After much contemplation, I’ve decided to start a new blog instead of upgrading this current one which is pushing close to the memory limit. I’ve consulted some of you, dear BlogFriends, who have done one or the other, and I have dug deep as to where I see myself with blogging in the coming years.

So, I present to you, Touring My Backyard: Rediscovering Singapore. My focus will be our virtual Camino explorations around our little island, as well as any other fun things we might discover as tourists in our home.
Church of St Francis of Assisi, 21 Feb 2021
I hope you will come along and join me as I begin that adventure. Please also continue to stay tuned here: I plan to fill this space with less Singapore-specific posts.
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Reading your Joyful Posts brings me to my happy place. I hope having them in one place makes it easier for you to find when you need a bit of happy therapy, too.
If you would like to join in, ping back to this post and I will include you next week.
- Betsy Kerekes‘ Spelling reality check: works with her daughter on spelling & unearths Wheaties
- Dawn Kinster‘s Evening Surprise: delights in sunsets at Gulf Shores Beach
- Deb’s World’s Shoutout Saturday: celebrates grandkiddo Patrick’s 1st birthday
- Denyse Whelan‘s Gratitude & Acts of Kindness: shares random acts of kindness
- Laurie Graves‘ Friday Favourites: enjoys a French series on Netflix, and another Tiny Desk concert
- Little Pieces of Me‘s Grateful Fridays: enjoys some outdoors in good weather & special photo album
- Meditation in Motion‘s Running On Empty: reconciles “emptiness” against “busyness”
- Nancy Loderick‘s Puzzle Me This: delights in nostalgic puzzles
- Natalie the Explorer‘s The 9 Gifts of February: dlelights in stunning scenery, art, family celebrations, blogging challenges & books
- She Writes’ All Things Great & Extraordinary: encounters a new version of herself each day
- Thistles and Kiwis’ This Week’s Small Pleasures: shares lovely blooms from the Botanic Gardens and a link to a delicious cake she baked
- Sanch Writes‘ Weekly Gratitude: works & writes plenty, and also considers some fun
- Trent’s World‘s The Weekly Smile: runs again after a month! Yay, Trent!
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Notes:
- Feature photo was taken by Loving Husband in Nov 2020 from the Marina Barrage
- This post is my contribution to Friendly Friday Challenge: Something Different hosted by Sandy at TheSandyChronicles & Amanda at SomethingToPonderAbout.
Starting a DIFFERENT blog is a radical response to the Friendly Friday Challenge !
Of course I’m kidding, I know this was an independent decision 🙂
Whether you post from her or your new place, I’ll be happy to see you again.
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It does seem rather serendipitous to use this as my offering to Friendly Friday Challenge – you & Amanda are such inspirations to me that it seemed like the fitting contribution!
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Congrats on your new blog, Ju-Lyn! I look forward to visiting Singapore virtually via your blog and photos. Thank you for the mention. Have a great weekend!
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Thanks for your encouragement and support, Natalie! I look forward to your continued presence as I share my spaces!
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Now that is something really different, Ju-Lyn. A new blog is exciting. I popped over to see but couldn’t leave a comment. Have you disabled them?
Love the selfie taken by “loving husband.”
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As I said to Sandy above, you both are such inspirations that I thought it fitting to offer this as my contribution to the challenge.
Did you try to leave a Comment on the opening page? I couldn’t seem to get the Comments Section to turn on there. But if you open the Blog section, the Comments seem to be working on the individual posts. But I will pop over and take another look – do you know if there is a specific function for Comments in “Pages” vs “Posts”?
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You could be right About the opening page. I will have to double check.
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I see a comment box now, at least on my phone wordpress app. Hopefully all good.
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Thanks for helping me troubleshoot, Amanda! This was really helpful else I wouldn’t have realised that it was a fixable issue.
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So happy to be of help, Ju-Lyn.
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All sorted, Amanda! Thank for pointing it out – otherwise I probably wouldn’t have gone back to relook this.
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Great! Glad to be of help.
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Yes congratulations on starting a new blog! Look forward to seeing the posts.
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Thanks so much! I look forward to continuing the journey with you over there!
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Well done for starting another blog. Lots of work ahead.
I’ve just looked and started following but I couldn’t see a like or comment button
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Thanks so much, Alison!
I had trouble finding a Comments section on the opening page, but the individual posts seem to be ok. I will have another peek. So sorry for the inconvenience.
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No problem ..I thought it might have been on purpose as I’ve come across some other bloggers who dont have a like button
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Ah yes, I’ve noticed that too. I wonder why one turns it off?
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No idea.. encourage people to comment instead maybe
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Maybe so, maybe so.
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Just sorted that out – thanks Alison!
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Good luck with the new blog. Fresh starts are a good thing. 🙂 … and as you know, I already found you.
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Thanks for finding me, Frank! and for the encouragement.
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Thank you so much for sharing my previous post with your readers. Congratulations on your new blog and decision to move forward this way. I have an Australian friend who has lived in Singapore for over 10 years and right now, she is in Australia (after 14 days quarantine) with her eldest who is starting University in Melbourne. My friend will fly back this week to her husband and younger daughter. The joy of being an expat in Covid times.
Denyse #weekendcoffeeshare
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A pleasure to have you share this space with your positive energy, Denyse!
This story of your friend shuttling between Australia & Singapore is very much like one of my friends as well – she, too, is an Australian expat who would have loved to settle her daughter into Uni but she’s decided to have her older son do it on her behalf. While she sees the logic of this, there is so much wistfulness over the loss of a rite of passage.
Indeed, it is very very challenging to be an expat anywhere in this time.
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Ju-Lyn, I love the look of your new blog! Haha … I had to smile at the first sentence introduction! Reckon we are all missing the travelling!! What a great idea about giving running tours of the city at some stage and I can see that would be very popular! For now I look forward to your kind invitation to follow you on your backyard tours!
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Very glad you are coming along Annika!
One of the considerations of starting a new blog was wondering how many of my old BlogFriends I would not get to chat with, and would miss very much. That was disconcerting but I am glad to see that I was right in taking the risk.
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Well one, I’ve just “followed”, I hope!
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Thanks so much Sue!
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hi
well
first of all – you did something very right as you made the change here
you have your gravatar linked to the new blog
and so when i clicked your image on a different blog (which is often how i decide who i want to go and visit) your properly linked image took me to your new blog- and that is likely something that will help a lot of your followers find you!
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and i think you made a good choice to start new – some folks do this every year for various reasons
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and i did it back in 2015 and then came back to the old blog – lost thousands of followers (literally – i think my blog went from more than two thousand to under five when i came back after the year of trying the new one)
i slowly rebuilt both times and have to say it was really good for me!
first, allowed me a new perspective and slowed new folks to find me. second, i really lifted above number of followers and had to just focus on what i wanted me post schedule to be and then enjoyed who i visited – it helped me to relax in some humbleness that helped blogging – anyhow
sounds like you have a wonderful plan for the new blog and felt a lot of your essence there already
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Thank you so much for your affirmation, Yvette. It is BlogFriends like yourself which gave me the courage to start a more focused blog. So many anxieties, but I think it all finally came together.
Looking forward to, as you say, start afresh!
See you on the other side!
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ahhh – and remember to really just keep it simple and stay being you – and that is what helps a blog thrive – right?
and side note – I am on a new path with my blog this year – I am “batching” and scheduling posts for the first time – and second month and pretty good
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I know some bloggers that have done this for a long time and well, I am still finding my way – but I like it so far – keep ya posted
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Appreciate so much your support!
Oooooh, what an interesting notion – how many posts do you cue up? That would take some planning, which is a rather appealing. You started in January?
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Hi – I did start batching in January but not at all finding a groove yet. The most I have done is four at a time (aiming for more)
but the success i did have was making photos ready to go.
I put in about 150 photos in a folder and that helps when it comes time to batch.
Sometimes it limits what i choose to share – for example, I wanted to do food photos for a recent challenge but decided to go with photos I already had – but that is also because my “season” in blogging is more about batching and not creative endeavors – but years ago my blogging goals were to try new hoo things and ready to experiment – not sure if that made sense – but I do have a new plan for this year and so far, pretty good –
thanks for asking. The times I did batch a handle of posts made it easier to reply and visit others
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It certainly is a discipline, Yvette.
I’m also trying to batch ahead now – some days easier than others! Better for editing though, because when I sleep on a post, I often make editing decisions which I probably would not have if I wrote & posted on the spot!
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Hi – the “sleeping on it” sounds like a great way to also enjoy blogging.
I think for me I do not want to batch so much to wear it becomes rote – but want to stay present
and speaking of that – I am taking an unplanned blog break until April and whew, it was such a good thing – truly a God appointment – and even though I had posts batched and ready, I just needed to unplug a bit. anyhow, see you in Arpril amiga
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See you when you return Yvette!
I am mostly at https://touringmybackyard.wordpress.com
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I can attest! I feels great to have a gray start!! 😍😍
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Fresh start, not gray 😂😂
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Hee hee! Silly auto-correct!
I remember when you had to restart your blogging adventure some years ago – you managed to overcome the hiccups and are going strong now! Inspiration!
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❤️❤️❤️
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Congrats on the new blog!
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Thanks so much,Trent! And thank you for being an integral part of my fact-finding and consideration.
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That is a beautiful city skyline, Ju-Lyn! I’ve signed up for your new blog, too.
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Hurray! Looking forward to seeing you on the other side!
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So much to see & do beautiful city photo. It sounds great your new blog I cant wait to see where you take us. You & yours have a wonderful week.
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Thank you so much for your affirmation & support – looking forward to seeing you on the other side!
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Congratulations on the new blog! I will have to make the same decision sometime soon. I am looking forward to seeing your Camino photos. What a wonderful way to get to know Singapore!
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Thanks for the encouragement, Laurie!
Apparently there are some Bloggers (I’ve been told although I don’t know anyone personally) who start a new blog each year. And there is some wonderful way to link to them all …. that I haven’t quite figured out. One step at a time.
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Good news on your new blog, congrats on taking that big step! Thanks for sharing my post here too, it’s much appreciated.
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Thanks so much for cheering me on, Deb!
And you are most welcome in my new space too!
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Yay for the new space! Off to check it out now. And thank you for sharing my post here! 🙂 Hope you have a lovely week ahead!
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Thanks Sanch! Looking forward to catching up with you next weekend in the new space!
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Congratulations on your new blog!
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Congratulations on starting your new blog Ju-Lyn.
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Thanks so much, Su! See you on the other side!
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🙂 🙂
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Good luck with the new blog. I had no idea blogs reached storage capacity.
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I’m not sure about Blogspot, but on WordPress there is. I have just passed my 5th year of blogging and I’m at about 80% of capacity. There is still room yet but I thought I would futureproof while I wasn’t pressed to do it.
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I will be here (though hardly on WP lately) to support U too. Actually my blog also soon will reach capacity in terms of media so I have transferred some to my other blog Life and Wonders if you noticed? A part of my life as an ex-pat is there and still more to move.
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Can’t wait to follow along on the new blog!! 🙂
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Hi Ju-Lyn! I’ve been on an extended media break so only just found out that you’ve got a new blog – going to follow it immediatelly of course and looking forward to read it. 😀 All the best!
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