A typically fickle-looking Orkney sky – 2009.
My thanks to Mike, Pam, Kim and everyone else working so hard this weekend at the 2nd Annual Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) event in New York this weekend, for making a livestream session so fascinating that I was glued to my screen all afternoon despite glorious sunshine and England’s final, desperate and ultimately doomed attempt to stay in the World Cup…
…and for allowing me to be part of it (TBEX, I mean, not Germany stuffing England) – because as part of the Community Keynote this afternoon, this piece was read out to a packed auditorium. (And it was still packed afterwards! Well, maybe the doors were locked. I don’t want to get bigheaded by making wild assumptions – my ego deserves the facts).
The TBEX meet is an event where hundreds of clever, industrious, outgoing people converge on one spot from all over the world, chat about various things, learn some useful stuff, and then go out drinking heavily, spending the next day in a pain-laced fog of self-recrimination. At least, this is what I’ve been told by people who attended this year. I’m only going on word-of-mouth, mind.
TBEX ’11?
It’s in Vancouver.
And I’ll be turning up for that one.
How about you?
…………….
You may see a few changes in here. I’m tweaking, based on some sage advice from TBEX and also because it’s long overdue some tidying up.
If anything looks unbearably screwy, just holler.
That doesn’t apply to the writing, of course.
Geesh: how stupidly, foolishly, honestly courageous of you…jealous of the writing and the experience I am. Lovely piece.
Thanks.
And yes for the stupid, foolish bit. Which I don’t regret for one second. Sometimes stupidity is the most sensible course.
Not in this case, obviously. But it *did* allow me to appreciate a cup of tea in a way I’ll never forget.
Ahh so close to Toronto, but I don´t know if I´ll be home yet…
Be good to see you.
(No pressure).
And it’s a good bunch of people – and, I reckon, a fitting end to a round-the-world jaunt, meeting up with the biggest bunch of globetrotting, travel-blogging, like-minded people you’ll find under one roof.
(Not racking up the pressure one bit here. No siree. Ahem).
Heartfelt congrats me ole scumdog. Clearly the worm has turned, the apprentice has become a master etc etc You really can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. How you ever managed to turn a case of hypothermic stupidity into something people want to read or listen to is beyond me. I may have to admit that you have talent as well as incompetence
Ta, matey. The worm has not so much turned as diverted slightly. I’m still the sow’s ear peddler I was before, just a little bit more internationally notorious for it.
And I hope to chart a path into travel-writing where my incompetence and talent are equally balanced. Otherwise I’m in real trouble.
Alright alright Mike. I’ll get Vancouver on the calendar. As soon as I get my 2011 calendar that is…
Then it’s settled (pending appropriate calendar).
(If you haven’t bought one by the end of the year, I’m buying you one. Just so you have no excuse).
Your piece on Orkney was gorgeous. I spent most of my honeymoon on those wind-wracked islands and the place is very dear to my heart. Your prose brought me back, and I can type no higher compliment. Thanks Mike!
Thank you, Keith. Means a great deal from someone who knows the place well.
And I can’t think of a better place to get married, let alone honeymoon. Living there fulltime I’d have qualms with, for some of these reasons: http://www.mikesowden.org/feveredmutterings/orkney-what-do-you-do .
But for ceremonies, I can’t think of a more peaceful, soulful corner of the world.
[...] that were read during the keynote, among them: Cuba’s Secret Weapon: Little Old Ladies, A Windswept Night in Orkney; and The Making of a Flyover [...]