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:
- Wordgeyser Dual national Brit-American living, writing and editing here in Nederland. Also the best writer I know, hands down.
- 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.
- 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.
- Rachel in Amsterdam Love how this American young professional is making a life in the big city to our north. Such spirit and spunk!
- A Flamingo in Utrecht Alison’s a southern gal who moved to Utrecht with her Italian boyfriend. Great photos of Dutch life.
- Windmill Fields Grew up mainly in Spain, married a Dutchie and now raising their child to be trilingual (English, Spanish and Dutch).
- From Argentina to Holland Aledys shares insights of living in both cultures, and even does a Spanish version of her blog.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Dubai Days Englishwoman Judith writes on life in the hot sun and dazzling sand.
- 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.
- Breien in Peking (Knitting in Peking) Dutchie blogging in English about knitting and much, much more.
- The World’s Waiting Liv has been traveling and living abroad since she was three weeks old. Need I say more?
- Monkeys, Mountains and Maultaschen Young Canadian Laurel finds a new life in Germany.
As for my ‘Secret Seven’:
- 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’.
- The first foreign country I traveled to was Canada, the latest was Malta, and there have been 27 others in between.
- 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.
- Not surprisingly, my favorite color is deep forest green.
- 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.
- 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 😉
- 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.
Oh wow – thanks for the nod Linda! And a well deserved award for Adventures in Expatland. Still one of those on my blog roll I go to first.
Cheers my Cyber friend!
xx
Right back at you! Sometimes I get a few days behind but wouldn’t miss Gidday.
Wow, thanks so much for this! Such kind words and great company to be in.
You’re welcome Rachel. Nice to share sites with others.
The versatile bloggers award, though much appreciated, is like the Circle Line (on the London Underground) – just goes round and round!
True, but I like sharing sites and giving a little love that’s well deserved. BTW, figured you’d been ‘Versified’ already and are busy promoting your terrific book Perking the Pansies. Nice plug, eh?
Lovely plug! Yes, I’ve done the versie thing twice now.
Make that a hat trick of Versies then Jack.
Congratulations on your blogging award. Well deserved!
Thanks Jennifer, I enjoy your site. (The photos of it snowing in Sardinia were great!) It was difficult cutting it off at 15; am already working on my next round 😉
Thanks Linda, for including my blog in your fantastic 15! It’s a real honour. I am glad that bloggers like you are around to inspire others, like me. I have only been blogging for 7 months now but I really enjoy doing it. It’s fun and I hope to keep learning. Thanks again for your thumbs up. Greetings Janneke @DrieCulturen
Groetjes Janneke. I really think you are doing a fantastic job sharing such great info about TCKs. I just reviewed the new Expat Teens Talk and will post later this week on it. Keep up the good work, and thank you. I really appreciate your kind words.
Thank you for the Award! And congrats on yours 🙂
It will be great surfing to the other awardwinners.
You’re welcome. It’s a great chance to share who you follow with others. Enjoy!
Congratulations Linda! You are quite deserving of the Versie. I look forward to viewing your list of bloggers
Thanks goodness the pilot was able to land safely!!!!!!
Thanks Carol. You can believe I appreciated his calm demeanor!
Congrats Linda – great selection of recommended blogs there and a few new ones too. Looking forward to having a ‘sticky beak’ at some of these.
This Award really is the gift that keeps on giving – and you deserve it as much, if not more, than most in the expat blogging space. Big 🙂
Aww, now you’re making me blush! I know that some cynical types will look at it as ‘self congratulatory’ among the blogging community, but I see how wonderful it is to share new, up and coming blogs as well as a few favorites. Always have been a glass half full kind of gal;) Thanks Russell
Thanks for the mention and so glad you like this kinda thing! Some find it a bit of a bore but it’s a great way of giving your reading list an invigorating boost! And from your great list, I can see I have some reading to do!
Your personal list was interesting – and kind of eerie that your first country was Canada and latest Malta, with Versie awards coming your way from both of those! Hold tight for another 27!
Yes isn’t that an amazing coincidence? I didn’t even pick up on that (consciously) when I wrote that…eerie indeed! Thanks Aisha
Thanks so much for the inclusion! I’m so far behind in my blog roll reading, but now I’ve found some others that I may want to add. Why can’t reading be a full-time job 🙂
You’re very welcome Alison. (Favorite name/spelling as that is the name of a certain female member of my immediate family not named Linda…) Love your photos, you’ve got such a keen eye for what brings them alive.
Congratulations on the very well deserved award and thanks so much for including my blog on your list! I’ve seen a number of blogs that sound appealing and I intend to visit them to see what they’re about!
Your personal facts are fun and interesting! Were you very scared during that emergency landing?!
Thanks Aledys and you’re welcome. When the plane started icing over, I immediately went quiet, figuring that the pilot (in his late 20s) needed to concentrate without interruption. It certainly helped that he remained calm. Little did I know that this would pale in comparison to what I experienced on September 11th, but that is a different story.
Thanks for the award! As I said dead chuffed (cool word no?) Forgot about my secret 7 though, maybe itll have to be another post 🙂
You’re very welcome. I do love ‘chuffed’ – it’s one of those words that you’d never guess what it means, you only have context to go by. My other favorite is ‘whingeing’; I read it several places and assumed it meant whining (which it does), and an episode of Eastenders confirmed it.
The secret seven was actually a lot of fun to think about, and I find them fascinating peeks into others’ lives. Definitely do it as another post!