Category: Blogging

Yes, today is the day and I have to say I’ve really enjoyed preparing for this. So many excellent blogs out there, I had a hard time whittling it down to just five. Eventually I just had to stop myself from clicking anymore links. I think I’ve found five excellent ones though. I tried to find blogs written by people from those countries rather than blogs written by immigrants to that country to get a real global feel. Finding blogs in English was probably the toughest part. Without further ado…

1. Restless Kiwi

Shona blogs from Auckland in New Zealand and describes herself as “A Kiwi girl with wanderlust” which immediately endeared her to me. She’s a journalist which would explain her lovely way with words. Just check out her post today about a phonecall from her landlord’s mother.

2. Gosu

Had to include this photoblog of beautiful images of African landscapes. There’s no information about the photographer on the site that I could find. Just amazing photography.

3. Chayyei Sarah

I wanted to find an Israeli blog that wasn’t a straight political one but which still gave me some insight into what it’s like to be living over there. Quite difficult to do right now which is understandable. Sarah describes herself as “An Orthodox Jewish thirty-something is living,playing, writing, and dating in Jerusalem” and I love her mix of topics. Today’s is a rundown of the childhood tv shows from the 70’s which made me smile.

4. Chookooloonks

Chookooloonks isn’t a blog I had to go looking for, it’s been a favourite of mine for awhile. Karen is “a wife, mother, writer and photographer” and she lives in Trinidad and Tobago. Her photographs are so beautiful it has put T&T on my list of places to see before I die. Excellent blog and far too many nice things to say about it to fit in this little space.

5. The Lost Hawaiian

I love this blog by Josie from Hawaii. Her latest post features a photo of her completing a San Diego Half Marathon and reminiscing about how far she’s come in the past year. I love her honesty and her humour and will be adding this one to my regular blog reads.

Now, I’m off to see what gems everyone else has unearthed…

The 31st of August (I can’t believe that’s just next week!) is one to mark in your Blogging diaries as it’s international Blogday. It’s a day when we’re encouraged to step outside our Blogging comfort zone and go international. From the Blogday site:

In one long moment In August 31st, bloggers from all over the world will post a recommendation of 5 new Blogs, Preferably, Blogs different from their own culture, point of view and attitude. On this day, blog surfers will find themselves leaping and discovering new, unknown Blogs, celebrating the discovery of new people and new bloggers.

So, if you’d like to take part, do a little exploration this week of the blogosphere. On the 31st do a post linking to 5 new blogs with a little introduction to each one. Then leave a comment on those 5 blogs letting the authors know that you have recommended them. If you’re having trouble locating suitable blogs Global Voices is a nifty site to help you find some new bloggers from far-flung places. Or if you already know of a few gems that you’d like to let people know about here’s your chance to get the news out.

If you do take part drop me a comment and let me know, I’d love to see the blogs that people find.

For more instructions go to the Blogday site.

Don’t want to say for sure since these things often fall through, but if you were to tune in to a certain RTE Radio One show tomorrow between, oh, say, 12pm and 1pm, you just might hear a few Irish bloggers chatting about, well…blogging.

Things have gotten hugely busy for me of late. Work is ramping up as a major deadline looms, I’m involved in a couple of fund-raising events for Barretstown and at the end of the week I will be going to England for about three weeks on business. On top of all of that, Eve is now a full-blown toddler with the ability to hone in on all the dangerous and/or fragile items within the first two seconds of entering any room.

So, what do I do? Why take on more projects of course. Daragh McGrath very kindly asked me last week to join in as a contributor on the new Dublin Community Blog and I jumped at the chance. Of course this means I’ll have to actually start leaving my house and seeing what this city has to offer but that’s no bad thing.