The Order of the Laughing Horse

Many moons ago I declared this blog to be an award-free zone.  It was at a time when awards seemed to appear every week on every blog.   Some of the awards were well thought out and given with thought too.  My brother CJ (Scriptor Senex just in case there is anyone left out there who doesn't know our relationship) did just such an award.   So far as I can gather the main purpose of the award system was to get like-blog-minded bloggers to read each other's blogs with a view to getting more readers and followers.  There is nothing wrong with that.  At that time, however, my blog world was very small and I really wanted to keep it that way.

Many of the awards had conditions which basically were designed to get people to tell other bloggers something about themselves.  I found that interesting but, on the whole, I prefer to be the decider of what information I give out publicly.

YP at the blog Yorkshire Pudding has, apparently, been giving the Laughing Horse award for whatever reasons he happens to think up for some years.  I have no idea how many.  Although I've 'known' him though Katherine's Blog for several years I've only actually been following his blog for a few months.  Now I wonder what took me so long.  An interesting set of bloggers received awards at a ceremony at Chatsworth House (the Duke of Devonshire's stately pile in Derbyshire - not Devonshire which doesn't exist) yesterday.  As an itinerant blogger (in that I blog from Scotland and New Zealand) I was duly given the Laughing Horse Award for the best Itinerant Blogger.  The only other contender for that category so far as I am aware was Adrian but he was entered in so many categories I was, effectively, unopposed.

So thank you YP.  Despite the scurrilous tabloid description of the Award Ceremony.

Awards

If I'm really honest I'm not a great one for awards.  I'm really thrilled that some people enjoy my blog and my photos and it's a lovely compliment to be given an award.  But then there are the conditions or stipulations.  I've not had time to think about awards recently but Scriptor has just completed his 35 answers and on a whim of mellowness (it must have been the green tea with lemon and ginger I had earlier this evening - please don't tell anyone that I was drinking tea in the evening) I've decided to post on the awards I've received.

Firstly I should say that I apologise if my attitude seems ungrateful.  I hope that you don't think that.  I am.  It's just that, well, I can't really explain.  I'm just not an awards sort of person.  Unless, of course, it's Croquet.  I like getting Croquet awards.  But then I suppose I feel that I've really earned them and I'm never sure that I feel I've earned ones for blogging.  C'est la vie.

Anyway (sorry, I use that word a lot) the first one was from Scriptor Senex at Rambles From My Chair.  He gave me An Award For Photographic Excellence on 4 October.  It came with no stipulations nor imprecations nor strings.  Thank you Brother.

Next on 14 October Dawn Treader passed on the Honest Scrap Award With or Without Stipulations saying: 'To GB at Eagleton Notes because his very honest blogposts and comments marked by British humour always make me smile and sometimes laugh. If you don't find him at home there, try his New Zealand blog, because he is about to travel again soon.'  So really I'm acknowledging it on the 'wrong' blog.  With this I am supposed to tell you ten things about myself that you don't already know.

And then on 5 November Pauline at The Paddock passed on in her posting Yey!! I'm a Real Blogger! the Your Blog is Over The Top award on the grounds that 'I like his cheerful, positive outlook on life and, oh boy, does he ever take good photos. And it's nice to know another blogger in NZ.'  With this one I am supposed to answer 35 questions:

I am supposed to pass each of the last two awards on to another blogger.  And here I have a problem.  I know an extremely small number of bloggers all of whom are well known to everyone else on my blog list.  It's very incestuous.  I don't have the huge circle of blog friends that many others have.  I don't visit blogs outside of my small circle.  What never?  Well hardly ever. (With apologies to W S Gilbert).  So I can't really pass them on even if I were so inclined.

But I shall indulge myself and tell you ten things about myself that you don't already know:

1 The only thing that I can think of that I can do equally well with both hands is use chopsticks.

2 All my swear words relate to bodily functions (Friend Who Knows Too Much pointed that out). I never use the F word and I never blaspheme (Wot never? Well, hardly ever).

3 I drink two mugs of green tea (usually with lemon or something else) when I get up, earl grey or lady grey with breakfast and red bush tea with lunch. Any other tea drinking is random. I drink black coffee without sugar the rest of the time.

4 I was born with my pension book in my hand. (So my Mum said).  I didn't become young until my 61st birthday.

5 I have a love of pictures with people with their back to me looking out of windows.

6 I cannot conceptualise.  I have no ability to hold an image in my head.  I cannot 'see' images in my head.

7 I will not eat sweets shaped like Maltona Drops (Boiled round sweet with an indentation in top and slight malt flavour) ever since I got one stuck in my throat as a small child and nearly choked (I don't eat toffee either but that's for the rational reason that they pull my fillings out!)..

8 I've had a mobile (cell) phone since they were the size of a brick on wheels and I've always had the same number (apart from alterations to the prefix when numbers have been increased in size due to demand).  Notwithstanding that it's only in the last 5 years or so I've been able to remember it.

9  I can remember the phone number of our home 65 years ago and my first car and the frame number of my bike when I was 11 (71512TH) but not the number of my current car here in NZ.

10 Happiness is dancing naked in the warm rain (preferably in the dark!).