meme

Back with bling

by Cellobella on Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Got back tonight from the station, weary and with over 400 photos to sort. Hopefully I’ll have at least four decent ones to share with you tomorrow, but I couldn’t face them tonight…

I needed a distraction and a distraction I received from both Frippery and The Modern Historian who both awarded me the lovely Arte y Pico Award for lots of lovely things – thank you both!

1) Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award based on creativity, design, interesting material, and overall contribution to the blogger community, regardless of the language.
2) Post the name of the author and a link to his or her blog by so everyone can view it.
3) Each award-winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
4) The award-winner and the presenter should post the link of the “Arte y pico” blog (click on the image), so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) Please post these rules.

So without further ado…

Niki from Hot Water - Hot Water has just had a makeover but I’m delighted to say Niki’s warmth and acerbic wit haven’t.

James’s blog has also had a makeover to celebrate his long anticipated trip to Sweden. An Abba fan in Sweden is well… sweet really. Note the colours of the Swedish flag in the banner pic.

Berra Circular by Miss Fortune is the new look blog following on from her delightful Hobart Chronicles. I like the way she incorporates song lyrics into each post. She obviously crafts each post with care… it shows.

Reading Circles is another fave of mine – what I love most is Feline Groovy’s banner pics and her whimsical posts sometimes incorporating snippets from her “real” diaries.

And last but not least and do I really have to stop at five????? – firstperson thirdcat – because her writing is funny, pithy and you know I like whimsical. Classy stuff.

The Food Porn Meme

by Cellobella on Thursday, April 17, 2008

Thanks to Lightening (and Smokey Mountain Breakdown) for this one.

Here are the really simple rules. Answer each of the five questions. Tag five bloggers you would like to pass the meme to. Have them link back to you and to this post as the source meme.

1. What food do you consider the best “date” food? In other words, what meal or food item do you think is sexiest to eat in the company of someone you would like to look sexy around?

I think you should always start with classic French food. It’s posh but you know what you’re getting and there are rarely any nasty side effects… well, apart from the garlic… The risks of loving on your first date are enough without the prawn jalfrezi repeating on you when activities below the equator (so to speak) have been initiated.

2. What well-known person would you like to share a meal with—with or without clothing. (saying whether or not clothes are involved is optional).

Mr Darcy, no shirt. Is that really a question??

3. What does your perfect breakfast-in-bed look like? (Food AND the details, please. Candles? Music? Flowers? Hot tub? Dancing girls?

Grilled pancetta with crushed roma tomatoes, hand-torn basil on crusty Italian toast. Served with a long black coffee and fresh orange juice, a trashy novel and sans children.

4. What do you consider the best application of whipped cream to be?

On scones with jam… or pavlova… You are after all asking a 6th generation Australian.

5. Oh-God-No, Biff, the yacht is sinking! You are sent to the galley to retrieve the food. What luxury food items do you snatch first? The champagne? The caviar? Smoked Salmon? Truffles? Chocolate? Or something else?

Who took the wine? Own up now! Because I want to share your lifeboat.

You’re it

The Food Pornographer (well… who else?)
Reading Circles
Hot Water
h&b
and James – my Sydney food guide :)

Creative Commons License photo credit: Tiago Macambira

Bloggy Bling and Paying it Forward

by Cellobella on Sunday, March 16, 2008

Friendship awardI’ve received some lovely bloggy bling recently and would like to thank Meg for this beautiful friendship award. It says:

A ball is a circle, no beginning, no end
It keeps us together like our circle of friends.
But the treasure inside for you to see
is the treasure of friendship you’ve granted to me.
Today I pass the friendship ball to you.

So who do I pass the friendship ball too… well this is tricky as so many of my bloggy friends already have this award.

I thought,this time, I’d pass it to some work colleagues who also blog…
James, Miss Fortune and Hotwater. Come on down!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketThen I was awarded the You Cheer Me Up award from Lightening.

Wow, there are so many people who cheer me up!

Here are just five: h&b, thirdcat, Drew, Karen and TFP.

Pay It Forward

And to top it all off I’m playing Pay It Forward (thanks to Meg).

So here’s how Pay it Forward works:

The Gift: Well I love reading and cards so… I thought for my gift I’d give either a pack of cards or a book, a novel.

The “Rules”: Simply leave a comment on this post specifying if you’d like cards or a book and if a book which genre. However by entering you must be willing to run (or have already done so) your own Pay it Forward initiative on your blog IF you are selected a winner.

Closing: This competition will close on Thursday 20th March (2008) at 5.00 pm (Perth time).

Good luck!

Oh and just to finish… imagine getting the first question on Who Wants to be a Millionaire… wrong.

Check out my meme post on Aussie Bloggers

by Cellobella on Sunday, February 10, 2008

We love them, we hate them – so what’s the deal with memes?

Why do we feel guilty if we choose to pass?

Should you tag individuals or just leave the invitation open?

Does getting a meme make you feel like this?

Perth

Join in the discussion at Aussie Bloggers – To meme or not to meme

Maybe not so weird?

by Cellobella on Saturday, January 26, 2008

Loz has tagged me for the 7 weird facts about me meme and seeing as it’s Australia Day and it’s way too hot to do anything apart from take my turn on Singstar and sit in air-conditioning I thought I’d give it a go.

footBloody hell this is hard!

  1. I always choose the horse when I play Monopoly – and make a point of calling it “lucky horse” the whole game to bring me luck. Sometimes it even works.
  2. I have munted little toes which are all curled in. They look as if they could be squashed from wearing pointy toed shoes but it turns out that my dad and daughter have the same toes. A genetic curse. (sorry about the photo – hope it didn’t put you off your peanut m&ms.)
  3. My left breast is bigger than my right.
  4. I love playing board games and feel disappointed (mostly on the inside) if I go out to a dinner party and don’t get to play pictionary or cards or something after the meal… :)
  5. I love it when I can lend my reading glasses to others.
  6. I am a woman and yet I hate going to the hairdresser, having my make-up done, or pedicures (as you can tell) and manicures – it’s all the fussing that irritates me. That being said – I love being massaged.
  7. I love eating milo out of the tin. Which is why I don’t buy it.

    8. Other weird facts can be found on my me page.

    Now which seven to tag? If you’ve already done it or have been tagged seven times just treat it as some linky love. :)

    Eastern Max
    h&b
    I drew this
    Three Ring Circus – please keep blogging!
    Meg
    Guera
    James – great Aus day photo!

8 things meme

by Cellobella on Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Lovely Lightening passed this on so I thought I’d have a go. Answers in no particular order… :)

8 Things I Am Passionate About

  1. My Family
  2. Playing bridge
  3. Reading
  4. Hanging out with friends
  5. Being involved in a community
  6. My blog
  7. Playing other card/board games
  8. Sleeping

8 Things I Want to Do Before I Die

  1. Grow old (I agree with you Lightening)
  2. Play bridge at Verona
  3. Travel in a spacecraft… in space
  4. Write a book
  5. Take singing lessons (and boy do I need them)
  6. Play Bach Cello Suite No 1 (this will take some doing as I can’t play the cello)
  7. Visit Antartica
  8. Have a wardrobe specialist come to my house and sort out my clothes and then get him/her to buy me a complete, tasteful, new set of clothes. Including at least one pair of Jimmy Choos and another by Blahnik. Sigh.

8 Things I Say Often

  1. Pick up your clothes/hat/brush/homework/shoes/socks/schoolbag etc
  2. I must get my car cleaned!
  3. I need to go on a diet.
  4. I need to do more exercise.
  5. Where are your glasses/is your mobile phone?
  6. Has anyone seen my keys?
  7. In a minute.
  8. I said, I would be there in a minute!

8 Books I’ve Read Recently

  1. “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” by Michael Chabon (currently reading)
  2. “Skin and Bone” by Kathryn Fox
  3. “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khalid Housseini
  4. “Miss Webster and Cherif” by Patricia Duncker
  5. “Sweet Obscurity” by Patrick Gale
  6. “Those Faraday Girls” by Monica McInerney
  7. “Notes from an Exhibition” by Patrick Gale
  8. “The Stars’ Tennis Balls” by Stephen Fry

8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over

  1. Fightback from the musical Keating!
  2. The rest of the soundtrack of Keating!
  3. Anything by Christine Lavin – and in Summer (this is for you Kelley) Air Conditioner
  4. This is Austin by Blake Shelton
  5. The Long Way Home by Supertramp
  6. So Long and Thanks for all the Fish from the Hitchhikers soundtrack
  7. Yellow Fish
  8. Another Perfect Day by Butterfly 9

8 Things that Attract Me to My Best Friends

  1. Feistiness
  2. Loyalty
  3. Kindness
  4. Ability to make me laugh
  5. Sensibleness – especially when I’m not being so
  6. Sense of fashion :)
  7. Strength
  8. Incredible beauty

8 People Who Should Totally Do This Meme

  1. H&B
  2. Carol
  3. Thirdcat
  4. Drew
  5. Feline
  6. Hot water
  7. Gacjezv
  8. James

I found this meme surprisingly fun to do. I didn’t think I’d be able to find 8 things for each category, especially the music one – but I did! Hope you enjoy it too. :)

The daily blog or should that be slog?

by Cellobella on Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Thanks to the Community Blogger Award I’ve been stretching my wings somewhat and finding lots of new blogs to sample and enjoy and one of the things I’ve noticed is that a lot of bloggers are very organised in their blogs.

There’s Menu Plan Monday, Monday Missions, Fun Monday, Tackle It Tuesday, Jump One Jump Twosday, Philanthropy Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday, Heads and Tails, Flashback Friday… it goes on and on.

Now I have nothing against having a plan – I plan at least two blogs a week – and they both revolve around Australian Idol – Sunday and Monday – I know… tragic. And my other “thing” that I do is every time I finish a book I blog a “review”. I say “review” advisedly as sometimes they are simply. “I read this book. I didn’t hate it.” And this is for me so I can look back and think to myself – hey I did read a few novels this year by gum!

I note that most of these theme memes (and I’m sure there are others for the rest of the week) are for the start of the week which I think could act as a good kickstart to your blogging week. They also give you an “assignment” and sometimes having some restrictions on what to blog makes you more creative rather than overwhelmed with the possibilities. It forces you for example to find “that photo” for Wordless Wednesday or Flashback Friday.

Some of them like Menu Plan Monday and Tackle it Tuesday – give acknowledgement and encouragement to do those mindless and unthanked tasks we might avoid otherwise.

(In fact I’ve been toying with the idea of Menu Plan Monday because really, it would be a good thing if I planned beyond the one day occasionally… And if I did Tackle it Tuesday there would be a lot fewer half empty packets of cereal in my larder and not so many moths.)

But I don’t want to feel hemmed in on my blog.

It’s my place for freedom of expression. Where I get to just, you know, hang.

And my fear is that if I started doing the weekly meme-theme thang that it would soon become not a daily blog but daily slog. That I would come to resent the computer and my blog because it was giving me homework.

I’ve never been good at homework. Or housework come to think of it.

I’m also fearful that I’d get stuck in a routine and my blog would become less interesting… at least, less interesting to me.

Are my fears groundless?

Are you a fan of the weekly task blog? Do you find it helps your writing/planning/life?

Do you like to read other meme/theme blogs?

Warm and Fuzzy

by Cellobella on Saturday, September 8, 2007

When I was about 12 my mother, always innovative and looking for self improvement, discovered transactional analysis, and as is her way with everything, delved into every aspect of this philosophy. We read TA for Tots, TA for Kids and TA for Teens and learned about Adult to Adult communication. This is the kind of story in the books.

The things I remember from nearly 30 years ago are avoiding the word “should” when talking to others – “should” is a parent word and has no place in adult to adult conversation as it forces your correspondent into the child – “I want” is the child speaking and strokes. I hear a mental bell go off in my head when I say the word should even today, and search frantically for alternative phrasing.

The other thing I remember from those kids books is the feelings strokes can give you… they can be cold and prickly or (you guessed it) warm and fuzzy. We as humans crave strokes – whatever kind – but the latter make us feel great.

Today, Joh gave me a warm fuzzy by awarding me a “Nice Blogger Award”. Thanks Joh and may I say you have fine taste in books – Lian Hearn is a favourite of mine too. :) Joh also wins my unofficial award for most clever blog title! I love it.

So now I get to give a warm fuzzy to someone else!  Oh the suspense… who will it be… requires some thought…

The Eight Random Things about me meme

by Cellobella on Tuesday, September 4, 2007

DonaldHTaylor sent me this meme to do so what the hey I thought and here I go:

The rules:

  1. Post these rules before you give your facts.
  2. List 8 random facts about yourself.
  3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them.
  4. Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Now this is effectively a chain letter via blogs but it will allow me to highlight some of my favourite bloggers so if I tag you… I read your blog often and if you choose to participate that’s fine, if not, I’ll still read your blog… :)

1. I don’t like chain emails that threaten bad luck

2. I do like red manilla folders.

3. I have a packet of crumpets on my desk at work.

4. My new wallet cost $90, but I love it and it holds my mobile phone but not all the crap still in my old wallet.

5. I am not very good at long term projects, except as it turns out, this blog.

6. I’m really annoyed that Sarah didn’t get through to the final 12 of Idol.

7. I have three moles which are currently on 6-month reviews!

8. I buy make-up from supermarkets.

And I love reading Reading Circles, Adelaide Writer, Are Don and Carol Coming?, Individual Chic, James O’Brien, H&B, Hot Water and I Drew This… and many more – see my reading list.

(Oh and random fact number 9. I’m not very good at following rules so I won’t be leaving comments at everyone’s blog that I nominated saying please do this meme… though I probably will leave a comment just because you write great articles and I like you!)

I tag myself

by Cellobella on Saturday, July 7, 2007

From H&B… this sounds like fun… here’s what you do:

The rules are that you go to Wikipedia and type in your date of birth without the year. From the results of that search, you’re supposed to list two birthdays, three events and one holiday that are of interest.

So here are mine:

BIRTHDAYS

1728 – James Cook, British naval captain and explorer (d. 1779) for the Australian connection.

1939 – John Cleese, British actor and writer because of the Monty Python thing. You know. I love them.

Oh and I’ve got 1958 – Simon Le Bon, English singer (Duran Duran) too…

There are also a couple of great poets… Sylvia Plath and Dylan Thomas but didn’t they come to early ends?

EVENTS

1904 – The first underground New York City Subway line opens; the system becomes biggest in United States of America, and one of the biggest in world.

1936 – Mrs Wallis Simpson filed for divorce which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne.

1997 – Stock markets around the world crash because of fears of a global economic meltdown. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummets 554.26 points to 7,161.15. For the first time, the New York Stock Exchange activated their “circuit breakers” twice during the day eventually making the controversial move of closing the Exchange early (see October 27, 1997 mini-crash). Which kind of explains my early share trading days…

HOLIDAY

They are all rather naff but I chose – Greece – Flag Day – for no particular reason except that it sounded more colourful than the US’s Navy Day… although I guess they weren’t referring to the colour.

You are officially tagged if you also share a birthday with a member of Duran Duran or if you just want to do it. :)

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