blog you, you blogging blogger

I wonder how long it will be before 'blog' gets an entry in the OED...

I’m not sure exactly why I enjoy reading travel blogs so much. I guess I'm living vicariously through their stories, and the more detail that is given, the more involved I become. The popularity of blogs is perhaps another symptom (like reality TV) of our growing fascination with other people’s lives. I hate reality TV. Except perhaps The Amazing Race. Maybe it stems from the belief that everyone else has a more interesting life than our own. Blogs are like a personalised reality show – if there is something that you are interested in (Latvian nose flute music perhaps) doubtless there is someone who is writing about it right now. Apart from the voyeuristic and vicarious aspects, blogs can be a great source of information (for travellers and otherwise). They illustrate just how much there is to see out there. I have learned a lot from those I’ve read, and I hope that people will get some inspiration from mine.

I guess I’m just excited about my own impending departure. One of the reasons for creating this blog is that I don’t think that there are enough travel blogs around, especially ones relevant to Kiwis. A number of blogs stop shortly after the travel actually starts. I’m sure motivation to keep a blog up to date does fade once you are seeing and experiencing new things, and time is at a premium.

Some of the other blogs I’ve been reading recently are:

Don’t Forget the Dot - Peter’s blog is an interesting, and endearingly unhinged travel blog in Australia and England.

FunkyPancake – A photo blog showing oddly compelling images of ordinary things in London. Good captions. Not strictly a travel blog, but well worth a look.

The Underground Tube Diary – is a blog about life underground in London’s undersround railway network. The Tube has fascinated me from the first time I used it (at four years old), so I found this quite absorbing. This is part of the Going Underground website which is scattered with invaluable Tube information.

London Leben – A blog in German about life in London. I wish I could understand more German.

Edit: 'Blog' and its derivatives were added to the OED (online at least) in 2003. Blimey.