Belated Awards galore and some ‘penance’ facts about me.

It’s almost the end of the year, and I’ve decided that I can’t go into 2013 without acknowledging all the awards which have been lurking in one of my files. The generous and faithful bloggers who passed them on, have probably forgotten that they even awarded them to me, but I want to assure them that I haven’t forgotten, and every day, my guilty conscience has been niggling me.

Emily of Hoofbeats and Footprints, whose posts are always so breathtaking, nominated me for the ‘Reader Appreciation’ award.

Cathy of  catbirdinoman, Marsha of tchistorygal, and Clanmother of A backward look forward.

have once again nominated me for the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ award.

Pommepal of ‘Gypsy Life’  nominated me for the ‘Very Inspiring Blogger’, and the ‘Reader Appreciation’ awards.

Lexi of  ‘the life bus’ and Miljo Anne of  ‘My travel and fashion diary‘ nominated me for the ‘Wonderful Team Member Readership’ award.

AYASBAW , Mary Clever. Amy of The World is a Book, and Cee’s Photography, nominated me for the ‘Liebster Blog’ award

Simply Charming nominated me for the ‘Thinking of you’ and the ‘One Lovely Blog’ awards.

Emily of Hoofbeats and Footprints, and Maxima of ‘Hills of her chastity’, nominated me for the ‘Reader appreciation’ award.

Sandra Conner of ‘By The Book‘, nominated me for the ‘Very Inspiring Blogger’ award.

Shaanthz of Healthcare Updates, and Toemail, nominated me for the ‘One Lovely Blog’ award.

Grace of Czech the flip, nominated me for the ‘Adventurous Blogger’ award.

Hope the happy hugger, Madoqua of Have you ever,  and Marsha Lee, nominated me for the ‘Super sweet Blogger’ award.

The Guat of The Wish Factor nominated me for ‘The Addictive Blog’ award.

Gunta of  Movin On, nominated me for ‘The Versatile Blogger’, ‘Sisterhood of the World’, One Lovely Blog’ and the ‘Sunshine’ awards.

Picture Perfect Memories for Life nominated me for the ‘One Lovely Blog’ award.

Giana of Chasing Butterflies, Sunshine and Freedom, nominated me for ‘One Lovely Blog’ and ‘Family of Bloggers’ award.

Anthony of Anthony’s Ramblings nominated me for ‘Best Blog’ award.

Nicole of Thirdeyemom, nominate me for the ‘Inspiring Blog’ award.

The Wanderlust Gene nominated me for the ‘Sisterhood of the World’ award.

Francine of Francine in Retirement nominated me for ‘Best Follower’ award.

Nia of Photography of Nia, nominated me for the ‘Seven things about me’ award.

Just another wake up call, nominated me for the ‘Kreativ Blogger’ award.

Diana of A Beginner nominated me for the “One Lovely Blog’, ‘Reader Appreciation’ and ‘Beautiful Blogger’ awards.

Now my conscience is somewhat salved, but I’m afraid that the rules and regulations are all a bit much for me to deal with. As much as I’m honoured and grateful to receive awards, I think I’ll pass on accepting any more, unless they involve chocolate, diamonds or round the world air tickets. 🙂

As it’s the end of the year, I’ve decided to have a ‘closing down sale’ and let you all choose which awards you haven’t yet got and would like. If you’re still missing a star for the BOTY 2012, now’s your chance. 🙂  All my followers have blogs which I absolutely love, and follow as best as I can. All I ask is that you please visit some of the above-mentioned bloggers, if you haven’t come across them already.

I’m amazed that you’ve read down this far, so before I head out of this post, I will tell you a few random and fascinating things about myself, some of which you can’t possibly know. This is my penance for sitting on these lovely awards for so long. 🙂

I have two small scars on my face, both from when I was about nine-years-old. The one on my forehead, happened when I was running to school, and tripped over, hitting my head on a drain pipe. The other one,  just under my lower lip is from when I was helping my mom clean the house and couldn’t get the two metal poles on the vacuum cleaner apart so I could put it away. I tugged and tugged, and eventually they did give, but one came up and went straight through my lip. Owee!! Talking of scars, I have quite a long white scar on my left thigh from when I broke my femur and had to have a metal pin put in my leg. A year later, it had healed, but then it was time to take the pin out, so my leg got opened up again. I had a marvelous surgeon, and apart from the faint scar, you would never know.

I used to wish that I’d been born with dark brown hair instead of blonde, but as I got older and saw that brunettes get grey hairs quite early on, I changed my mind. 😉

I will always choose savoury rather than sweet, even though my sister has nicknamed me “The Dessert Queen” because I provide decadent desserts when we visit her for lunch. My favourite non-alcolholic drink is a Chai Latte from Starbucks, and I’m rather addicted to their mozzarella, sun-dried tomato and basil pesto Panini. My favourite salad is blue cheese, pear, pecan and rocket, drizzled with balsamic reduction.

I am part English, part Dutch and part Indonesian, born and brought up in England. I emigrated to South Africa in 1970, together with my darling husband, and our baby daughter. Our son was born in South Africa, but now lives in New York. I have five gorgeous grandchildren whose ages range from 22 months to 17 years.

I started blogging in October 2009 on a South African blog site, and when it went pear-shaped, I moved to WordPress in January this year. I’m so glad I did, because I’ve really enjoyed making friends with so many wonderful people here from all over the world. Love you all.