WPC: A guide for one day

Written by Manja Maksimovič

You can be a tour guide, just for one day.

You can be an editor too. A translator. Layout lass. Director of photography. A copywriter. The boss. The secretary.

You, blogger, are all of these and more, all in one. And now a tour guide too.

I find it interesting when Snow Melts Somewhere says how a prospective employer may one day look at her blog before hiring her. (Her blog just turned three and she says many interesting things in general and in this post in particular.)

Certainly, many characteristics come out through consistent blogging. Online does things, reveal more than conceal. I found amore this way, I should know.

It also reveals all that one doesn’t think is showing but we are. Imagine – in the multitude of subjects that we could tackle in a multitude of ways, we talk about this subject this way, and show that object thus.

Let’s see, what do I show? My English level, the limits of my writing and photo skills, my nonconformity, my resistance to trends, my stubbornness. It takes a certain kind of employer to cherish this, and I’m not saying there is none.

But I’m afraid the majority of employers would notice one thing and one thing only: how many tasks I am willing to perform for free.

If I needed to pinpoint my blog, this Weekly Photo Challenge says it best: my blog is a tour guide, covering Maremma in southern Tuscany, Rome and Slovenia where I’m from.

It brings me honest joy whenever my posts make someone pay attention and think “Hm… this might not be a bad idea AT ALL”.

In today’s gallery just one day, this Friday.

I went out with no direction or end in sight, and spent four hours simply turning and stopping wherever it felt right.

First it was the tunnel, then a new beach, then the Orbetello lagoon with its aviators and windmill. After that I drove towards the port of Porto Ercole but stopped early at the Feniglia for another beach, drove to Porto Ercole just to shoot it from the car, and returned to the lagoon. Thirty minutes away from home tops.

And this is just one of my homes. There are two more in Ljubljana and Piran in Slovenia, a temporary one in Rome, and day trips to Siena and a variety of small Maremma towns, and who knows what else is to come if you stick around.

I’d say welcome but this goes without saying. After all, for whom would I be doing all this free work if not for you? 😉

(Clicking on the first photo will suck you in.)

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: Tour Guide

38 thoughts on “WPC: A guide for one day”

  2. Oh MM, you make me laugh, as always! There are NO limits to your writing and photography skills! And those flamingos…!! Hahah! Some dreams are better off being just dreams?
    My potential future employer would see someone who is grumpy and whiny all winter… in a winter country! Hmm… I might have to rethink this… 🙂 (Thanks for mentioning me!)

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    1. Indeed they are. White, just a bit pinkish from above. But only in flight they disclose the incredible pattern under their wings, black, pink and white. This is the first time I saw them so close. Usually my zoom cannot reach them in the middle of the lagoon.

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  5. Well that was lovely! Fabulous cloudscapes and reflections. Not a bad choice of a dream house, either 😉 Y’all have trees we never see around here.
    I feel like when I’ve worked hourly or on contract, I was hired to do X and if you want me to do Y or Z, there will be other payment involved. When I’ve worked salary, I view it as my job is doing what’s needed, regardless. In that way, I’ve done a lot for free, but I’ve also had those experiences, so I’ve benefited.

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    1. Thanks, Joey! Yes, I understand. My only office job was as an editor for a monthly magazine. I had a boss, I was a part-time hired help, I got paid separately for each article and translation, but I did all sort of work beside that. Finishing up a post sometimes feels like finishing a monthly issue. One time, when my boss didn’t wish to pay me for an article I did, I remember clearly telling her to please not save the money on me (because I was saving the magazine money as it is). The last part was not said aloud.

      My blog is my magazine, except there is no minister to take care of the finances (our magazine was a subsidised affair). I pay myself with chocolate.

      Something that I’d enjoy doing (for money) is editing a sort of online literary-photo magazine. Just a thought if you want in. 🙂

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  8. I quite dig your dream house! It’s lovely and serene, all perched on the lagoon like that… Thank you for showing us some your fave sites, with wonderful commentary to make it all relevant. Almost feel like tipping you. ☺️
    You raised in your post an interesting thought: whether employers (or people in real life) will check out your blog and potentially see you in a different light. My experience has been “no”, not that they don’t see you in a different light, but they fail to show that there is interest in seeing you at all. Curious to have your thoughts?

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    1. Your comment is the best tip, Jolene. 🙂 Thank you kindly!

      At the beginning I was a bit upset because my real life people didn’t show much interest in my blog (or what I thought was not enough), and that goes for Slovenians in general. But then I remembered that I write in English, and why I write in English. I moved out of Slovenia, after all. On Facebook I still most often post in English, even though the majority of my FB friends are Slovenian. There are some Slovenians who do follow my blog and I’m always happy to hear from them, but they are rare.

      On the other hand, I can write an extremely personal poem from my ex life and nobody I know thinks less of me for it because they don’t read it. 😀 (I just found it today on my previous blog. The title is I’m Happy and I’ll let you do the digging if interested.) 😉

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      1. Hah, I like your mentality. You can spill all the beans on your past life and nobody would know you are talking about them! Kind of what I do with my “dear you” letters – I know they will never see them, although they’ve published for the whole world to see.
        You gotta share the link!!

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    1. Oh yes, Jesh, the pine trees and cypresses here are amazing and memorable. I’m glad you got to the sea too, many don’t. Even I was surprised at first to hear that Tuscany had coast.

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    1. Oh, Cheryl, not often but sometimes a comment slips by unanswered. This time it was yours. I’m sorry but I’m glad I saw it now because it’s so sweet. I’d love to have you here, we’d have many laughs and lovely nature would be the only one to hear us. Thank you!!

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  13. Many readers seem entranced by your dream house and indeed it is beautifully romantic. Me, I prefer the windmill and think of the stories it has! Interesting thoughtson blogging. I had not thought of future employees reading it yet am very conscious of the potential for reading personal social media platforms. I feel blogging is more anonymous and because of that can be both personal and indifferent.

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    1. Indeed, Amanda. In a post you can tell so much in such a way that one really needs a certain extent of empathy to see what you were getting at. And bots and other info-gathering entities are not it. Thank you for having a look around!

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      1. Just my line of thinking of late. Technology is replacing many things that we once had to memorize or at least think hard about. However, it cannot replace empathy or human problem solving!!

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