{"id":5359,"date":"2010-06-13T09:39:51","date_gmt":"2010-06-13T07:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.breigh.com\/wordpress\/?p=5359"},"modified":"2011-01-24T22:08:14","modified_gmt":"2011-01-24T20:08:14","slug":"tag-im-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/archives\/5359","title":{"rendered":"Tag, I’m It!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every once in a while blog awards and memes go around and this is one of those days!\u00a0 This week two of my blogging buddies asked me to \u2018pass it on\u2019 so that is what I\u2019m doing.\u00a0 I\u2019ll do one now and one tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"lovely_followers\"<\/a> First, \u00a0Alison from A Flamingo in Utrecht<\/a> named me as one of her most loyal followers.\u00a0 She mentioned that she was finally going to meet me on Saturday, which was last night and meet we did!<\/p>\n

She helped school me on margarita’s<\/a> and cooking flamingos while we ate the most gigantic hamburgers on the face of the earth. \u00a0We also got to hang out with a celebrity! \u00a0More on that later…<\/p>\n

So apparently the way the award works is that you answer a few questions and then pass it on for other people to answer.\u00a0 People that you feel are loyal followers of your blog. \u00a0You know, the usual meme \/ award thing.<\/p>\n

So here goes\u2026\u00a0 I think I\u2019ve answered a lot of these questions on my blog already but maybe my views have changed over the last little while, so I\u2019ll give it a go again.<\/p>\n

1. Why did you start your blog? Did you expect it to become popular?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started my blog because I was lonely.\u00a0 I had already been in the Netherlands for a few years when I started it but I was still struggling quite badly. I needed a place where I could vent freely and get out some of the negative energy so that not so much of it was pouring out in my home.<\/p>\n

I never expected it to be popular at all.\u00a0 I had hoped that there were other expats who would read it, understand and maybe tell me it would get better or offer me friendship, but beyond that I didn\u2019t expect that anyone would be interested.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had a lot of people from all different countries and walks of life visit my blog, and it\u2019s surprising because I must admit I feel like I lead quite a boring life at times.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I\u2019d call my blog popular but it\u2019s been a lot more rewarding than I ever would have expected.\u00a0 I met my best friend when she urged me to meet up after finding my blog, as well as other friends and expats I never would have encountered otherwise.<\/p>\n

2. When exactly did you start your blog?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My first blog entry was May 2, 2004<\/a>, just over 6 years ago.\u00a0 I just laughed out loud here because when I checked the post to see when it was I saw that the very first words I said on this blog were \u201cTHREE MORE SLEEPS TILL I GET OUT OF HOLLAND!!\u201d.\u00a0 I have to laugh because that is SO<\/em> six-years-ago me.\u00a0 I was just about to leave for a holiday in Canada, from which I would return full of hopes and dreams of moving back there.\u00a0 A lot has changed since then. Nowadays when I go home I love seeing my home town, friends and family but by the end of my visit I\u2019m happy to return to my other home here in the Netherlands.\u00a0 Some things haven\u2019t changed though, I still look forward to those Wendy\u2019s burgers and dread the flight in those squishy ass seats!<\/p>\n

3. Who are three of your most loyal followers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am willing to bet that I don\u2019t even know my most loyal followers are there.\u00a0 I often speak to people who tell me they read my blog, but I\u2019ve never seen them comment which causes a bit of surprise when I realize they\u2019ve been reading.\u00a0 Sometimes my husband will tell me that people he knows have said that they read it faithfully, and then I get a bit weirded out.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to see your blog as just your own random little space and forget that there is a whole world out there who may be reading it\u2026 random strangers, old friends, family, maybe the odd ex-boyfriend or two.\u00a0 If only we could get that much info from our blog statistics\u2026 rather than just general areas that our readers come from.<\/p>\n

So I will choose from those that I think visit and comment most often, thanks to my trusty little widget for telling me who they are!\u00a0 You will have to answer these questions too!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll have to skip my most popular commenter, because it\u2019s Alison<\/a>!!\u00a0 The same Alison who had me answer these questions to begin with, so she\u2019s already done it.\u00a0 Still, she deserves a bit of a shout out!<\/p>\n

The next most gabby visitor I have is Sonya<\/a>!\u00a0 An American expat living on the opposite side of the country from me.\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty sure she\u2019s the devil because she bakes a lot of really sinful looking food and then puts photos up on the internet to taunt me.\u00a0 I love her anyway though and after communicating online and not meeting in RL for far too long we will finally be getting together later this month!<\/p>\n

Next is Kara<\/a>!\u00a0 A gal I met randomly when I found her blog and started reading about her life with her family in the Yukon.\u00a0 We have a lot in common, I\u2019m a Cape Bretoner, she\u2019s married to one\u2026 we are both trying to lose weight\u2026 she has really cute kids and loves taking photos of them, I like looking at those photos.\u00a0 You get my point.\u00a0 Chances of meeting are pretty slim at the moment as I don\u2019t think we have any plans to visit the Yukon (although I\u2019d TOTALLY move there if it were possible, call me crazy!) and I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll be coming to NL\u2026 but perhaps one day our visits to Cape Breton will coincide and we\u2019ll get together and chat over some Timmies<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Next on my chatterbox list is Gaby, but unfortunately she doesn\u2019t have a blog\u2026 or if she does, she never links to it so I can\u2019t really ask her to return the favor on this one.\u00a0 Like Alison though \u2013 SHOUT OUT! :)<\/p>\n

Oh lordy, that leaves us with none other than the infamous Invader Stu<\/a>, the neighbour I\u2019ve never met even though you could probably throw a stone<\/span> toss a chicken from his house to mine\u2026 if you can really throw. \u00a0Who is also leaving us soon for Amsterdam, BOO! \u00a0Super duper comic maker, boat owner and all around funny guy, dating a super cutie who makes super cute cakes<\/a>.\u00a0 One day I am going to nail them down and force them to meet me, perhaps on the next day I hear that there is cake!<\/p>\n

Getting back to the whole people who visit and never comment thing, I\u2019d love to hear from some of you lurkers. I\u2019m always SO curious who is out there that I don\u2019t know about.\u00a0 If you are someone I don\u2019t know, an old friend, the creepy dude who keeps stalking me on your bike while I walk the dogs, a neighbour, former colleague or any other sort of random person\u2026 l\u2019d love to hear from you.<\/p>\n

If you are some jackass (or non-jackass) ex-boyfriend that reads just because you\u2019re nosy or for entertainment value, I don\u2019t expect that you\u2019ll fess up, but still \u2013 I dare you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every once in a while blog awards and memes go around and this is one of those days!\u00a0 This week two of my blogging buddies asked me to \u2018pass it on\u2019 so that is what I\u2019m doing.\u00a0 I\u2019ll do one now and one tomorrow. First, \u00a0Alison from A Flamingo in Utrecht named me as one …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[153],"tags":[883,878,35,218,554],"class_list":["post-5359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-geek","tag-blog-reviews-and-awards","tag-blog-stuff","tag-friends","tag-memes","tag-sonya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5359"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5362,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5359\/revisions\/5362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}