Category Archives: LearnerBlogger

On being Liebstered

LearnerBlogger,

27fad-liebster

 

You know those times when you have like 54 unfinished blog posts clogging up your drafts, yet you can’t finish any of them because a)some other dastardly blogger just wrote a post on that exact same topic, and wrote it much better than you ever could, b) you have forgotten what  on earth possessed you to start writing about THAT, or c) they just aren’t going quite right somehow? Welcome to my world, right now!

But – hurrah – help is here in the form of a Triple Whammy Liebster! I’ve been tagged by Anita, the sparkly lady behind Trawlergirl, a lovely blog full of ideas for all sorts of celebrations – which even comes with the completely free ‘Inspiration Board’ service for any event you might be planning! And then the icing on the cake was being tagged by the frankly amazing @mrboosmum , who writes one of my must-read blogs, Premmeditations – a brilliantly written and always engaging record of her life as a Mum to Sissyboo and Boo. Finally the candle on the icing on the cake was a tag from Nicola at Doubtful Mum, who in her own words is ‘ranting, laughing, raving and crying as I go’ – probably explains why I enjoy her blog so much! Thank you all, you lovely ladies!

So – Liebstering for the uninitiated…it’s a great way of shouting about and sharing your favourite blogs. Basically you answer some questions set by the lovely person who tagged you, then you tag some others, who then answer some questions which you dream up. The number of questions varies – I was tagged once before and the magic number was eleven, which is what Trawlergirl has gone for, though Nicola’s done ten and Mr Boo’s Mum has gone for three. I’m going to compromise at nine, because, well, I can only blog with beer and I reckon I can get nine questions answered and another nine made up before I get to the end of my current (last) bottle. Soooo, without further ado, let’s get going!

1. How do you keep your head while all around are losing theirs?

Ha! I’m usually the one losing mine while everyone keeps theirs and looks at me curiously! But my keeping-my-head mechanism is basically to focus on what I can do, right now, and don’t think about what comes after. For example, I am planning a huge house reconstruction project next year. It involves moving out for six months, finding a ridiculous amount of cash, project managing the actual build, and probably (definitely) endless disagreements with the Husband about the aesthetics (I’m very much a slap-on-the-magnolia person myself. Sorry.) All that is to come, and if I thought about it too much, I would run screaming into the distance, absolutely terrified with the enormity of it all. So I’m not allowing myself to think about it. I’m just dealing with the bit I CAN deal with right now, which is working with the architect to get a design we are happy with, and getting that to planning.  Once that’s done, I’ll worry about the next bit. And THEN run screaming into the distance.

2. What do you wish you could know about your future?

I wish, I WISH I knew whether I had done a good enough job with my kids. Good enough so that they are happy, and resilient, and comfortable in their skins, are able to stand up for what they believe is right, and happy, and happy.

3. What do you wish you could tell yourself of 10 years ago?

I wish I could tell myself that I would have three wonderful children, and to stop worrying about when they would decide to come along.

4.If you could only take 3 of your belongings with you to a desert island, which ones would you choose?

Do kids count as belongings? Because I’d take them, for sure. The biggest could hunt and gather, the middlest could entertain me with her stories and games, and the littlest could keep me warm at night with his (fast disappearing) toddler squidginess. If kids aren’t allowed…hmmm. Does the island have wifi? In which case my kindle, my MacBook Air and a radio. No wifi or radio signal? Bugger that for a game of soldiers, I’m staying put!

5. What was or would be your first dance at your wedding?

It was Pulp – Something Changed. It was going to be the Wannadies – You and Me, Always And Forever but the Husband can’t dance, I can’t dance, so we bottled it and went for a slow sort of slooping around sort of one that we couldn’t mess up too badly.

6. Champagne or tea?

Tea. Always. Except if the champagne was beer. Though I’d still need tea, periodically.

7. Why do you blog?

I started to create a record of our family life, but now I’d say I do it because I enjoy it. I find writing weirdly relaxing, and often it helps me work through something in my head. Also I quite enjoy the idea of learning to write properly, so that one day I might write stuff for publication – having the blog gives me the opportunity to practise on you kind folk!

8. What is your worst habit?

Ooooh so many to choose from. There’s the not being able to fart quietly any more (thank the forceps and a large baby for that – I always USED to be able to manage it). There’s the hiding the chocolate in the salad drawer habit, because none of the little sweethearts think to look in there when they’re raiding the fridge. There’s the swearing whilst driving (not at other people I hasten to add, but at myself and my general driving muppetry). But my worst habit? Worse than all the other worst ones? Hmmmm….probably the fact that I overthink everything, ever, to a ridiculous extent. And if I’ve had a couple of beers, I make anyone who’s around me listen to my overthinking out loud, ad infinitum. Never go for a beer with me. It’s soul destroying.

9. Which one word describes you best?

MUPPET!

 

Yay, nine questions and I’m not at the bottom of my beer yet….so it’s time for nine bloggers who I would like to nominate for the highly prestigious Liebster award!

Bad Mummy Diary – this lady tells it like it is. She’s been a bit quiet lately, probably traumatised by Tarquin’s Mum and her frickin’ annoying friends. But I for one am looking forward to her reappearance!

The Secret Divorcee – The lovely lady behind this anonymous blog nearly closed it down when she got outed but thankfully she thought better of it, and simply reopened for business elsewhere. Reflections on motherhood, post divorce relationships and, er, sex in campervans. It was the last bit wot sold it, your honour.

Put Up With Rain – Sometimes heartbreaking, often hilarious and always straight from the heart, I love Put Up With Rain. But please don’t, whatever you so, go to her blog and search for Michael Gove.

Katdesigner – a very new blog from my friend Kat, who has given herself 92 days to become a full time designer and is blogging as she goes. She’s on Day 25 and doing pretty well so far!

Free Falling into 40 –  I free-fell into 40 quite a little while ago, sadly. But it’s always good to know that one is not free falling alone, and that is why I enjoy this blog so much. Also full of top tips on how to nip out and shop for the new season whilst one is supposedly ‘in a meeting’ and other such shopping related skives that would be useful, if I didn’t work in, er, Splott.

Mutteringmummy – I think I’d have fun with mutteringmummy if we ever met. Covering everything from the dark side of twitter to the Dummy Fairy, oh and coming out to her other half (as a BLOGGER, of course) this blog always puts a smile on my face.

Complicated Gorgeousness – A lovely blog by Gabe’s Mum, which has recently featured the truest post in the word, ever – The Forgotten Art of Going Out. Read it, nodding and yessing as you go!

She said this, he said that – I love the concept of this blog, created by @adadcalledspen and @mamapolitico. The latter now has a swish new job, so her pen is being wielded by @pols80 – either way, it’s a win. Head over to read some ‘he said, she said’ adventures by three talented bloggers.

Kate on thin ice – Kate is ‘on a middle aged quest to rediscover her va-va-voom’. Which she has started by getting her kit off on her ‘About Me’ page! Yes REALLY! I’m very much enjoying Kate’s journey from kit-off to sparkly frock, and I think you might like it too…

And finally, my nine questions for the nine Liebstered Ladies! (plus Spencer of course…)

1. What tipped you over the edge from thinking ‘I’d like to blog’ to actually writing your first post?

2. You could be anywhere, right now. Where? And why?

3. Twitter. Love it or hate it?

4. What’s your favourite joke?

5. Are you a shouty stormer-outerer, or a silent sulker?

6. What’s your absolute worst fear?

7. How often you do you cry?

8. Are you superstitious and if so in what way?

9. Which blog post are you most proud of?

 

So, lovely liebsters, I shall look forward to reading your creations one day soon!

 

 

On freebies

LearnerBlogger

The really crap thing about being the wrong side of 40 is that you start to fret about all the stuff you thought you’d do ‘one day’, and haven’t done.

Ok. Scrap that. Deep breath, because today I am going to be POSITIVE.

The really great thing about being the right side of 40 is that you start to think ‘Ok, well, if I’m going to do it one day, that one day might as well be now’.  So a few weeks ago I tidied up the ‘about me’ page on my blog, added the words freelance writer (ha!) to my linked in profile, and started putting feelers out to see if I could find projects that would allow me to stretch my wings and learn, whilst at the same time earning me some extra cash for the kids’ Christmas presents.

I did quite quickly get asked to write a very short piece for a ‘new community magazine’, which I took to mean a locally created publication, perhaps a spinoff from one of the hyperlocal blogs in the area. So I wrote it and sent it off, and was dead chuffed when they came back and said they liked it and would be using it. I didn’t ask for any money, mostly because I’d assumed the magazine was a labour of love for someone.

I was even more chuffed to receive an email this week saying ‘The editor really liked your article, would you like to contribute something to the December issue, perhaps on Christmas?’  Wow! Brilliant, I thought, and had already started to put something together in my head.

I wanted to know a bit more about the magazine, so I scrolled all the way down to the bottom of the email chain to the very first message I’d received, and googled the signature details, which as it turned out weren’t particularly local at all – ‘Hibu (UK) Ltd, One Reading Central’ – until recently the business known as Yell.

I don’t have any issues with the fact that the magazine is probably a directory rather than a community magazine – any experience is good experience, and also it’s down to me and nobody else that I didn’t do my homework the first time round. BUT I figured that since the magazine was published by a commercial business, with a pre-tax profit of £369 million, it would not be unreasonable for me to ask for some financial recompense for any further contributions. So I sent the following email:

I’m glad the article went down well and I’d like to continue contributing – as a Mum Christmas is certainly on my mind so happy to do something around that for you.

 I gather the going rate is £50 per 500 words, would this be acceptable?

I wasn’t expecting anything near the going rate, but I figured it was a good way to open the money conversation. However it was to be a short lived conversation, as I very quickly received the reply:

That would be great. Unfortunately I don’t have a writer’s budget for the magazine. Sorry about that – understand if that means you’d rather write for somewhere that was paying.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. I know all experience is good experience, and I know I am trying to get somewhere in a crowded profession. And I know I’m not that good yet, but I am clearly good enough for what the magazine/directory/whatever needs. I also know that the editor will be paid, the sales people will be paid, the layout people will be paid and so will the shareholders of this multi-national corporation.

I need some guidance on this, people. Should I climb out of my own backside, write stuff for free (to be fair what they want from me is not anything taxing, and they are happy for me to post the articles on LearnerMother after publication). Or should I try and place a value on my efforts, however small?

Please be frank!


 

 

 

On SW Broadband

LearnerBlogger, Reviews, , ,

So…crap week all round really. But something nice did happen – one of my favourite bloggers, Premmeditations tagged me in a Liebster – right after being tagged the week before by Trawlergirl. As well as being a real compliment,  it was also a much needed kick up the backside to stop moping and do something a little bit productive, so once the kids were in bed I reclaimed the laptop from whichever sticky fingered midget had been private messaging Mr Bloom or whatever they do on the CBeebies site, and logged into my trusty wordpress dashboard.

Except I didn’t, because my WP dashboard wasn’t working, and as it turned out, nor was my site. Again. Gah. I have to say this has been a pretty frequent experience since going self hosted, made all the more annoying because I chose Bluehost purely on the basis that it was recommended by WordPress. Anyway, I tried again an hour later, then 2 hours later, and then 24 hours later…still kaput.  Tech support at Bluehost (who have always been willing and helpful) didn’t seem to be able to get to the bottom of the problem, which was compounded by the fact that they could see my site fine in America – in fact it took a twitter shout out to convince them that actually, it wasn’t just me being a muppet (thank you if you responded to my slightly panicked request to back me up!)

I also received a couple of recommendations for new hosting services – one of them being South West broadband, based in Cornwall. SW Broadband followed this up with a tweet to ask how they could help – they may have regretted this as they immediately received a stream of ever more panicked messages, the main gist of which was ‘I don’t understand anything, I am a muppet, please help me before I lose the plot COMPLETELY’.

By this time it was Friday, my site was still down, nobody at Bluehost could tell me why, and I was torturing myself with all the times I had MEANT to learn about backing up WordPress, but hadn’t actually managed to pull my finger out and do it. I might have cried, a little bit. It’s weird how the blogging thing has become such a part of my life – at the end of the day it’s just mitherings and blatherings, but it’s MY mitherings and blatherings, and I wanted them back!

Ryan at SW Broadband seemed singularly unfazed by all this, and also not at all bothered by the fact that I didn’t know what I was talking about, promising to transfer my blog as soon as he could. However, Friday evening was approaching, so I mentally resigned myself to getting my blog back on Monday or Tuesday. I might have cried a bit more (like I said, it’s been a crap week, OK?)

Not so much of the resignation needed, as it turns out! Ryan was on the case with Bluehost on Friday evening and Saturday morning, doing some magic whiteboarding shizzle, which I TOTALLY understand, though come to think of it it might have been whitelisting, or possibly whitelabelling….Whatever. In the meantime I was trying desperately to download a backup of my blog from Bluehost and failing at every turn – I may have downloaded SOMETHING as there seems to be a large lump of stuff clogging up my hard drive, but how to turn this zip-a-licious little icon into my actual blog was beyond me….in the end though it turned out to be irrelevant, as I received this lovely message:

Michelle
We’ve got a backup of your account downloading to our office here, we’ll restore to our hosting and update your domain as quickly as we can.
Thank you for your patience.* 
Warmest regards,
Ryan Devonshire
South West Broadband
t: 01872 672 050
w: http://www.swbroadband.co.uk

The next message I received was to tell my my blog would be all working and marvellous again by 3pm….and guess what? IT WAS! And here I am! Whoop!

I have to say, I have been blown away by the help I received from Ryan and the team at SW Broadband. If you are looking for a hosting service, and especially for someone to migrate your blog with no fuss, I cannot recommend them highly enough, based on my experience so far. The basic package is £2.49 a month, which seems really good value (it’s certainly cheaper than what I was paying before) but it’s not just about price, it’s about service and so far, the service has been OUTSTANDING.

Thank you, Ryan and friends! 🙂

*He did actually say this, though I think what he meant was ‘Thank god I’m a patient man or this woman would be DOING MY HEAD IN’

Disclaimer – this review was not requested or recompensed.