Time to polish up that acceptance speech

Tonight it’s the Brit Awards. Have we had the BAFTAs and the GRAMMYs recently too? I know very soon it will be the Oscars. There was a time when I kept abreast of the dates in the glittering award ceremony calendar and would watch and take note because I had an opinion. Those were the days when I had actually seen the films and heard the songs that were nominated and cheered the ones I believed deserved recognition.

Suddenly I find myself walking forward on the red carpet, stepping up onto the podium, acceptance speech in hard - well not quite but I have graciously been given my first ever blog award by Cassam. She writes a blog called Is Anyone There? and you can read it here.

My first blogging award!

This award means there are people out there reading this who I have NEVER met. People who have been touched by what I have to say. Just to know my blog is read is encouraging but to know that people enjoy reading what I write enough to recommend it to their readers is very flattering indeed.

There are stipulations with this award. I have to tell you 7 things about me that you don’t already know … this is a hard one when I am so open and honest with you, maybe I shouldn’t have been so candid in the past but here goes…

1. I can’t make pancakes or Yorkshire puddings – why bother when you can buy both ready-made!

2. But I can sew and made my wedding dress.

3. I’ve been a bridesmaid four times.

4. My first ever school trip was to Colchester Zoo – I don’t remember anything about the animals but I know I fell over and grazed my knee. I’d been running to catch up with a friend.

5. I can eat a jam doughnut without licking my lips – do you need proof?

6. I have signed hardback copies of “One Day” by David Nicholls and “Juliet Naked” by Nick Hornby. They were both speaking at the same book festival and I bought and read the books before I went to hear them talk. Usually I wait and buy paperbacks so these are extra special.

7. The first film Andrew took me to see was The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston in. It was quite poignant to realize that she was the same age as Andrew when she died.

Well that’s an eclectic list of facts.

Another condition of the award is to nominate another 7 blogs to pass the award on to. Only I‘m going to cheat here, Cassam only nominated 4 and I have picked just 4 too.

http://teenagesportsfan.blogspot.com/

A personal one this one as it is the blog my oldest son writes. I am so proud of him and how he is chasing his dream of being a sports journalist. If you like tennis, football or F1 or know someone who does this is the blog for you.

http://craigmackaysblog.blogspot.com/

Craig's story has echos of my own as he lost his wife just over 2 years ago. If you go back to the beginning of his blog you can trace his journey from when his wife was first diagnosed with cancer. Last year he married Ellie who was also widowed and between them they are looking after 5 children - an amazing family to follow.

http://imnotonetomoanbut.blogspot.com/ 

This blog is written by a friend, there are not many posts yet but his observations and stories always makes me laugh. Will be most appreciated if you like your sense of humour very dry. Also can be a bit rude. 

http://thingsweforget.blogspot.com/

Discovered this one as it was once a blog of note on blogger. I love the idea of sticky notes left in public places with short messages on them. A little bit of inspiration.

Now the idea is they pass on an award too and so we all get to read another perspective and share another point of view.

In principal a great idea, not so sure if it always works in practice but hopefully you’ve learnt something new today and got another little glimpse into my world.