A short break

Hello everyone. Here we are back in Shanghai and I am back at work. Things have been extra busy and a new schedule has me leaving the house earlier than ever before. As I get back into routine and into a work schedule I decided to take a short break from blogging. I no longer have the time to get on daily to read or respond to blogs. Feeling tired and being so busy it is difficult to be creative and to write well. I want to share our time in Dubai and a month has passed and I still haven’t had the chance to get to that. The words that usually flow are blocked as my head swims with so much; information overload.

When things settle down and I can get myself into a routine I will be back. I thought it best I share so you didn’t think I forgot about you all. I appreciate your visits, our chats and time together, so I know I will be back. It may be a week, or longer… that I cannot say. I decided I rather take a break and do something well than do it just for the sake of doing it, or stress myself to just get it done.I want to be proud of what I share, after all you deserve my best.

The pink bloom is in focus in the background and the white bloom is blurry in the foreground.

See you soon… stay tuned

– CTB 😀

My Worst Blogging Fear Came True!

Yes my worst blogging fear came true this week and the colour drained from my face, my heart raced and I started to sweat as I thought how can I ‘undo’ this???!!! Many programs have an undo feature and where is one when you need it?

Let me back up a little… remember how I said that I may go into darkness not due to my own choices, but the internet gods may take control of my fate here in China? With fingers crossed I returned to China after a Christmas break at home and all was well… until Friday. The program I use to allow me to access my blog, when blogs are normally blocked, had a nice friendly little message to say ‘update program’. As any computer program we usually get updates that make them faster, better, come with more options, so without a second thought I hit ‘update’.

Photo Credit: CartoonStock.com

The happy little message ‘update was successful’ then became my biggest regret a minute later when I tried to turn on the magical program. It was thinking…. and thinking… and the spinning thinking wheel started to make me dizzy. It wasn’t connecting. Oh just slow internet I thought… so I left the computer to think some more and I went off to do a few things. I returned 5 minutes later to the spinning wheel still, well spinning. OK no problem I thought. After 20-30 minutes I started to worry. I shut down the computer and rebooted. This will do the trick I hoped; nope – nada. After endless tries, searching though the program for some sort of help or explanation I couldn’t connect. Can I undo a whole program back to the previous version that worked???? Without this there is no blog!  😦  My worst fear realised: What had I DONE?

I had trouble getting into my internet and search engines too, but somehow managed to finally get on and find the support web page. A blue help box said someone was on-line to help me. I clicked on and sent my message…. ‘7 minutes estimated time of next available operator’ it responded. ARG! This was the longest 7 minutes ever. A very nice person asked me how they could help and I explained my dilemma.

Her response, so matter of fact… yes it won’t work in China.

I quickly typed back what can I do?

Response: It is no longer available in China.

Me: Can I undo the program and restore the old one???

Response: No, it will no longer work you need to try to use an open mode.

Me: I wish I would have known this BEFORE I updated. Why didn’t it have a message to say that BEFORE I updated? How can I access blogs?

Response without a sorry or sympathy: You can sometimes, it is hit or miss.

Me: But I blog every week! Is there another option? Can I not restore the old version of the program because it worked fine.

Response: No, but we are working out some bugs in the program and hopefully it will be available soon. Is there anything else I can help you with today?

Me: No. Thanks.

I should have said ya thanks for crushing my spirits, dashing my hopes and giving me no clear answer. And may I thank you for your cheery and pleasant customer service, happy attitude and total disregard for my predicament as I am FREAKING out!

I was afraid to attempt to get on the blog all weekend in case it was a ‘miss’  but I am very happy I am here today and posting.

Who wouldn’t want to hear more about the cutest cat ever?

What does hit or miss mean? I am not sure, but Friday to me it meant that maybe you can get on, maybe you can’t. Chances are more in the sorry about your luck and not getting on blogs period. Lets keep hoping I am on more of a ‘hit’ than ‘miss’ each week and able to access things and post. I don’t want to give up blogging and I am sure you are all very excited to see more photos and hear more stories and adventures of Willow 😉 Really in all seriousness I will keep trying each weekend to post a photo

challenge or travel post as always. If I can’t access things posts may be random or odd days of the week, but if you are a follower you will get the email message sent to your in box that I was successful and we can all do the happy dance 🙂 My husband is still in Canada right now, so he has also offered to post on my behalf. Some how or some way we will get it done.

Stay tuned… I will keep posting for as long as I can.

CTB : D

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 6,200 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 10 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

2012 was a great year at CTB. Thanks to Jennifer over at my  Sardinian Life finding me and connecting me to many other wonderful bloggers out there in cyberspace.  I started joining in the photo challenges sharing my love of photography in a way I never thought possible. Blogging became a hobby, an outlet and hopefully improved  my writing over time.  My blog started out as a way to share our daily experiences with friends and family and in 2012 I was able to connect with  many new online friends and share with more than 80 countries around the world. A big thank you to all of you out there because without your support I may not have reached these heights.

What will 2013 bring? Well I hope to continue my weekly musings and joining in the weekly photo challenges, but with new restrictions on the Internet in China my fate is unknown. Just this past week the BBC posted an article on China’s mistrust of the Internet with the new government. The firewalls are tightening up and access to blog sites and allowing residents of China to access certain websites is becoming more and more difficult.  My view on China has always been a positive one and sharing customs and insight to my readers that they may not other wise experience. Let us keep our collective fingers crossed that CTB doesn’t go into darkness. I will keep posting weekly as long as I can.

Happy New Year. All the best for 2013…and happy blogging 🙂

Stay tuned… There are lots more stories to be told 🙂

CTB in Darkness?

Hi All,

Just a quick post in case I go into darkness…. as you know I live in China and due to internet blockages Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogs are not allowed here. I have purchase a program to allow me to get around this and still get onto my blog and post each week. This at times can slow the internet WAY down, but it allows me to blog and ‘see’ you all each week. Well things are changing in China with a new government and in general there has been a crack down on legal matters for whatever reason. I see more police presence this year and they are chasing off the street vendors selling their wares from flowers to food to illegal copies of items.

In the news there has been a battle between China and Google since 2010, the year we moved here. Occasionally Hotmail and Gmail are unavailable… why? Not sure and when we ask it is often explained as “this is China”. So the powers that be have done something??? It usually lasts a few hours, so no big deal… just an inconvenience. Well my magic program that allows me access to stupid cat and human videos on YouTube and blogging every week has been slowly found out and then blocked. Some no longer work as they have been shut down completely. The company I used has just posted a message today saying there are ways now for them to also get shut down and blocked, even though they are not hosted in China.

So what does this mean for me,Canadian Travel Bugs and you? Well if I am blocked my Word Press account will not be loaded, it will come up as an error message… a blank page, or denied access. I will no longer be able to post, view blogs or comment 😦 You will not see or hear from me… Fingers crossed this doesn’t happen. I will do my best to keep posting for long as I can, but if I suddenly go silent you will know it is not by choice. I have been able to get in today, so I am hoping that this won’t be a problem and I continue to keep on blogging. Geesh and I just got an award from Immie too!

Hopefully we can all stay tuned….