I Am Officially An Award Winning Blogger!

OK, I know I'm in Texas right now, and you're all expecting me to blog about what I'm doing here. And I will do that over the next two weeks (I'll blog in New York too), but to be honest we have only just arrived in the hotel (we had two flight stopovers and a 3 hour drive to get here). So we haven't really done a whole lot that I can blog about.

However, my feelings of blogger's block (writer's block for bloggers) ended when I found out I've been nominated for my very first award! It's called the Liebster award and I'd like to say a massive thank you to the brilliant Dare of brighteyesandbeautifullies.blogspot.com for nominating me. I never thought when I started this off thirteen months ago that people would ever bother to nominate me for awards. Again thank you Dare. Go on and check out Dare's blog, people who haven't already, it is well worth a read!

Anyway, now for the rules...

1) You must share 11 things about yourself.

OK! Here are 11 facts about me...

1. I have visited Japan seven times (my mum used to live there so we have lots of friends there to stay with).

2. Until I was about 10 or 11, I slept in a giant box made from four old doors. You have the right to presume I'm weird.

3. Despite liking both broccoli and Brussels sprouts, I really hate carrots. Maybe the luminous orange colour put me off when I was little and the prejudice never wore off, or maybe I genuinely don't like the taste, but I flinch at the sight of a secret carrot in a stew.

4. I'm the only student in my year at school who walks to school. Actually, I'm not sure if that's entirely true, but I definitely live the closest.

5. Our household often receives calls from Indian call centres, despite all of us being English. Don't ask why. I usually say that my family have gone on a thousand-year trip so call back when they're done.

6. I have chilblains. Lucky people who've never experienced these, they're red swellings just below your toenail that you get from exposure to the cold. They are some of the worst itches I've had in a while.

7. I once ate all the sushi that was meant for me and my mum, plus a family of four, when no one was looking. As you can guess, sushi is my favourite food :).

8. From being in the Scouts, I've met The Lord Mayor of London and Bear Grylls.

9. I'm the youngest cousin on either side of my family by a long way ( i.e. the next youngest is four years older than me).

10. Here is one of my favourite jokes:

Two atoms walked into a bar. One said:
"My electron's missing!"
"Are you sure?", replied the other.
"Yeah, I'm positive!"

11. My favourite TV show is a UK show called Pointless. As quoted from the show, it is a quiz show "where obvious answers mean nothing and obscure answers mean everything". I think I'd be quite good at it, and I seriously wish there was a junior version, because at the moment you have to be 16 to go on :(.

2) Answer the 11 questions your tagger has given you.

Here are Dare's questions and my answers!

1. Where are your top three places to travel?

I'll interpret this as meaning top three holidays, so my top three read like this:
3) Mexico (we went on a general trip all over the country, but we saw places like Mexico City and Chichen Itza)
2) Egypt, where we saw the Pyramids and lots of other famous sights.
1)Borneo, because seeing orangutans, proboscis monkeys and other animals in the wild was unforgettable.

2. Who is your favourite Disney princess (or character)?

I know this sounds unimaginative, but Mickey Mouse, especially in the Sorcerer's Apprentice sketch in Fantasia, when he's trying to stop all the water. AWWW!

3. Do you believe in anything supernatural?

Reincarnation. Maybe not believe in it, but I think it would make sense to have it. Nice people get reincarnated as some fun animal like a cheetah or an eagle or maybe even another person, and bad people get made into rocks or something boring and not living like that.

4. Who is your favourite author?

OMG. This is so hard. I love so many! Probably one of my favourites is Penelope Lively, who's more famous for her adult books, but also wrote great children's books like The Revenge Of Samuel Stokes and The Voyage Of QV66 (which I recited for a drama exam in Year 6 and no one had heard of it - but I still managed a Distinction :)).

5. If you could choose one junk food to be magically turned healthy, what would it be?

This has to be a chocolate brownie. I mean, they're rich enough to taste good, but not so rich that if they were healthy and you ate several a day you wouldn't get bored, so they seem the best for this specific question.

6. If you could live in a world from a book, which would you choose?

The Kingdom of Wisdom in The Phantom Tollbooth. I love the way idioms are portrayed literally here (e.g. Jumping to the Island of Conclusions), and I'd love to meet some of the characters there like Tock the dog with a clock on his back.

7. What are your pet peeves?

People who value being the same as everyone around them over their own unique opinion and personality. It's the trademark trait of "popular" cliques, and it annoys me SO MUCH.

8. What is your dream job?

Anything that involves writing, because that's what I love doing best and the thing I can realistically imagine making a career out of. I dream of being a writer or a poet, or perhaps something else that writes, like a journalist or a songwriter.

9. What is your favourite accent?

I like the Irish accent. There used to be a gardener in the park/graveyardy place near my house who had a fantastic Irish accent.

10. Sweet, salty, or savoury?

I know this sounds boring but savoury, because there are way more types of savoury than sweet or salty. While sweet and salty are just plain flavours, savoury is very versatile and can be used with many more dishes.

11. Why did you start blogging?

Well, the story goes like this. My mum followed lots of blogs and had a vague idea of starting her own, and I thought it would be cool to tell everyone at school that my mum has a blog, so I encouraged her. But however many YouTube blogging tutorials I played her, she still couldn't be bothered to get on the computer and start writing. So my dad suggested if I was so keen, I should start my own. I wrote (and photographed for!) my first post, "Whose Tracks?", on 11th February 2012 and the rest, as they say, was history.


3) Choose 11 fellow blogs to nominate. (Nominees must have under 200 Google Friend Connect Followers and be told in a comment on their blog.

My nominees - some of you have received this award before, but that's OK, right? (NB I strayed away from nominating bloggers who are also my friends at school, because that would seem biased. Sorry guys!):

1. Abbie at http://welcometomypalace1998.blogspot.com/

2. http://www.artworkdiary.com/

3. Emma at http://bookworm716.blogspot.com/

4. Emma Buysse at http://missinspiria.blogspot.com/

5. Jenni at http://jennistales.blogspot.com/

6. R-A-N-D-O-M at http://mariejoreyes.blogspot.com/

7. Charli at http://rosesunglasses.blogspot.com/

8. Claire McKenna at http://littlemisscupcakecutie.blogspot.com/

9. Karlee at http://rosewaterreflections.blogspot.com/

10. Holly at http://beware-my-awkwardness.blogspot.com/

11. Becky at http://teenreviewsbeautifulmakings.blogspot.com/

Well done everyone! Others, all these blogs are well worth a look if you have some time to spare!

4) Next you need to think of 11 new questions to ask the bloggers you have nominated.

Here are my questions for you to answer!

1. If you could be teleported anywhere right now where would it be and why?

2. Who is your style icon and why?

3. If you could have any animal in your home what would it be and why?

4. What book do you think has inspired you and why?

5. What was your most memorable meal so far?

6. What one thing (solid or abstract) would improve your life and why?

7. What personality trait do you most dislike in yourself?

8. What is your favourite song and why?

9. Can you cook? If so, what is the best meal you have cooked?

10. What word or phrase do you most overuse?

11. What has been your most memorable blogging moment so far?

5) Finally, thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.

Thank you again Dare, and I've already linked back to you.

Well done to everyone who's been nominated, those of you not reading this, I will notify you soon!
-DP :)

PS I will post the Liebster logo on my blog when I get home!