One Lovely Blog Award

The One Lovely Blog Award is a bit like a very, very nice chain letter. Someone sends you a nomination (Donné, author of Cupcakes and Croissants, in my case) and you then accept it, write seven things about you that people won’t know and then make some nominations of your own.

It’s lovely of Donné to have nominated me because I love reading her blog – I can normally hear her reading it aloud in my head. Perhaps next year when we live together, we should have year abroad reminiscing nights where we all read aloud from our blogs… or maybe not.

Like Miss Stam, I talk a lot (too much! You know it’s bad when you annoy yourself) but these are 7 things which I believe the majority of people probably don’t know about me:

1)      I am a self-confessed addict of Heinz Ketchup. It belongs on pretty much everything that is savoury, including roast dinners. (I detest gravy and have to replace it with something)

2)      My favourite place to go for breakfast is Kate’s in Portswood, Southampton. My favourite restaurant overall is Banana Wharf in Ocean Village, Southampton… nom. Just in the interests of a full set, my favourite chain is Nando’s (especially in King’s Lynn, Norfolk) though Chiquito’s and Harvester are close behind.

3)      I have never been on a plane. I thought the opportunity might crop up this year but the only airport near me is tiny so I’m out of luck. Perhaps next year!

4)      I am obsessively tidy and organised. People probably know this to a degree but perhaps don’t understand the full extent of the problem.

I enjoy planning things six months in advance (I get very annoyed by people not committing to things because they’re ‘too far ahead’ – this phrase suggests your diary is probably clear, write me in) and I like everything to be at right angles. I am very easily stressed in a messy room. I know, I know… I’m working on it!

5)      I have a slight money-spending problem. I don’t get any money from my parents and don’t have a penny of savings to my name but I really do take ‘I’ve earned it, I can spend it’ and ‘work hard, play hard’ to excess sometimes. I’m very lucky not to have any debts.

6)      I’m incredibly stubborn. This is a bizarre trait and some people may not have noticed it in me – it tends to come out at the strangest times and generally in such a way that it puts me violently at loggerheads with the people I love most. It’s also the reason I’m more than happy to go to the cinema, theatre etc. alone – I refuse to let whether or not other people want to do something change the fact that I want to do it.

7)      Historically, I’ve found it very difficult to trust other people and been exceptionally reluctant to use the word ‘friend’ which is a very loaded term. I’m a lot better than I used to be on this score but if you ever lose my trust then you’re extremely unlikely to regain it.

Nominations

Again like Donné (we are apparently one person) I don’t follow that many blogs so this is difficult. There is also some repetition here of blogs which she’s already mentioned but in each case I think it’s merited.

Letters from Le Havre - Sam’s blog never ceases to make me nod along. She has a keen eye for detail and I love the way that she looks at her life here in Le Havre. The vocab section is also super useful – I’ve learnt loads!

VicinMarburg - I love the musical inspired titles of Vic’s blog. It’s really interesting to hear about life in Germany and to compare it with my own year abroad here in France. Brilliant!

Grenoble Girl - Maddie’s blog contains so many pictures that make me jealous. It’s another one that I can hear almost as if the stories are being told to me and I love catching up on all of the Grenoble goings-on.

Jeffery’s Gym Daze - Emma, this blog is the best thing ever. Thank you for going through so many things so that I don’t have to.