You know how they say some days you’re the windscreen, some days you’re the bug? For instance, on some days I seriously have to ask myself what insanity gripped me when I started to blog. As it is, I complain constantly to Nick about how there are too few hours in the day – how I would love to have more time to go to gym, get my photographs out of envelopes & boxes and displayed in an album, take a photography course, bake more stuff, practise yoga etc etc. So it was an interesting choice of leisure pursuit – something which will take even MORE of my already-lacking time. And then you spend an eternity squeezing out a post – thinking up a topic, taking & editing the pictures, writing and re-writing the text, researching and adding the links… and nothing happens!! No comments, no noticeable increase in traffic, a big fat nothing. And then I ask myself “are you possessed?? Find another hobby!! NOBODY CARES!”. Those days, I’m the bug.
But then along comes a day like last Friday and *oh man*, I’m the windscreen. It started off with my remembering, on the train at lunchtime en route to do some shopping, that today was PD (publication day). Let me explain. Sometime in November I had an e-mail from a reporter who explained that she was doing an article on European food blogs and would I be available for a telephone interview in the near future. Being of the school of thought that any publicity is good publicity, I agreed and a couple of days later we had the interview. Publication was due to take place in December but was delayed until January. I had almost forgotten about it, what with all the dramas of Christmas, but an e-mail from the reporter reminded me that the 6th was the day. So off I went to the newsagents and bought a copy of the Wall Street Journal Europe and stood in the shop eagerly leafing through it – and there on page 17 of the Weekend Journal was the blogging article! (The article is available online, but only to subscribers 🙁 If you happen to be one of those, here is the link) It mentions me, Tim, Anne, Clotilde, Jarrett and Tana, and I was thrilled to be mentioned in such good company. Plus I got to call home and tell my dad “hey, guess what, I was in the Wall Street Journal!” ;-).
But it got better. I was also alerted by Christina to the fact that Cooksister got a mention in the Feb 2006 edition of Olive Magazine – so of course I had to go out and buy that too. What I found was that I was one of their top 5 food bloggers, as chosen by Tim Hayward. Tim is one of the people whose writing I respect and admire the most (hell, I wish I’d written some of his stuff!) so to be selected by him was a huge compliment and I was well chuffed. Also included in his top 5 were bloggers Johanna and Pim.
And now that I’m thinking & writing about it, I also never mentioned that back in August I was alerted by not one but two friends to the fact that Cooksister was mentioned as winner of a South African Blog Award in an article published in South African Express’ in-flight magazine. I never got to see the article myself, but my friend Craig blogged it here and the post includes a link to a scan of the article if you’re interested. Oh yes, and Anthony very kindly took it upon himself to mention Cooksister in most complimentary terms in an article he wrote for Spice magazine, the recently launched (and may I add very high quality) quarterly publication about the western Australian foodie scene. Thanks, Spicey!
So yes, every once in a while, I get to be the windscreen. Put the top down, baby, and let’s ride! 😉