In which I get Kreativ

A funny thing happened to me on the way to Thursday this week.

There I was, minding my own business, trolling through Twitter, when I noticed an unexpected mention of my Tweet name. It was there cos I received an award. For my blog. From a complete stranger.

It was a big surprise for me, mostly because I have made a conscious decision not to get caught up in the statistics/popularity game in my online life. There are enough numbers for me to stress out about in my ‘real life’ without adding to it with anxieties about how many ‘Friends’/followers/hits/comments I get – and I do nothing to pursue them. I blog mainly to have an outlet for the random burblings that occur to me. For the pleasure of getting them out of my head and presented in some logical order on a website. It’s a wee ego boost for me – but it’s not a popularity contest. (That’s not to say that I don’t like the contacts I have made and interaction with cyber-buddies that has developed – but I’m more concerned about quality of those friends than quantity).

So, it was a pleasant surprise when I saw that John (a.k.a. @dogbombs, who writes the blog http://blog.filesandrecords.com/) has listed me among his ten nominations for the Kreativ Blooger award.

Thanks so much, John. Despite my protests at not being in the blogging game for acclaim, it is nice to know that someone reads my ramblings and thinks them worthy of a mention.

The deal with this particular award is that I now have to nominate ten of the blogs I follow for this award, let them know, and then share some unknown info about myself. So, here goes:

1. The brilliant and always busy Becca at http://www.beckicklesie.com/

2. The creative and always cuddly Mr Colgan at http://www.stevyncolgan.blogspot.com/ He’s supposed to be retired but his output leaves me gasping for breath like a stickleback in a dry spell

3. Then there’s the Fab Fran at http://ilurveenglish.blogspot.com/ Always erudite and entertaining

4. Scrumptious Kelly at http://big-fashionista.blogspot.com/ Often has me laughing out loud and is worth visiting every week for her regularly “nom or vom’ feature

5. The lovely and ludicrously talented Lucy at www.lucypepper.com/wdpr Not only is she a brilliant illustrator, quirky, funny and refreshingly down to earth, she’s another ex-pat to find herself transplanted in a country going through some tough times lately (she’s in Portugal, I’m in Greece and we’re both learning the real meaning of ‘austerity’)

6. Another one in a country facing some tough time is the sumptious Sarah in Ireland, who blogs at http://nevergoeswithoutsaying.blogspot.com/

7. At 18, James is a young man shouldering the burden of his father’s Alzheimers with remarkable maturity. Read more at http://sonofalzsuff.blogspot.com/

8. The terrific Tattie Weasle is always worth checking out http://tattieweasle.blogspot.com/

9. Full volume Viv claims to be unoriginal over at http://vivisunoriginal.wordpress.com/ I beg to differ. Check her out as she prepares to start Uni as a mature student later this year

10. And no list would be complete without my soul sistah Georgy – weird but wonderful, a creative force and artist in residence down in Brighton Town, and one-time avante-gardener. She has been inspiring me for more than a quarter of a century – check her out at http://ragazza64.blogspot.com/

And now, here’s 10 things you may not know (or may not wish to know) about me…

1. As a child, I had an imaginary child called Moke. I made my Mum lay a place at the table for him, and we once missed the bus because we had left him at home.

2. I also used to hear (or imagine) the voices of two people coming from the top of my wardrobe. They were not nice – a harsh stern man’s voice, accompanied by a sarcastic, weedling woman’s voice. I banished them for good one day by climbing to the top of the wardrobe to tell them to shut up and leave me alone. They did.

3. I then developed a habit of jumping off the top of wardrobe onto my bed, flapping my arms wildly to see if I could fly – just a little bit. Mum never did know how I managed to break the bead so thoroughly.

4. In my late childhood/early teens, I used to sing in a church choir and the local choral society (I know, nerd alert!). I was the only one under 50. I still adore the twiddly bits in baroque choral pieces.

5. I am more accurate hitting a target with cherry stones spat from my rolled-up tongue than I am with an air gun.

6. I can still remember the horror and humiliation of drying up in front of thousands of people when singing a solo at International Camp with the Woodcraft Folk in the late 1970s.

7. I am a hopeless idealist and have been since my childhood. I don’t plan on changing that.

8. I have freakishly long toes – especially the middle ones – and I can pick up things with them.

9. I still use the shorthand I learned as a cub reporter in the mid-80s. It’s great for making notes I want no-one else to read, especially as it’s a fairly rare form (i.e. not Pittmans)

10. I can swear fluently in Greek – but most of you would never know when I'm doing it!

So, there you go. Now you know more about this particular ‘Award-winning’ Blogger.