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The Dazzling Blogger Award – Lioness at Large

The Dazzling Blogger Award

 

The Dazzling Blogger Award, designed by Helen at  Crispy Confessionsrecognizes bloggers who  excel in at least one major area of blogging: writing skills, engagement, social media marketing, or content.  

It was a huge surprise when Steve from A London Miscellany informed me the other day that he’d nominated me for this award.  Steve, thank you so much; I’m truly honored!

Steve is a Londoner through and through; if you have even the slightest interest in his home city — off the tourist track, history, curios, et al. — do yourselves a favor and check out his blog and the associated website, also called A London Miscellany.  Steve is extremely knowledgeable and simply great to chat with.  It may be a while until I am next able to travel to London, but I’ve promised myself (and him) that whenever I next make it there, I’ll be sure to include one of his tours — the real difficulty, I suspect, is going to be selecting which one to pick.  Even if you never make it to London, however, you’ll find plenty of information, well-presented and well-researched, in each of his blog posts; from the history and modern life of the various boroughs and neighborhoods to the history of specific buildings or even individual features of their facades, to parks, the Thames, historical personnages from the Middle Ages to the modern day, trade and leisure organizations and institutions, and everything else that makes London tick.  Steve’s answers to the questions he himself was asked in the context of this award include “London tour guide” as his dream job and “1893 Ordinance Survey map of London, Spike Milligan’s War diaries, Fullers London Pride Beer” as the three items he’d take to a desert island.  Need I say more?

Now, on to the rules of this award:

  1. Thank the person who nominated you for the award & link back to their site.
  2. Provide a link back to Helen, the award’s designer.
  3. Answer the seven questions asked.
  4. Compose seven questions of your own.
  5. Nominate & notify seven more people.

 

My Answers to Steve’s Questions
What do you have on your bedside table at the moment?

Several stacks of books (some read, some not yet read), my alarm clock, a lens cloth and cleaning fluid for my glasses, my cell phone (at night), and an  assortment of items that started life as theatre, museum or travel tickets or similar odd scraps of paper but have since been redesignated as bookmarks:

 

Have you ever experienced a paranormal phenomenon?

If I did, I wasn’t aware of it, because I don’t believe in them.  (Religion is a different matter, but I don’t expect physical manifestations there, either.)

 

If you could change you christian name, what would it be?

I wouldn’t want to change it — it’s part of who I am (I don’t even like to have it shortened into a nickname).  The fact that I’m using an alias as my online / blogging screen name has more to do with online privacy considerations and the fact that I had to get rid of a hacker once while I was still using my real name as my online handle.  Even my screen name has been the same for the past two decades now, though.

 

Cash or card?

Card, generally.  Cash only for comparatively small amounts, up to approximately € 20.00 (or the equivalent in other currencies).

 

Favourite city in the world?

Oh, lordy.  That’s exactly the kind of question that I can never answer with a single word or name!

I love all three cities that I call or have called home long enough to deserve that name: Bonn, Berlin, and Los Angeles (or rather, Santa Monica), CA.

Favorite cities otherwise: London, Paris, Sydney, and Santa Fe (NM).

 

Do you still listen to the same music that you did when you were 17 (and why)?

Largely, yes.  I was a teenager when what’s today called “classic rock” was the latest thing; and four bands that I particularly loved back then are still around, or of those that have since dissolved, their lead singers are still around at least — in no particular order: The Eagles, Dire Straits / Mark Knopfler, Fleetwood Mac (esp. Stevie Nicks), and The Police / Sting.

At the same time, my mom also passed on to me her love of opera — and classical music generally — at an early age, and that still forms a large part of my listening habits as well.  (I have since moved on from Mozart and Verdi to other composers, though.)

 

First childhood memory?

Phew.  Possibly my aunt’s face leaning over my crib when I was a baby, though I can’t be sure about that — I just knew, when I “officially” met her for the first time at age four (she and her family had been living in the U.S. until then), that I had seen her face before, and I had that vague image in my head of looking up while lying in my crib and her face suddenly appearing above me and looking down.  Why this image stuck in my memory I can’t say; I have an equally vague sense that somehow the grown-ups seemed to convey that this was an important moment — this was in fact the aunt who, I later learned, was to become my godmother — and I might have found it puzzling that if this person was to be important to me, she didn’t reappear on a regular basis, as all the other important people did.  (And by the time she and her family moved back to Germany, I had entirely forgotten about ever “meeting” her before).

 

My Questions
  1. Who is your hero / heroine in fiction (and why)?
  2. What fault do you find easiest to tolerate in others?
  3. What is your favorite mode of transport / travel?
  4. Which meal is the most important one in a typical day for you?
  5. From a burning building, you have the option to rescue either a [cat / dog / supply your own favorite animal] or a priceless work of art, but not both. Which of the two do you rescue (and why)?
  6. What job / skill set from a past era or from a culture other than your own would you like to learn?
  7. Complete the sentence: “Total bliss is …”

 

My Nominees

Have fun, everybody, and thanks again to Steve for nominating me!

10 thoughts on “The Dazzling Blogger Award

  1. Congrats! Way to win at blogging 😀

    My musical tastes haven’t altered that much either. I wonder if taste in music is something that gets set in our brains or if it’s just us? Do other people go through radical musical changes?

    1. Lol. 🙂

      You could be right about tastes — they may be modified over time, but I think something drastic would have to happen for them to change completely …

  2. Do you live in LA currently?

    Good music! The Eagles were one of the first bands I listened to. Along with The Moody Blues. Other classic rock predominated my taste well into high school and beyond!

    1. It was a stupid display issue due to a misbehaving WP plug — ironically, a WP plug intended to “facilitate” the data import with my chosen (design) theme. Yeah, right. Tell me that one again …

      It might have gotten resolved more quickly, but I’ve been insanely busy in August, so I simply didn’t have the time (and the necessary frame of mind) to communicate with my hosting service’s help desk. Fortunately they have something they call your personal / dedicated help desk team member (whose direct work email you have access to), so you don’t have to go through the general help desk pool — and risk getting a different person responding to you every single time. That was crucial in eventually getting it resolved!

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