The 7 Link Challenge

The 7 Link Challenge is a piece of interweb genius that originates with Problogger. And, my lord, is it challenging.

The aim? To find six posts from your back catalogue, and one from someone else’s, in seven different categories, and expose to the light of day some of the good stuff that otherwise just lurks in your archives. Here goes…

Your first post?
Well, this one is easy. Having decided to travel the world with the nipper and blog about it, I sat down 48 hours before our flight, surrounded by binbags and, well, plastic crap, set up a blog and wrote: On Binbags and Plastic Crap.

A post you enjoyed writing the most?
This was a very simple story about a guy I met in a guesthouse in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. One of those posts that almost write themselves, with a clear beginning and an end, all hung around a phrase he used: “I arranged his tryst“.

A post which had a great discussion?
When Z’s father came out to travel with us in Vietnam, I wrote a funny, yet personal, piece, about the challenges of travelling with your son’s father when you’re not, in fact, a couple. It brought a few very surprising and personal responses which were great to have: Madam, Your Husband… I also love the contrasting responses I’ve had from women and men on this sort of observational piece about dating in Asia.

A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written?
Not Drowning, Mothering is wet-your-knickers funny. And in this post she writes absolutely hilariously about, well, a broken deep freezer. From a travel perspective, Legal Nomads on Post-Asia Reverse Culture Shock really hit the nail on the head.

Your most helpful post?
I really do intend to do more helpful pieces. Having travelled with junior since he was a baby, and done it longterm for the big end of a year and counting, I am, honestly, a mine of information on travel with children. But my most actively helpful piece to date is ten tips on how to tell you’re about to be scammed in Thailand.

A post with a title that you are proud of?
Putting the Graphic into Ethnographic. About, among other things, some very, well, graphic displays at the Ethnographic Museum in Hanoi.

A post that you wish more people had read?
Tree, Not Try. This is a heartrending story of the Cambodian genocide, as told to me and the nine-year-old by the guy who lived it. One of the reasons we travel is to learn from others and we learnt a great deal from his story of loss, survival and redemption.

If you feel up for the 7 Link Challenge — or have taken it already — please drop me a link in the comments section. It’s a great meme.