Mystery Blogger Award Nomination

Such a surprise to be nominated for the Mystery Blogger Award.

This is an award created by Okoto Enigma because: “There are so many blogs that are still a mystery to us; and when we get to know them, it’s divine! And we find friends where we least expect.”

Mystery Blogger Award nomination

To be nominated by Rebecca a published poet and global public speaker of short stories in Spanish is quite an honour – many thanks Rebecca.

Please check out Rebecca’s fascinating and inspiring blog: Fake Flamenco

What is the Mystery Blogger Award?

The “Mystery Blogger Award” is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging; and they do it with so much love and passion.
– Okoto Enigma

Many thanks Okoto for creating this award.

Award Rules

  1. Put the award logo/image on your blog
  2. List the rules.
  3. Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
  4. Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well
  5. Tell your readers 3 things about yourself
  6. You have to nominate 10 – 20 people
  7. Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog
  8. Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice; with one weird or funny question (specify)
  9. Share a link to your best post(s)

Three things about myself

1. Jumped out of a plane

Some may say I’m mad, then others may say I’m not as it’s not every day that you choose to jump out of a small plane whilst at around 14,000 feet (over 4,000 metres) even if it’s tandem.

Jump the Beach, sky diving, QLD, Australia
Shrek impersonation (Photo credit: Jump the Beach)

During the free-fall, which lasts up to 60 seconds at awesome speeds of nearly 200kph, I haemorrhaged both ear drums. Excruciatingly painful, the pain only calmed a little when the chute went up – still an incredible experience!

2. Motor bike fun

Dropping the bike during the Slalom training, tearing ligaments and bone from my thumb (Gamekeeper’s break), this didn’t stop me…

motor bike, QLD, Australia
Training (Photo credit: Neil Lintern)

After my operation to put my thumb back together again, some 3 months later I returned to pass my bike license test.

3. Flight in a Jet fighter

With my thumb still stitched up and in a hand cast only a few weeks after my operation, I went up in the most incredible experience of my life – a Top Gun Jet Mission fighter plane in the gorgeous Hunter Valley region (Australia).

A surprise birthday present from my partner, this flight is the height of an adrenaline rush and I was still on a high a week later.

jet fighter flight, Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia
Photo credit: Neil Lintern

You’re thrust through aerobatic manoeuvres such as “G Turns, Loops, Rolls, Cuban Eights, Hesitation Rolls, and Vertical Rolls” at a height of approximately 8,000ft.

Not enough adrenaline for you? Experience these manoeuvres at up to 5Gs then finish off by soaring at alarming speeds through long valleys, just like Tom Cruise before landing.

jet fighter flight, Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia
Photo credit: Neil Lintern

My jumpsuit was wringing wet with sweat after this flight!

Rebecca’s questions

1. What do you like most about blogging?

Blogging for me is a platform to not only share my travel experiences and photography but to connect with bloggers globally. More importantly, it’s a forum to hopefully inspire more people to travel.

2. What is your favorite genre to read? (mystery?)

Growing up, I devoured mystery novels – couldn’t get enough.

These days I do enjoy the intimate insight of a biography or an autobiography, but also the fast pace of thriller and suspense novels.

3. First drafts – pen or keyboard?

I used to pen everything in travel journals then progressed to using the keyboard to document in a MS Word document whilst travelling.

Building my Image Earth Travel blog in WordPress and blogging for a couple of years still using the MS Word method, it dawned on me that this is just double-handling and wasting too much time. So, these days I create a Draft post in WordPress and add to this until I’m happy, then schedule the post for publishing. Typically, I have up to 17 posts in Draft at one time, sometimes even more. Is this common practice with other bloggers?

I still copy and paste the post’s text back into a Word document as I want an external copy to WordPress.

4. What inspires your writing, art, or photography?

Definitely photography although the experience of travelling also inspires me to write loads, as I want to help people experience more countries than their own.

Hopefully my posts provide a little objective understanding of different destinations, whilst my photos enhance and make posts more interesting.

5. Funny question: Lime jello or coconut flan for dessert?

I love both for a dessert although I my preference is the coconut flan. Oh and we call it “jelly”. Love jelly with ice-cream.

My nominees

In no particular order:

  1. Mood and Mystery – Aixa blogs about intriguing history and stories from around the world.
  2. Plying Through Life – Dave’s travel stories and adventures.
  3. Journey Gypsy – yoga, meditation, travel, health, and nutrition.
  4. The Classy Tourist – a fairly new blog about classy adventures and beautiful destinations.
  5. Easy Diet – motivation, thoughts, and lifestyle.
  6. The Big Three – 3 friends blog their experiences on writing, reading, travelling, and capturing moments.
  7. WATCHA Guru – Rachel blogs about travel, adventure, creativity, art, health, and well-being.
  8. The Hungary Traveler – Anna is Hungarian but is also hungry for travel.
  9. Italophilia – Ishita is passionate about Italy and everything Italian.
  10. Denise Bush’s Photo Blog – self explanatory.

My questions to nominees

  1. What made you start a blog?
  2. Have you made money from your blog and if so, how?
  3. How do you consistently come up with fresh ideas for posts?
  4. What’s the most exhilarating experience of your life?
  5. Funny question: What’s your most embarrassing childhood memory?

Link to my best post: Why do you travel?

Hope you enjoy my responses to Rebecca’s questions and thanks again for this great nomination! 🙂

Nilla

Visit Nilla’s Photography for more images. More posts on amazing destinations at Image Earth Travel.

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58 thoughts on “Mystery Blogger Award Nomination”

Add yours

    1. Ha, ha it definitely was ouch and 9 years later, I still only have 50% movement of my thumb and it’s crooked so I have a great party trick that turns everyone off!
      The jet fighter flight is the best thing I’ve done so far I think…you have to do it! 😉

      Like

  6. Congrats on the award. And skydiving. 😉 Sorry about the eardrums. I did that too when I was in Africa. But we jumped from lower altitudes. Solo. Now the jetfighter? Wow, how did your partner pull that?
    Ciao ciao

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. Hey Brian, thanks for commenting. Ah well, at least I didn’t perforate my eardrums is what the specialist told me as that would have been much worse. Hmmm…solo would be even more thrilling! Have you written anything on your jump?

      Some years prior, I mentioned that I’d love to fly in a jet fighter plane so the flight was a total surprise and included in a little holiday drive from Brisbane to Newcastle. My sister lives in Newcastle and is close to the Hunter Valley from where the flights operate.

      I was so stoked and couldn’t believe it when we drove to the hanger. The flight was mind-blowing and afterwards we had a wonderful lunch at one of the wineries in the Hunter Valley as this region is renown in Oz for wine – perfect – he planned everything. What an amazing experience but not cheap! And yes, I am spoilt. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Like you, I have so many stories to share and I’d love to read about your 12 jumps – I’m sure each one was a very different experience.

      I’m amazed when some bloggers say they haven’t got any material to write or can’t think of anything – I don’t have time to write about all the stories I have in my head…I’m also a huge procrastinator!

      Liked by 1 person

    4. Haha! I understand. My problem is more lack of time. I can write very fast (the story is already in my head) but, seriously, any given post takes me 2 hours on average. And I don’t have time to do more than 2 posts a week.
      What I need to do is a list and a calendar. A schedule if you like. Maybe that way I will write “Fly, fly” and a few other jumps.
      Have a great week.

      Like

    5. Had to salvage this comment from my Trash folder – very weird and not sure what WP is doing.

      Only 2 hours? That’s fast – I’m impressed. Think we may have had a similar discussion in another thread. Takes me ages to write a post as I select many images then have to reduce them all before uploading.

      You too. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    6. 🙂
      Went directly to trash? Oh. Sorry about that.
      2 hours is short? OMG. Not sure we talked about it before. I do spend some time before preselecting. But then, I’ve already “preselected” and archived most of my pix. Street art folder. Paris folder w/many sub-folders, pot-pourri folder, etc. So for many posts, I just “pick” 15-20 pix and that will be the post. Most times I write “online”. Post a picture, comment, post another pic, comment, and Voilà. Fascinating. We should all share more about our “ways” and techniques for posting. I’m sure we’d learn a lot.

      Liked by 1 person

    7. Yeah but it’s not your fault and not sure what WP is doing.
      Guess it depends on what I’m writing about – if it’s happened this or last year, then it’s fast, I did write my Why do you Travel? post in around 25 minutes, but then had to select photos and quotes.

      I like to write all my posts in the first week of the month and schedule these for each week, then I have the rest of the month to work on other things. The day before my post is published, I’ll read over it again for a hard edit (I call it). Everyone has their own method to the madness…

      I’m sure you’re right that we’d learn a lot as everyone has nuggets of gold to share. 😉

      Liked by 1 person

    8. Interesting that you should write all posts first week of the month. And schedule. I don’t. Had a bad experience with scheduling once. So I basically write Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Which I have found to be my “best” days in terms of traffic. Sometimes I switch to Mondays or Fridays. Neither I find that good for traffic. Monday? Yuk, start of the week, people have many things to do. Fridays? not that good either,, since I’m in Mexico, US central time, it’s almost Friday night by the time I post, week-end, etc.
      Ciao ciao.

      Liked by 1 person

    9. To be honest, when I first started this blog I’d sporadically write posts. Then, I was starting to get my other site built and launched so the stopping and starting was too disruptive for my brain and commitment. Writing at the beginning of the month and scheduling seemed to work for me last year so I’ve kept this timetable.
      I’ve never had a problem with Mondays but don’t schedule on that day – it’s hard to capture optimal times for all continents so I just stick with a few. What problems did you have with scheduling?

      Liked by 1 person

    10. Scheduling? Just didn’t post. 🙂 Probably did something wrong and didn’t bother to check why.
      What I have found is that you need regularity. The ideal would be daily. Some do. I can’t. So twice a week is fine.
      And I understand what you say about optimal times for all continents. Hard to do. I’m 7 hours behind you and I have friends in HK, Malaysia, Down under. By the time I finish my afternoon they’re morning the next day already. Which I love. It’s like a Time capsule. It’s Tuesday for me and in a short while I can “chat” with an HK friend Wednesday morning.
      Cheers.

      Liked by 1 person

    11. Ah, ho capito adesso. 🙂

      There’s no way I can do one of my posts each day as my posts usually blow out to 1,000+ words…think I’d bore people to tears! I have posted on a Wednesday also in the past but that’s not religiously.
      Yeah, the timing is critical with everything social media these days and they say but it’s pretty hard to catch most time zones.
      Have a cool Wednesday!

      Liked by 1 person

    12. Grazie. Going to therapy. (I have a feet problem which has me hysterical, as we are flying to Paris on the 30th, and no-way I won’t be able to walk my 5-6 hours a day!)
      Those who post daily post one illustration. Not our “line”.
      Wednesday, wednesday… Miércoledi? 😉
      Buona sera Signorina…

      Liked by 1 person

    13. Hope your feet clear up by the 30th – you have to walk when in Paris.
      Ha, ha, that’s probably true. I’ve even seen a couple of lines as a post…not sure why bloggers bother with this really.
      Bonsoir Monsieur 😉

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you Abby!
      There are many awards out there for bloggers, which although can be time-consuming to respond to, they do provide exposure and also insight to a blogger.
      Good luck on your blogging and I’ll pop over to check it out…

      Like

  8. Wow. You’re a serious adrenaline junky. Skydiving I’ve tried, years ago, in a much different way. I’ve never driven a motorcycle (unless you count mopeds). But riding in a jet fighter? Sheesh! I mean, I have a pilot’s license, but a Cessna 150 isn’t quite the same as a military jet. Count me impressed.

    Thanks again for the nomination.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

    1. Ha, ha you have to try everything once Dave. Next stop? Space but don’t have enough money… 😉

      Just read your jump story! Much harder 37 years’ ago to do a jump, especially as it wasn’t tandem – think yours was more of an adrenaline rush!
      No problem, your great blog deserves the nomination.

      Liked by 1 person

  12. Congratulations!
    Skydiving is definitely on my bucket list – in fact I’m hoping to achieve it pretty soon during my gap year to raise money for a charity close to my heart.
    And as for the fighter plane experience, that would be even more of a dream for me. I love that sort of thing!

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  18. Thanks for your kind words. Love your highly entertaining and informative response to the award! You’ve flown in a fighter plane and skydived. Wow! I started blogging by writing on paper then transferring the info to a word document and then loading it into WordPress. Like you I have transitioned to working on WordPress documents directly. Happy Travels! Buen viaje! -Rebecca

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

    1. Hi Rebecca, thanks again for the nomination and it’s cool you enjoyed my responses.
      Think the paper, Word, then WordPress is a natural progression. One day I’ll get around to digitising my travel journals…

      Liked by 1 person

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