The Expats Blog Awards 2012 – Bronze Award for the Czech Republic

blog-award-2012-czech-republic-bronzeFurther to my previous post, yesterday was judgement day for the ExpatsBlog.com Awards 2012 for the Czech Republic. And I came third – I got the Bronze Award.

I am very grateful to everybody who took the trouble to follow the link in my previous post and ‘left some love’ for my blog in the comment box. I shall say something about those kind comments a little further into this post. There were also, a number of people who promised to go there and leave a comment, but who never did – sigh πŸ™ Whilst the number of positive comments was not meant to be the only criteria by which blogs were judged, it is noticeable that the two blogs which finished ahead of me were the two that also got more comments than me.

The winner of the Gold Award was Christopher’s Expat Adventure. Chris is an American who was relocated to Brno a few years ago by his employer IBM. He has taken full advantage of being based in Central Europe to travel widely and, in his blogposts, always gives some interesting background details about each country he visits. He frequently explains the size of a country by relating it to one of the American states – for example ‘Sweden is slightly larger than California’. I do think this is a good idea, especially as I presume a sizeable part of his readership is American, many of whom will have never set foot outside of the USA as 80% of Americans don’t hold a passport.

Chris also writes about his social life and how things differ between the Czech Republic and the USA. He is also good at explaining aspects of Czech culture and history. A recent post was very informative about why there is a Greek community here, something I had only become aware of recently during a conversation I had with a Czech young lady sat next to me on my Prague-Geneva flight in late September.

However, I couldn’t help but note that two of the positive comments were from people who admitted that ‘Chris is my boss’. It did make me wonder how many other of his underlings left comments as a result of an in-house memo πŸ˜‰ But joking aside – congratulations Chris on your Gold Award.

The Silver Award went to a fellow Brit who blogs as Girl in Czechland. GIC is a young lady who met her ‘Czechman’ whilst he was living and working in the UK. When he decided to return to his native country, GIC moved to Czechland with him, about a year after I moved to Prague.

GIC or Ms GirlovΓ‘, writes both articulately and humorously of her life here in the Czech Republic. Her posts about visiting the ‘Village People’, her descriptive title for Czechman’s family who live in the Bohemian countryside, are one of the hilarious highlights of her blog.

I’ve been a fan and follower of ‘Girl in Czechland’ from the blog’s very early days and have recommended it to numerous other expats and English-speaking Czechs. I honestly thought Ms GirlovΓ‘ would win the competition and regard it as no disgrace to finish one place behind her. And yes, I do know her true identity, (we’ve met on several occasions), but I do promise not to reveal it – honest!

As promised earlier, I want to say a few more words about the twenty-three comments/reviews my blog received. Those of you who wrote were extremely kind in what you said, describing my writing as, ‘funny, interesting, insightful, informative, warm, incisive, well-written, balanced, smart, eloquent, entertaining and detailed’. It’s left me feeling quite overwhelmed and, if I’m honest – embarrassed.

Several comments were also complimentary about my photographs which I also appreciated. And with regard to content, my frequent examples of that wonderful language I call Czenglish, are clearly enjoyed by many of my readers. I’m sure I’ll have more to share with you in 2013! Who knows? They might just help me win silver or gold, next time around πŸ™‚

Fame at last! – The Expats Blog Awards 2012

A spire with wires & lights in Prague Β© Ricky Yates

I’m not very good at ‘blowing my own trumpet’. I am still amazed that this blog currently gets an average of 70 hits a day and that in less than four years, I’ve written and published 205 posts. But clearly many people enjoy reading what I write and I’m grateful to everyone who kindly leaves comments on what I’ve posted here.

However, a few weeks ago, I received a most surprising email. In fact I was so surprised by what the email said, that it’s taken me some time to initiate appropriate follow-up action. For the email kindly informed me that, β€œ’Ricky Yates – an Anglican in Prague’, has been nominated for the Expat Blog Awards 2012”. As you can see from the badge displayed at the top right-hand corner of my home page, this is now deemed to be a ‘Top Blog’.

One of the judging criteria as to whether I will receive the Gold, Silver or Bronze award, or am just deemed to be an ‘also ran’, will be the comments left on my blog listing at expatsblog.com. Therefore if you enjoy my blog and think it deserves a little recognition, please click on this link, scroll down past the details of my last five posts, the ‘Top Blog’ logo and the existing comments, and in the box below, ‘leave some love’ for my blog.

Please understand that I’m not doing anything underhand by asking you to do this. The competition judges have specifically requested that those bloggers nominated, encourage their loyal readers to leave comments – hence this post πŸ™‚ Please don’t delay – the competition will be judged on 16th December & comments will be closed 24 hours beforehand. Therefore, you have only a little over two weeks to post a few kind words about my blog before the opportunity passes.

Rest assured that I won’t let all of this go to my head. But just occasionally, it is nice to be appreciated πŸ™‚