Anyone who’s tried to log into Blog Explosion recently will have discovered – nothing, just a 503 message. Not even the forums are functioning now. It seems to have gone down the same road as BlogCrowd, Blogmad and Blog Soldiers.
I joined BE back in 2004/5. Looking back at my older posts I found some good friends there. Then I discovered that there was a backload of blogs waiting to be approved, which I did for two solid years. We managed to get them up to date twice during this period. Due to lack of administration the forums were inundated with all forms of very nasty spam. A dedicated team of members and I spent a lot of time posting to push the spam back; it was the only tool we had. Some people were writing on the forums that they weren’t receiving credits they had paid for. What to do?
In February 2009 we organized the writing of (real) letters to the company which owned BE. This eventually led to a new administrator being appointed. A volunteer who worked all over the site and dealt with support tickets as well as cleaning out the spam from the forums. His access was limited, but he did his best and for a little while everything was going well. Then he disappeared. I’m sure that he was banned from accessing the site for some reason.
A year later we were back to square one and the owners could not be contacted. I discovered that they weren’t paying some of their employees either. At this point some members came forward and said they would be interested in buying BE, but from who? Throughout this period surfing was difficult as the system wasn’t running properly. Someone tried to fix it but afterwards, credits weren’t allocated for surfing, the numbers to click on weren’t always there and I think this was when logging in became very touch and go too.
In May 2010 a few of us got together and set up a new blog exchange: ExposeYourBlog!. However, I was still trying to approve the never ending backlog of blogs and keeping an eye on the forum on BE. As EYB! grew I spent less and less time trying to keep something going on BE.
A lot of our members migrated from BE. Thank you to everyone who supported BE in the past and those who support EYB! today.
My posts on the story up until the end of 2010
Friday, May 04, 2012
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Confused? You will be
On Monday my Thursday afternoon lesson came in the afternoon.
On Tuesday it was a holiday so it felt like Sunday.
On Wednesday I went shopping for groceries which I usually do on Tuesdays or Thursdays and my Tuesday afternoon lesson came for her lesson.
I’m not sure which day of the week it is today at all!
On Tuesday it was a holiday so it felt like Sunday.
On Wednesday I went shopping for groceries which I usually do on Tuesdays or Thursdays and my Tuesday afternoon lesson came for her lesson.
I’m not sure which day of the week it is today at all!
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Mayday
I hope that these Lily of the Valley bring you luck and happiness.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
We voted
Well , we voted first thing this morning as Rob had to go to work afterwards. Rob was the first voter in our village.
It hasn’t been an easy campaign for us, the long suffering public. The ecology candidate seemed to have lost her way. There was more about her coming from Norway as an au pair girl when she was 16 than real issues. Everyone seems to think that they will have unlimited money to throw around if they become president. The national front candidate will just abolish everything. The ex-president? Well if he gets to be president again he will do things differently.
Unless a miracle occurs (outright winner) we’ve got another two weeks to go…
It hasn’t been an easy campaign for us, the long suffering public. The ecology candidate seemed to have lost her way. There was more about her coming from Norway as an au pair girl when she was 16 than real issues. Everyone seems to think that they will have unlimited money to throw around if they become president. The national front candidate will just abolish everything. The ex-president? Well if he gets to be president again he will do things differently.
Unless a miracle occurs (outright winner) we’ve got another two weeks to go…
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Sad news
Regular readers of my blogs might remember me making friends with an elderly man one day when I discovered him struggling to breathe on my way back from the post office. I’m afraid to report that he died this week; he was 85. As I remembered he was a Major in the Gendarmes. He also fought in Indochina (Vietnam) and Algeria. I always enjoyed my talks with him when we met up.
Here is some of his story.
Here is some of his story.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Stop Press
There are extra credits and cash bonuses when you surf on ExposeYourBlog! Come and check us out if you’re looking for new visitors for your blog, or new blogs to read.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Easter and afterwards
Last weekend we met up with J-M’s parents in town. We met up on the port and managed to find a table for 4 at a café, despite the Easter weekend tourists. If you’ve never seen someone before, do they turn out like you expect them to? Well J-M’s parents were completely different to what I expected; they looked much younger!
Fortunately we all got along well. J-M’s father collects vintage postcards of the region where he was born and his mother is interested in history, so we all had plenty to talk about – after we’d discussed our wonderful children of course.
Olivier was home for the weekend too - plus washing. The weather was reasonably kind to me and I only needed to iron 4 shirts. He does some of his washing at university. He will probably be home by the end of May. If all goes well he will have his diploma in economics.
I found the time and inspiration to add a new short story to my Still Learning blog, if you’d like to read it.
Fortunately we all got along well. J-M’s father collects vintage postcards of the region where he was born and his mother is interested in history, so we all had plenty to talk about – after we’d discussed our wonderful children of course.
Olivier was home for the weekend too - plus washing. The weather was reasonably kind to me and I only needed to iron 4 shirts. He does some of his washing at university. He will probably be home by the end of May. If all goes well he will have his diploma in economics.
I found the time and inspiration to add a new short story to my Still Learning blog, if you’d like to read it.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
How did it go Anji?
..much better than I hoped.
I had a bus journey and a 15 minute walk to get to the lab, so I drank my litre of water before I set off. I arrived about five minutes before my appointment. There was no queue and the receptionist was friendly and helpful. I went into the waiting room and was just getting my book out when my name was called!
The doctor was very nice and did the first part of the ultrasound scan quite quickly; he then showed me to a toilet - I was so relieved in more ways than one. Then I went in for the internal scan which was a little uncomfortable at first. I asked him questions so keep my mind occupied. He told me that I have a small uterus and was surprised that I had three children. They were all very small when they were born, perhaps it was because of lack of space. I dressed and went to the waiting room to wait for the results. It had only taken 10 minutes.
I didn’t get too far with my book when my name was called to collect the results. The examination cost 56€70 (£46.80 or $74.09), most of which will be refunded by the social security and my health insurance cover. My gynecologist is just across the road, so I dropped them off there and walked back to the bus station. The bus was just about to leave when I got on it - excellent timing.
I think that the lab must have undergone a few changes since I was last there. Everyone was pleasant, there were no queues and I didn’t have to wait very long at all. Someone told me that most of the private clinics, labs, etc. around here are now owned by a Swedish company.
Pity I didn’t get very long to read my book
I had a bus journey and a 15 minute walk to get to the lab, so I drank my litre of water before I set off. I arrived about five minutes before my appointment. There was no queue and the receptionist was friendly and helpful. I went into the waiting room and was just getting my book out when my name was called!
The doctor was very nice and did the first part of the ultrasound scan quite quickly; he then showed me to a toilet - I was so relieved in more ways than one. Then I went in for the internal scan which was a little uncomfortable at first. I asked him questions so keep my mind occupied. He told me that I have a small uterus and was surprised that I had three children. They were all very small when they were born, perhaps it was because of lack of space. I dressed and went to the waiting room to wait for the results. It had only taken 10 minutes.
I didn’t get too far with my book when my name was called to collect the results. The examination cost 56€70 (£46.80 or $74.09), most of which will be refunded by the social security and my health insurance cover. My gynecologist is just across the road, so I dropped them off there and walked back to the bus station. The bus was just about to leave when I got on it - excellent timing.
I think that the lab must have undergone a few changes since I was last there. Everyone was pleasant, there were no queues and I didn’t have to wait very long at all. Someone told me that most of the private clinics, labs, etc. around here are now owned by a Swedish company.
Pity I didn’t get very long to read my book
Sunday, April 08, 2012
Happy Easter
Take this freshly laid egg
On this beautiful, long awaited day!
This “freshly laid egg” is now 96 years old – Happy Easter anyway.
Seashells, my short story for Easter
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