Again? O, ok, let’s do it. Another award….

I had a plan for today’s blog. A plan which promised greatness and fabulousness and all the things you all love best about my blog…. I was going to get a copy of Chat and do a write up for you. But something insane happened. I couldn’t find one anywhere! So I’ll have to go to some different shops tomorrow. Sorry to disappoint you all.

In the meantime, I was nominated for an award so I’ll get on with that.

The rules:
-State 10 random facts about yourself.
-Answer the questions given to you by the blogger who has tagged you for the award.
-Tag more people.
-Give them 11 questions to answer.

Ok, 10 random facts, here goes…
1. I once had an odd fixation on blueberry flavour Nutri Grain bars
2. I love cereal/fruity/nutty bars. Love them.
3. I was so totally in love with Jesse from the film Free Willy when I was younger.
4. I once asked for a monkey for my birthday and was super annoyed when I was told no.
5. I have read everything Enid Blyton has ever written.
6. I did my undergraduate degree at the university where Enid Blyton studied.
7. I’ve never seen the film, Fame.
8. I don’t really like the film Bugsy Malone. I’m sorry.
9. I have degraded myself by starting to drink decaf coffee, after spending so long attempting to develop a proper coffee habit. I’m ashamed and sorry.
10. If you spell my surname backwards, it says Yes I Am…. Maisey…. Yes I Am…. Maisey…. See?

Here are the questions asked me by Momina, the fabulous blogger who nominated me (thanks loads, by the way).

1- Who is the last person you usually think about before going to sleep?
Danda

2- Something you do alone, but wouldn’t do in front of others.
Throw my head around a bit dramatically when playing piano.

3- Do you have any strange phobias?
I’m not keen on tin foil. I used to get terribly embarrassed if I opened my lunchbox at school and my sandwiches were wrapped in tin foil.

4- One Favorite Novel that you’d like to recommend people to read and why.
Definitely F. Scott Fitzgerald. But which one? Tender Is The Night. Or The Beautiful And Damned. Actually let’s go with Tender Is The Night. Fitzgerald’s ability to write characters is amazing. The minute details of how relationships work, how interactions and people become complicated and intertwined. Everything about life gains a beautifully tragic edge when I am reading Fitzgerald. Reading him makes me want to write, makes me want to be grand, makes me want to have fantastic unachievable dreams.

5- Do you take the shampoo and conditioner bottles from hotels? 😛
Yup. Still got everything from the room in the Savoy. The headed paper. The sugar packs. The soap. The shower cap. Everything.

6- Do you use Post-Its?
No.

7-If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?
Right here in my house. On my road. On this lovely hill near my favourite park. With my lovely friends and neighbours. 

8-What inspires you?
Life. Nature. Richmond Park. People. Silly things we do and say.

9- Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving?
Done both. Bungee jumping more scary.

10- Do you ever count your steps when you walk?
When I was trekking the Great Wall in China and I was trying to learn some Mandarin, I counted my steps aloud from one to ten over and over to learn. That was eight years ago and I still can count to ten in Mandarin now!

11- Have you ever danced without music?
All the time. Honestly. All. The. Time.

Ok, now to tag some more people. As opposed to tagging them actually, I’m just going to highlight some new bloggers on the scene that I’d like some attention to go to because they are fab.

Lovefoodlovefashion
Marktedlord
Eatmovelove

It’s up to you guys if you want to answer the questions or not. No pressure.

1. Why do you blog?
2. How do you feel about chilli chocolate?
3. Tea or coffee?
4. Next holiday destination….?
5. Am I invited?
6. Delia Smith or Nigella Lawson?
7. Do you mind that Nigella Lawson is essentially soft porn?
8. What are you getting me for my birthday?
9. My computer has stopped letting me print things. Why is this?
10. How do you feel about Starbucks?
11. I don’t really like orange juice. Do you think this could create a problem for our friendship?

Laura Maisey, Fully Qualified Piglet and Multi-Award Winner

Well, this is a good week. Passed my exams and been nominated for two awards. I’ll do the other one in a separate post. So for now, I would like to thank Wealthymatters for the nomination for the One Lovely Blog Award. This blog is a mixture of useful info and tips on creating wealth (always a useful thing when emerging from a period of self-imposed student-loan-related poverty!).

So the rules for this award are that I tell everyone 7 things about myself and nominate 15 other blogs for the award. So I’m going to have to think of 7 new things as I swear I’ve told the most interesting stuff already. Ok, here goes…

1. Sometimes I think I might like to spend my life becoming the new Alfred Wainwright, a famed English walker, who spent his time walking the Lake District and writing fantastic books about it, known as Wainwright’s Walks. In light of this possible life goal, I’m looking into walking the Pennines for my birthday next year. It takes about two weeks apparently. A friend did it and had a heart attack and had to be airlifted off to hospital. I don’t think the heart attack was related to the walk.

2. I once walked the Great Wall of China. It took about two weeks. It was exhausting. A lady in one village tried to sell me a Great Wall-themed t-shirt and when I said I had bought the exact same one at the previous village so didn’t need another, she said, in desperation, ‘But I have extra large!’

3. When I was travelling in Namibia with a friend and her family, we were staying in the middle of nowhere in a tented camp. As we walked in the pitch black from the dinner tent to our sleeping tent, we looked back up the path and shone the torch, and we had walked straight past a huge HUGE male lion with a massive mane. It had been lying down next to the path, clearly not hungry enough to have a go. If any of us had reached out an arm while walking past it, we would’ve touched it.

4. When I was younger, I named every single cuddly toy that I had, and I had a lot. When I was supposed to be going to sleep, I gave them all personalities and created a little life with them. My favourite doll, which I’d had since forever, was called Yvonne.

5. After I’ve been swimming, I eat far more than is really necessary, to get my energy back up. I’m probably burning enough to have two or three cereal bars. I tend to eat four or five, then a bit of everything else I find in the fridge. I know this is silly. And I know overall, the swimming can’t be having that much effect, due to my massively increased food intake, but I have decided to pretend that it’s not happening. If you would pretend too, then that would be great. Thanks.

6. I love a project. Love it! If someone says ‘I need to file all this stuff by tomorrow, I’ll never get it done’ I love it, I get straight in there. Or if we need to check the best before dates on everything in the shop, I’m on it, I’ve already started! Re-organising a drawer or re-arranging furniture, I love it. Let’s get the garden looking pretty, someone says. I’m your woman! I love it. I get excited thinking up projects for myself to work on.

7. I feel quite a bit of pressure to do something law-related now that I have my degree but in all honesty, I quite like what I’m doing now, even though it has nothing to do with law. People say, ‘O, so what will you do now?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, at the moment I am mostly baking and writing. Which I like. So I’ll do that.’ Lots of people with grown-up jobs don’t like them very much. Whereas I love my job, it’s great fun. I think I should count myself lucky in that and not be in a rush to go and do something grown-up, just for it’s own sake.

Ok, so now you all know me a bit better (I’m running out of cool facts to tell you all actually. Any more awards and I’ll be telling you things about myself that are of the ‘I had a cup of tea this morning’ variety), and it’s time to nominate 15 other blogs for the One Lovely Blog Award. This is fairly easy as they’re all pretty lovely, lovely enough for me to take the time out to read them every day. I’ll try not to repeat any I’ve done before.

1. Thought Catalog – This blog is just fantastic. There are no other words for it. It’s witty, painfully honest and always hilarious. 33 Things You Should Know Before Dating Me is my favourite of the recent posts, but the’yre all worth reading.

2. A Year Of Reading The World – This blog is great. 196 countries, and a year to read something from all of them. I was super excited the other day when I saw a book from Namibia on the list.

3. The Good Greatsby – I love love love this blog. Invite Me To Your Yachting Party and Thank You For Inviting Me To Your Party. I Apologize For My Behaviour At The Party are among the funniest things I have ever read.

4. Belle Grove Plantation – This blog feeds my history obsession. It follows the restoration of the plantation in Virginia, US, where James Madison was born. The little stories of discoveries on the land and tales of the families who lived there are absolutely fascinating. At some point, I’m definitely visiting, it looks amazing.

5. socomfortablynumb – This blog had me at “I’m not all that pretty. I dress wierd.”

6. CyclingEurope.org – This man cycled around Europe and wrote a book about it, which I’m in the middle of at the moment. It’s a great book, fantastically entertaining. Read it.

7. Bagni di Lucca and Beyond – Gorgeous gorgeous photos. I’ve never wanted to go to Italy more! In fact, I have booked myself a trip there soon and my sole holiday research has been this blog!

8. hairsprayandhemingway – I was initially attracted to this blog by the name. The blog is described as being about ‘literature, beauty and life.’ What’s not to love?

9. AsiaDreaming – This blog always has beautiful photos from exotic faraway lands, that make me want to drop everything and jump on a plane.

10. Blogging for a Good Book – It’s the Williamsburg Regional Library blog and every day I come and check out which book they have recommended. I’ve read a few that have been suggested and they were very good.

11. Tokyobling’s Blog – Again, amazing photos and a fascinating insight into another part of the world. The colours and liveliness in the photos are great.

12. Project 365 by Kenneth Todd – One photo a day for a year. Does what it says on the tin. There are some lovely lovely pictures on this blog, check them out if you’re into photography or if you just like looking at pretty things.

13. Fitness and Frozen Grapes – The great pictures of food are just one of the reasons I love reading this blog. No matter how active I am, I always feel lazy when I read this!

14. Lyrics and Chocolate – The most recent post, List of things that never change was great!

15. Steeshes – A Photo Collection of Mustaches – This blog is just great. There’s always a new picture of a moustache. I feel it is good for one to be up-to-date with the latest moustache fashions. That’s partly why I love this blog so much. Check it out. You’re bound to discover something amazing.

 

PS. As a London-dweller, I feel I should say something about the Olympics. So here it is = the Olympics are nice, aren’t they?