Top Row - In the Middle
I am so thrilled and thank you Susie Lindau for telling me about this. My first (and perhaps only) Freshly Pressed Post
Hong Kong – Hipstamatic Tour
This is the happiest day of my blogging life and thanks to so many of you for helping me to know how this is done. I am simply thrilled to be part of this community and very grateful.
Cheers Bliss Adventurers!
Michael
About Michael Housewright
Michael, well done and well deserved!
David, thank you! You are a wonderful supporter and I appreciate it very much
Yay!!! Well deserved
!!!
Boomie, thanks for being here and for being part of this joyous ride
Your blog is about to blow up now
…
I am sitting here with my workout gear on and starving, but I am not leaving this chair
Lol…of course
.
Congratulations!
Thank you very much and for being such a supportive follower
Congrats!
Thank you so much and thank you for being a part of such a great community
It truly is a great community and creative outlet.
Amen!
You hit the international category from my 10 reasons I’ll never be pressed. Congratulations.
Rich, that was the first post I ever read of yours and I frankly assumed the same about me with the exception that if I hit the FP lotto it will be with an international post. BTW – you are now my #1 on my comments page. I am so glad to have you in my corner.
I am excited for you…But for those of us who do not understand the implications of becomming “freshly pressed”, can you explain what this means?
The best of 421,142 bloggers, 943,625 new posts, 1,522,732 comments, & 195,431,076 words posted today on WordPress.com
I googled it! I get it now… WooooHooooo! Congratulations!! I knew you were amazing already though….
Cathy,
It is chosen by the staff at WP so far as I can tell. There is not a publicized set of criteria to explain how to get this so it is certainly a bit of luck and hopefully a teeny bit of hard work and interesting posts! It should generate some greater interest in my work
Thank you so much for being such a supporter!
Okay, now that you’re famous, don’t forget us ‘little people’!
Congrats, Michael! Bravo, bravo!
Famosa? Che palle! Tu sei impossibile a dimenticare
*snort* That’s not what you told me when we were locked-up in that filthy Venezuelan prison with no passports and no money. That woman is a liar, I say! A liar!
that’s why I had to cut that bitch
You deserve it, Michael! You have such wonderful photos and comments. I just came from HK and I am missing it, but not as much as I miss the beach right now! Haha keep it up!
which beach are you missing? Juliet and I could surely use a beach right now
Thank you for your comments and your support. HK is a wonderful place
I am talking about the island of Boracay, here in the Philippines. I’ll be there next week so you might want to check my posts. I highly recommend it, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it! I’ve been coming back, and went there thrice last year! I can’t stress how amazing it is.
I will for sure! I am so excited to know about this place. Do you have any links or photos to it?
Unfortunately, not at this moment.
I’ll update you as soon as I can.
How wonderful! However will you celebrate this occasion?! I say, uncork a bottle of some finely aged wine, and do a little dance around your place.
Congrats, Michael!
Cara,
I would have never gotten here without your enormous support in the early days when I questioned if I should even keep doing this.
Celebrate? I am doing that right here in this chair and responding to every wonderful person who takes time from their day to visit this blog. Although Champage may have to happen
You Rock My Friend!
Hooray! I lift my flute to you, Sir.
Bless you, and may you spread this Love and Light to as many as possible.
That is my mission and you know that
Congratulations, how fabulous!!
Thank you Wendy! This is a really fun day to share with all of you
Well done to you! And never say you will not be freshly pressed again – one never knows!
True, but one is a realist in public (and a crazy optimist in private) I still owe you a thank you Colline
Congratulations, Michael the Blessed! Well done & well deserved!!!
(and as always: fun to read your witty comments..)
Hey, I know that one day I am coming to your country and we will discuss all of this over some great food and drink!
Thank you for being such a great supporter
Hey, when you get the answer on the “please explain the bloated sacks” question…will you post that for me, I am so curious too!
I remain 100% curious and could not even get an answer in HK. Most gruesome food I have ever seen sold in a market
Yesh!! Yay for you. = )
Thank you very much for this! I am so excited you have discovered my blog
Congrats Michael!! So happy for you!
Sherry, this is a happy day and thank you for always being part of this. I hope your big Africa trip gets similar exposure
Congrats! You so deserve it!!
: )
el
Thank you Elena! This is so exciting for me and I am really happy you are part of my support network
Congrats, that was a great post and truly deserving I’ve been really jaded on FReshly Pressed. Always thought it skewed toward pretty pictures and top ten lists. then I saw someone get fp’d for literally cutting and pasting a 5 yr old post from someone else. But at least your hard work on this one is restoring some faith.
Still doubt I’ll ever get it. Congrats again!
I agree with you. It is not about merit. Yes, I work like a maniac and I think I just luckily landed into a nice space today. Your work is exceptional and your blog is so sharp and elegant. I am confident at one point you will land the lucky ping pong ball. Thank you for your encouragement and for being an example of how a blog should be.
Cheers to you!
Thanks so much for the kind words. Really means a lot!
all 100% from the heart
Congrats on being “pressed” and well deserved
Such a great post as well — have always wanted to go to HK — one day. Enjoy the moment!!!!!!
You would love it Danny! It is a food paradise. Next time we go I will let you in on it and perhaps you will join us there
Between you and me, everyone talks about the great food, which I won’t deny, but I have ulterior motives for going to HK — something about custom made clothing in 24 hours
indeed. My buddy got 2 suits (about 72 hours) while he was there. I need to do this next time. I am afraid they will make me pay extra because of my height
Congratulations, Michael, you have been included among the best of the best!! You deserve it….you put so much heart and soul into your blog. Your pictures and stories are interesting and extremely entertaining. Yay!! Hey, now that you’re a celeb, don’t forget about us little people!!!!
e.
Yeah, this will wane and I will be the same guy I have been. You guys aren’t getting rid of me that easy
Thank you Elisa..you are awesome
congrats! you have arrived, don’t forget the rest of us who haven’t reached stardom yet, LOL
Seriously, awesome pat on the back!
This is just a lucky thing Roxie. I do not feel I deserved this any more than the guy that won the lotto. Yeah, I work like a madman at this but I am not sure it affects things much. I will be here rocking it with all my WP family going forward
Awesomeness!!! So well deserved.
Thank you so much and thank you for the very kind support
Congratulations! Well done. That’s absolutely fantastic. If I weren’t so tired, I’d think of a forth way of praising you for this great feat
Lucy,
You are so cool for saying this and your comment and support are a big reason why I am so happy today. This is a win for everyone in this community of passionate bloggers
Hi there! I’ve nominated your blog for a Sunshine Award
If you’d like to accept the award, you can get the details in my post here: http://zenandgenki.com/2012/04/19/3-new-awards-gratitude-gratitude-gratitude/ Have a beautiful week! Anne
This is so great of you Anne. I will 100% accept this and get to your post once this FP fervor recedes a bit
Thank you very much for thinking of me 
I am delighted for you Michael. You put so much of yourself online without reserve. It really is putting yourself on the line, not just online.
Well done,
Conor
Conor what a wonderful thing to say! Thank you my friend. I feel like I took a bit of a leap initially and then I realized this is a perfect place for my personality and mania
Cheers to you sir!
Absolutely thrilled for you my BBF! Thrilled and jealous but everyone knows I’m petty. (I’m kidding. I think you are fab!)
xoxo
TWTG
You make me laugh..and often. How does someone from SD become a WTG? When I first saw your blog title I assumed you would be from Arkansas
well if you read about me you will find that I have southern root – very deep southern roots – but I’ve never lived in a trailer – mostly I’m white, I’m a wee bit trashy and I can cook like a savant
oh and no one else had taken my brilliant name!
Yay – I’m so happy for you!! Of course you deserve it!
Shelia you have been here from the beginning and thank you
Congrats! Very well deserved…
Thank you so much. I am so excited to have you as a supporter and thank you for your kind words.
Oh wow! Thank you for your kind words
My heart is overflowing today indeed
Rightly so
Very well done and well deserved.
Thank you Adrian! I am still drooling over your landscape shot the other day
Congrats! I may be a new follower but I feel at home here,
.
Marianne,
Thank you are all your wonderful comments and also for your excellent blog
You are like family already, come on
Michael, your comments make me very happy, thanks!
Well, yours do the same for me
Same hair … What hair?
I like it, just not sure I get it
Thanks for saying hello
It was the monk and nun shot, I should have explained.
hahahah! I love it, and thank you
Brilliant!
I see you like wine and Italy. Have you ever read the “Billionaire’s Vinegar”? I know nearly nothing of the subject, but loved the book.
I know the story quite well just never read the book. I was 15+ years in the wine biz and most of that was dealing with collectible wines and collectors so the subject is certainly not lost on me
I am always happy to chat wine even if I do not post enormously about it
CONGRATS! CONGRATS! CONGRATS!! You are SO deserving!
This is so very kind of you. Thank you for this. I am pretty overwhelmed at the responses I am getting here. I so appreciate your support.
awwwww.feel the love
I love the love
Congratulations! I’m really happy for you Michael … when I first tuned into you only a few weeks ago you were bewailing your readers fleeing for Easter, now you’re a Freshly Pressed blogger … Where will it all end? But first that champagne, no?
Ciao
Meredith
Meredith,
Yes, I am a bewailer for sure. This is a really fun day. I have now been at my desk since noon returning wonderful comments that I appreciate so much. Champagne seems like a must eh? I hope it will end with my own travel show and all of my WP friends along for the party.
Cheers!
Michael
just before I go to sleep – dozed off there – it’s 4.38 Fria am –
open that champagne so we can talk about the showparticle roles:).
Have a great day Michael – you seem to be going about it very thoughtfully – right in the moment, enjoying each moment as it arises. Bravo for that too.
Thanks Meredith!
I think we will be opening champagne out tonight
wow! You are a maniac for being up so late..or early as the case may be
Congrats on receiving a gift from the WP gods! I have no shred of hope of ever landing on that page, myself
Oh but if you did Hyacinth..wow! You might actually make CNN
On another note, your last two posts were gripping, human, and really just wonderful. As much as there is pain involved for you, there was something so genuine in your pieces and gave your “title character” added dimension. I meant to tell you this earlier today before I won the lotto…cheers to you and thank you for your interest in my work.
Awesomeness! But I’m not suprised! Celebrate! Next post how you celebrated. Congrats.
I celebrated with sushi on a very low key evening with Juliet! Thank you for the support
Congrats Michael! Very exciting news.
Lori,
You are one of the first and most important of my supporters! This is just a wonderful day and hearing from you has made it even better!
Just remember: every time someone gets Freshly Pressed and lets it go to their head, god steals a baby, dips it in India ink, and scrawls, “Calm down, asshole.” in their front lawn.
But seriously, enjoy it.
I feel like I am taking it in stride. This is a bonus certainly but does not alter my course from the master plan. One can never plan for a black swan blog event so I will keep my eyes forward and my supporters very close. I do appreciate the advice though and thank you as always for your comments
Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed! Picture Kermit the frog running around and waving his arms (or legs if you’re pedantic) in the air and that’s me, on the inside, very happy for you
Pedantic! ahahahahaha! That reminded me of The Dude’s speech to Mr Lebowski in The Big Lebowski!
Thank you for being so amazingly supportive always. I am a big fan of you and your 2 black dogs
Thank you my friend!
You’re very welcome and a big thank you from me and my 2 black dogs. I’m always amazed by the support in the blogging community, it is a wonderful thing to see and experience.
It is indeed! What time is it in your world right now?
It is almost 3pm on a Saturday. I love my weekends
wow, still 11pm on Friday night here
By 11pm on a Friday I am usually falling asleep, a long week and a glass or two of red wine takes its toll
I am still getting a fair number of new visitors from the fresh press so I have to stick it out. I had a bottle of burgundy and an ice cream cone so I am good to go
That is excellent, hope you get to have a sleep-in tomorrow and preferably without the after affects of have a bottle of wine
very few after effects from only one bottle in my world
I will be up and blogging like a freak in the AM
Hey Congrats
Thank you Soma and for being a supportive reader since we found each others’ blogs
Cheers!
You know, I gotta admit, I feel so proud when one of the bloggers I follow gets freshly pressed. So happy for you and you deserve it!
I feel the same way and I cannot wait for it to be you! This has been a really fun ride. Cheers Currie, and what type of Curry do you purport to be? (if you hate the joke you dont have to answer
I like to think of you as Green Curry because I envy the way you changed your name. Although Red Curry is more alive. Cheers to you CR!
Woohoo! Congrats to you Michael
How cool is this?!! Well deserved, indeed.
Thank You Alex! This is a crazy 2 days since this went down. I am so thankful for my amazing readers who found me before this madness and you are certainly one of my longest tenured
I can only imagine the excitement and insanity! Thank you Michael for proving that good guys DO win!
lol! That is so funny because of something I sent out to a fellow blogger early this week. Alex, you are just awesome.
Congrats:) Blessings on you!!!
Thank you HRCG! I am so excited to receive your comment and that we follow each other’s work
Cheers
Big congratulations! You do deserve it….don’t think it’s so much luck as good work!
Angeline, you were one of my very first followers that was not family or close friend. I am so excited to see where this has gone and I am grateful you have stayed with me throughout. Your support is huge for me.
All the best,
Michael
Agree, there is a huge component of great work that makes this happen! YAYYY!!!! Congrats, TBA
Thank you Deb. I went to sushi den and blew it up with Juliet tonight because this was such a wondrous day! I am so glad to have you as a supporter Deb. Your work ethic and diligence is contagious
Cheers to you!
Wow, I can say all that back to you, tenfold. And I’m glad you guys celebrated with sushi! This is exactly what you needed, and perfect timing
i hope sometime we can take you to sushi den to meet our friends and enjoy some world class fish. Have a great night. Juliet is on call all weekend so we will be here working on Italy plans
Hope it can be a relatively mellow work weekend… sending you silent pager vibes
Enjoy the Italy plans!
Deb – we need those silent pager vibes!
Congratulations! Well deserved!
Anastasia thank you! You were one of my first followers and I am so grateful to you for your support and encouragement. This is a really great day!
I can see why you were Freshly Pressed, wonderful images and wonderful accounts. You seem to be managing the comments a lot better than I am but, hopefully I will catch up with them all sooner or later
Meanwhile a very well deserved congratulations and Thank you for sharing your Happy Day on my Happy Day. I shall be sure to come back and have a better look around soon….
Chrissy,
Managing the comments is actually eating me alive; in the best of ways. I am working without much sleep or rest as I consider this a very rare opportunity to show the world my work and offer my gratitude. I also work from home so I have a bit of an advantage
Thank you for your support and what a great set of days we have been given. I hope you will stay with me and follow
The first time I found myself on Freshly Pressed I was ecstatic! Also made a screenshot
You have to make a screenshot right? To me, you are always freshly pressed with your very talented images
I have presented you with the Reader’s Appreciation Award for I believe your blog is a very worthy blog of this award. To get the award, please go to my blog here http://drses.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/reader-appreciation-award/ . congratulations. Dr. Sherry
Sherry, thank you very much for this and I will gladly accept! I will be going to your link today once I am able to get through a lot of work on my desk. It is very kind of you to bestow this upon me and I look forward to your post.
All the best,
M
Congratulations! You deserve it, bro. You’re an excellent writer and photographer.
(one of these days, you’re going to have to tell me how to do it 
)
I do it because I love it and I have given up 2 very promising careers to pursue this line of work. I would not change a thing but it is easily one of the most challenging tasks I have ever charged myself to accomplish. I want to thank you very much for your comment and support of my blog. Without readers I would simply have quit and stayed at the other work
Congratulations, Michael on the Fresh Pressing! Kudos!
Muse,
Thank you as always for musing on over to my blog and for being a supportive reader. It will always be comments that fuel the fire
Congratulations! Go YOU!
Misty,
Thank you for being such a kind and supportive reader. I very much appreciate your comments and am always pleased when I see you here
110th comment: CONGRATS Michael! This is awesome!!
MAC, you are awesome as always for your comments and support!
It was such a well-deserved FP!
Thanks so much for the shout out! I am still going through my 100 notifications from last night and just clicked over.
Aren’t the views staggering? I bet you will be celebrating this weekend! Let me know if you are coming up to Boulder and we’ll raise a glass with you!
We had to celebrate last night at Sushi Den
Juliet is sadly on call this weekend so Boulder will have to wait. 
Thank you again for such wonderful support. The views are really great and I am blown away really.
Enjoy them while they roll in and snag as many subscribers as possible!
already snagged 160 subscribers..this is a boon
Isn’t it insane??? I hope your new site is with WP…
the new site will be self hosted but should still interact with WP. It will be a big shift
Is it wordpress.org?
yes..is that an issue that I should know about?
Congratulations! This is indeed quite the feat. You should be so proud and it’s definitely most deserved.
Karista, you are such a dream for these thoughts! Thank you so much and for being so part of my blogging world I love
Congratulations!
thank you very much Patricia!
Hooray! I’m way behind (as usual), so am just now seeing this fantastic news! Congratulations, Michael!!
Lemony! Thanks for being such an inspiration
This has been a busy 2 days 
Congrats! Man, I hope that happens to me someday
I hope so too. Be ready if it does to not sleep much and to cancel all your plans for the days you are on the FP page. Life will be crazy busy
I hope you will stay with my blog and continue to share in our adventures with your commentary. Cheers!
Love the photos I’ve seen so far. I have to take the time to go through the rest of your blog. I’ve just discovered a love for taking food photos…still learning, faaaar to go yet! And Congratulations!
thank you very much! My wife and I are big food photo people. I hope you enjoy it as it does get better and better
It can only get better…at least that’s what I believe!
Kudos! Michael, on winning the ultimate laurels in a WP community – being freshly pressed. You deserve it.
This is very kind of you and thank you very much. It was a very pleasant surprise
So glad for you that you received this very precious recognition…and I’m sure that many will enjoy getting to know you, and the humor in your writing.
Shimon, are you the former Prime Minister? Just kidding, I just really like that name
thank you for this and for being such a kind reader
Congratulations! I was just catching up with my blog reading and found this! Awesome! You so deserve this! LOVED the HK post!
Thank you Madhu! Very kind of you to say