The Bay on Bing

Okay, I’m struggling with blog posts this week, and although I’m not technically a search guy anymore since the launch of FireCask, I’m still interested in search news.

One such story which appeals to me, my mum and a few others was the appearance of Colwyn Bay on the home page of bing yesterday.

Although I moved out about 3 and a half years ago, I’ve a massive affinity with the town and the football club (the last link is what you see when you let me design a website – for better or worse!), so it was an incredible sense of pride I felt when I saw the Bay on the home page of a major search engine on an important day in the British Calendar.

baybing

I used to attend the Eirias Park bonfire night celebrations regularly growing up, though towards the end of my time in the Bay I discovered if you headed to the (then still opened) Colwyn Bay pier you could watch the fireworks with a beer and a pie and not have to queue for hours to get out of the festivities.

It should be added (cheers Mark!) that it’s an old photo of the Bay. The dome you can see in the picture isn’t there on the account it blew onto a nearby motorway during a storm.

Still, cheers Bing! Much appreciated! I expect mention of this to be in a few papers this week!

Trip to Belgium & Germany 2013

I read with interest Nomadic Matt’s post recently on traveling, specifically how on his last trip he became homesick. Traveling is great and I love it, but I did find myself in Germany on my last trip. Specifically I am too old for Dorms, and traveling a couple of weeks on my own is – well – a wee bit tough.

Do not get me wrong, I love Germany and had a great holiday, but it was the final chapter in “discovering myself” and I now know what I need for the perfect holiday.

I need my own space.

After a disastrous time in Cologne where I couldn’t really enjoy myself (buy me a beer, I will explain it), I re-booked the last week of my trip away to change from Dormitories to budget hotels. Lo-and-behold because I had my own space I enjoyed it so much more. Dortmund was great as everybody was super friendly, and Munich is definitely one of my favourite cities outside of the UK. Also Brussels was probably the greatest Wales away trip I have ever been on, and Cologne was fine and I am willing to give it another go if I stay in a non-dorm place.

I have nothing against hostels. In fact I want to stay in them more, but in private rooms with a lock that I can relax a wee bit. I am lucky living in Europe everything is so damn close. I cannot wait to get away again, though not sure where.

Thoughts on Belgium vs Wales & Borussia Dortmund vs Hanover 96 will be live on You’re Supposed To Be At Home in the next few weeks. In the meantime, please enjoy these photos.

Competition – Win 1 of 3 eBook copies of bbPress Complete!

Hello everybody, did you miss me?

Yes I’ve returned refreshed from two weeks travelling around Europe, but before I’d share with you what I’ve been upto and photos, I’d thought I’d share something myself and Packt Publishing have been doing.

Over on Winwar Media we’re running a giveaway to win a copy of bbPress Complete – my book that teaches you everything you need to know about bbPress. Already the feedback has been great for the book, so if you were interested in it, but yet to buy it, you can try and win a copy.

Entry is incredibly simple, and you have a week to enter. Winners will be notified when the competition is complete. Best of luck!

This competition has now ended. If you wish to purchase a copy of bbPress Complete please click here.

Trip to Amsterdam & Leiden 2013

As well as WordCamp Europe, I also had a little bit of time walking around both Amsterdam & Leiden with my fantastic company of Alex, Shane, John Boy & Ryan. This was my second time in The Netherlands, going previously with a Contiki Tour in 2006(7?), so I wondered if I truly enjoyed Amsterdam as much as a nigh-on 30 year old as I did when I was early 20’s.

In short I did really. I hate to say it but I think I preferred it this time around. Largely probably due to the fact I wasn’t coming off a whirlwind tour of Europe and I actually had time to reflect. The apartment on Airbnb was great, we found this great little bar with friendly staff on the first night that became a home from home during our stay.

So here are some photos of both Amsterdam & Leiden, I hope you like them – will be back in a few weeks as this weekend I’m jetting off for my actual holiday – some down time as I go to Germany and Belgium. See you soon!

Featured on The GroupHigh Blog on Blogger Pitching Advice

Recently I was featured on the GroupHigh Blog on how to pitch to bloggers. I took some advice as taken from the “We Need To Talk About Alan” post a few weeks ago and curated on their blog. It’s great to be featured along with a lot of other bloggers. Cheers GroupHigh!

Click here to read “Pitching Tips Straight From the Bloggers You’re Pitching”.