Anexpatshome Has Renominated Me For Another Liebster – I Am Not Sure If This Is Allowed! (But It Is Fun)

I was recently nominated for a Liebster Award…I nominated eleven bloggers including anexpatshome.

You can read the Liebster Award post anexpatshome published. I loved reading the answers to the questions I had given my nominees.

Nominated by Crushedcaramel for Liebster ! Cool !

I have been renominated for another Liebster Award. I am not sure if this is allowed according to the rules…however, it is all fun. So, I am going to gratefully accept the second nomination.

I have copied and pasted the rules outlined in other Liebster Award posts:

Acknowledge the blog who nominated you.

Answer the 11 questions your nominator asked.

Nominate 11 other bloggers.

Ask them 11 questions.

Let them know you have nominated them

So these are the questions anexpatshome raised to all nominees and my answers:

1. If you could invite any 5 people or things to a dinner, who would that be ? And Why (If you feel like answering)

Oooooh five people or things to a dinner. That is difficult….because ideally I would want six places for my parents and my younger sisters and their husbands…we are all very close and they make the best company over dinner. Oh and we would also be needing a high-chair for my niece.

muppets If I am restricted to five…well I was showing Goldfinch a commercial advert for Warburton’s Giant Crumpets the other day…it has the Muppets doing a musical extravaganza. So so funny. Can you imagine having dinner with Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear and Animal?!!! That would be the experience of a life-time! I can imagine the conversation being extremely memorable! Although I really would not want to sit next to Animal.

2. One noble deed that you have done ?

Don’t get me started! Opportunities have thrown themselves at me over the years due to being involved in voluntary projects. Noble is normal for many volunteers. But still some days stand out in my mind…they were just a bit more challenging than a typical day.

I had trained ten young men to be able to work as care assistants working with an older gentleman who had Parkinson’s and associated dementia. He and his wife really wanted a male care assistant. So for six months I provided training and prepared all the paper-work required for his care plan. We had handed his care onto the team of male care assistants who would be co-ordinated by a supervisor.

I was caring for a friend of mine I had known for twenty years. She had cancer pretty much everywhere you can imagine. I stayed with her the night before she died and then passed over to a couple of great care assistants who would be there during daylight hours with her. I came back that night. She took her last breaths while we were with her. After the doctor came to issue the death certificate, we washed her and combed her hair and put on the dress she had asked us to. Her husband was distraught, so we did our best to support him. It had happened very quickly. She had been working full-time six weeks before, and the diagnosis has been a big shock.

Then I received a phone-call to say that not one of the ten young men I had trained had come into work. Either they were ill, or their supervisor could not even get hold of them. They were not answering their phones. So after being awake all night and seeing my friend die and trying to be strong for her devastated husband…I had to leave, go and wash thoroughly and go straight to the home of the older gentleman, who was still sitting in his pyjamas when I arrived with his frail wife now very distressed as to why nobody had turned up.

Aaaah sigh! Lots of people do this as part of their job daily. I was not paid a penny though.

3. Which crazy thing that you want to do but you know you can never do it ?

Crazy?…define “crazy”.

As a teenager I went through a year or two of making my parents nervous. Especially when I had a job working for a record company. I was mixing with some people who were rather bad for me. But the desire to do anything too crazy left me pretty quickly. From the moment I stepped onto a construction site and worked as a volunteer for the first time, all my thoughts were being useful. bananaepisode

I have had fun, I am a shameless karaoke singer, and that has taken me to some interesting places. Wooooh! That will be a future post.

I have loved singing and pretending to be a pop star from an early age…this is me as a little one with my rock-star sunglasses and leather jacket! Any visitors to our family home would receive a performance from me singing at the top of my voice and prancing around the living room. It is something I have not ever really grown out of. The word KARAOKE is something that captures my attention and fills me with enthusiasm and I have ended up singing in front of hundreds of holiday makers who were cheering me on and calling for more. (Or them cheering me on may have been in my head…!)

Don’t misunderstand…it’s not that I can actually sing…I just love the fun of it…having no nerves is a great asset when it comes to karaoke…you don’t actually need to be able to hold a tune. Just go for it! Shamelessly! People love a karaoke singer who cannot really sing – you know like Cameron Diaz in that film…I forget which film it was…but you get the idea.

Other than that…something crazy that I can never actually do? I could say “fly”…so many of us would love to have the sensation of flying on our own through the clouds. Or wouldn’t it be great to fly just to be able to beat traffic!

4. Your Favourite top 3 movies ?

finding nemo la vita e bella the sound of music

If you came round to our home when my family and I were watching “The Sound Of Music”…you might end up quite traumatised. We all know the lyrics to the entire score off by heart and would be belting the songs out at the top of our voices!

I make no apologies for my choice of movies!

5. If you could have your own start-up business, what would that be ?

If I was going to be starting up a business I would have to have a partner. You see I have no extraordinary talents myself, except for admin skills and accounts skills. I am bit of a “jack of all trades, master at none”…so I would need someone who had a real talent, or skill, or USP.

Meanwhile I would look after all of the paper work and everything office related. I am hyper-organized. If anything stays still for more than two minutes, I either file it, or just put it into numerical or alphabetical order. I don’t procrastinate, I plough through heaps of administrative tasks.

But on my own, there is nothing I could make a business out of. Perhaps cleaning.

6. Music Lover or Food Lover or both?

Both I guess. Both can be very wonderful aspects of life. But both I limit my indulgence with.

Years ago, when I worked for the record company, I became a bit obsessive about music – it was Britpop back then. I bought many albums, I saw many bands play live, I listened to their music for hour upon hour…even at night, I would go to sleep with headphones on listening to music.

Not healthy! Now my music tastes are varied, and I still enjoy music. But I would never let my enjoyment of music take over like it did when I was a teenager. I don’t really become a fan of one artist or band. I can like their song, but often the moment they open their mouths at an interview, I feel disappointed in them.

Food – yes I love it without doubt, but again…I am trying to keep my love of food at bay. I am trying to eat smaller portions and go for healthier options. But I enjoy food very much…I love trying new dishes. I love having dinner with friends and family. For some reason I don’t feel as close to the friends I have not eaten with. It’s strange isn’t it. For some reason, eating together forges bonds.

But I keep telling myself: “Once On The Lips…Forever On The Hips”!

7. One habit that you would love to get rid of ? OR One habit that you would like to develop ?

Hmm…my sisters and I were competitive swimmers for years. I love swimming. Being in a pool feels wonderful to me…peace, calm, happy place…and then as I swim up and down for an hour or two I feel adrenaline and power rushing through my limbs. I am finding it hard with my current schedule to go regularly though. The habit I would like to make a regular feature of my life is to go swimming at least once a week.

8. What would you prefer? Going back in time and changing something or going ahead in time and exploring your future?

In my case, definitely going back in time. I would never have gone to the park on my own that night.

But I think I would have gone back further in time. I still remember the first time I really came into contact with the man who would later become my flat-mate, the man who crushed Caramel. He joined me and a group of friends for breakfast. He sat opposite me. If I could go back to that moment, I think I would have swapped seats with someone, or just walked out so that he did not have chance to dwell on me.

9. Dream Vacation ?

Couple Walking on Beach at Sunset After we have finished building a boat, Goldfinch and I set sail away into the deep blue. We would travel to every port and harbour and we would meet the people who lived locally, taste their cuisine, dance to their music, and explore their culture. We would visit every land on the planet. There would also be plenty of swimming and diving when we were out a sea. We would walk hand in hand along many beaches watching the magnificent sunsets. There would be no such thing as passports and visas. Just love!!!

10. Favourite songs (Top 3) ?

Oh that is hard!!! I am loving classical music at the moment. I don’t think I could ever tire of some of the pieces on my classical playlist…I like lots of different styles of music, but you cannot really compare. So I will tell you my three favourite classical arias followed by my three favourite songs from more popular genres:

The three classical arias above are beyond comparison with my other favourites. They need no introduction or explanation…they are utterly gorgeous! I am ready to hold my hands up and admit, there is music…and then there is MUSIC. I love variety though. If I listened to classical music all day it would drive me crazy!

So these are my three favourite songs from more popular music genres:

Sleeper – What Do I Do Now? (This is my go-to song for rainy days…when I have a little heart-break and I need a bit of light rock music to diffuse my distress.) If rock is not your thing, don’t worry, but the lyrics of this song still make me smile (“Tore up all your photos, didn’t feel too clever, spent the whole of Sunday, sticking you together” – favourite lines!)

The quality of this video is really poor…I found a better one, but it would not let me copy the link. There must be better quality videos out there?

The Righteous Brothers – Unchained Melody (You might be rolling your eyes at me! The thing is, this song is one of the first songs I remember hearing as a child and being really moved by…I fell deeply in love with the words and the music. It has been over-played, and even I have to make sure I only listen to it every now and then. But it still moves me to tears! I can’t post a version of The Righteous Brothers singing it…even though I love every single second of their recording. We will have to be content with the Sam Cooke.

Cyndi Lauper – I Drove All Night (This brings back many memories of working with an amazing group of house-keepers. Sometimes there would be a little singing and dancing during a lunch-break. I remember this song because all the girls loved it and we have all been singing together with fake microphones. So much fun! Happy memories!!!)

DON’T WORRY – I AM NOT PLANNING ON STARTING A MUSIC BLOG – I KNOW HOW MUCH MUSIC TASTES DIFFER…I MAY HAVE SERIOUSLY LOST YOUR RESPECT AT THIS POINT…IF YOU WERE NOT ALREADY HORRIFIED BY MY TASTE IN MOVIES!

11. Have you ever been on a vacation, alone ?

Once I turned up at a campsite with my huge back pack and tent. I had caught the train because there is a direct train all the way from London to the area we were visiting. The friends who were supposed to be meeting me there for a weekend of camping and BBQ were nowhere to be seen. I didn’t have any mobile phone signal. I pitched up my tent and just hoped they would arrive. It was such a weird feeling, and I was a bit frightened. Anyway I just sunbathed and read a book and slept and then showered and sunbathed some more and read some more and then went home.

As soon as I was within signal range, I saw all these text messages arrive in my inbox. They had been stuck in a nightmare traffic-jam on the motorway. They were less than twenty minutes from home when the traffic came to a standstill, because of a massive pile-up ahead. They were stuck there for eight hours! They had been trying to contact me but without signal, I was completely unaware of what was going on. Once they were finally able to exit the motorway, they decided it was best to go home rather than drive for several hours and arrive at the campsite in the middle of the night. They made the right call, to be sure. But it was too weird camping all on my own wondering what had happened to my friends.

Most of my vacations have been with a gang of friends. The last family holiday we had, when I was 17, there were more than forty of us who went together.

Since then I tend to go on holiday with a group of around ten friends. I have had some very interesting holidays, I will relate some of the opportunities we have had…look out for my post about our holiday in Sweden. I had more fun there than anywhere else I have visited.

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Which brings me to my eleven nominees. I had previously nominated eleven bloggers I had recently discovered. I now feel that if I have been nominated twice within a couple of days, I am not worried about nominating bloggers who are clearly more experienced than I and may have been nominated for a Liebster on previous occasions:

My nominees are:

MatthewJRichardson – https://matthewjrichardson.com/
Rosie – http://journeyofalifestyle.com/
My Dusty Flip-Flops – https://mydustyflipflops.wordpress.com/
My Sheer Ladybird – https://sheerladybird.wordpress.com/
Ahotcuppalife – https://ahotcuppalife.wordpress.com/
L. Stevens – https://everydaystrangeblog.wordpress.com/
Nina BW – https://gone-roaming.com/
Stephen T – https://revelationsend.wordpress.com/ (who I would buy a Caramac for if I could!)
Daniel Thomas – https://thesanguinelife.com/
Ruby – https://historianruby.com/

And last, but not least, the very supportive and the phenomenally productive

https://thehauntedwordsmith.wordpress.com/

My eleven nominees I have chosen because right from the start they were there in the Daily Post Provisions, Community Pool and First Fridays – supporting newbie bloggers and giving out great tips. I was so very glad and grateful for the advice and encouragement I read in their comments (sometimes to other bloggers). I think I would have given up long ago if it was not for that positive feedback and some help in how to make my site a bit more appealing.

They all have fantastic posts on their own sites, so you are very wise to take a look at what they have published.

My questions to my eleven nominees are:

HOW MANY LANGUAGES DO YOU SPEAK? AND WHICH LANGUAGES?
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE TIPPLE?
DID YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE SUBJECT AT SCHOOL (IF YOU ARE HISTORIANRUBY – DID YOU HAVE A SECOND FAVOURITE SUBJECT AT SCHOOL?)
DO YOU EVER FEEL DISCOURAGED ABOUT BLOGGING? WHAT DO YOU DO TO KEEP YOURSELF MOTIVATED?
WHAT IS YOUR OWN FAVOURITE POST FROM YOUR SITE OR THE ONE YOU WOULD RECOMMEND READERS CHECK OUT FIRST?
DO YOU ENJOY CAMPING OUT IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS?
DO YOU ENJOY PLAYING OR WATCHING SPORT? IF SO, WHICH SPORTS?
DO YOUR FRIENDS KNOW ABOUT YOUR BLOG SITE?
WHAT IS YOUR MOST EMBARRASSING MEMORY OR EXPERIENCE?
WILL BLOGGING EVER BE THE SAME WITHOUT THE DAILY POST PROVISIONS?
IF YOU COULD HAVE ONE PERFECT DAY – WHERE WOULD IT BE? WHO WOULD YOU BE WITH? WHAT WOULD YOU EAT? (That is several questions rolled into one – but we would love to know what would make a perfect day to you.

If you have already been nominated for this award many times before or don’t have time to take it up…do not you worry. This is my way of saying, I love your posts, and appreciate the support, advice and encouragement you have given to me.

Hope you have fun with this…I think that is what it is supposed to be…a bit of fun and encouragement to other bloggers.

I wish you all every success with your own blogging and I hope you can have fun with the Liebster Award.