Hello loyal readers!
Yep, things look a little different around here now - hopefully better. I didn't love the old look, which was put up in a rush when I first started writing for you. This feels more 'us' and cleaner too. What do you think? Personally I feel more inspired by this new layout, but it's not all about me!
There are also a couple new features down the side. It should be much easier to join in with me on Twitter or to swing by our Facebook fan page. You can also subscribe to receive new posts in your inbox by clicking the envelope that says 'Email'.
The most popular posts and the archive are still there, but I've also added a tag cloud. Basically what that means is that every time I post something new, I add a few keywords to describe the content of that post. Until now, those keywords weren't much use to you, but now you can see the most common ones and click on them to see all of the posts that relate to it. As an example, if you're more interested in the sugar-free posts, click the tag 'sugar' and if you're more interested in the travel posts you can click on city names to see everything about that city.
There's a countdown to our trip and a new little gadget that shows where I am on Google Maps. Not so interesting just yet but in 72 days time you'll be able to see where in the world I'm sitting.
You can still follow via Networked Blogs and Google Friend Connect and you can still see the communities I'm a part of. Down by Lady Bloggers Society there's a link to Stumble Upon and I'd be really grateful if you clicked on it. If you haven't heard of Stumble Upon before it's a really cool site that basically shuffles the Internet and shows you new sites based on your interests. The more people that click that link for me, the more random strangers will be shown the site.
Down the bottom is a Tip Jar. Now I know that we are all struggling as much as each other and no one out there is carrying around bags of cash. At the end of the day though, Courts and I are backpackers, and it's not cheap, so even if I inspire you to donate a dollar towards our trip, it all counts in the long run. I'm completely willing to work for your money and I have experience writing everything from opinion pieces to lyrics. If there's somewhere you would like us to visit and review, I can do that too as long as it's in or near one of the cities we're visiting (check out the Accommodation page for that info). If you're in the Auckland area I'm still available to do Nails or Body Painting until 9 June or after 27 September.
So yeah! Lot's of little updates and I would absolutely love your feedback and ideas on how to improve the site and make it more useful for you.
Thanks for being so loyal and lovely!
