Liebster Blog Award II

Muriel from 40Blogspot - A French Yummy Mummy in London has kindly awarded me the Liebster Blog award. Funnily enough, I've won it before although the conditions have changed somewhat since then. They've now become quite long-winded as you have to do eleven of everything. This sounds like way too much effort so I'll tell you what I'm supposed to do, and then ignore it.

Here are the rules:

1. When you receive the award nomination, post 11 random facts about yourself and answer the 11 questions asked by the person who nominated you.
2. Pass the award onto 11 other blogs (while making sure you notify the blogger that they have been nominated!)
3. Write up 11 NEW questions directed towards YOUR nominees.
4. Of course, do not nominate the blog of the one who nominated your blog!
5. Paste the award picture onto your blog. (You can Google the image; there are plenty of them!)

I can't possibly think up eleven facts about myself, so here are three:
1. I am totally under-employed and if anyone can think of a way of rectifying this situation, I'm all ears.
2. I am very good at helping other people do what they have to do and totally hopeless at helping myself (see 1.).
3. I get ulcers when I eat chocolate (except the really expensive stuff, mostly) and yes, I'm looking at you, Cadbury's Fruit and Nut.

Time to answer Muriel's questions:

1. Why did you start blogging? 

- cos I'm a natural diarist with a very bad memory.

2. What is your favourite book and why? 

- I don't have a favourite book. I can't remember what happens long enough to compare it with others. I just keep impressions, so I know I loved '100 years of solitude' but I can't remember why. Sorry. I've always had a bad memory. I can used to be able to cram for an exam and then pouf! Gone.

3. Where would you like to live? 

- I'd like to live in a sunny place near the sea where there are no extreme conditions or phenomena (no earthquakes, hurricanes, drought, flooding), where I can get a decent cup of tea, good medical care, and good friends. Oh, I've just described where I live. That's lucky!

4. What are your new year's resolutions for 2013? 

- I don't do New Year's resolutions. Total waste of time as I lose interest easily. My most recent (successful) decision/resolution was to take up zumba to get fit and that was back in September. If I have to be resolute, I do it as and when.

5. What is writing for you? 

- Writing is being creative which is a much-needed outlet, considering my job, which isn't.

6. How do you find time to write your blog? 

- I do it when I want and when I have something to say (outside office hours, natch...). My kids are big now and demand only money, food and taxi-ing.

7. What is your biggest regret? 

- I don't really have regrets. I did what I did when I did it because that was the person I was at the time. It would handy to be able to do something though... like have an employable skill.

8. What are you most proud of? 

- I'm most proud of getting back to my true self after my divorce. I'd got rather lost. I'm also pretty proud of my kiddie books too (the ones wot I rote).

9. How do you stay motivated? 

- I'm one of nature's little optimists. I'm just wired like that, most of the time anyway. I always look for the best in everything. If you can find the best in something, you can stay motivated to do it (like my job, for example).

10. If you could be a character, who would you be? Why? 

- What sort of character? A cartoon character? I usually wanted to be any girl who had dashing adventures, be it in a 'Swallows and Amazons' type story, or 'You're a Brick, Angela' type schoolgirl story, or the St Trinians girls - the younger naughty ones, not the glamorous man-killers. Nowadays, I can't think of any character I'd like to be. Maybe Nero's sidekick in one of the Matrix movies - the one that wore the long leather coat and could fly about the place.

11. What makes you happy? 

- Being in the moment when it counts.

What comes next? Well, I'm supposed to write eleven questions and nominate eleven bloggers for the award. Tell you what, I'll go to Google and take a peek at the questions others have set and report back.

Right, that was unbelievably tedious. Same questions (not Muriel's however!) kept popping up, or different ones depending on the theme of the blog (books, food, crafts, porn - jk), so as I can't be fagged to think up a new batch, I'll just take the ones I used back in June 2010:
1. Are you fixed for life or still on the move?
2. If your computer crashed, would you care?
3. What do you do when faced with a pretentious twat?
4. Do you regret meeting your first love?
5. Is there a book in you?
6. Are you naturally messy or a housework maniac?
7. Do you still have your childhood friends?
8. Where do you prefer to go when you go out?
9. What is the worst thing that's ever happened to you?
10. Is there a black sheep in your family?

Yeah, okay ten, so sue me. As for nominating people, I'll go for you, you and you, and anyone else who'd like to join in. Voila.

Liebster Blog Award

Back in December, Trish at Mum's Gone To was kind enough to hand out a Liebster award which is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers. I seem to remember Wylye Girl at River Cottage Diaries nominated me for it too several months ago but I never got round to posting about it (as there was no gun against my head...).

Trish and her family are great travellers. If you're something of an armchair traveller, like me, do pop on over because she does all the hard work organising, paying, packing and travelling, and all you have to do is sit in your comfy chair in front of the computer and read her entertaining and well-written reports on travelling joys and strife. Like me, she has an ado son, and I particularly enjoy her stories of life with an ado because they ring so true.

Wylye Girl hasn't posted in a while, I think she's been moonlighting at Huffington Post, but when she does, it's always interesting, sometimes good for a laugh (like her nominations for Rugby World Cup Donald Trump Bad Hair Award) and well written.

To get back to Liebster, I'll copy the bit from Trish's blog about a translation : "Google translate tells me Liebster means dear, sweet, endearing, lovely". Not an obvious description of my blog I'd have thought, but my followers and readers definitely are! These are the stipulations upon receipt:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your 5 blogger picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Hope that the people you have sent the award to will forward it to their favourite bloggers


So here are my five blogger picks:
1. Pointman's. Pointman started blogging because he "hated the effect the environmental movement was having on the developing world. A thinly veiled political movement, which is perceived as simply a fashionable lifestyle choice in the developed world, is causing death and misery amongst the eighty percent of humanity not fortunate enough to live well above the poverty line." Well worth a read, and can link you to Tallbloke who was recently raided by 6 policemen because of a comment was left by the Climategate leaker (FOIA) on Tallbloke’s blog giving the location of the latest Climategate archive of emails for download. I suppose you get two for the price of one here, but I don't know what sort of a following Tallboy has, so can't nominate him separately.

2. Adventures of a Middle-Aged Matron. Anna Tims, as Mammasaurus is a free-lance journalist and a part-time staff feature writer on The Guardian, and blogs about family life as the wife of a vicar and mother of two children. You can read about, for example, Victoria, "the well-spoken homeless woman who once lived on the vicarage doorstep" where "no passing male was denied a slot in her sleeping bag" and other stories.

3. Mills and Boon Wannabe. This is a hugely entertaining blog written by Oliver Tims and his sister. They decided they should "try to write a romance novel according to the guidelines published by Mills & Boon". They do it blind, too, not discussing plot or characters as they go along which makes it quite a challenge for them. Imagine writing about simmering desire with your sibling! 

4. Curry Queen. She started a blog to "fool herself that someone, anyone is listening to her. Given that her offspring describe anything she says as "like, white noise, innit?" She is "pathetically grateful for a more attentive audience". Recent hilarious quote from her husband, known as the Shah, "To you I'm just a human piñata, aren't I?" Definitely deserving of a wider attentive audience!

5. Older Single Mum. Older Single Mum says of herself "I am in my forties, with two gorgeous and hilarious boys aged 6 and 2. We live on the South coast of England, happily, without their once famous International Sportsman of a father, who I asked to leave, for reasons which will become apparent". She has recently started a series of guest blogs by other single mums (including me!) in an attempt to change the perception of the single mum as a teenage scrounger living on welfare. She's had some amazing women writing their stories and if they don't make blinkered Daily Mail-type readers think again, then there's absolutely no hope! :)

There we are, I hope you take a look at my suggested blogs, all different, all interesting and extremely well written.