Monday, May 01, 2006

Office Chair Traveling

"Vacation, All I ever wanted. Vacation, Had to get away" - Go-Gos

Right now, I'm sitting on one of those interminable conference calls that managers attached to sales organizations seem to be stuck on either end of the month, especially when the numbers are as awful as they are for us the past few months. Since I really don't have any control over the actual sale (my group is considered pre and post sales support), I have my phone on mute and have decided to take a vacation by surfing City Daily Photo Blogs. What is a City Daily Photo Blog you ask? It is a blog where the author takes a photo every day of a different and interesting place in their city, then posts the photo and then tells the reader a little bit about the photo and a tidbit or two about their city.

The original is Paris Daily Photo by the incomparable Eric. His blog makes you feel are like actually standing next to Eric when he takes his picture. I visit Eric and Paris at least once a day (sometimes two times if I really need to go to Paris). Besides the great photos that Eric shares with his readers there is a witty and pithy group of regulars who comment on his posts. Half the fun if reading the PDP is reading the comments of the regulars. Eric likes to remind everyone that a friendly Parisian does exist and while I have never really encountered a hostile Parisian, I would bet that Eric is indeed one of the most friendly.

Next on my daily travels is normally across the Channel and a quick stop to say "hullo" to Ham at London Daily Photo. Ham is a regular here at the Sour Dough and you may have seen his comments on several of my bread postings. Along with being a fairly serious baker by all accounts, Ham is a darn good photographer. I have discovered places in London I didn't know existed, even in the neighbourhood I lived in for almost two years.

At least once a week I also visit Hong Kong, Mumbai, Toulouse, Kuala Lumpur, and New York City. Sometimes, like this afternoon, I just click on a random city on one of the blogs and find myself transported to places as diverse as Brisbane, Australia to Bloomington, Indiana.

And sometimes, it isn't even a City Daily Photo Blog that provides me with the best little five minute vacation but rather a fellow blogger who I link to over under "Who Breadchick is Reading". Like a few minutes ago, I was catching up on a recent addition to my blogrolling links, Michele over at Voix de Michele. She has a link to what has to be the best view of the Eiffel Tower of all time in her Saturday, April 29th post.

Sometimes, you really don't need an airplane ticket or a suitcase to take a vacation...