack of style on his part and a surfeit of it on my own, but we’ve come up with a few striking multimedia set-pieces in our time, notably on the subject of Trinidad & Tobago’s World Cup qualification celebrations (print|audio) and, more recently, the 3canal Show (photos|print).

Yesterday, however, I missed accompanying Nicholas to the Hosay celebrations in St. James, and he’s written a beautiful description of the event which I have to say fills me with almost as much envy as my 3canal photos did him! My higher self, however, is always overjoyed to see a blog post from Nicholas, as he never fails to cover his subject so well and so thoroughly that that I feel no obligation to do anything but piggyback on his talent — in true Trini style — by linking to it either here or on Global Voices. I’d sort of promised in these pages, for instance, to write about Minshall, but now I don’t have to, because Nicholas has.

It occurs to me that Nicholas was also present on the other occasion whose anniversary I’m now realizing I’ve missed: the recording of the first CFR podcast on February 4, 2005. (I’d forgotten, in fact, what a ridiculously short Carnival season we had last year). There’s an image imprinted on my brain of him wedged between a desk and maybe a fridge in 3canal’s madhouse of an office on Carnival Friday, trying to make himself as small and inconspicuous as possible so as not to be jostled, or more like crushed, by the hordes pouring in to collect jouvay costumes, t-shirts or, in many cases, Carnival Friday vibes.

But podcasters tend to celebrate the anniversary of the release of their first show, rather than the recording, and I’ll still have a chance to do the former in ten days’ time. But I’m still sorry I missed CFR’s real first birthday.