I was nominated for THE MYSTERY BLOGGER AWARD by the wonderful Ursula the creator of An Upturned Soul, as you can see from her fabulous post below:
https://anupturnedsoul.wordpress.com/2019/03/21/mystery-blogger-award-spring-sparks/
What is the Mystery Blogger Award?
“Mystery Blogger Award” is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging; and they do it with so much love and passion. – Okoto Enigma
Rules
Put the award logo/image on your blog- List the rules
- Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog – THANK YOU URSULA!
- Answer the questions from the blogger who nominated you
- Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well
- Tell your readers 3 things about yourself
- You have to nominate 10 – 20 people
- Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog
- Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice; with one weird or funny question (specify)
- Share a link to your best post(s)
Three Things About Me
1. I love wearing dresses. It’s not practical to wear a dress for some of the work I do, gardening and cleaning. Neither do I wear dresses when I go hiking or running. But I love wearing dresses any other appropriate time. I loved wearing dresses for Goldfinch.
I have a beautiful collection of dresses, most of which I have found in charity shops. I particularly like knee-length fit and flare dresses. Even when I was a little girl and loved playing football and climbing trees (which I still love) I was very attached to collection of beautiful dresses. I have always liked to wear pretty clothes.
2. I love summer. I love it very much. However, for the last three summers I have had a lot of frightening flashbacks taking me right back to that night in the park. There are lots of things that trigger memories of that night. The heat, the smell of grass, the sounds of animals at night. This year I will be in Australia when that date comes round again. Four years since I was attacked. I will be with Goldfinch. It will be winter in Australia. I am hoping I am alright.
3. I need to get a hair cut! I have shocking split ends at the moment. But it costs so much money to have my hair cut here in London. I am trying to arrange a salon appointment on one of my visits up north. My hair is quite long at the moment, and because it looks a bit tatty when it is down, I am having to wear it up all the time 😦
My Best Post
Well here is one of the posts I like best. It is about a very special member of my family:
Why Was Milly Always Given More Sweets Than Mandy and Me?
Ursula’s Questions
1 – If you could spend a weekend as your adult self with your child self, what would you do together?
Climbing trees. I did not have to think about an answer to that question.
But I think you said it was for a whole weekend…therefore, I will probably throw in some other activities too. We would probably be camping outdoors and watching the stars at night. We would definitely be swimming. Probably swinging from a rope that was tied to a branch.
That reminds me of a picture I saw ages ago. I was with a friend who has a little girl. Little one showed me her beautiful Bible story book. The picture captured exactly my idea both as a child and as an adult of a perfect way to have fun. I think it’s this one.
2 – When you look at yourself, either in a mirror, a photo, or in your mind’s eye, what do you notice the most about yourself, what part of you do you focus your attention upon the most?
I rarely look at photos of myself. I can’t bare to. I am not camera shy, in fact I can be quite a poser! But I am photo shy, I hate to see myself in a photo. Please don’t ask me to explain it, but I literally cannot bear to see myself in a photo. There are no photos of me on display here in my little abode. My family have photos of me displayed, but I know where they are and I won’t look at them.
I don’t mind the photos of me as a kiddo.
Now it’s only photos I have a problem with, I don’t mind looking at myself in a mirror, well, it depends which mirror. Sometimes when I have been shopping and tried a garment on in a brightly lit changing room, and there are mirrors at all angles that show my behind and an odd angle of my profile, I always cringe at what I see. I hardly ever go on to buy whatever garment I am trying on.
But I don’t have any problem with mirrors in general. Goodness, I have made myself sound as if I have a phobia. I love the mirrors on the bathroom cabinet in my little abode. It makes my face look so pretty. Also I have two long mirrors and they are very flattering. I don’t know whether it is the softer lighting, or if the mirrors I have here are faulty – but I like what they show.
I have a healthy awareness of my erm, “assets” and I also know which bits of me I could change if I put a little more effort in!
If I look in the bathroom cabinet mirror at my face I usually focus on my eye-brows and I try to tidy them up a bit. The rest of my face is normally in the right place! I think that when I look in one of the long mirrors I look ok face on, but when I turn to the side, my eyes are automatically drawn to my tummy and whether it is looking flatter or fuller. I try not to look in the mirror straight after a big meal.
3 – If you were given the power to stop time which would freeze everyone in the moment for however long you wanted, and you could move around during that frozen time – what would you do?
Cleaning. I shall explain further down…
There was a show on TV years ago, I watched a couple of episodes I think. The basic concept was that an alien had married a human and they had a daughter. That daughter was able to freeze everyone around her and move around just as you mentioned in the question. In fact in the video below which show the opening and closing credits, you see her put her fingers together and the tin of paint that has falling off the ladder freezes in the air.
So why would I want to freeze time to do some cleaning? Well…I sometimes clean up after a bunch of young people have been at working in a large open plan office. When I clean, I clean to a high standard. I am always a bit shocked when I see the mess they have made in between my cleans.
It’s sometimes incomprehensible to me how they can make so much mess. I would like to walk in while they are all there, freeze them, tidy up while they are all frozen and then see how they react when they are unfrozen. I have started to leave notes explaining areas I was not able to clean and stating how they should leave the premises in order for me to be able to clean properly.
4 – If you woke up tomorrow to find that one of your blog posts had gone viral, had accumulated thousands of views overnight, hundreds of comments, likes, shares, and was very much loved by everyone – how would you react?
I have been thinking about this question. I think I would be terrified.
I feel safe within a relatively limited number of readers – who are all other bloggers and writers. So far 99.5% of the bloggers I have interacted with seem lovely. There is a nice supportive spirit. But the thought of the number of people looking at something I have written growing like wildfire is a bit frightening.
I know you said to imagine that one of my blog-posts had gone viral and everyone loved it, but it still makes me nervous. I don’t want Jack to find me. Not only physically, but I don’t want him to know anything about my blogging. If there was a dramatic increase in the number of people who were viewing my posts, I would be afraid that it would not be long until he found me.
5 – What mistake do you keep making? What lesson do you keep learning?
Hmm…I make mistakes, but I don’t usually make the same ones over and over.
There was a mistake I kept making for years. I was told again and again that I needed to learn to say no. I think a lot of people realized that for many years I was juggling a lot of responsibilities. Perhaps they could see it was unsustainable.
A lot of my seniors would advise me that I needed to learn to say no because I was doing so much. The problem was they were the very ones who would call me a couple of days later and tell me that someone had pulled out of something and ask me if I could stand in at short notice. Do you think they were going to be pleased with me if I tried to say “no”?
However, since I was the victim of a serious crime, I cannot go at the pace I was before. My head injuries have limited my abilities. I try to be honest and upfront with people about how much I can commit to. I am busy. But I cannot be busy the way was before. I cannot have lots of people depending on me. If I felt overwhelmed, I would probably just say “this is not going to work, it would be better for everyone if you found someone to replace me“. I try to keep life simpler. I just cannot feel the pressure of juggling too many obligations.
My Questions For My Nominees
- IF YOU ARE GOING TO ORDER A TAKE-AWAY TO SHARE AT HOME – WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE – PIZZA, CHINESE, INDIAN OR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT?
DO YOU FEEL SAFE WHERE YOU LIVE? NOT JUST WHEN YOU ARE INDOORS, BUT WHEN YOU ARE WALKING THROUGH THE STREETS NEAR WHERE YOU LIVE?- DO YOU FIND IT EASY TO BUDGET? DO YOU SAVE BEFORE YOU SPEND OR DO YOU BUY NOW PAY LATER?
- WHAT DO YOU DO TO STAY ACTIVE AND EXERCISE YOUR BODY?
- WHO CUTS YOUR HAIR? A FAMILY MEMBER OR A STYLIST AT A SALON? DO YOU JUST HAVE A TRIM, OR DO YOU HAVE IT RE-STYLED REGULARLY?
Caramel 