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Saturday 16 February 2013

As evidence that my life does not centre exclusively on my reproductive organs: Liebster


 
Two of my lovely new blogging friends, Amanda at Poppies and Ice Cream and Daryl at Something Out of Nothing recently nominated me for a Liebster blog award. Thank you ladies, you're too sweet! The idea is to circulate and increase the readership of smaller blogs; so I answer the questions put to me by Daryl and Amanda, and then come up with questions of my own to forward to bloggers of my choosing. So, since it's the weekend and I'm a bit too pleasantly brain dead to offer up anything either witty or deep, I hope some random, mundane little facts about yours truly will entertain for the evening.

This reminds me a bit of that game we used to play at summer camp, where you had to go around a circle and tell two things about yourself that were true, and one that was a lie, at which point everyone else had to guess which was which. I promise that what you get here is the (partial) truth and nothing but the truth. However, since I'm a newbie at this, I may blatantly disregard the rules ad hoc this process a little. I'm cherry picking on the questions. Here goes...
 
Amanda's Questions

Which is your favorite book? (As an aside, I have such a hard time with all these ‘favorite’ questions, because it’s just too damned hard to choose, so I’m going to be cheating on all these…) It’s impossible for me to choose just one, and I go through phases, like in high school I was a bit preoccupied with the works of Simone de Beauvoir.  After my first loss, the novel The Red Tent meant a great deal to me. Some of my favourite authors these days are Haruki Murakami, David Mitchell, A.A. Milne, Michele Foucault, Arundhati Roy, C.S. Lewis and Jeffrey Eugenides.

 
What is your favorite place in the World? I have a special place in my heart for the Austrian Alps, as that’s where my love story with H blossomed and where we’ve spent many an idyllic hiking holiday since. The Raja Ampat Islands are one of the most breathtaking places I’ve ever seen. And I'd go back to India again and again.


Do you have a job / are you happy with it? I have a job now that's kind of freelance and temporary. It's not what I was trained to do, but truth be told, my work stopped meaning quite so much to me since having and losing my son. I love the volunteer work that I currently do, which is with homeless people and refugees/asylum seekers.


Can you maybe share a recipe? I already have, here. Also, we tried this last week (I am mildly obsessed with Yotam Ottolenghi) and it was amazing. Sounds a bit odd at first, but just go try it people. You’re welcome.

 
And your favorite cartoon as a child?, It’s not a cartoon, but I’ve already mentioned my deep affection for Fraggle Rock. Also, for those Canadians reading, I was an ardent Mr. Dressup fan as a preschooler and beyond. For non-Canadians, this was a Canadian Broadcasting Corp show hosted by a guy who (surprise) wore lots of costumes and dealt in boosting self esteem and arts and craftiness. Pure, heartwarming gold. As far as cartoons, it would have to be Barbapapas. In an effort to dote on my inner child and cling to the last vestiges of my youth, I still have quite a bit of memorabilia from that show, in the form of toothbrush holders, handbags, socks...

 
What about your favorite movie? I love the films of Wes Anderson, Wong Kar-wai and Michele Gondry. And nearly anything starring Seth Rogan or Will Ferrell.

 
What is your most vivid childhood memory? My earliest memory is of a little fuzzy blue rabbit given to me as a gift by some relatives visiting from Scotland, which I remember holding onto proudly and tightly while being wheeled around in my stroller. I think I was about 18 months. I have no idea what ever happened to that little guy.


Daryl's Questions 

Where do you fall in your family’s birth order (first, middle, youngest, only child), and do you fit the “profile” for that position? I am the second of five and the first daughter. In some ways, I’m as stereotypically responsible and domesticated as you’d expect from that family role, but in other ways my adult life has been an opportunity to change direction from that. I’m seen as the crazy adventurous one in my branch of the family tree.
 
If someone were to make a movie about your life, who would be cast in the starring role? I’d love for it to be Isabella Rossellini, (because I think she’s quirky and intellectual and glamorous in exactly the kinds of ways I aspire to be), but if I weren’t responsible for casting it’d probably be Tina Fey.
 
Who has more fun: blondes, redheads, or brunettes? See answer to question 2.

Tell me about your first crush. You can read about my newest crush (kinda), here. But as far as firsts go, during a family holiday to Montreal to visit family friends, I married my best friend Christopher in a beautiful ceremony in his treehouse. We were five, and a stuffed monkey officiated.

What’s the first thing people notice about you? I’ve been told it’s that I’m instantly outgoing and very smiley, but that might be polite code for loud and overbearing. I tend to think my most striking physical feature is what people have affectionately called my 'Jewish nose' (yeah, someone I didn't know too well actually said that to me), of which I have to say am particularly proud.

If you could live 1000 years, would you? Nope. I already feel enough like a grumpy old lady some days, pining for how things were ‘back in the day’. I’m lucky to have a gene pool which seems to favour long life though, so I’m hoping to get a good 90 odd out of my normal-length life!

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten? Just before starting university, I spent a summer working on a development project in the Solomon Islands, where local families would often cook us mealworm grubs. Not as bad as it sounds, and a great source of protein!
 
If you could change one thing about your partner, what would it be? I don’t want to make you all gag but there is honestly not a thing. We’ve been through such profound changes together, that we’ve grown into perfectly matched puzzle pieces, quirks and all. We love each others' imperfections.

 
 

And my questions are (no, I don't have 11. I told you I wasn't a rule follower)…

1. Did you have an imaginary friend growing up?

2. If you had to pick: Museum/Gallery, or Great Outdoors?

3. City or countryside?
 
4. Is there a particular artist whose work really speaks to you? 

5. What place have you travelled that you wanted to return to again and again?

6. If you could invite anyone, living or dead, who would be on the guest list for your dream dinner party?

7. What made you decide to start blogging?

8. Hallowe'en/fancy dress costume of choice? 
 
9. And I'm totally stealing Amanda's idea, because I want more recipes for my collection. So pretty please, share one if you can?

I'm nominating (feel free to follow along or ignore as the mood takes you)::
 
Gradual Changes at Just Another Infertility Blog
 
 
Tag! You're it ladies. 
 
 
 

8 comments:

  1. I am not sure I could keep the grubs down! I love your blog! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by Teresa! Those grubs were a little squirmy in texture, but once you get past the novelty of that they actually don't taste at all bad. I think it's the mental block more than anything...and they say that insects as protein source is ecologically sound, which makes sense to me!

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  2. Hello ! Thanks for playing along, I am super curious and I really loved to read your answers. I am also a big fan of Simone de Beauvoir (read her in college, for fun), C.S. Lewis and J. Eugenides. I am also very curious about Foucault. It's high on my authors to read list. As a teenager I kind of had a trauma with my rather big nose, but now I kind of like it and I think a smaller nose would look disproportionate with regards to the rest of my face. Worms sound disgusting but I have eaten ants eggs and they taste... like chicken.

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    1. Thanks for inviting me to the play date :) It seems we have a lot of the same taste in literature, which is cool...Though I'm not sure I'd recommend Foucault as leisure reading (but he helps me to think around some stuff I'm writing for work at the moment). Have you read The Marriage Plot by Eugenides yet? It's on my list.
      And since you're brave enough to post photos of yourself (haven't got past the anonymous stuff yet), I can tell you that I think your nose is not at all big!

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  3. Yay! Thanks for playing! You answers are great, and now I have new books to read and recipes to try!

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    1. Thanks for the invite Daryl, I actually had fun. I can totally recommend Middlesex by Eugenides...a really thoughtful dissection of sex roles, gender and ethnic identities and class, but also and more importantly a very entertaining read. Murakami might be a more aquired taste, but I am enthralled by his writing.
      And I'm telling you, you HAVE to try that cauliflower and grape salad. It'll surprise and delight.

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  4. I remember playing outside in the evening when I was a kid, and we all ran inside in time to watch fraggle rock. I also watched mr. Dress up. I was at the CBC building a few years ago and the tree was in the lobby. I got me picture taken with it, of course.



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    1. Oh Dana! A kindred spirit :) The Fraggles and Mr D bring with them a host of happy memories...I actually went to the memorial service they held at the CBC building after Ernie Coombs died some years back.
      I hope one day I'll have little people to share all these wonderful influences with!

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