I have been nominated for the Liebster award

It's been an awfully long time since I published a post on this blog, but it's about time, and I have been prompted to since I have been nominated for the Liebster award, much to my amazement and delight.



I was nominated by the wonderfully entertaining blogger of English, Anna Nolan of Flaming English http://flaming-english.com/ who was in turn  nominated by Sean at http://theplight2write.com/.

I decided to accept since I feel totally honoured although terribly unworthy. This might encourage me to get my act together and blog more. So, thank you, Anna.

Now, this is a very good opportunity for me to draw your attention to some other wonderful new bloggers, and I hereby nominate them for the honour of the Liebster award. You can find them listed below, and I encourage you to visit their blogs and enjoy:

David McAdam of https://davidmcadamwriter.wordpress.com
NiQi Tanya During of http://fabulousandfightingcf.blogspot.co.uk/
Brittany at http://blissfulbritt.com/
Fadi Zaghmout at http://thearabobserver.wordpress.com/

What the nominees have to do if they accept the Liebster Award

The main rules associated with the Liebster Award are as follows:

1: Acknowledge and accept the Liebster Award by leaving a comment on the blog where you were nominated;

2: Copy the Liebster logo and paste it onto your own blog;

3: Inform your nominees by leaving a comment on their respective blogs;

4: In your blog post about the Liebster Award:

• Link back to the blogger who nominated you
• Answer the 11 questions put to you by the person who nominated you
• List 11 random facts about yourself
• Nominate, and link to, three–11 other blogs which you enjoy and which have fewer than 3,000 followers
• List 11 questions for your nominees.

Below are the answers to the 11 questions I was asked:

1. What would you like to get out of blogging?
I would love to know if I have reached people who feel the way I do about the issues I blog about.

2. What is your claim to fame?
Hmmmm. Probably for being a very accomplished Jill of all trades and mistress of none. Excepting for procrastination. Really good at that.

3. What matters to you most?
I care most about living as close to Mother Earth as possible, which means that I try to take care to cause the least harm to her in whatever I do. Not an easy task.

4. What is your guilty pleasure?
Seriously black chocolate - dark, bitter and fairtrade of course.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Gairloch in Scotland... no wait... make that anywhere where mountains fall to the sea or a lake.

6. How do you like spending your free time?
Free time? What's that?

7. What is your most abiding memory?
Walking behind my dad as we returned from collecting eggs from the hens. I would have been about three years old, and I remember trying hard to step where he stepped so that the dew in the long grass didn't soak my shoes. This was rather difficult as he also entrusted me with the basket of eggs, which I knew had to be kept safe.

8. Who is your favourite writer?
So many to choose from, but Alexander McCall Smith has to be one of my top favourites, especially his Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, set in Botswana, a place and people I relate to so easily since I hail from South Africa.

9. What type of music do you like?
Now you've got me. So many to choose from. Let me say any music where voices and/or instruments (real ones) are used with clarity and passion. This would cover Bach's Toccata and Fugue in Dm to my favourite mad violinist, Ashanti Floyd.

10. What tends to annoy you?
Stupidity and unnecessary noise. I think the two tend to accompany each other. I'm sure I don't need to clarify the former, but the latter includes loud exhausts on cars, that dreadful thud thud that emanates from the same vehicles and which some call music, as well as the so-called music that one is forced to listen to in various shopping establishments.

11. What quality do you most admire in people?
I really enjoy people who are honest and candid, kind and intelligent. Oh right, that's four qualities. Pick whichever one you like best.

Here are 11 random facts about me:

1. I've finally decided at the age of 57 what degree I want to do.
2. I was born in a place called Pietermaritzburg, which is also called umGungundlovu. This is why I prefer English.
3. I am a vegan (not surprising considering no 2 in the first list).
4. I have never had a traffic fine.
5. I have lived in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and now England.
6. Places I have travelled to: Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Madagascar, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland... I think that's all so far.
7. I lived on a narrowboat in 2012 and a catamaran in 2008. I don't really like boats all that much.
8. Like Anna, I cut my own hair and don't care whether anyone likes it.
9. My favourite food is avocado, followed closely by mango.
10. My favourite pastime is walking in nature. Or is it painting? Writing? Hmmm. 
11. I'm really good at DIY.

Here are my 11 questions to my nominees:

1. If you could do anything you wanted, what would it be?

2. What is your favourite animal and why?

3. Who has been the most influential person in your life?

4. What do you hope to achieve with your blog?

5. What is your favourite food?

6. What is your pet peeve?

7. What would make you happy?

8. If you won the jackpot, what would you do with the money?

9. What is your idea of good holiday?

10. If your house went on fire, which possession would you try to save?

11. If you could have your life over again, would you change anything?

So, now that you have read all of the above (or skipped to here) please feel free to ignore the nomination if you don't have the time to follow the rules, but if you do accept, I will be delighted.

Finally, thank you, Anna, once again for the nomination. My one and only hour of fame.

Jennie