Impressive, don't you think?

Imagine my surprise when I learned that I’d been the recipient of the ‘Versatile Blogger Award,’ bestowed upon me not once but twice (!) this past week from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Many thanks to the talented duo Expatlogue in Canada and Unexpected Traveller in Belgium.

No, you don’t receive a vast sum of money or a sleek trophy for winning this prestigious award. You get something far, far better: a nod from your fellow bloggers, who in turn have been nominated by others.

Blogging is harder than it looks, and we all aspire to entertain, amuse, inform, inspire and share a peek into whatever corner of the world we happen to be residing in at the moment. So getting a thumbs up from your compatriots in the blogging corps is heartily appreciated.

So how does this affect you? Well, now I get to pass the baton to fifteen other bloggers, and then I share seven random facts about moi. The latter shouldn’t be that difficult as I am given to springing forth with random thoughts. Just ask Daughter.

For my ‘fantastic fifteen,’ I’ve decided to stay within the expat blog genre. A few of these bloggers have been doing this for quite some time, others are fairly new. (I’m excluding a few of my favorites because they’ve already been tagged with the Versie.) Included are several posting from here in the Netherlands as a small but well-deserved boost to our blogging tourism. To paraphrase a former colleague, we’re small but fiesty. Hope you’ll stop by and enjoy them as much as I do:

1. Wordgeyser Dual national Brit-American living, writing and editing here in Nederland. Also the best writer I know, hands down.
2. Adventures in Integration Miss Neriss is an Aussie who moved here for love; she and her Dutchie husband recently added a new baby to their family.
3. Drie Culturen (Three Cultures) A Third Culture Kid (TCK) herself growing up in Africa before coming to the Netherlands, she’s dedicated her blog to writing and sharing about life as a TCK/Adult TCK.
4. Rachel in Amsterdam Love how this American young professional is making a life in the big city to our north. Such spirit and spunk!
5. A Flamingo in Utrecht Alison’s a southern gal who moved to Utrecht with her Italian boyfriend. Great photos of Dutch life.
6. Windmill Fields Grew up mainly in Spain, married a Dutchie and now raising their child to be trilingual (English, Spanish and Dutch).
7. From Argentina to Holland Aledys shares insights of living in both cultures, and even does a Spanish version of her blog.
8. Gidday from the UK Cyber friend and voracious reader Aussie Kym came to London for love that didn’t last; lucky for us she’s stayed.
9. Trailing Husband Brit dad of two trains a keen eye on the subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences of life in sunny Florida. Cracks. Me. Up.
10. A Big Life An Aussie gal finding love in Germany by way of Santorini. Blog title, from a post-it note she wrote to herself, says it all.
11. Dubai Days Englishwoman Judith writes on life in the hot sun and dazzling sand.
12. Petchary You’ll have to check out Brit Emma’s social commentary about life in Jamaica to learn about the blog’s unusual and unforgetable name.
13. Breien in Peking (Knitting in Peking) Dutchie blogging in English about knitting and much, much more.
14. The World’s Waiting Liv has been traveling and living abroad since she was three weeks old. Need I say more?
15. Monkeys, Mountains and Maultaschen Young Canadian Laurel finds a new life in Germany.

As for my ‘Secret Seven’:

1. I once was a passenger in a two-seater airplane that was almost forced to do an emergency landing due to ice. Nothing like the pilot’s words ‘we have a bit of a problem’ to focus you. Looking for potential landing areas in a major metropolitan area was no picnic. As we (finally) approached the runway, the pilot casually tossed off ‘don’t mind all the emergency vehicles on the tarmac; they’re there for us’.
2. The first foreign country I traveled to was Canada, the latest was Malta, and there have been 27 others in between.
3. Despite ranking terribly low as a callow youth on a career interest test for working outdoors, I love being outside. I guess I see it as fun and exciting, and don’t want to muck it up with work.
4. Not surprisingly, my favorite color is deep forest green.
5. I’ve met Elie Wiesel and Oprah. The former is an eloquent man capable of astoundingly deep forgiveness; the latter truly is a force of nature and was wearing the cutest pale pink leather boots and ginormous diamond stud earrings.
6. I like to cook but hate the phrase ‘what’s for dinner?’. Something about the repetitive nature of day in, day out cooking irritates the heck out of me. Or maybe I just enjoy parties and festive events 😉
7. When I was eight I wrote a letter to President Richard Nixon, and received a lovely White House card in return. Why? Who knows. I was only eight.