a word of explanation








as some of you will know, web hosting comes with a monthly allocation of data transfer - generally referred to as a 'bandwidth allowance'. mine's 10,000mb per month, which is usually far more than I need for the amount of traffic I get. this month, however, there was a tremendous spike of traffic (fifty-fold more hits than usual) a couple of weeks ago when I got linked-to by a very big portal - which is nice, except it's finally bust my bandwidth allowance. I have a choice either to buy more bandwidth (which is expensive) or bite the bullet and wait five days until the new month begins with a new monthly allowance. obviously, if this were a commercial site I'd have chosen the former, but as it isn't, I'm opting for the latter. I suspect that huge spike will prove to have been a one-off thing - the new-kid-on-the-block syndrome - and that the traffic will have tailed off now to something more like what my usual allowance can handle. obviously, if this happens again, I'll have to rethink.

meanwhile, apologies to my loyal visitors (both of you) and to those who were directed to the rhino from that major portal and were clued-up enough to discover that this is the back entrance - come back next Saturday when all should be back to normal.