Canadian Blog Awards

The Award season is upon us… Academy Awards, Grammys, Golden Globes and the most coveted, in the Blogging World, the CANADIAN BLOG AWARDS.  – Jonathan Kleiman, Business Lawyer & Small Claims Court Lawyer has set up the blog awards for another exciting year. After some technical difficulties last fall it is back. The polls are up and voting has begun for the 2013 Awards. Thanks to Jonathan for hosting this for all us Canadian Bloggers from home to far away.

At this point everyone nominated is in their category from sports to politics to travel/expat blogs. This is only round one. Contest closes Sat. Feb. 22 (Or Feb. 21 for those in Asia). Votes will be tallied and the top 3 will move onto round two. Last year with your help I made it onto round 2 to finish 3rd of 3. Oh well I made it into the finals.

This year will be tough competition from fellow blogging friend at My Sardinian Life. Tougher still since I checked out the other blogs and a few of them look professional. Not sure my 171 followers will be enough to compete with that. Oh well it is an honour to be nominated. If you like my blog I’d appreciate the vote. If you could pass along the link to friends and family too —that would be great. Thanks for your support. 🙂

Please follow the link here to go to the Canadian Blog awards page. Scroll down to the bottom of the page (second last category) and there you will find the Best Travel and Expat Blog. Look for me CANADIAN TRAVEL BUGS and select me by the little circle then click VOTE. That simple. Be careful though you only get 1 vote on each computer.

Stay tuned

I have been nominated & so have YOU!

Thanks so much for fellow Canadian Tvor Travels for the blogging award. This award is a combination of 3 awards :

I wanted to find out more about the meaning of these awards and this is what I found out…

The Best Moment Award… This award is given to a blog that has a literary piece defining a specific moment that is thought-provoking, creative, honest, and or inspiring.

Reader Appreciation was created by my blogging friend Jennifer at My Sardinian Life for people who read and commented on her blog and gave a worthwhile contribution by doing so.

The last one Semper Fidelis shows appreciation for fellow on line friends who you consider part of your ‘wolf pack’ (that is there words not mine ;))

SO now for the rules… Thank the person who nominated you and nominate 10 others. Then link back to your fellow nominator (me) to share new on-line blogging friends.

Thanks again to TVOR for the nomination. It has been a long while since I had a blogging award, so I am thankful 🙂 Check her out for great photos and stories about travel.

I am not sure if I can nominate 10, but I will try. I wish to share some new on line friends….

1. Lavendar Ladi – you can always finding her commenting on my blog and finally she has started to post her own ‘Patchwork of Ponderings’.

2. Liina Travels – she just moved to China and has been sharing her amazing adventures.

3. Gemma at Dear Bliary – great photos and she often comments on my blog with a kind word.

4. Bastet – for poetry and a weekly photo challenge she sets. She also posts some great photos.  You may also recognise her from putting me on her Saturday Close Up 🙂

5. Gilly – at Lucid Gypsy for amazing photos and poetry too. Another fellow blogger who stops by and comments often 🙂

Be sure to check out these great blogs and discover some great people 🙂

Stay tuned….

 

 

 

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 🙂

2012 Blog of the Year Award

Well this is long over due…I was awarded this a few weeks ago and I finally had the time to do it properly, so here we go…

Thanks to Immie over at My Bye World for nominating me for blog of the year. Immie has just changed her format and has ben posting short stories on her “Diary of a Sensitive Soul”. Check it out ! Thanks so much Immie… it means a lot to have such recognition, especially since I haven’t been blogging much lately or visiting other blogs and commenting as much as I used to.

Here are the rules to accept this award:

1 Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award
2 Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.
3 Please include a link back to this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award – and include these ‘rules’ in your post (please don’t alter the rules or the badges!)
4 Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them
5 You can now also join our Facebook page – click the link here ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience
6 As a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars…

And what is so lovely about this award is that we start with 1 star and there are 6 stars to collect in total, so each time you get nominated for *this* award – you get another star and see if you can get all 6!

As always it is hard to pick who I should nominate… I am always afraid I will forget someone who is most deserving. So fingers crossed I haven’t left anyone out here is my list:

Meg Travels       http://megtraveling.com/2012/12/14/travel-theme-transportation/

3^rd Eye Mom      http://thirdeyemom.com/2012/12/14/why/

Where’s My Backpack   http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/12/14/travel-theme-transportation/

This Man’s journey    http://thismansjourney.net/2012/12/11/with-each-changing-seasons/

My Sardinian Life      http://laavventura.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/when-is-the-best-time-to-visit-sardinia/

Lucid Gypsy        http://lucidgypsy.wordpress.com/2012/12/15/ailsas-travel-theme/

Practicing Simplicity        http://rfljenksy.wordpress.com/

Amy       http://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/

Jeni       http://joyandwoe.wordpress.com/

Cobbie  http://cobbies69.wordpress.com/

Congrats to all of you for great posts, comments, photos, ideas and joy you bring to the blogging world 🙂

No go forth and spread more blogging joy…

Stay tuned…

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….

And the Winner Is…

Well the results are in for the Top Canadian Blogs…. and the winner is… Jennifer over at My Sardinia Life. I have come third. Congrats to my fellow competitors.

Blog Round 1

I was happy to be nominated and my goal was to move onto round 2. I was able to, but to be realistic I knew I wouldn’t win. I am just happy to see my stats rise and I moved up from 12.58% to 21.6%, almost doubling my results.

Final Vote Results

I would like to thank everyone for helping me out by voting and most of all your support and reading every week. I truly appreciate all the comments, likes and feedback. I am sorry I have not been as good at reading and commenting on your blogs with work taking up all my waking hours. It means even more that you have stood by and still read and comment even though I don’t visit you all as much as I would like.  Thanks again 🙂

Until next time…

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette, Couples & Smiles

This week the three photo challenges can fit together with the right photos, so lets give it a go.

WordPress has set the theme “silhouette”, Ailsa at Where’s My Backpack “couples” and Island Traveller “smiles”. Click the links to join the challenges, or to see more for each theme.

Taking pictures of shadows is always fun and they can look like the silly mirrors from the fun house where you are tall and unnaturally thin, as your limbs are stretched out long and spindly. My husband and I pose together for a silhouetted kiss. Each day he brings a smile to my face and having a wonderful vacation brings smiles to us both as we recall the good times.

This pair of tall silhouetted wooden posts in Seoul had funny faces and goofy smiles. They made me laugh as I wondered what they were all about.

I have been saving this picture up for a while knowing at some point a photo challenge would come along it would be perfect for. This summer in Cuba I spotted this lizard inside a plastic light cover and its silhouette against the yellowish light turned out just right. It isn’t a couple, but if you read my post titled Cuban Critters you know the lizard stories that made us laugh and smile.

For those of you who don’t know I have been nominated for a Canadian Top Blog through the  Jonathan Kleiman – Toronto Law  web site. I am up for round 1 and voting ends Nov. 1. I’d appreciate your time to check it out and vote for me to move on to the next phase. I am in the  Best Travel and Expat Blog category which is on the right bottom corner (last one). Click that box/bar to open the list of nominees. You get one vote, so be careful as I am listed twice, but one of them is ME and the other has my name and someone else’s link. I am Canadian Travel Bugs’s Blog with the http: Canadian Travel Bugs…. (the other one is CTB http first and a different website). You can do that here. Thanks so much to my readers,  followers and your support. Thanks for voting 🙂

As always stay tuned… there is always more.

Vote for ME (please)

Well I have made the nominations and now I am up for round 1 of the Canadian Blogging Awards hosted by Jonathan Kleiman – Toronto Law. Thanks to Jennifer over at My Sardinian Life (and others?) who nominated me for this opportunity. This is not just a virtual award to put on my tool bar, like the others I hold. Not that I don’t appreciate those, and I do! This award is different because I need you my readers to go in and vote for me. You may recall that I was placed  on this site not so long ago, which lists Canadian blogs by category. It ranks them daily based on number of reads and gives you more exposure. With nominations there is more recognition, acceptance speeches written and tears of joy shed as the nominees are named…. this may be as close as I get to my dream of an Academy Award, so maybe I am blowing it a little out of proportion, sorry…

This is round 1… so click this link and then that will bring you to a page of many categories. I am in the  Best Travel and Expat Blog category which is on the right bottom corner (last one). Click that box/bar to open the list of nominees. You get one vote, so be careful as I am listed twice, but one of them is ME and the other has my name and someone else’s link. I am Canadian Travel Bugs’s Blog with the http: Canadian Travel Bugs…. (the other one is http first and a different website).

This round closes November 1st and the categories will be narrowed down to 3-6 blogs. The blogs with the most votes at that time will move onto round 2. So vote, tell your friends, relatives, co-workers and heck even your boss!

Thanks so much for your follows, likes, comments and votes! I appreciate it all 🙂

As always stay tuned for more…

Canada’s Top Blogs: Reaching for the Stars

Thanks to Jennifer over at My Sardinian Life I found out about a web site that keeps track of Canadian Blogs and it ranks them daily. I have added the link to my sidebar so you can check out my ranking. I am under the TRAVEL Category. I am reaching for the stars or should I say maple leaves.

My goal is to reach the top 100 blogs… I am #4 today for travel. WOW in the top 10 already! Not what I expected at all. How did THAT happen? Not sure what I am overall since I cannot get the site to show me more than the top 25.

Blogging has become my hobby and it is something I really enjoy. Slowly I have grown from 10-40 hits in a week to that many and more in a day! My busiest day was over 100 views. I now have over 100 followers that have registered through Word Press. Each time I post something they get an email alert. Blogging is something that shows you the growth and what you have accomplished over time. To have the stats and see how they have increased shows my accomplishments over time. All the feedback and comments have been so positive and encouraging. Makes it even more worth while.

I have discovered I enjoy writing and I try to paint pictures with my words. Sometimes I am in a hurry, and with a super hectic work schedule I sometimes rush things. I apologize for those quick posts that are put out to fill the weekly gap and don’t have the time to be carefully written and crafted with the creativity that I so enjoy. When I have time or I am inspired the words and ideas flow quickly and effortlessly. Other times I struggle, just as any writer does when they feel the pressure of a deadline.

Writer? AM I becoming a writer? Did I just call myself that? Wow things are really changing. When I started this blog 2 years ago I certainly did not think I would do more than post a few words and ideas about life here in an easy and fast forum to tell people at home what we were up to. Now I look forward to blogging, writing and doing the photo challenges. If I could I would blog more, but with less and less free time I need to pick and choose how much and when to write.On average I post 2 a week… 1 about life here or travel and the other a weekly photo challenge. My two favourite things in 1! Photography and Blogging.

Next will be this site is hosting Blog Awards for the top Canadian Blogs. Stay tuned for how you can vote 🙂

So thanks for reading, following and coming along for the ride and adventure.

What do you do as a hobby?

As always stay tuned… there is always more!

Awards x 2

I was absent for awhile since we were in Cuba and didn’t have access to fast and cheap Internet. My husband and I then had to get packed, organized and take the daunting trip back to China. Truly I missed blogging and getting together in the cyberspace with my blogging friends. Imagine my joy when shortly after my return I was nominated for not one, but TWO blog awards!

Thanks so much to Meg at megtravelling for her nomination of the Beautiful Blogger Award. Also a new blog and blogging friend nominated me for the Super Sweet Award. Thanks so much to Marcella over at For Your Good Health. How ‘sweet’ of her to nominate me. It is always nice to be recognised and after returning to work at 100 miles per hour it is a blessing to have something nice happen.

Now down to business…

Beautiful Blogger award

The requirements are:

• Copy the Beautiful Blogger Award logo and place it in your post.
• Thank the person who nominated you and create a link back to their blog.
• Nominate 7 other bloggers for their own Beautiful Blogger Award.

The nominations for the beautiful blog award have inspired me in some way with great stories, photos or both! Check them out because I am sure you will enjoy what they have to offer. They are truly beautiful.

1. Gilly http://lucidgypsy.wordpress.com/

2. Retiring Sort http://theretiringsort.com/

3. Henricus http://environmentaleducationuk.wordpress.com/

4. Amy http://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/

5. News of the Times http://newsofthetimes.org/about/

6. Feists Great Escape http://thefeistsgreatescape.wordpress.com/

7. Dear Bliary (first and fabulous) http://firstandfabulous.wordpress.com/

The Sweet Award is fun and has questions to make you drool…

The Rules for the “Super Sweet Award” :

1. Give credit to the person who chose to nominate you.

2. Answer the “Super Sweet” questions.

3. Nominate a “Baker’s Dozen (13) blogs.

Super Sweet questions:

1. Cookies or Cake? 

Depends on my mood and what is available. If the choice is cookies or chocolate eruption cake then it is cake. If it is chocolate chip cookies (especially oatmeal chocolate chip) then cookies. My dilemma would be if there is both… well how often does that happen? So then just maybe I’ll have both please 😉

2. Chocolate or Vanilla?

Chocolate any day if the week!

3. What is your favorite sweet treat?

Chocolate especially when it has Carmel inside.

4. When do you crave sweet things the most?

When stressed… in the winter… or sometimes after a meal…. oh heck ALL the time 😉

5.   If you had a sweet nickname, what would it be?

Lollipop? I don’t know maybe I should ask my husband to help me with this one.

Baker’s Dozen Nominees:

1. Jennifer – http://laavventura.wordpress.com/

2. Immie – http://mybyeworld.com/

3. Meg Travels http://megtraveling.com/2012/08/19/a-second-year-of-travel/

4. Island Travller-http://thismansjourney.net/2012/08/22/weekly-image-of-life-passion-2

5. Third Eye Mom- http://thirdeyemom.com/

6. Jo Bryant-  http://jobryantnz.wordpress.com/

7. Marianne- http://eastofmalaga.wordpress.com/

8. Jeni- http://joyandwoe.wordpress.com/

9. Ailsa http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/08/24/silhouette/

10 Wanderlust – http://thewanderlustgene.wordpress.com/

11 Beedie- http://mentalhealthed.com/

12 Anita Mac- http://traveldestinationbucketlist.com/

13 Aly – http://algarveblog.net/

These are really sweet blogs and the people are super nice. I thank them for their support, comments, help, kind words and caring as my little blog has grown and (hopefully) gotten better because of them.

Again thank you to everyone for the nominations and just as important YOU dear readers for all your likes, comments and visits each day. It makes me smile each time I log on and see that someone out there has taken the time to visit, comment or ‘like’ what I am doing. 🙂

Well it appears I am running out of weekend and after working at home all day Saturday, going into work today, the photo challenges and the awards blog I have run out of time to do another post on Cuba as I promised. So please stay tuned for more… next weekend (if not before).