Stylish blogger awards

The very stylish Gemma at Bake do and Mend has passed a lovely award on to me (some time ago – it’s taken me until now to think of 7 interesting things to tell you)! Thank you Gemma!

As part of the award, I have to tell you 7 things about myself which you may not know. So, here goes!

1. I have a degree in Herbal Medicine. I spent 3 years studying the principles of human health – biology, physiology and anatomy and plenty of pharmacology and botany, with a bit of counselling and patient management thrown in. It was a fascinating course and I learnt a lot more about the body and what medicines do to it. It has, of course, been next to useless – I’ve not taken it up as a career (sadly ‘Herbalist’ is the only career option from that particular degree) and other than self-prescribing for colds and PMT, I’ve not used it since graduation.

2. I qualified as a Football (soccer) referee when I was 14. We were paid £15 for an hour’s work, at a time when I couldn’t get a job anywhere else. I jumped at the chance and, although I dislike sports of most sorts, refereed games for under 12 year olds for about a year. It’s the worst job I’ve ever had and I’d never recommend it to any young person. At 14 I was called a blind c*** by a player’s father. Having grown men scream obscenities at you is not the way to spend your Sundays.

3. I love Owls. This may not be strictly something you don’t know about yet, but I think it warrants saying again. Owls are great. If I’m ever rich enough to have the space, I’ll be setting up some enclosures in my garden to take rescued owls in. I have adopted a number of owls at various wildlife and rescue centres, and can’t pass up an opportunity to look in on anything owl related. Needless to say, The Owl and the Pussycat is my favourite poem.

4. I have always been something of a piercing fanatic. I have 15 holes in various parts of my body and although I rarely wear jewellery in most of them anymore, I have a real soft spot for everything piercing related. And no, I’m not posting pictures! Except for this one.

5. I am very interested in genealogy and everything family history related. I have spent many a happy hour researching my ancestors, and those of my husband’s family and love visiting the archives in Kew to look at old records.

Searching through details of people’s lives is so fascinating – the criminal records I’ve found particularly interesting. What crimes were committed, the punishments handed out and, if you’re lucky, blurry Victorian photographs of the inmates.

6. I love to read books. As someone who’s always itching to be doing something, I find sitting down with a book really decadent. I’ll read on the bus to pass the time or before bed to relax but I love to just sit down at a time when I could be doing something else and read. I’ve been known to read to 3-4 in the morning to finish a good book and can happily read a book in one setting if I like it enough. Fortunately, I’m a fast reader so with short paperbacks this isn’t such a stupid thing to do! I have far too many books – they take over several areas of my house and many are stored under beds in boxes and bags. I’ll happily read modern, trashy chick lit one day and then an academic study on something obscure the next.

7. I can touch my nose with my tongue, and I can roll my tongue (I’m really scraping the barrel now!). I’ve always been able to touch my nose, but until I got my tongue pierced, I couldn’t roll it. I think it must have had an effect on the muscle of my tongue some how, but I’m not sure if that’s really true!

I’d like to share the love and so I’m passing the award onto these newly discovered bloggettes who are all terribly stylish in their own ways.

http://lottieloves.com/

http://reveleigh.blogspot.com/

http://aparentementeanabel.blogspot.com/

http://handmadejane.blogspot.com/

http://rosiealia.blogspot.com/