My 7 Links: It’s Payback Time

Almost a year ago we were in Malaysian Borneo — somewhere up the Batang Rejang, as I recall — and I joined in a sort of blogger chain letter, the 7 link challenge.

And now — oh my, how time flies when you’re travelling! — the blogosphere is alight with a second round – in a slightly different format.

What’s the deal?

Well, each blogger nominates another five bloggers to dredge up seven undiscovered gems from their archive. And then that blogger nominates five more.

And so it goes on, and on, and on.

At least four lovely folk nominated me:

Barbara at the Dropout Diaries, whom I look forward to meeting in Singapore.

Kate at Adventurous Kate, with whom I drank far too many cocktails in Bali.

Dave, at What’s Dave Doing, with whom I look forward to bitching in person at some point.

And Chris, at C Around the World, a rather more expert journo than me who’s also gone all bloggy.

Since then, I’ve been feeling like I’m procrastinating against a hideous essay deadline.

But no longer!

I herewith present seven posts you might well have missed from my back catalogue, according to the sacred rubric of the chain.

My Most Beautiful Post
11 Years, 11 Reasons: Happy Birthday, Blue Dot

I don’t often write about how much I love my son, or how fantastic I think he is. Why? Well, one, that’s the sort of thing that makes the average human being — perhaps especially other parents — want to rip their own arm off and beat themselves over the head with it. And, two, it should be obvious that I do. Anywise, I did here, 11 years to the day after I realized I was pregnant, and, while it might be vomitous, I don’t think it’s vomit-making at all.

My Most Popular Post
7 Practical Things To Do Before You Start Longterm Travel

This is an atypically helpful post, which has proved enduringly popular with silly numbers of people. It’s all about the boring stuff you really should do before you head out into the great wide yonder. Well worth a read if you’re doing it. Quite dull if you’re not, I would have thought. But, clearly, many thousands of folk think not. There truly is no accounting for tastes.

My Most Controversial Post
My Love-Hate Relationship with Australia

As a Brit, I have a complicated relationship with Australia. I feel like it’s ALL OUR FAULT (joking! Erm, sort of…). I wrote this post to try and shake out my feelings on the country, and got some passionate responses — a surprising number from Australians who loathe the same stuff I do, and surprisingly few, though very passionate, from Australians patriotically defending their country. It’s worth a read, and the comments are *brilliant*.

My Most Helpful Post
How To Cross from Indonesia to Timor Leste Overland

There wasn’t a lot of information out there on how to get between Indonesia and East Timor (or Timor Leste) overland when we did it, so I wrote this helpful post to explain how. A must-read if you want to do this trip. If not? Just read between the lines and you’ll realise quite how much I wished someone had explained it first.

A Post Whose Success Surprised
About

Does my About page count as a post? Well, its success surprised me. Notwithstanding the absolutely mental url and its bizarre positioning, thousands of people have read our About page and a few (I learnt the other day when I switched the function on) have shared it with their Facebook friends. It’s a bit more interesting than the usual About page, I guess. In fact, it’s kinda funny.

A Post That Didn’t Get The Attention It Deserved
Scenes from a Forgotten Conflict

Not that many people go to Timor Leste (AKA East Timor or Timor Lorosae). Not that many people, frankly, have even heard of it – it’s one of the world’s newer nations after South Sudan. But I do feel more people should know about the human rights abuses, famine and internecine strife that happened there very recently, and I was surprised there wasn’t more response to this post.

Post That I Am Most Proud Of
One Man And His Dog: Death of a Serial Killer

We trekked a long way into the wilds of the Spice Islands, Indonesia, in search of nomadic hunter-gatherers. On the way I picked up this chilling story of a serial killer and his magic. I’m really proud of the writing here – I think it’s taut, insightful, atmospheric, all the sorts of things good travel writing should be. And, umm, hardly anyone read it, and its solitary comment is one I dredged out of my spam folder so it didn’t look lonesome…

And Now…

My Nominations

This is the bit where I nominate five blogs and pass on the chain, threatening them with digital leprechauns and wifi gypsy’s curses if they do not participate.

You hear me, son?

A Ten Year Old’s Travels

As regular readers might know, my spawn actually has his own blog – two, in fact. This is his current one — he’s ten now, see? He writes extremely well when he can be bothered, which is usually when he has something to complain about. Look out for an extremely grudging and phenomenally terse 7 Links when we’ve finished fighting about it. (I wouldn’t hold your breath.)

ASPIBLOG

My brother, also, has recently started blogging – about his life with Aspergers Syndrome. Tom’s blog gives a lovely insight into life as a cricket-obsessed, bread-making, (very) Aspi chap in rural Norfolk (England). Do stop by and see him. He’s great. And, yeah, we really are from the same womb.

The Heartful Blogger

I don’t know the Heartful Blogger, at all. But I really love her style. She writes very short, beautifully crafted, passionate pieces that transform the mundane activity of taking a pushchair down an escalator during rush-hour into something durable and beautiful. Really, more people should read this chick.

How to Draw Camels

Z, who, like me, is not a fan of camels, refers to Phil Paoletta as “the crazy camel man”. Why should you learn how to draw camels? Because you’re helping cooperatives in Malian villages, taking a walk on the wild side, and getting an insight into modern African lives.

Eastside Curry

Nikki is slow travelling Asia with her husband and three sons: they’re currently in Bali. I like her writing — although she doesn’t post that often, she’s always thoughtful. We both have ten-year-olds called Z, and, despite their very different interests and slightly different first names, they get on great in real life.