Category Archives: blogging

A Blogger’s Journey…

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I’ve been blogging now for a couple of years (in fact this is post 150 – hurrah!)  It was a slow start as I wondered what on earth to write about and would anybody read it anyway.  But under the guise of sharing everyday thoughts and moments with my family and friends across the other side of the world, I set off…

Along the way, I’ve checked out a whole lot of blogs. I’ve followed some. Some remain on the list. Others have fallen by the wayside as I learnt what I loved to dip into each day (during my commute) or each week (when I have more time to ponder a post’s particular point of view or wallow in it’s sheer wit/wisdom).  As a result of my last post, I’ve even learned about The Archers (thanks to matthew_in_ham).

I’ve had ‘were we separated at birth?’ moments with fellow expats bloggers (Marmite and Fluff’s Sarcasm for Sale produced one of these).  I think there’s an unerring poignancy and recognition between people who’ve chosen a life away from family and childhood friends and as a result, I feel like I have a small but growing fellowship of like-minded souls.

I’ve even been interviewed on expat blog Seen The Elephant. 

Over the last little while, I’ve been been exploring this whole blogging community thing and have linked my blog to Networked Blogs on Facebook and a site called Expat Blogs.  It’s opened up a whole world of other topics to have my say about.

My most recent discovery is a site called Seeded Buzz and I’ve just been dipping my first tentative toe into the water.  And I found a great post ‘What has blogging taught you?’ that inspired this one…

So what has blogging taught me?

…that the world is a big place…

…that there’s something for everyone in it…

…that everyone loves an audience…

And that I love it!

So thanks to all of you who, through your fan-dom/ follower status/ comments/ secretly-reading-and-resisting-any-public-declaration-of-this, make up the Gidday from the UK peanut gallery and give me an audience. 

When Pants Were Pants…

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As a result of my recent interview on Seen The Elephant, I seem to be tripping over a whole lot of blogs by travellers from all over the place who’ve stopped awhile.  Some posts are interesting, others occur as a little irrelevant.  And there are some that just hit the spot so sweetly I am sure that I must have been separated from the fellow blogger at birth.

This happened today when I read Marmite and Fluff, a blog about an English woman living in Connecticut, and her latest post about the language divide that occurs between your new country and your original homeland. 

Upon arrival in the UK, one of the things that’s hardest to contend with is being misunderstood when you all seem to be speaking the same language in a literal sense.  But as I’m here in the land of self-deprecating wit and ironic understatement, this part of my journey has unfolded with confusion, hilarity and not inconsiderable repartee.  But there is one thing that still mystifies me.

I thought pants would be pants in any English-speaking country but the English begged to differ – oh how misguided I was.  And just I as thought I’d managed to suss the snigger-worthy reference to outerwear as underwear (remembering that when I stood in a puddle, it was my trousers I got wet, not my pants), along came another eclectic English-ism.

It’s pants.

I know.  IT’S NOT EVEN A SENTENCE.

Using it here essentially means that something is rubbish or crap.  Let me illustrate by using it in context.

“The weather is (a bit) pants” is not some reference to climatic undergarments but a statement of disappointment or disapproval, usually when it’s raining, about the condition of the elements.

And I was reminded yet again of its laugh out loud absurdity when, as my Aussie-in-the-UK friend A dropped an “it’s pants” in front of her visiting-from-Oz mother, I giggled at the look of utter confusion on her face.

Marmite and Fluff quoted Sar-chasm as the giant gulf between the sarcastic comment and the person who doesn’t get it.

Personally, I think it’s just all a bit pants…

12 Sleeps To Go…Another Blogger, ex-‘Girt By Sea’ …

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I was getting my weekly ‘Australian Times’ e-letter fix on the bus on the way home tonight when I stumbled across a blog by a fellow expat that made me laugh out loud at her take on the ACRONYMS of the English education system. 

(Not that I am particularly well-versed in these but everyone knows that OFSTED is just another word for ‘wielding a hefty ruler about and threatening to rap naughty schools across the knuckles if they doesn’t behave as they ought to!’)

What made me laugh the most was when she said: 

‘If you’re thinking ‘WTF’, you’re not alone. Acronyms are the bane of my existence, and it doesn’t help that nobody has ever communicated (oh, the irony!) what most of these letters stand for’. 

Classic!!  I’m not even a teacher and this rang absolutely true.  Maybe it’s a test? 

Oh and if you haven’t quite worked out ‘WTF’, you clearly need to use a little expletive imagination.  Come to think of it, maybe that’s an even better test for potential immigrants to the UK – ‘WTF-ness’ happens a lot when you first get here.  And let’s face it, there are times when, if you don’t WTF and laugh, you’d have a bloody good cry!  So pack loads of it if you’re coming over…

Anyway, inspired by this, I read all 12 posts since her UK teaching career began (12 weeks ago).  You may think it sad to read about someone I don’t know but it’s a long ride home and I’ll do anything to while it away particularly if it involves using my new sexy phone…

If you want to check out another Aussie expat’s ramblings, click here and you’ll be there in a jiffy…

And if you haven’t checked out my interview on Seen The Elephant yet, shame on you.  Click here at once!

Yes peeps, it’s still all about me…

The Same Cup…

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I was checking out the blogs I follow earlier today and was stopped in my tracks by  adbroad’s latest post.  Whilst the post actually pays homage to paper-cup salesman, Leslie Buck (you can click on the link and read the article yourself if you want), it wasn’t the story but rather the headline that grabbed my attention.

Before grande there was regular and everyone drank from the same cup

It reminded me of those ‘simpler’ times when we ‘had what we had’ and got on with the business of life rather than moaned about the whys and wherefores of what we have or haven’t got or achieved or experienced compared with everyone else.

It also made me smile at the ‘I want it just so’ attitude that we’ve developed. A mere paper cup would simply never do when life should actually dish it all out on a big silver platter especially designed for each of us. 

But in the end it’s not really about the cup is it…more about how we see the cup (personally I am a half full kinda gal) and what we do with it.  And in wondering what to do with a paper cup, I googled and came across this list of 101 Uses For A Paper Cup.  They’ve only got to 58 so far but here are the three I thought were the most ingenious:

16  A floating thing for a switch on a bilge pump
…because it sounds like the way I would describe something DIY-ish

22  Harley Davidson racing air filter covers in the rain.
…because I don’t know what this is but it sounds clever
 
30  Beach Toilet
…because I’ve been there!
 
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At this point you may be wondering about the random nature of this blog post…and yes, you would be absolutely correct in assuming that I am simply avoiding doing the stuff I really should be doing…so I’ll be off then, before my cup really does runneth over!

Bus-blogging…of sorts

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It has been a gloriously sunny weekend here in SW London and I was out and about on the bus (the No. 65 if you must know) yesterday capturing those blue sky moments lest they disappear.

It all started when I got inspired by the view of Ham Common bathed in sunshine….
…and I’ve always wanted to snap The Original Maids of Honour in Kew…
…and down by the river in Richmond is worthy of a pic anytime.
Did you see the crocuses coming up in the Richmond pic? And I walked past my first daffodils for this year (well they were in someone else’s front garden, but there they were, all hopeful and happy.) 
Spring may have really sprung!

The Centenary Blog…

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So peeps, it’s a special day today and I have to let you in on some exciting news.

THIS IS MY 100th BLOG POST

That’s 100 giddayfromtheuk rants, outpourings and reflections on life…

There have been some ongoing themes and some stand-alone anecdotes, many irreverent witterings and an abundance of passionate opinions…

I’ve shared successes – Definitely Not Leaving, Fotografia Extraordinaria, The Incident Of The Kite In The Tree, All Hail Valley Girl to name a few – and failures (alas the veggie garden is no more)…

There’s even been some getting in touch with ‘the child within’ (Under The Weather, The Happiest Friends On Earth)…

There have moments of humility and gratitude, joy and sorrow as I found new friends and lost others, explored new ideas and questioned my beliefs about love, life and technology…

Who knew there would be so much to say?

So thanks for letting me ‘bend your ear’ for the first 100 and I’m hoping you’ll stay with me for the next 100…

Google Ad(Non)Sense…

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I am perturbed.

A little while ago I decided to give Google Adsense a try and dutifully loaded that little box of Google mystery onto my blog page.

As I added new blog posts, I started to notice that the ads changed depending on what I blogged about (particularly in relation to my tags).  ‘This is quite exciting’, I thought to myself. ‘I am obviously getting the hang of this!’

But recently I have noticed that there seems to be a theme that I don’t understand.  Something that I don’t think I have actually blogged about.  And I am a bit reticent to mention the word in case it gets stuck in my little Google box forever…but here goes….

Dogs.

Yes dogs…or more specifically products for dogs – dog biscuits, dog leads, dog walking even dog vitamins…

I’m confused…

There has also been little progress on my attempts at bus-blogging (see my last post by clicking here)…my mobile email seems to have developed an intermittent allergy to various parts of the journey home…maybe it’s confused too…

Technology…sigh!

A Leap Of Technological Faith…

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My blogger account tells me that I can update my blog posts by email.
I am wondering whether I can really do this because if I could, I could post more often like say on the bus/train to and from work…
…which is quite ironic given my last post (I Am Blogger…Hear Me Now??)
Anyway, I am giving this a try so if things look a little awry of the next few posts (and those of you who get auto-emails of my blog get three versions of the same one), that’ll be why…
The technological relationship between me and my phone usually requires a bit of a leap of faith for me to try stuff…so your support and patience over this difficult time will be appreciated.
Pressing SEND now….

I Am Blogger…Hear Me Now???

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In this brave new world of blogging I find myself in, reading the mental meanderings of those I’ve never actually met (and some that I have!!) passes many an idle hour on the commute to and from work.  One of my faves is ad broad, an ‘age-less’, ad-industry female who claims to be the oldest working writer in advertising – her pithy comments and pointed rantings make me smile…and question…and wonder…and smile again…

Anyhow, I read one of her posts recently – no status update = new status symbol – and it did make me wonder about this societal addiction that has emerged.  Letting everyone know what you are doing at random moments on every available medium and presuming that the ‘world out there’ will be fascinated by this.  

Isn’t this just the ultimate in attention-seeking, diva behaviour? 

There has been this absolute transformation from the parental edict ‘seen and not heard’ that I remember to this kind of cyber-showing off – this urge to have something to say, and be heard, all of the time. 

I wonder about the backlash against this that she blogs about.  Some of my friends have emailed me saying they have closed their Facebook accounts and I’m still wondering about the whole Twitter thing myself (I have a twitter-toe dipped in the water though – you can find me – sporadically – under giddayfromtheuk) but I don’t see this surge to social media and the more, quicker, better race for status-updating technologies that surrounds it abating anytime soon.

I’m not sure where my feelings really lie.  I like Facebook and love blogging and if there are no comments in response to my updates and posts for a period of time, I feel slightly bereft.  And some of my fellow bloggers are thought-provoking, funny, irreverent, inspiring and completely generous in allowing me to peek into their worlds. But I worry a bit about the ‘behaviour’ social media seems to generate – the constant ‘I have something to say/Hear me now!’. 

After all, it’s a big world out there – and who REALLY cares? 

The Absence of Blogging…

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I missed getting to my blog this weekend…not because I forgot or I didn’t want to but all the other things to do and catch up on just got in the way…and before I knew it Sunday was done – and my blog wasn’t…

While there’s an urge to apologise profusely to those of you who wait with baited breath for my snippets of opinion and activity, my bigger urge is frustration and an I-haven’t-blogged-for-a-week restlessness.  It’s addictive, this blogging caper.  I never thought it would ‘be’ me but having writing back in my life has been such a joy.  Sometimes there’s so much stuff happening or so many feelings all at once that I find it hard to choose ‘the snippet’ – although it usually ends up choosing itself as I write – and sometimes there’s an event or opinion or feeling that’s right there, bursting to get out…so get ready for loads of restless creativity and frustrated expression bursting forth!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phew!

Now that’s out, I have room to say ‘really sorry I haven’t blogged peeps’.  I am also delighted to report that I have two official followers (my big half-sister and that bloody trouble-maker from my drinking days in Melbourne) and I’d really love more of you to join my Peanut Gallery of followers, make hay with these two (or not) and heckle (or not) to your heart’s content.

So chop chop…