What and how did all my fellow award winners feel when they received the Versatile Blogger Award? Adrenaline rush? Excited and honoured? WHY ME? I am but a budding blogger, even writing in a foreign language, slowly trying to find my niche or place, like a pulpo (or squid) tentatively spreading out my tentacles.
I am not very good at speeches, I remember when at the tender age of 12 or so I had to make (I certainly did not volunteer! I think I was chosen because I was so tiny) an introductory speech for a girlscout jubilee with hundreds of girlscouts and their family attending, I was so nervous and trembling, my speech lasted for about 15 seconds (for me a felt eternity) and I made a hasty exit while the audience laughed.
Official Rules of the Award
1. Thank the award-giver(s) and link back to them in your post.
2. Tell your readers seven (7) things about yourself.
3. Give this award to up to fifteen (15) recently discovered bloggers.
4. Contact those bloggers and let them in on the exciting news.
So, first of all, a big “Thank You!” to Janine Ripper of Reflections from a Red Head, thank you for the trust you put in me and my blog. I can warmly recommend her to you: she is a lovely person inside out, a talented writer and photographer, with a trillion ideas, an awesome wishlist and a lovely family. On asking why she gave the award to me, she said: “I gave it to you as what you write about makes me feel good, and brings back some wonderful memories for me. I’m bias also in that I’m enjoying getting to know you and find you very personable and easy to correspond with. I like that and I like being able to develop relationships with fellow bloggers who seem like minded aka kindred spirits.”
Okay, you wanted it, here are those 7 things about me:
1. I am Swiss and live in Basel, Switzerland, working parttime for a NPO, I enjoy a close family life and work in overdrive to live my dreams and not to dream my life.
2. My thoughts are more entertaining (and maybe more biting) than my written stuff.
3. I have a problem with time management and suffer from severe bouts of procrastinitis.
4. I would love to take better pictures but am too lazy to study photography hard enough. Plus I have a damaged retina which makes me see horizontal and vertical lines as slowly rippling waves.
5. I would love to live in southern Toscana in campagna and make my own wine.
6. To quote my aunt at 84 years: “When I get up in the morning and look into the mirror, I see a 20 year old girl.” It runs in the family, though I am not 84 yet!
7. I have several bad habits, here are two of them: going to bed too late, falling asleep in front of the TV.
Now to the hard task of naming 15 bloggers, practically all the blogs I follow have been nominated before and are hardly new bloggers. I follow food, inspirational, social media and “geeky-nerdy” bloggers, spending quite a lot of time on reading and interacting. It is difficult for me to decide which to choose but as the aim of the award is to draw attention to newly discovered blogs, I hope I will be excused for my interpretation.
Here are some people whom I respect a lot:
Samantha Bangayan of What Little Things: she is a warm hearted girl who will introduce you to Peru
Stacey of My Lifestyle Max: the dojo of practical personal development
Lori Gosselin of Life, for Instance: Lori modestly describes her blog “as a place where people talk about life”
Happy reading and connecting!
Comments 6
Hi Barbara,
Thank you so much for this honor! I’m very touched! It’s nice to meet you too. I went to your About page and can so relate to your love of traveling to foreign countries and sitting in a roadside café getting the feel of a new place!
(That’s the best part of travelling – that and arriving in a new place wondering what to do first!)
I know Stacey well (love that – “dojo” !) but I’m off to visit Samantha!
All the best to you new friend!
Lori
Hi Barbara, this was incredibly touching. Thank you for including me and becoming part of the MLSM family. Seeing Lori in there as well means I’m in great company, so going to check out what Samantha is doing and say hi. Take take, and look forward to reading about your travels.xx
Hi Barbara, Congratulations on your Versatile Blogger Award! Your award is well-deserved and you picked three amazing ladies to pass this award onto. I am very surprised that English isn’t your first language, I never would have guessed that.
I love your seven things, especially number 6. I don’t think of myself as my age, it doesn’t seem to compute somehow. I’m glad I’m not the only one.
If those are the worst of your bad habits, you’re doing well, my friend! 😉
Is your damaged retina very debilitating? I would imagine seeing lines that way would really throw you off, especially with driving.
Thank you for sharing a bit of yourself with us. I’m a big fan of Switzerland and am excited to have discovered your blog!
@wonderoftech Hi Carolyn, Thanks so much for your kind comment and yes, “my” three ladies are amazing, I could not agree more with you! My bad habits: of course, I did not list my worst, you do not want to overdose! And I want you to come back, I might be in a confessional mood, one of these days! It was really fun revealing those 7 things about me, normally I am rather shy and keep things for myself but I have experienced so many great and gentle people reaching out to me lately and being so open minded, this is my way of saying thank you to all of them. My eyesight is really rotten, I cannot drive at night anymore, due to the damaged retina I have lost my stereo view as well. But I am very happy with the picture of the softly rippling waves which came to me while writing these 7 things, it beats any psychotherapy! No. 6: ah, my wise wise aunt – welcome to the club, my dear! And I look forward sharing with you!
AWW! Barbara, thank you SOO much for sending me this award! =) It’s really been such an honor and I’m so glad we’ve met. You, my friend, are so deserving of this award. =) Your versatility shines through all your life experiences!I also loved learning so much more about you! As you know, I suffer from procrastinitis as well, so I wholeheartedly identify with you there and don’t feel so alone anymore. =) In the future, I hope I find you blogging from Toscana one day. =) That sounds like an ideal place to live — maybe I’ll head over there too. =)
Congrats on the Versatile Blogger Award