Glamor Blog 2009
ENI can't believe it. Bubbles Underwater & Beyond is No. 2 in the ranking of 2009 blogs from the magazine Glamourin the "travel" category. What's nice is that it's the Internet users who voted. This allowed me to discover four other very nice blogs of globetrotters, that I invite you to browse.
Starting with Don't be so french, n°1 of the ranking, and definitely more "glamorous" than mine, I have to admit, since it is mostly about fashion, in New York.
My personal favourite is Japan through blue eyes: offbeat, often accurate and quite funny chronicles of daily life in Japan by a young man from Lille who is an expatriate in Tokyo. I'll take the time to go through his interesting and tasty posts at greater length.
Lovers of India will be delighted with these travel books 2006-2008 called The tribulations of Antoine. It's as exotic as you could wish, since it also takes us to Syria, Ethiopia, Kenya or Dubai...
Last but not least, Michel's Around the world in a tricycle: at 61 years old, he has already cycled tens of thousands of kilometers... A blog as amazing as it is endearing. At the moment, he is in Burma (Myanmar) and is heading to Thailand.
Well, on the web page of Glamourthey made a mistake in their little red headline, and marked "Beauty ranking" instead of "Travel ranking". (EDIT-new visit made since: it is corrected!). Don't worry: I'm not going to start writing advertorials about trendy lipsticks or waterproof mascaras...
🙄
Congratulations for this beautiful result !!!!!
Congratulations. Congratulations. You really deserve it. I'm very proud of you. And now, when someone taunts me, I'll reply, “Yes, but I know about the Glamour blog silver medal.”
I looked at the gold medal, a really nice site. It's alert and refreshing. Note that your bubbles for freshness are on the top step.
kiss
😉 It's well deserved, and as far as I'm concerned, you're No. 1!
But if I am objective!
I'll check out the others, thanks for the info!
Oh dear! Thanks to all three.
My ankles have tripled in volume ...
😀
And what do swollen ankles do underwater? I imagine little buoys...
Well, I'm off to see the fourth winner. I liked the 3rd one with its quirky humor.
This ranking only surprises you, Corinne!
Your little bubbles are virtual breaths of fresh air! A big bravo 8)
@ Nono: I'd look fine, I swear, with buoys on my ankles... Pfff! 😛
Otherwise, like me, I really like the tone and humor of #3, Japan through blue eyes.
@ Pit: That's really sweet 😀
Well, I guess I'll just have to start a fan club... 😆
😆
Incredible!!! “Hairy Troll's” subtle remarks don't fall into the “awaiting moderation” message garbage can, unlike those of that other hairy yet hilarious commenter whose name I'll withhold out of the goodness of my heart... 😛
Glad to see you share my crush on the blog of the Lille man in Japan! 😉
Glamoor readers really have no taste.
Put yourself in 2nd place ...
I think it's because of the comments posted by your readers. Are not up to the standard of your articles 😈
NB: The Japan expat blog is excellent.
I laughed a lot when I heard I was “nominated” in the Glamour blog selection. 😡 On the other hand, I didn't know whether to be proud or ashamed. 😳
Anyway, I also discovered your blog there, and although I'm not a diver (more of a climber, in fact) I found it very nice and particularly well done. I'm glad the feeling's mutual. All the best, and let me know if you're coming to dive around the archipelago!
Hi Alex, I'm delighted to discover your little note here 🙂
Well, it's super “glamorous” your blog, nothing to be ashamed of, you have to assume!!!! 😆
I've started wandering around it, and I've been laughing all by myself behind my screen as I read your posts. I loved the Japanese manual for learning French (so romantic), the predator in the shopping mall, and this very Japanese taste for big tails (hey, hey, with a sentence like that, I don't dare imagine the Google queries that will soon pop up). 😆
Thanks for the compliments, anyway. For climbers, there are some famous spots in Thailand, near Ao Nang (Railey East and West beaches, in the Krabi region). On the other hand, I don't know much about diving spots in Japan. If I go there one day, I don't think it will be to dive, but rather to discover the strange habits you describe so finely...
Good luck too, and enjoy reading!
🙄
@FunnyWorld: Thanks!!! But you know how I feel about press conferences... 😛
One word! BRAVO. When will the sunlights and press conf. Biz 😀
Glamorous! I've always said it!
It's well deserved. And it's good that “real” journalists are recognized 😉
You must be working like crazy: your site has grown magnificently, not to mention the steady stream of posts. I don't mean that blogging feeds the man (or woman...).
So, we're into flash banners? Mmmm?
Well, since your site takes 31 seconds to load and the average user fatigue is set at 7 seconds, you know what you have to do? 😆
Suffering from the same ailments, I've been in the middle of it for a while and it's as annoying as it sounds... 🙁
Thank you Francis! 🙂
I haven't been blasting away like crazy lately, in fact I've been taking it easy on the blog these days, since I had the “real” job (the one that feeds the wife and pays the rent) to take care of... I feed and enrich Petites Bulles d'Ailleurs more when I fall asleep in the wee hours of the night (but I know someone else who does the same with his blogueneries).
😉
For the banner, as I was unable to choose a visual and was fed up with being mocked by Alimata, I finally settled on this solution, which I've been using for a long time now on my other site Notebooks of Southeast Asia (but I saw that the changing banner in flash now has your favor too! 🙄 ) For now, it suits me fine and it definitely fits the blog's theme better. 8)
The script I'm using is fairly light, so it's not the one that slows down the page the most. In fact, I have the impression that what slows down the display of WordPress blogs is mainly the plugin and theme scripts. So I've already restricted my plugins to those I really need, and got rid of the “gadgets”.
I find the Bloguen particularly long to load (more than Petites Bulles d'Ailleurs 😛 ), since you gave it a makeover: the whole “skin” takes a long time to appear. Like you, I've tested the display speed of my pages on dedicated sites, and so far I've been pleased with myself, because I've been getting less than 10 seconds (where do you get this 31 seconds from???) 😯
But it all depends on many other parameters, including connection type and browser (between IE and FF or Safari, for example, it's amazing the difference) ❗
I think I'll try to lighten my loading time a bit:
- reducing the number of posts on the home page (my theme's script automatically reduces each image to a thumbnail, which means fewer requests)
- by removing the videos on the side (this also kills display performance)
Too bad, I'm going to sacrifice the “visual” side I like to speed.
If not, have you tested a plugin like “Super cache” that creates pages in Html to cache them, which avoids restarting php requests each time? I'm hesitant to use this thing. It seems a bit of a gas factory.
Good luck with the Bloguen optimization!!! 😀
Congratulations on this demonstration of “glamouritude” 🙂
A fine accolade, especially from a reference in the field.
I came across your blog by chance, I'm not disappointed with the trip and will repeat the experience.
If, by any chance, you happen to wander onto mine, you'll see a new mag’ won't be long in coming.
Competition for good old Glamour?
Mareen.
@Mareen: Thank you for your note. I feel a long way from “glamour” to tell the truth, but it's still nice to have been selected in this “ranking”. I'll have a look at your blog when I get back, as connections are a bit slow on Koh Lipe.
😉
It's a reward that must encourage you to continue this blog 😀
@druide trip: Yes, indeed! 🙂