We all know it’s a time of change and it seems that blogs are not immune. WordPress have discontinued their old classic editor as a way of writing the blog and so I’m having to adapt to a new way. That may not sound like a big deal … but believe me it is.
I had a similar experience at the beginning of the Covid Lockdown back in March in my work as a freelance book editor. For years I’d been editing on-screen: books were sent via email, I edited them in Word using Track Changes, and then sent the finished work back by email. But … proofs had still come the old-fashioned way in the post; as often thick and heavy parcels of paper pages, which I corrected, Dickensian style, with my blue and red pens. I once had a grumpy postman complain about delivering such a heavy parcel; I had some sympathy as I had to carry said parcel to the post office when I’d finished.
With Covid and everyone working from home, hard copies of the proofs were no longer possible; no one was in the office to print them out and get them in the post. So they too started coming via email … in Adobe Reader form. Proofreading in Adobe was a whole new ball game. A new ‘language’ had to be learnt to mark up the corrections; add queries. The first time I did it the in-house editor I was working with was as confused as I was but we stumbled on. When I’d finished, I emailed them back. They arrived minus all my corrections! Panic! Hours and hours of work lost? Eventually I worked out the problem and sent them again. Now I find working in this way so much better than the old way; now I’ve mastered how to do it. I’m very much hoping my WordPress experience will be as positive … but I’m still working on it; still to be convinced.
Meanwhile, a new way of working made me think it had to be time for a new look too, so that’s why regular readers will notice something very different going on. I’m still working on getting my head around using my new WordPress Theme; this is made more difficult by their ‘block’ system hiding nearly everything and you have to literally click into a vacuum space to find stuff. It makes Adobe seems like kids’ stuff. But much as I knew I had to get my head around Adobe if I wanted to carry on working, I’ll have to get my head around WordPress’s changes if I want to carry on blogging. So on we go …
I hope you like my new look. Content has had to change a bit while our options for travel and eating out are restricted, but essentially Travel Gourmet blog will stay much as it’s always been. But a new look needed a new main photo to head it. In this respect the new theme is better. The old one had such a narrow space for the header photo I needed to take panoramic-style photos but the new one can take a wider and deeper photo. So … at last … and I had been thinking about changing the photo for sometime … there is a new photo. I always try to think of something that conveys both travel and food. This ‘new’ photo is one I took last year in Turin; a glorious sunny March day and warm enough to sit outside at lunchtime … and where a drink is always accompanied by the most wonderful ‘nibbles’. How I long to be back there and hopefully it won’t be too long …
Thank you to all my loyal followers – some of many years – because without the feedback and seeing many people (currently about 300) read it each day, then I’d have no incentive to carry on. But I love writing it and I hope you love reading it!
