Nomination for Liebster Blog Award 2018

Many thanks, I think, to Amy of the legendary Amy-Westphal.com for nominating this blog for an award that I have never heard of, yet am egotistic enough to accept with a grin as wide and cheesy  as a waxing cheddar gibbous, whatever the consequences.

It appears that to accept, I must copy and paste some stuff (see  below), answer a set of questions delicately posed by Amy (see below) and, in turn, pass  questions on to my own blog-nominees (see below) for which I hope they are not upset to receive.

(a) The Stuff

A link to the Liebster Award: The Liebster Award

(b)  Amy’s questions answered:

1- why did you start a blog? I have a compulsion to write short stories. I cannot conceive of having the patience/skill/level of concentration to write a novel. My stories had nowhere to live, so a blog seemed a good resting place.

2-favorite quote? ‘There are 3 rules to avoid procrastination: Rule 1 – Start a thing straight away. Rule 2 – Throw yourself into that thing 100%. Rule 3 – No deviations from Rule 1 or Rule 2.’ They will get you far in life; if you get around to them. 

3-tell me a secret, come on, who am I gonna tell?  The nun, who when on playground duty saw my 5-year old self collapse face first, so ran all the way to my house to tell my terrified mother that I’d had a fit, was mistaken: I ‘d been playing Marine Boy with my friend Dominic and was being Splasher  (the dolphin), when I tripped over my own feet (tail) and with my arms firmly down in the fin position, did not have sufficient time to prevent my nose being the first thing to impact with the tarmac (seabed).

4-how many times have you read your favorite book? Goodness: I’d have to say at least twice. Too many books: too little time. Maybe Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The World According to Garp, and Richard Scarry’s Best Silly Stories made it to three or more.

5-what is your favorite book? Books are like pies: I can’t say I have a favourite. Give me a Dickens, John Irving, Graham Greene, P G Wodehouse or an E Annie Proulx and I’m generally well away.

6-Coffee or tea? Detest them both. Think about it: bits of plant with boiling water, often with sugar as it tastes so vile – what’s to like?  I don’t get it. One of my earliest memories is vomiting a tsunami of coffee over lino flooring. I’ve not touched a drop since. Sorry Starbucks; it’s my loss, I know.

7-favorite show to binge watch? I refer the honourable lady to my previous answer. A feeble attention span and desire to remain occupied means I’m rarely able to sit/lie and give screens my full attention for long. I lived perfectly happily in my between-wives state without a TV. I am now delighted to be living with new wife and a TV, but am generally emailing/writing/googling/sketching to it when its on. If pushed: Father Ted

8-favorite food to binge on? That would be pie, though pretty much anything in this world is made better when contained between two slices of bread. Ever tried a pie-sandwich? I rest my case.

9-what would your theme song be? Most things by The Smiths, Patti Smith or the Human League. But lets say Linus & Lucy Peanuts by  Vince Guaraldi – uplifting, happy, fun and a slightly odd choice.

10-first book that resonated with you as a kid? Magnets, Bulbs and Batteries. A ‘Ladybird’ book which showed you how to make sciency things, like a battery out of a lemon, wire circuits and a tank out of cotton reels etc. Hopelessly  impractical, I would have been quite unable to make any of them without poisoning myself or destroying impromptu tools or someones much-loved item of furniture, but the pictures were aspirational.

11-favorite word?  Ooh now, I shouldn’t say pastry, so howsabout  Glockenspiel. But I also like clip, crisps and, of course, pre-jentacular. Can I add here that ‘moron’ is Welsh for carrot, as is popty-ping for microwave?

(c) My nominations for a Liebster (hope this is OK with you, and you get as much new blog interest as I have)

thedailystory.wordpress.com

esthernewtonblog.wordpress.com

altheauthor.wordpress.com

patsycollins.wordpress.com

timcoxwriting.wordpress.com

thestrikemeister.blogspot.com

kathryn01ify.wordpress.com

astoryandcoffee.wordpress.com

ageordielostinlondon.wordpress.com

thejaidev.wordpress.com

sableyes.co.uk

 

 

 

 

…and my questions to you:

• In what circumstance would you least want to be holding a goat?
• Which celebrity can’t you believe they let on TV?
• Which event in your life would you rather eat your own kidney than endure again?
• Which pasta shape do you find the most upsetting and why?
• Which bone(s) you would rather not have broken?
• A nice long walk or a rotten short one?
• What has been your most painful breakfast experience?
• Can you spell ‘Embarrassing Massachusetts Handkerchief’?
• Which real-life person from history would you choose to go back in time to invisibly and kick in the shins?
• In which would you choose to spend 100 hours -a bath of baked beans or a firkin of mushy peas?
• Which fruit would you have banished from the earth and who would you have fly the prison ship?