My First Award: One Lovely Blog!

Last week, I was too busy putting up fuzzy pictures of windmills, sparkly glass lanterns and moaning about the stench in Spanish supermarkets to collect my crown, but now I’m ready to give this momentous event its full dues. I mean, who wouldn’t want theirs to be considered “One Lovely Blog”…!?

Here are the rules, and being German, I will have to follow them to the letter:

How to accept this award:
1.    Thank the person who nominated you
2.    Add the One Lovely Blog image to your post
3.    Share 7 things about you
4.    Pass the award on to seven nominees
5.    Inform your nominees by posting a comment on their blogs

Number one is easy: Thank you, Linda, for nominating me 🙂 Linda’s blog expateyeonlatvia makes me pee my pants. If I were a better writer, at least half as funny as her and not worried about people beating me into a pulp every time I set foot outside my front door, I’d have a blog just like hers. My only complaint is that she sometimes doesn’t post anything for five days in a row. This is bad, Linda, very bad, you hear?!

Number two, also easy:

Number three… not so easy. But I’ll have a go… seven things about me:

1. I hate my toes. Crooked –  each and every one of them.

2. Patience is NOT my middle name.

3. I used to be really freaked out about spiders until I moved to Spain and encountered cockroaches. The season started again last Wednesday, and with a bang. Guess where I found the unmentionable? Kitchen? Bathroom…? You’d think that, wouldn’t you. As horrible as it is to contemplate, those would all be ‘reasonable’ places for them to be. But no. The damn critter was having a rollickin’ time right in the middle of my bed! Oh, it was a YouTube-worthy comedy moment I’m sure you’d all have enjoyed. I didn’t so much, at the time. (High-pitched screaming, flapping of arms, swearing, it had everything.) But I got the bugger in the end. Ha!

4. I like to collect inspirational quotes. My most valuable source of worldly wisdom is the US Grocery Manufacturer Association’s daily newsletter. Here are three of my faves:

– Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. (Isaac Asimov)
– Experience is a good teacher, but she sends terrific bills (Minna Antrim)
– If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal. Not to people or things (Albert Einstein)

5. I have a fear of driving. I think it may be genetic, like my toes. I do, bizarrely, possess a license, but I haven’t really driven since passing my test, and if you put me behind a steering wheel today (at gunpoint, otherwise forget it), I’d be incapable of even starting the blasted thing.

6. I like some a few people, but I’m not gregarious. Socialising in groups, parties, noisy bars… meh! Put me at a table with coffee, cake and ONE humanoid creature with at least half a firing brain cell, and I’m happy as a clam.

7. I will do ANYTHING to get out of having to attend a wedding. And, I’m proud to say, my strategy is working a treat. I’ve only showed up to two in the past decade. (One of them ended in a spectacularly acrid divorce, while the other (phew!) is careering quite happily along the potholed road). Rumour has it that my main reason for leaving the UK in the autumn of 2011 was to dodge Will & Kate’s big day.

Number four: Nomination time!

Choosing seven was really, really, really hard…and I’ve recently started following a whole bunch of new blogs that I haven’t quite gotten a sense of yet. I’ll keep some back for the next time (if there is one).

expatiallymexico: This is an undisguisedly blatant attempt to get Kristin posting again. I love her blog. She’s been taking a break since April due to some frivolous extracurricular activity… giving birth or something… but that’s enough of that now! (OK, she did post last week). We demand more stories about shrines dedicated to evil bridge demons and maids who clean the kitchen cabinets with ground up chalk. NOW!

lovinglanguage: If you’re into languages, you’ll like this one. This blogger, who sounds like he has just about the busiest life on Earth, still manages to post something astoundingly intelligent and motivation-boosting at regular intervals, whilst learning Somali and Farsi on the side.

foodjunk: If you’ve got a liking for wacky (and highly suspect) snack foods, this guy will hit your spot. Be warned: He’s rather prone to going off on tangents… but he’s allowed, seeing as he’s ready to put his own life in danger for your entertainment by preparing – AND EATING! – the contents of an original box of 1980s stripey Jell-O.

jacksjottings and pommepal: A joint nomination to those two bloggers – an amazingly energetic couple in their 70s who travel around Australia in their caravan named Matilda. Currently house sitting in Tasmania, if I’m not mistaken.  Great photos, too!

confuzzledom:  Brit living in Germany. Posted a picture of a cracking home-made cake recently. Followed by a cross-stitched one. Gets my vote any day.

conjamon:  A family of British ham aficionados who’ve recently moved to Spain. I don’t think they’ve killed anyone/each other yet.

travelwithintent:  Her posts about her travels have brought back many pleasurable memories of places I’ve also been to, including some of my favourite spots dotted around London where I lived for ten years. Cakes feature frequently.

Number five: about to do that now…