The Liebster Award

Firstly a huge thank you to Sheri for nominating me for this award,

you can check out her blog here …

Pause 2 Play

I’m really glad to receive this award & have the opportunity to pass it on,

because this one really does have it’s heart in the right place.

The Liebster Award is an award that helps to draw attention

to newer blogs with fewer than 200 followers.

It is an opportunity for those bloggers to make themselves

& their blogs better known to the blogging community.

🙂

Here Are The Rules:

1. Each nominee must link back the person who nominated them.

2. Answer the 10 questions which are given to you by the nominator.

3. Nominate 10 other bloggers for this award who have less than 200 followers.

4. Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer.

5. Let the nominees know that they have been nominated by going to their blog and notifying them.

🙂

Warning: I love writing & answering questions,

especially about myself, so some long answers coming up …

… Here Are Sheri’s Questions & My Answers:

1. City or Country? and Why?

I’ve always had this dream of living in an old farmhouse in some remote spot with a view of mountains from the window, the sound of a stream trickling by & various cute animals wandering around outside the door. Maybe this is because I was born & raised in London & had no real access to country life other than a few camping trips when I was a child.

My first husband was a musician & we spent a lot of our time travelling on the festival circuit & living camped out in various woods & fields with a community of friends, fellow musicians & artists. I really loved the lifestyle & became somewhat obsessed with the idea that the country would be the best place to raise our kids, but after a few years of failed attempts to move I resigned myself to living in the city.

I now live in Haifa with my current husband & I still feel the urge to live a rural life, as does he, but it just seems to elude us as we plow through our day to day chores to pay the bills. Maybe one day when we’re retired we’ll actually succeed in escaping the city & setting up home in some idyllic little cottage, growing our own fruit & veg, & becoming quietly self-sufficient.

2. Inside or Outside? and Why?

Since I was very young I’ve had a recurring theme in my dreams of moving to a new house that was somehow both inside & outside. If it was mostly inside there would be trees growing around the walls & streams running through pools on the floor. If it was mostly outside there would be inexplicable walls & ceilings that just seemed to grow out of the ground or sky. I could never really tell where the inside finished & the outside started or vice versa.

I am generally very comfortable both inside & outside, & last year did in fact move to a new apartment which has a wonderful veranda-like section running the full width of it’s front. This whole area can be opened up to the outside where fruit trees & rose bushes are growing so closely that they actually start leaning in when the windows are fully opened. It’s a wonderful spot for meditating, reading, writing, drawing & generally being creative or reflective.

Kind of a dream come true really.

3. Mac, PC, or ? and Why?

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81, it had a pressure pad keyboard, no storage, no monitor & only 1K of RAM. Programs had to be ‘typed’ in & then recorded onto cassette to be stored. I used a 16K RAM pack to increase it’s ability to ‘think’, while I was programming. It would inevitably fall out, due to my using too much pressure on the keyboard, usually at a crucial moment. I would lose everything & have to start again. You can probably imagine the screams & foul language lol.

After trying several other types I finally acquired an Acorn BBC micro, it had a full 32K of RAM & could manage a staggering 8 colours. I was so proud I could have burst. Sadly after a year or so the graphics chip failed & I couldn’t afford to get it fixed. It was 15 years before I ventured out to buy a new computer & when it arrived I unpacked it, astounded by all the hardware in the box. After finally setting it up & excitedly pushing the power button I was greeted by Windows ’98.

I’d never seen anything like it & after an hour or so of exploring various windows I finally begged my son to explain to me where ‘the computer bit’ was. He was highly amused & quickly explained that these days software was loaded via floppy disc & stored on a hard drive, so I didn’t need to type endless commands in order to get results. I must confess I was somewhat disappointed to have lost my inside communication with the machine, of course I finally found the ‘Command Prompt’ & returned to DOS.

I’ve been using a Windows PC ever since & I doubt I’ll ever change, though I’ve always toyed with the idea of Linux.

4. Home or Abroad? and Why?

I recently answered this question in Cee’s ‘Share Your World’ challenge, so I’ve repeated my answer here …

As I already have left my country to live in a different one I guess I’d choose to move back to my native land because I really miss my family there.

I moved to Israel to live with my husband when we got married because he has young children there, & my kids are all grown up.

I now spend all my holiday time travelling to England, visiting my kids & spending time with my grandsons, who are rapidly growing up too.

5. Cat or Dog? and Why?

I love all animals & have lived with both cats & dogs happily, but when it comes down to it I think I’d prefer a cat. One reason is that I grew up with a cat obsessed mother & have a natural affinity with them, but another is that as I’ve grown older I’ve become a lot more selfish with my time. I’m very preoccupied with my personal projects & I simply couldn’t give a dog the attention that it would need. Cats are a lot more independent & usually content to get their meals & curl up purring with their owner in the evening.

I still ‘have’ a cat, called Boris, who lives with my kids in London & other than him I have no intention of having any more pets in this lifetime, but then I’ve said that before lol.

6. Winter or Summer and Why?

This is a funny question because my answer a few years ago would have been very different to the one I give today. I was born & grew up in London & the winters there can be very long & harsh. Not as bad as some places but still quite tough. So when I was living there I would have said definitely that I preferred summer.

Now I am living in Haifa & the opposite is true. The winters are short & reasonably mild, but the summers are long & unbearably hot, especially August, which is why I choose the end of July I to escape to London & visit my family. So now I really prefer winter for the weather here, but I enjoy summer because I get to go & see my folks.

7. An item on your “Bucket List,” explained

Another question that I’ve recently answered on Cee’s ‘Share Your World’ challenge. Here’s what I answered …

I’ve never really had a bucket list. I tend to go where the Universe takes me & just do what feels right, but if I have to name  something I’d really like to do …

…. I’d really like to become a totally independent & financially self-supporting artist. God knows I’m trying lol but like most artists (& musicians) money comes in dribs & drabs, if at all.

Why? Because I find it hard to fit in to the requirements of a regular job, although I do manage, but I really feel the need to be free & express myself through my art & I’m not getting any younger so … you know!

8. A Cherished Memory

I’ve published this before but It really is a cherished memory for me so I’d like to share it again here.

Kunti’s Tale …

… She appeared suddenly from nowhere & insisted on coming inside. She explored the house finally arriving at the children’s bedroom where she promptly curled up & went to sleep. We left her for a few hours as she seemed exhausted, but when she finally arose from her slumbers we tried gently to put her outside thinking that her person might be looking for her. She just sat outside crying & after much deliberation on my part, & much pleading on the children’s, we allowed her back inside.

I went to the local shop & bought some cat food as we were vegetarian & had nothing to offer her to eat. She ate like she was starving & went to great lengths to show her appreciation, purring & going from one person to another rubbing against their legs & butting with her head. It seemed that she had decided to stay & we weren’t going to get a say.

After about two weeks she disappeared for a day & a night & we thought we had seen the last of her. But the next morning we found her sitting on the windowsill waiting to come inside. Next to her lay three things: an old, red collar; a mummified bird & an old, chewed toy. We stared in disbelief  as she carried them, one by one, into the house & left them where she slept.

The poor thing must have been sleeping rough & kept these things for security. Maybe they were from her previous home which was lost somehow.  Anyway she’d made her decision & now she was moving in her stuff. We decided to give her a name & as she was obviously so wise & brave we named her “Kunti” after the great Indian queen of the Mahabharata.

Every morning she would wake me up early & sit with me, cleaning herself, while I did my yoga & if I was unwilling to rise she would slide a paw under the bed covers & scratch at me until I succumbed to her wishes.

Whatever her story was, it had left her a little wild. She loved to run with the foxes at night & this was very dangerous for her. Foxes run far & wide at night, crossing many dangerous roads & she was hit three times by cars.

The first time she was hit in the hip & miraculously suffered only a dislocation. We had to keep her restrained in a box for two weeks (Vet’s instructions) while it was healing. This left her much slower than before & it was only a matter of time before she was hit again this time in the head. She suffered a haemorrhage in the eye but survived again. By now she was limping & blind in one eye & we tried to keep her inside but she was always determined to get out, she loved to sunbathe in the garden with her foxy friends.

One night the doorbell rang & it was my neighbour, Hulya from upstairs. She had come to tell me that Kunti had been hit again. I was devastated. I didn’t even realize that she had got out of the house. We collected her from under a tree & carried her home. She was still alive but barely. All of us crying, we placed her softly on a blanket in the hallway & sat with her. I remember looking into her loving eyes for the last time & it seemed she was smiling as she slipped quietly away.

She was only with us for two short years, but in that time she gave us so much love & proved herself to be so conscious that we all truly believed that she was an ancient soul just passing through. One thing’s for sure, she will never be forgotten.

9. A Song that moves you – and Why?

I met my first husband when I was 13. We had both recently turned away from mainstream religion & we decided to embark on a quest for the ‘Greater Truth’, as we termed it. We were together for 17 years & had 3 wonderful children, but as the years went by our perceptions of ‘Truth’ changed & I eventually realized that he needed his freedom & probably so did I. Separation is always hard & I had invested everything I had into my marriage. Deciding to let go was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. On the evening that I finally found the strength to do so I was sitting in the rain, on some stone steps, outside a friends house, where a party was in full swing. Almost everyone I knew was in the house behind me, including my husband. As I opened up to the Universe & ‘let go’ the following song started blaring out of the speakers & tears of joy started streaming from my eyes …

10. You: in a six word sentence

Seeking Truth, Sharing Light, Staying Free.

🙂

Finding 10 bloggers with less than 200 followers proved quite difficult

& I had to cheat on one but finally …

… Here Are My 10 Nominations.

On the Streets of San Francisco

Life is Great

Art is Horse Shit

Code Name Incog

Rosevoc2

The Aeonic Robin

This Ruined Life

Joan T. Warren

Dreams To Reality

Draliman on Life

🙂

I had a lot of fun answering Sheri’s questions &

I’ve tried to make my questions equally interesting to answer,

they are meant to be fun, so please don’t take them too seriously …

… Here Are My 10 New Questions.

1. Which book has most affected your life & how did it affect you?

2. Does your job satisfy your soul? If yes, how? If not, what job would?

3. Is there a work of art that really speaks to you. What is it & what does it say?

4. What motivated you to start your blog & what do you want to achieve with it?

5. Do you regulate what you eat, for health, diet or religious reasons & if so, how?

6. Do you have a recurring theme in your dreams & if so what do you think it means?

7. If you were granted three wishes by a genie what three things would you choose?

8. Regarding your personality, what animal would you say you identified with most closely & why?

9. What is your perception of the meaning of Life, The Universe & Everything? (Why are we here lol?)

10. Describe yourself in a Haiku. (A three line verse of seventeen syllables, traditionally five, seven, five, but this is flexible).

🙂

I’m really looking forward to all the posts of the people that accept.

Some of them I know don’t have much time to blog due to work, school, exams etc.

Remember, there are no deadlines.

I think it’s worth taking your time with this one.

Phew! That’s All Folks!