AT long last I have cracked the foodie photo thing and it’s all thanks to Annie Bean. I’ve never really spent any quality time with a well-known blogger, a #socialnetworkknowledgegap that I had the chance to fill on a recent trip to Austria’s beautiful Alps with the author (below right) of The Tales of Annie Bean.
Her blog is popular enough for her to have picked up thousands of followers. The only issue, apparently, is keeping the numbers up. “If I stop blogging for even a day I lose 30 or 40 of them” she says, tapping something into the phone which never, ever, leaves her hand even were she to be climbing the north face of the Eiger, indeed especially were she doing that.
So Annie depends enormously in WiFi without which her fickle followers might lose interest and transfer their loyalties to someone else, the beasts! Ergo the first question that Annie asks every time we stop on our four day tour of the Tirol region is “what’s the WiFi code?” Of course most places that we stop at are cafes or restaurants and they all have WiFi now.
Hence, the food pictures. Here of course Annie is in good company with everyone else in the world because today the Pavlovian reaction to food is not to dribble but to reach for the Iphone and take a picture which (no matter what the mess looks) goes on Facebook faster than you can say Wiener Schnitzel.
So food is big. Annie is not big however, she is 5ft 5 inches (there’s some argument over this) of pure muscle as she is in training for a triathlon. She is also in training for her wedding day which is in less than two weeks, so I ask if she will blog this and she says ‘yes’. So I ask if she will blog the honeymoon as well to which she replies: “We are taking that later because of the triathlon”, thus neatly dodging the question, but I bet she will. Her fiance, Ironman Nick, is used to seeing the phone stuck to her hand but will probably insist it is removed while he puts the ring on her finger.
When Annie is not updating her day: jog – breakfast plate – find loo (oh yes just follow #findingaloo # needaloonow #wheresthenearestloo) – lunch – swim – sightseeing – spa – dinner – she is taking photos and videos of everything and everyone to upload at the next WiFi stop. Videos are instant and easy content but taking a selfie on an E-bike doing 25kms per hour did actually prove beyond even Annie’s ability.
Any problems that Annie Bean has can be quickly resolved by tweeting followers: as for example: “Help! I’ve come out with a rash on the face due to stress about my wedding day next week” which produced a rash of advice from followers.
I am not surprised she has got a few stress spots. Just being Annie Bean must be exhausting (a look at her blog confirms this) let alone with a wedding and a marathon coming up. So, from one hopelessly lazy blogger to a true professional, good luck Annie for your big day, I’ll certainly enjoy being your virtual guest
Copyright Andrea Watson 2015