Just tying up a few loose ends ...

Well here I am again.

(Er ... don't think I didn't hear that "Slacker!" muttered under your breath!)

I've been busy doing this and that but thought it was about time that I popped back and sorted out the bits and bobs that have been accruing in my blog in-tray (I would SO be sacked by now if this were a proper job).


So first up:

Eons ago the very sweet Carrie (who right about now is enjoying an uber-loved up reunion with her soldier boyfriend who has been posted abroad for months ... awww!) over at Carrotspeak tagged me (apologies for taking so long Carrie x). The idea was simply to post the 6th photo in your 6th photo file and then tell people about it.

Unfortunately I'm not organised enough to have separate files for different photos, I prefer to chuck them all in together and hope for the best. Hey! It works for me!

Anyway, it turns out that the 6th photo in my one mahoosive photo file is of an ex in his underwear. (Oh, don't give me that look!) And as tempting as it was to share that little gem with all you lovely folk I can't be bothered to deal with all the aggravation I'd probably get if it was discovered online by certain parties ... plus, I'm just not that mean.

So I'm posting a pic of my friends cat instead.



Say hi to Charlie.



Yes, he is rather ... unusual looking, isn't he?

Does he remind you of anyone?










Huh? Huh?









I don't have an amusing story to accompany it I'm afraid, I just like Charlie's face and wanted to share it with you.






What's next?

Oh yes! I owe an extremely big apology to J.J. over at The World According to J.J. in L.A. (sorry J.J.) who kindly gave me this pandalicious award for making outrageous comments on her posts!!

Me? Outrageous??

I was actually genuinely pleased to get this award because commenting is my absolute favourite part of blogging. It's all great fun posting ... although I grudgingly accept that it may be a little hard for you to believe, given my woeful posting performance of late ... but it's the comments that I enjoy the most. And just like oral sex (what? I'm not an effin nun you know!) I think it's always nice to give as well as receive.

I love leaving comments ... which I also grudgingly accept may be a little hard to believe just recently ... and whenever I read a post I always read the comments that go with it, even if I'm not *guilty clearing of the throat* leaving one myself.

I'm proud to say that I've started stalking many a blog due to being rather taken with a blogger's witticisms ... Mo Stoneskin, Gwen, wordsx3, Sass and Pru, just to name a few of the little, twinkly comment-superstars out there.

Now I'm supposed to pass the award on, but it was so shamefully long ago that J.J. gave it to me that frankly I can't remember how many people I'm supposed to pass it on to! But you know what? It's ok ... because that means I can give the one finger salute to the rules and blithely say that anybody who comments here regularly is welcome to take the award, I adore all my commenters and thank each and every one of you for making the whole blog experience worthwhile.

There are a few though who deserve an extra honourable mention for consistently making my day brighter with just one kind or hilarious sentence, people like my essential road trip trio of bad girls Diane, Dominica and Vic; Girl with the Pink Teacup (whose epic, thoughtful, warm and wonderful comments really deserve an award in their own right); Trinity (his comments are rare as leprechaun poo, but totally worth the wait); Dr Zibbs (a little bit out there and always original, his wackiness appeals to me and I wouldn't have him any other way); Lola Lakely (we've only recently discovered each other but I already adore her classy, witty comments and blog); Valerie (another recent find but I really like the way she looks at life); (Other Worldly One (who is queen of the punchy one-liners); Mr Condescending (arguably my most adoring fan and bestest ego stroker); Simon (so intellectually caustic and sagacious it's scary); Harmony (I love her dry take on things, she cracks me up); John Smith (supremely humorous, he provides my surrealism fix on a regular basis); The Jules (also one of the lesser-spotted species, but just ... perfect!); Tennyson ee Hemingway (a real Aussie gent who is unfailingly positive and interesting); NancTwop (who always has the links to all the coolest stuff); Zepolopez (my treasured US BFF who always has something lovely to say); LostInSpace (also a genius of the one-liner, he never fails to make me chuckle).

All of these fine bloggers I would class as top-rate commenters and would happily pass the award onto them ... however, I know awards aren't everybody's cup of tea so I will leave it up to them as to whether they accept it or not. No hard feelings if they prefer not to ... I've made a mawkish, girly display of my affection for them so my work here is done.

Oh, I'd also like to say a quick hello *cheery wave* and thanks to my new followers, I apologise if I haven't gotten around to checking your blogs out yet but I promise to do so asap.


Ok ... still awake after that rather mammoth love-fest?

Cool! What's next?

Ah yes! An award from my gorgeous US blog-chum Zepolopez (who incidently is fantastic and deserves a lot more followers, go and check out her blog ... or the puppy gets it!) - the Blog It Forward award which I'm supposed to pass on to bloggers who inspire me. Well ... that's pretty much anybody who appears on my "International Bloggerati" list on the side bar. I know it's a bit of a cop-out but the fact remains that they're all there for a reason ... the reason being I've read their posts and liked what I've read. Fact.

So, if you're on the list I cordially invite you to take this award and display it with pride. But as I said before, it's no biggie if you don't do awards, or if you want to take it but don't want to pass it on then that's fine too. Each to their own.



Yesterday was a bit special as 3 of my favourite bloggers hit their 100th post. A big congrats to Mr Condescending, Tennyson ee Hemingway and Jerrod over at The Yellow Factor who also gave me an awesome award ... you should go and take a look at his blog too, he's a sweetheart and writes some really cool posts and his Friday Funny's are a perfect way to laugh yourself into that weekend feeling.



And in other news, by way of thanks for the lovely parcels I recently received from Gwen and Trinity (which you can read about here and here) I decided to return the favour and sent them both some English goodies. Both packages arrived safely I'm pleased to say and you can read about Trinity's here, if you're the nosy kind.




Speaking of Trinity (again), we had a conversation a little while ago about possibly starting up an online bookclub for bloggers.

We both share a passion for books and have noticed that they're always a popular post topic. So we were wondering if anybody would be interested in joining us if we got a bookclub going?

Obviously there would be a number of factors to consider, including pesky time zones etc, but nothing that we couldn't get around if people were genuinely interested. It wouldn't require too much time, maybe an hour or two per month. We could choose a book to read, nothing too long or weighty, and then discuss it at the end of the month. Those involved could then write a post about the book and the bookclub meeting if they wanted to, or if preferable we could take it in turns.

Possible positives = discovering new books; having a laugh; making new blog friends; getting to know existing blog friends better; getting to hear Girl Interrupted's dodgy English accent (if we decide to use Skype or a similar application)

Possible negatives = Er ... Eye strain? Paper cuts? Jeffrey Archer novels? Having to listen to Girl Interrupted's dodgy English accent.

So what do you think? Would you be interested? Can you think of any pitfalls we should be considering? All thoughts and suggestions (well, the polite ones) are welcome via my comments box or email, which can be found on my profile.


So that's about it ... my in-tray is empty again, all the bloggy loose ends have been neatly sorted and tied up in cute little bows. I don't think I've missed anything out ... if I have, then please give me a shout and remind me and I'll make sure it's in the next post.


But before I head off to bed I'll leave you with something a bit more entertaining, as a reward for sticking with me and reading this far.

I'll leave you with Room 101.

For the sake of those not familiar with this I'm going to shamelessly steal the description given by Wikipedia:

Room 101 is a place introduced in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. It is a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love in which the Party attempts to subject a prisoner to his or her own worst nightmare or phobia.

"You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world" - O'Brien.

I've been thinking about doing this for a while, we had a programme in the UK called Room 101 in which a different celebrity was showcased each week and invited to submit items and people to be put into Room 101, arguing their case for submission in a humorous way.

I may even make it a regular feature if I can find plenty of things to loathe enough to rant about.

But for now, I'm putting in:

Moths:

Because they just don't have any real purpose, other than to be totally hideous and to scare the bejeesus out of me.

I have zero respect for moths, especially the big, gross, hairy ones, they freak me out when they flutter around aimlessly. They're total dimwits. You can tell that the only thing going through their tiny little minds as they repeatedly fly into the lightbulb is "Oooh! Shiny! Ouch! Oooh! Shiny! Ouch!".

This one is trying to act cute by donning a pair of Playboy Bunny ears, but it doesn't fool me for a second.


Wasps:

Wasps are just mean spirited little mofo's. They've got massive chips on their hairy little shoulders, and why? Because they have envy issues. They're Bumble Bee wannabe's. They want to be chubby and furry and kinda cute. But they're not. They're wiry and wholly unappealing. As a consequence they have anger management issues too. Unlike bees who will only sting if provoked and then promptly die, in guilty penance of their crime, wasps are aggressive little shits and sting just for the hell of it. They don't even have the good grace to die afterwards! They just fly off, buzzing annoyingly (so unlike the soft, melodic hum of the superior Bumble Bee) to sting another day.


Tom Cruise:

Oh! Where to start?

Firstly, in my opinion, he is THE most overrated actor of all time. He's pretentious, totally up his own bottom, why else would he have made films like Eyes Wide Shut, Far & Away, Valkyrie and War of the Worlds? And they're just the ones I can think of. I have seen good films with him in them, but he was by no means the reason for them being good, he just happened to be in them.

Secondly ... sex symbol? Seriously? He's WAY short, he wears those built-up shoes that are designed to not look like they're built-up, but we all know they are and he still looks ridiculous standing next to the tall, glamorous women he dates/marries. He also has a big nose and a Hitler hairdo. I've just never seen the attraction personally.

Thirdly ... the women. Not that I'm suggesting any of them went out with him to further their own careers, but ... well, ok, maybe I am suggesting it a little bit. Then he parades them around with that smug look on his face that makes me want to bless him with a piece of 2x4. Sometimes I feel kinda sorry for Katie Holmes, then I think "Nope! You got involved with the creepy little midget, now deal with it. And haha ... it still didn't get you any decent film roles, you just seem to have ended up with a series of dodgy hairstyles, a worryingly fluctuating weight problem and a Stepford child"

Fourthly ... the whole Scientology thing? C'mon Tom! It was created by a manipulative, phoney of a (very bad) science fiction writer! Wake up and smell the Diazepam!

And lastly, but by no means least ... the sofa-jumping episode on Oprah. Urgh! Cringe MUCH!

Well that's all from me for today ... if you made it through the whole post then thank you! And well done! Award yourself a little gold star. It's not my most riveting of pieces I know, but I couldn't leave this stuff hanging any longer.

I'm off to bed.

I've been Girl Interrupted and you've been wonderful.

G'nite x