More awards, more thank-yous.

I have been nominated two times for awards in the last couple of weeks and I have to admit they have sat there on the edges of my mind, mocking me for my neglect. I have been busy – it’s been the Easter holidays so I have had the children at home; we’ve been away (me and the husband even managed a night away in Bath, including four hours at the wonderful Bath Thermae Spa (a post on that is planned at some point!) to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary); and of course I have still been juggling work and book publishing preperation.

Today is the first day I have had to myself for a while, the husband having taken the girls to a Go Ape Treetops adventure place for the day. So I am trying to catch up on all the odds and sods of the last few weeks before things start in earnest next week, once schools are back.

So one of the things on my list is to acknowledge the two lovely bloggers who nominated me for awards and answer their questions! Both of them nominated me for the Versatile blogger award so I guess that means I must be….versatile!

First up is the lovely Vanessa over at Petal and Mortar. Vanessa is an expat in London, where she lives with her husband and young daughter, and has quite an eclectic background. Iceland is in there somewhere but she has lived all over the place and definitely falls into the category of “interesting expat”. Her pretty blog covers a whole smorgs board of topics, from quick recipes to her PTSD following the difficult birth of her daughter.

My other nominee is Berryduchess  – another expat (Filipino, based in Singapore) with a beautiful blog covering photography, travel, and this great post about removing her birthday from Facebook (I included that link because I am becoming more and more fascinated by Facebook and the effect it has on our lives. I have already written about it here and I am sure it is a topic I will come back to).

Okay – so that’s the acknowledgements out of the way. Now on to the good bit: talking about myself 🙂 One of the awards said share five facts, one said seven (I guess there is some sort of Chinese Whispers going in with these awards) so I will pick the middle ground and share six:

1) My favourite film is Apocalypse Now. We visited the set in the Philippines, while they were filming, as a child. It always stuck in my head because of that – but when I was old enough to watch it, I discovered what a brilliant film it was, with so many layers, great actors, plus an amazing soundtrack. This Is The End….

2) I have never watched Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit or Game of Thrones. Am I the only one in the world who hasn’t?

3) I am an expert at parallel parking, having lived for a few years in a very small place (Gibraltar) with very little parking. I am not so good at normal parking though – there are dents and bumps in the car to prove this.

4) I am a fourth generation expat. My mother’s grandfather was in the Colonial Service and served in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Her father was also in the Colonial Service and was posted to Sierra Leone during the war (where he met my granny, a nurse) and later Hong Kong (where, sadly, he was killed). My father was a diplomat with the British Foreign Office. My children will be fifth generation expats when we move abroad again.

5) I have lately become addicted to instant coffee and digestive biscuits (dunked in the coffee). I think I actually prefer instant to the real stuff. That’s not right, is it?

6) I used to know all the words to the American pledge of allegience because we had to say it at the International School we attended in Manila. We didn’t have to pledge to the American flag, but we were meant to pledge to our own flag. However, I was the only Brit in my class so there was no British flag. I ended up pledging to the Union Jack in the corner of the Australian flag. How’s that for a turnaround of power?

Now I realise I am meant to nominate 15 other bloggers and let them know I have nominated them. However, I have decided that rather than ignore these awards altogether I wanted to acknowledge those who nominate me – but simply don’t have the time to then pass them on to 15 others. Perhaps I will store them all up and do one HUGE nomination once the book is published, the girls are back at school and all the packing is under control…