Liebster Blog Award

The Liebster Award is given to up-and-coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Thank you to Skybluepinkish, Cloudberry, My Once Upon The Moon and Joseph Qinton for nominating me.

Here are the rules for receiving this award:

When you receive the award, you post eleven random facts about yourself and answer eleven questions from the person who nominated you.

Then you pass the award onto eleven other blogs (making sure that you tell them you nominated them) and ask them eleven questions. You are not allowed to nominate the blog that nominated you.

So, to collect my award:

11 random facts about me:

1. I drink tea, but never coffee
2. I can write with either hand
3. My favourite colour is green
4. I can speak a little Chichewa
5. I did Latin rather than French at school
6. I'm a Rotarian
7. I love running in the rain
8. I do yoga
9. Cockroaches give me the eeby-jeebies
10. I have been able to recite the Greek alphabet since I was 10 (don't ask!)
11. My cat weighs twice as much now as I did when I was born

My answers to Skybluepinkish's Qs:
1. Have you ever had a dream come true?  How?
Yes – meeting Jason Isaacs. I went to see a play he was in and met him at the stage door.
2. What was your most serious misdemeanour at school?  Were you caught?
Playing (field) hockey in the corridor (practising 24 yard hit-outs with a proper hockey-ball – it was a long corridor!). And yes, I was caught.
3. Do you snore?  Have you ever voluntarily or involuntarily tried any cures?
No.
4. What was the last song that stuck in your head?
"This Big Hush" by Shriekback
5. Tulips or daffodils?  Why?
Daffodils. They last longer and have frills.
6. Do you prefer to cook or to eat?
Cook.
7. Are you a Townie or a Country bumpkin?  Not in reality but in your heart.
Country bumpkin.
8. What is in your handbag/briefcase/rucksack/pockets right now?  Chose one or more
Lip-salve, tissues, keys, propelling pencil (filofax is currently on my desk)
9. Do you think beauty is in the eye of the beholder or are some things inherently ugly?
Eye of the beholder
10. Do you have a party trick? (and what is it….)
No.
11. What do you do when faced with a big spider staring back at you from the bath?
Get a glass and a piece of paper and evict it into the garden.

Answers to the questions from My Once Upon a Moon:
1. What made you decide to start a blog?
I enjoyed reading stationery reviews so decided to write some of my own.
2. What is your favorite song?
Sarah McLachlan “Possession”
3. What is your dream job?
No idea. Still looking for it!
4. What is your favorite holiday?
Walking with my husband in glorious countryside
5. IPhone or Android or neither?
Android
6. What do you collect the most?
Books
7. What is your favorite sport?
To play or watch? I love to run (but not watch it) and watch tennis (but hate playing it)
8. Who would you invite to a BBQ (alive or dead, famous or not)
Tom Hiddleston
9. What would you serve at said BBQ
Food?? Lots of veggie stuff (as I don't eat meat) and stuff on skewers.
10. Your favorite ice cream flavor
Vanilla
11. How would you spend a 1 million dollar lottery winnings?
I would give it charity. No-one I know needs as much as those in need elsewhere.

My answers to the questions from Cloudberry:
1. What is the first thing you do every morning?
Have a cup of tea
2. Why did you start your blog?
I enjoyed reading stationery reviews so decided to write some of my own.
3. What do you want to be when you grow up?
I assume you mean What DID I want to be, since I am now a grown up! When I was little I wanted to be a vet. I'm currently a university lecturer. That's more a question of happenstance than design.
4. Who do you consider your role model?
Ooh, tough one. Anyone who refuses to be beaten by what life throws at them.
5. If you could have three wishes, what would they be?
To have sensible redistribution of wealth and food throughout the world. To see an end to conflict. To get any of my books published.
6. Favourite family activity?
Walking.
7. What is your sport to watch or play? 
I love to run (but not watch it) and watch tennis (but hate playing it)
8. If you were invisible where would you go or what would you do?
I genuinely don't know. Can I affect things while I am invisible? I would quite like to bang some heads together if that was the case. If it was just to snoop, then nowhere. That's not my cup of tea.
9. If you could go on vacation anywhere right now where would you go?
Paris.
10. If your friends had to describe you in one word what would it be?
Generous (I hope!)
11. What is your pet peeve?
Poor grammar.

My answers to the questions from Joseph Quinton
1. If you could inhabit any book, what book would it be and why?
Oh goodness. Um. I genuinely have no idea!
2. If you were to win the lottery, what would be the very first thing that you would purchase?
Nothing really. I would give most of it away. I have a nice house, as do all my close family. We have food and heat and shelter. We all work. I would give it away to people who didn't have all that.
3. What are your 5 favorite books or books series?
I return time and again to Austen and Bronte. I don't really have a favourite series of books.
4. What magazines do you read on a regular basis?
Women's Running
5. What tool or tools do you use to organize your day?
Filofax/pen and pencil. Outlook at work.
6. What is your favorite television program?
The only thing I would try and tune into each day and am angsty about if I miss, is the news. I would watch almost anything if it had any of my favourite actors in!
7. Who is your favorite author and why?
I'm not sure I have one. Either Shakespeare or Austen, because the writing is so good and because they need concentration and submersion.
8. Physical books or eBooks and why?
Both, depending on circumstance. I have bad arthritis in my hands so big books are always on Kindle. Otherwise... either/or.
9. Do you have an eReader.....which one?
Kindle (the most basic version)
10. What blogs do you read on a weekly basis?
Too many to list! I have about 30 on Google Reader but I pick and choose which posts I read. I'm not sure there is any one blog where I read all of the posts each week (time is finite!)
11. What is your best character trait?
Trying to see the best in everyone

However...
I'm really struggling to find eleven nominations – either the blogs I follow have more than 200 followers (and are therefore not eligible) or they have already been nominated a zillion times! So, forgive me for accepting an award but not then passing it to others, which I realise is probably very bad form, but I just can't find eleven.

Thank you to all of those who nominated me!