Oh pifflesquit!

Uncle Skip, who has his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, gave me an award.

First Suldog gave Uncle Skip an award.

No.

First some poor innocent soul gave Suldog an award, which he accepted in his own unique way. Then Suldog passed the award on to Uncle Skip and some other bloggers.

And then Uncle Skip passed it on to some other bloggers and me.

This is it:

THANK YOU, UNCLE SKIP (I’m not even sure if the comma was necessary there. If it isn’t, feel free to ignore it.)

Of course these awards always have strings attached. A ‘thank you speech’ alone will not do. I understand that one must mention ‘stuff’ about one’s self in order to be a deserving recipient of this particular award. One must also link back to the presenter of the award, which one has done at the very beginning of this post and will do again at the very end of this post.

And I too can post a picture of a laughing animal. Better yet, I even took this photo.

So here’s some ‘stuff’ about me:

• I’m 1.80m tall
• I have published my first book last week, but I’m pretty sure no one will ever buy it
• I’m hopeless at remembering birthdays
• I have never smoked anything illegal
• I have never smoked anything legal, apart from fish
• I have a great sense of humour
• I have no earlobes
• I can make a damn good lasagne
• I’m a Shaun the Sheep-fan
• I used to visit bloggers who joined my list of followers to thank them, but apparently that scared the hell out of some people and they immediately stopped blogging. So I don’t do that anymore. I just ignore them and hope for the best.

Another string attached to this award is that I have to pass it on to 5 other bloggers. Most bloggers I know live in an award free zone, so there’s no point in bothering them with such a wonderful award as this is. Hmm, to whom will I pass this award on. They must be people who will really appreciate it (no pressure):

1. Mara of Weighty Matters
2. Liz of Backward Leonard
3. Karen of A Good Snapshot

Okay, it’s not 5 exactly, but I’ve never been good with numbers.

Oh, and pifflesquit? You’ll have to visit Uncle Skip to find out what that means.

Screaming Mimi had a bad hair day...

...and gave me the Neno's Award. I hadn't seen this one before. It is a very sweet award with, of course, some rules and regulations attached. But nice ones. Please visit Screaming Mimi or her dog Oskar if you have the time. Their blogs are both funny, sometimes serious, sometimes seriously funny. Neno's Award - Rules & Regulations: 1.As a dedication for those who love blogging and love to encourage friendships through blogging. Well, I dó love blogging and I have met a lot of friends all over the world through blogging. If we should however meet each other in the flesh, so to speak, there is always the possibility that we wouldn't even like each other. Small chance, but possible. Best keep at a safe blogging distance. 2.To seek the reasons why we all love blogging. Ah! I believe that for some bloggers it is their way of staying, or becoming, sane. For some, blogging is a way to meet people all over the world who have similar interests. For some, it is a way to publish their creative productions. For me it is a way of having sort of a conversation with other people, since I normally spend most of my days solely with animals and I hate the telephone. Actually, I find myself talking to the animals a lot. Perhaps for me blogging is a way of staying or becoming sane too. 3.Put the award in one post as soon as you receive it. Done! 4.Don't forget to mention the person who gives you the award. How could I! 5.Answer the award's question by writing the reason why you love blogging. See points 1 and 2 I think. Of course all those very nice people in Blogworld could be serial killers in real life. Who's to say? I might be. You just don't know. I can assure you I'm not. But I would say that, wouldn't I? No really, I'm not. And I don't lie. Except to my piano tuning guy. Who now isn't my piano tuning guy anymore. 6.Tag and distribute the award to as many people as you like. Oh. Okay. I usually pass awards on to only one person, not always the same, but today I will break my own rule: This award is for Mel at Our Journey Continues, for being my BBFF and for being a great writer. And I would also like to give this award to Mara at Weighty Matters. She loves blogging and she is a lovely blogger (ánd she's Dutch). Currently she would like to swap Christmas Ornaments with you. I will not mention our quest against Christmas coming earlier each year, dear Suldog. Oops. I just did. 7.Don't forget to notify the award receivers and put their links in your post. I'll do my best not to forget.

Honest scrap

Mara was having a bad hair day, or she just doesn't like me (can you imagine that?) so she decided to give me an award with a HUGE string attached! The recipient of this award has to list 10 honest personal things. I feel this is more of a tag than an award, but hey, I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. *very deep sigh* I liked reading Mara's personal confessions, so wasn't it just fair to list some of my own? And I do appreciate people who give me an award. And I didn't have this award yet. So I sighed again and decided I would not ignore this one. Previous results however are certainly no guarantee of future ones. This will most probably be my last acceptance speech for an award or a tag.

Sad thing is that I have to pass this award and the HUGE string attached to it on to other bloggers. More or less fortunately a very dear blogfriend of mine, who shall remain nameless because she might JINX ME if I say who she is, asked me to tease another very dear blogfriend by "threatening" him with an award of some kind. She can't do it herself, because she is a very wise woman and doesn't accept awards or tags.

And I am too nice for my own good.

Actually I hardly dare call the person I/we would like to pass this on to, a blogfriend, because he is actually my Blog God and a certain respectful distance would be in order if he wasn't the sweetest and funniest guy I know in Blogworld which makes it hard to keep that distance. I'm already groveling, have you noticed? And I think I can't even knit a meaningful sentence together anymore. It is sheer fear. I will reveal to you who my Blog God is at the end of this piece. First you have to plough through my

10 honest things: 1. Brinkbeest is a nickname given to me by an English teacher. My last name begins with Brink... and beest means animal or beast. Thank you English teacher! 2. When I hang the multi-coloured washing out to dry, I colour coordinate it. How sad is that? 3. I have a carpenter's eye. It is a blessing and a curse. 4. I don't like shopping. Hubs is very pleased with me. 5. I hate talking on the telephone. One of the reasons is that I don't like talking to people without being able to look them in the eyes. 6. I'm always in doubt. 7. A couple of months ago our piano-tuner called to make an appointment and he is a really nice guy, but always stays far too long and talks too much, and I really wasn't in the mood for that, so I lied and told him we sold the piano, which is rather stupid, because all piano-tuners in our part of the world know each other so he's bound to find out that I've lied. Now I can't bring myself to call another piano-tuner and our piano will remain out of tune for some time to come. 8. I don't lie, except for that one time mentioned in point 7. 9. I think I might have to start wearing my glasses. 10. I 'don't do' numbers. I can't add, divide or deduct. I just can't count! This is the award. I feel I've really deserved it now:

So, now I have to pass this award on to someone else. As I have told you I am going to pass this on to a very sweet guy, who has already received lots of awards, but I couldn't find this one in his award list. Amazing, because if anyone deserves an award for reveiling honest things (I would not call it scrap in his case) about himself...it is of course Suldog! While I'm hiding under my desk for fear of what he might say I would like you to pop over to his place and read this. And, dear Suldog, if you choose to accept this Honest Scrap 'award', you have to list 10 honest things about yourself. Sorry ;-) Personally I am very curious what you will come up with (nudge nudge wink wink).

About Biggles and who would like to accompany me to the Oscars?

I've mentioned Biggles having OCD (Osteochondrosis dissecans) in both heels in yesterdays post. Just now I've added some additional information about OCD in a footnote, but I feel I have to tell you a little bit about Biggles. If you are interested, read a short explanation about OCD in 'Yesterday evening'.

Who can resist this little cutie? This is Biggles. Full name: Boy O Boy Biggles of Towns Channel. He's called lots of names now, not all of them very flattering. But we mostly call him just Biggles or Binkyboy or just Idiot. He was born with people we know very well, who have been breeding labradors for years and years. Always according to the rules of the Dutch Labrador Association. The parent dogs are screened if they are healthy and don't have hereditary diseases. So were Biggles' parents. Both lovely dogs and completely healthy. No bone diseases or eye diseases. Their pups promised to be a healthy bunch of labradors. Of course you can never be sure. So when we totally fell for this little cuddly bundle and we took him home when he was ready to leave the nest, hubs was hoping to do lots of hunting training with him (we don't hunt, but we train the dogs to be real retrievers, because that is what their breed is and what they want to do). We carpeted all the hard flooring with cheap carpets, to prevent him from sliding and hurting his joints. We didn't let him play too wildly with the older dogs for the same reason. We gave him the best food, especially for large breeds. In short, we did everything according to the 'be a good human to your dog'-rules. After about 6 months we noticed he didn't really use his hind legs as he should do. The joints were a bit weird. The vet had already mentioned that as a small puppy his hindlegs were a bit too straight. So when we went to the vet with our concerns, he immediately referred us to a specialist. There we went with our happy, bouncy not so little pup. To a specialist clinic. The same clinic where I had been to with my first dog, a couple of years earlier, who turned out to be suffering from liver failure and acute leukaemia. She was the best dog you could ever have. But she died just before her 6th birthday. I have tears in my eyes writing this and she died about 8 years ago now. That is how much impact such a thing can have on someone. You can imagine that it wasn't a great feeling to be there again, with another great dog. Biggles was diagnosed to have OCD in both heels. Which isn't a very common thing. According to the specialist he was inoperable. We were devastated. But the specialist said that Biggles could get very old with it, although he probably needed painkillers for the rest of his life and supplements through his food in order to make his joints work more smoothly. And when he would be old enough (1 year) we could take him trotting next to a bike to strengthen his muscles. Also he told us not to keep him on a leash all the time and to let him play with other dogs. Rather a short and happy life than a long and miserable one, his philosophy was. And we agree.

The training however would be not so good since that involves a lot of jumping and running with sudden stops and turns. Not good for his joints. We took Biggles home and notified the trainer that we wouldn't be coming again. Then we started to do some research and found that there is a pool especially for dogs who need physiotherapy, near where we live. One of the two special dog pools in the whole of the Netherlands. We took Biggles there every week, for about a year. So he could swim in warm water to strengthen his muscles. That was a great therapy. We noticed so much improvement and he clearly enjoyed it.

Biggles now gets a painkiller every morning, combined with anti-inflammatories and a glucosamin/chondroitin supplement through his food. And you have never seen such a bouncy, happy, sweet dog. And finally, someone decided to nominate me for an Oscar! So, who would like to accompany me to the Oscars? I've got a wonderful dress, borrowed some lovely jewellery worth millions, took out a second morgage and bought Manolo Blahniks. Can't walk on them, but there are chairs I'm told. However, I need someone to hold on to on the red carpet.... "What? You've told me I'd get an Oscar! What do you mean: an OsKar... Not an OsCar? But... Oh heck!" Sorry, forget what I said. It isn't an Oscar after all. It's an OSKAR!!!!! And if I'm honest, I'd rather have an Oskar than an Oscar. My Manolo's will be on eBay soon, but I'm keeping the dress! Oskar, the coolest schnauzer ever, and his mom Mimi have generously awarded the very cool people (yes, me too) who follow Oskar's blog, with this wonderful Oskar award and they have asked us if we want to pass it on to bloggers we think are super cool. Since I think each and everyone of you who read my blog are: IF YOU READ THIS, PLEASE ACCEPT THIS AWARD AND POST IT ON YOUR BLOG. Make Oskar happy ;-)

A visit from a vampire. Oh, and an award!

Nothing interesting to tell you, I thought. HA! I had totally forgotten about Count Dracula visiting us. No really. There we were, on a warm summer's night, French doors open, comfortably nestled in the corners of the couch, watching something interesting on tv, when suddenly a shadow moved along the walls. And again. Turned out a bat had decided to pay us a visit. I'm really not that easily scared by animals. I pick up frogs and toads for instance. Wasps can land on my hand and I will look at them closely (they feel quite warm, did you know that?), while hubs is doing his hysterical 'aaarggghh a wasp' dance. I felt quite offended actually when two weeks ago I got stung by a wasp. Me! Who always treats them with respect, rescues them when they fall into my drink, puts them out into the sun to dry, lets them walk on my hand. And just for once I don't notice one landing in my neck, I turn my head and OUCH. It stings me! And my father taught me that if there are bats flying around and you throw a small pebble up in the air, they dive for it thinking it's food. So my father and I (I was about 15) spent a couple of evenings confusing bats by throwing small pebbles up in the air and letting the bats dive just over our heads. While my older sister ran away screaming. I thought it was rather exciting. Outside.

Inside the comforts of your own home however...it's a totally different matter. Quite scary to have a HUGE bat flying inches above your head. They are FAST! And you can't hear them coming. The dogs thought it was quite exciting too, so we put them in the hallway. Safer for both bat and dogs. Hubs went out to get the big fishnet on a long stick, which we have to fish things out of our pond and went on the Big Bat Hunt. Really, while it was flying around it was like Count Dracula had decided to go look for another place to put his coffin. But when hubs had finally caught the poor creature, it was just a tiny little, quite cute furry little bat. Sadly you could hardly see it in the net, so I didn't make a photo. You have to believe me on my word. Hubs set it free again. Outside. I didn't throw a small stone, it had endured enough that evening. It wasn't the first time we had a bat flying around in our living room actually. A couple of years ago hubs had to go on the Big Bat Hunt too. When we told people our exciting adventure, someone said that we had to throw a white towel in the air. The bat would grip that and then you could put it outside again. No idea why the bat would fly into a white towel, but hey, worth a try I thought this time. Hubs wouldn't have it however. He put his faith in the net. Worked for him once and never change a winning ...uhm ...team. So I can't say if the towel does the trick if ever you need to catch a bat. And now for something totally different: Oskar, the smartest and most handsome schnauzer I know (visit his blog if you have the time; it's very funny) decided to give me an award. Thanks Oskar (and Mimi, Oskar's 'mom person').

The instructions apparently are to:

1) Put this award on my blog and a link to who gave it to me.

2) Give a nod to the purple hatter.

3) Tag five other doggies who you just can't get enough of.

I am honoured to receive this wonderful award of course. I've decided long ago (never to walk in anyone's shadow, if I fail, if I succeed......suddenly that popped into my head, sorry) to not give awards away in huge amounts, so I'll give this one to one very special person, a true animal lover whom I admire very much (did I use 'whom' correctly?): T from It Matters To Me. She deserves something pawsome!

Hard to get in, even harder to get out

(With thanks to Suldog, who also writes a company blog, for opening a little drawer in my mind that contained this story.) In a former life I used to own a small company for which I had to regularly visit big companies. We were quite successfull in what we did, which is very difficult to explain in another language, but it had something to do with exams and legislation. Anyway, that isn't what I wanted to tell you. One of my clients was a large firm that shared an office with some other firms. The architect of that building must have been on drugs, because he had the novel idea to design irregular steps to the main entrance of the building which meant that some of the steps were too wide to take in one normal stride, but too narrow to take in two. So, either you had to make two silly little strides or a normal-and-half-a-stride. And every step had a different hight. No way one could conquer these stairs in a somewhat elegant manner. Not a normal step in sight. Every step required a different approach. Aarrrrggghhh, a very stupid idea for stairs. Some clever person has not come up with a mathematical calculation for stairs for nothing! "Francois Blondel, a French architect, was the first person to establish a rule for staircase design. In 1675, while working for the Royal Academy of Architecture, Blondel devised the following formula: twice the riser height plus the tread depth equals 24 inches (25.5 in today's inches)." See or the full text, very informative and clearly ignored by the stupid architect:http://www.classzone.com/books/algebra_1/page_build.cfm?content=links_app2_ch3&ch=3 Also, the building had parking spaces in front of it and a two-storey parking garage stuck to the side. The parking places in front were very narrow. I drove a big car - well, one has to keep up appearances as the owner of a company does one not? - and earlier visits to that firm had taught me that parking in these narrow spaces wasn't a problem, but getting in and out of the car subsequently was. One unfortunate day therefore I opted to park my car in the garage. As I had parked it near the entrance I walked out and hop-skipped up the stupid stairs to the main entrance. The receptionist told me that I was expected at the top floor of the building. So I went up, had my meetings, which took all of that afternoon until way after everybody else in the building had already left, except for the receptionist and the people I had the last meeting with, and then went down, said goodbye to the receptionist and noticed there was a door that had a sign 'parking garage' on it. I went through that door. The other people all left through the front entrance of the building. The door to the parking garage closed behind me. There were no cars left in the parking garage. Not even mine. I frowned. Had someone stolen my car? I couldn't believe that. To get onto the grounds of the building you had to pass a gate where you had to tell your name and your measurements , which always struck me as kind of weird (just a joke, you did not have to state your measurements, but they wanted to know almost everything else about you before you were allowed to pass the gates). So not stolen then. Suddenly it dawned on me that I had to be on the wrong floor. My car was parked on the floor below. So I turned around and went back to the door. The door that wouldn't open. It could only be opened by using a pass. A pass that I did not have. Shoot! Think quick, I encouraged myself. The ramp! I could just walk down the ramp that led to the lower floor of the garage. No problem. I could get my car and just drive home. No reason to panic! So I walked to were the ramp was. Only to be encountered by a huge gate, all bars, that closed off the ramp. To be opened by using the same pass that you could use to open the door to the building. The pass I did not have. Shoot again! There I was. All alone in a parking garage. I ran back to the door that had closed after me and looked through the little window if I could see anyone. No one there. The entrance hall was empty. The receptionist had gone. I was the only one left in the entire building. I had my mobile phone, so could I phone the firebrigade to let me out? Perhaps I could. But first I phoned hubs. 'I will be late tonight. I'm locked in this building and I have no clue how to get out.' Hubs understood my problem. But since he was about 200 kilometers away, at home, he couldn't really help me. 'I will keep you posted', I said. Then I tried to call the reception desk. I had the phone number of the company I had just visited stored in my mobile. Answering machine and it didn't mention another number to call outside office hours. I looked through the window of the door again, one last attempt to see if perhaps someone was there before I would call the fire brigade. And there actually was someone in the entrance hall. Putting on her coat, ready to leave the building. I screamed and banged my fists against the door. She lifted her head. I banged and screamed even louder. She turned around and saw me through the little window of the door. She came to my rescue and opened the door to let me out. I told her why I was there and she accompanied me down the stairs to the floor below where she kindly used her pass to let me drive out of the garage. I called hubs to let him know that I was on my way home. Actually, on another occasion I had a very similar but different experience in the same building. I will save that story for later. I hated going there. First you had to overcome all sorts of hurdles to get into the stupid building and then they wouldn't let you go again. HATED IT! On a happier note: The lovely Cece, a.k.a. WVU Chick, loves my blog. So she gave me this award. It's the second time I've received it. Yippee! I will pass it on to... Jay from thedeppeffect Simply because I love her blog and she regularly lets my good friend Data appear in her posts. I never cared that much about Data, until she pointed out that the actor who plays him, Brent Spiner, is also a singer and referred to this site. Please go there and listen to song no. 8 to know why Data and I have a special bond. He knows things about me that only very few people know! I'm blushing while I write this. And laughing out loud. (You could also go here to see the actual songtext and listen to the music. I mean: how does he know that?)

HiFi, great Scottish music, an award and balls for beagles

Fi from Four Paws and Whiskers posted the video below on her blog. People who post things like that deserve some space in my blogspot because they make me cry with laughter, so please visit her and see the other hilarious musicvideos she posted. They need a warning though, don't drink or eat while watching. You might need a Heimlich manoeuvre. She also gave me an award:

Yippee! I will pass this award on to... T at It Matters To Me, for being a wonderful person who loves her animals. She rescues ferals and writes about them with so much love and passion that I just love her blog.

And the next photo is just for the Dughallmor Beagle bunch. They just love balls. The rest of you: please look away...

...NOW:

Dots and a very special award................

I've just noticed that I like my...........dots. I used to like my exclamation marks too. Until Jewels told us all to stop using them so much please!!!!! So now I am using all my self constraint to keep my fingers from the shift 1 keys.

Please let me know if the dots irritate you. Perhaps I will refrain from using them so much. Or perhaps not. Life With Dogs, blogspot of Nigel, Sola & Co., honoured me with a very special award. The Gold Hydrant Award.

As I am a great admirer of the weird and wonderful Life With Dogs blog, I am extremely proud to be one of the first awardees of a blogaward that has no strings attached. Although the reason for giving me this award left me feeling a bit blue: ' for proving that she has a firm pair of...legs! Holy crap look at those bruises, not a broken bone. Someone has been taking their calcium!'

So I left this comment: 'Gosh, I'm not sure if the reason why I'm chosen is the one I would like to be chosen for, but I ám proud of my calciumfilled legs ;-) Who would have thought those photos would lead to an award. Thanks!I will certainly and proudly display this award. Wonderful initiative!' Which resulted in me receiving this email: 'Oh my I hope I did not offend, I just knew that would draw a lot of attention to your blog.' To which I replied: 'Oh no, rest assured. I'm not that easily offended ;-) It made me smile big time. I just hope that ONCE I will get an award for being utterly entertaining. One can have dreams.....*sigh* Thanks again. I will post it tomorrow. Hope you all have a very nice weekend. Hugs to you my friend ;-)' This was the answer: 'Oh thank heavens - I love you and your blog and was spooked for a minute - but your legs are now the 8th wonder of the world - I don't know how you did not break them!! Have a great weekend and give your new baby a scratch from us, I have loved watching it grow from afar.' Which gave me a brilliant idea, so I replied: 'Maybe my legs need a blog of their own? Hubs just thought of the name: 'hot legs'. Must check if that's still free ;-)' And finally I received: 'Even if it just sat there forever with the pic and the story you'd get a ton of hits. Mind blowing, and what a topic of discussion!' So I checked if 'hotlegs.blogspot' is available. It isn't. And on second thoughts my legs will probably get very stuck-up and hard to handle if they get too much attention. Most probably the wrong attention. Because whoever is searching for 'hot legs' will probably be very disappointed to see my bruised but very strong legs. They were probably hoping for a totally different search result, don't you think? So I will not give my legs their own blog (even bluelegs.blogspot isn't available). I have trouble enough keeping up with this blog and all my lovely blogfriends. I enjoyed the little email conversation however. Have I told you that I loooooove all the wonderful warm and funny and creative people I have sort of met through blogging? Yes, you! Hugs to you all, enjoy your weekend. I'm off to scratch Evie and perhaps make some photos of her poledancing. Fingers crossed she will perform this afternoon ;-)

Yes, well, uhm, gosh, what would be an appropriate title...

Since I promised to post more regularly than I did during the past three weeks (which isn't difficult, since I didn't post anything during that time), and heaving just read an inspiring post over at 'the definitive dogblog' (if you don't know the Life With Dogs blog, I suggest that you click on the link, but you can do that after you've read this post of course), I thought I would bore you with another little post. Nigel, Sola & Co., over at the Life With Dogs blog that I referred to above, are regular visitors of their veterinarians. Which got me thinking that their vets must drive very big cars and live in very big houses. We are regular visitors of our vet too. And he is a regular visitor of us. I mean: of our animals. Not long after we moved here we were already on a first-name basis with him and after about a year he started to renovate his house. After nine years of being his loyal customers he moved to a farmhouse with acres of land. He is renovating that farmhouse now. I like to think (and I quite often mention it to him too) that we have played a big part in making that all possible for him. At which point he always says that he is quite grateful to us and our pets for being such regular customers and that he needs a new kitchen (or car or horse) so he hopes we will keep visiting. Fortunately he is not the only one with a sense of humour. A couple of days after he visited our newly born Evie, he visited the horse of one of our friends. She later told me that when she asked him if he had already been to see Evie and what he thought of our foal, he said that we were the best people to have such a beautiful and healthy foal, that we really deserved it, because we EVEN CAME TO HIM WITH A SICK CHICKEN! Which reminds me; Suldog gave me an award a couple of weeks ago (I only found that out the day before yesterday of course) and this seems like the right place to post it:

These are the rules attached: The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken - excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all!

I AM TRULY HONOURED! Thank you Suldog! I would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens any day, just to be able to read your inspiring words! Actually, if I would not strongly object to my picture being taken, there could have been some photographic evidence of me, strolling through our garden, followed by a pack of zombie chickens, three dogs and two pigs. Really. It happens.

5 other Zombie Chicken Awardworthy bloggers are: Mel from Our Journey Continues for her truly inspiring posts, her good sense of humour and for being my BBFF (I've learned yesterday that BFF stands for Best Friends Forever; the other B = for Blog), Jewels from Life, The Universe, and Everything for being sort of funnily disturbed in a good way and for being awesome and if I ever go to Canada, I would so like to have a cup of coffee with her, preferably from a drive-through with a trainee behind the counter, Nigel, Sola & Co. from Life With Dogs for sponsoring their vets, for having sort of a surreal sense of humour and for keeping me up to date with the texting abbreviations used by people decades younger than me.

I think I have to be brave and defy the wrath of the Zombie Chickens. Not that I don't think any of you other bloggers deserve an award, and if I ever get another award you will be the first one I will virtually hand it out to. Or not. Don't get too excited now.... Odds are that we all will be awarded with something some day and I actually think that it is nice to show our appreciation to other bloggers in this crazy awardgiving way. Only, I have just made up a rule for myself to give any award to a maximum of three other bloggers, whatever rules are attached to that award. Chances are however that I have forgotten that rule by the time I receive another award, if ever. Exciting, isn't it? By the way, if you like zombies and have a weird sense of humour (like I have) you will probably enjoy the British movie 'Shaun of the Dead'. Or maybe not.

Awarded and tagged

I've got an awahard, I've got an awahard, tumtetumtetumtum.... Yesterday Barb from Skittlesplace honoured me with this lovely award:

Which is very nice of her. Don't you think? And she called me a LADY!!!!!!! It takes one to know one. There are however some strings attached. I have to mention 7 things that make me happy. And I have to honour some other bloggers with the same award.

First things first. Seven things that make me happy (in no particular order): 1. receiving awards for my blog 2. getting compliments 3. working in the garden in dry weather, preferably when the sun is shining 4. walking the dogs in the rain without encountering another human being 5. my friends (who are very forgiving and lovely and warm people) 6. all the inhabitants of our private little zoo 7. but the happiest I will be if my horse has her foal some time at the end of this week and both mare and foal are healthy and happy And now I have to award others. Hmmm. Who will we honour with this lovely image with the creative spelling (not unlike my own mistakes that are of course only due to typing errors ór to a creative use of words)....... Okay, so I would like to give this award to: Bodie and Doyle A very KREATIV blog about a dog (and his man) that makes me smile. And I'll leave it at that. Now, that does not mean that I don't think any of you other Bloggers deserve an award (does this mean what I think it means? I'm confused.). I mean: you are all Kreativ Bloggers and therefore deserve an award. Far more Kreativ than I am (fishing for compliments now, because they make me happy). But I've seen this award already on most of your blogs and I think an Award is worth even more if you only honour ONE blogger/blog with it. And now for something completely different...... Write Away! Mimi tagged me. With something I haven't seen before. As far as I understand it, I have to write down (using an actual pen or maybe a pencil, and paper) the following things: 1. The name of the person who tagged me. 2. My name. 3. Right handed or left handed? 4. My favorite letters to write. 5. My least favorite letters to write. 6. 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.' 7. The three people I want to tag (I will only tag one). Which is a bit awkward. Because not long ago I was boasting about my very neat and lovely handwriting, but now I will of course 'val door de mand' as we say in the Netherlands. Meaning that you will find out that my handwriting isn't actually as nice as I've led you to believe. It used to be, I assure you. But I don't write as much anymore. So my hand doesn't follow my brain the way it used to. But what the heck, here it goes:

So, sweet Mel, I'm sorry, but you have to see if you can find some paper and a pen or a pencil - whatever rocks your boat - and write away, so that someone who practices chirogrammatomanty can find out what you are all about.

Another Award, yippee?

This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.

Yippee!

Another Award!

My second one.

This one is bestowed on me by 'A Woman Of No Importance', who is really quite important for she knows many things about many things, and she certainly knows a lot of English and some French and two or three Dutch words, and she spices up all those words with very nice images, and her blog is very entertaining, and very worthwile reading! And if that isn't an incentive to pay her a visit, I don't know what will be.

I'm happy.

Does anyone know what it says next to the award? I'm sure it's something positive, but I haven't a clue. Talking about reading the fine print: this award entails that I have to honour fifteen (yes! 15!) other bloggers with the same award.

Fifteen! (Coincidentally that is also the name of Jamie Oliver's restaurants. See, I know something too!)

So, who will we burden, I mean honour, with this beautiful award?

I know:

Jinksy (she doesn't display it, and I don't have to worry about burdening her with having to honour 15 others with it, because she won't, but it will take a special place in her heart. I'm sure!) for being a very sweet person indeed and for her great ability to paint pictures with words!

Andrea & Sophie Andrea for her wise words and her beautiful photos of her lovely dog Sophie. Sophie, for being a very sweet and entertaining dog.

T T has the rare ability to almost always make me cry. She writes such lovely stories about her cats and dogs I'm often quite choked up, even if it's a happy story. And she is a lovely person!

Jewels Another lovely person (did you ever win that lottery?) with a great sense of humour and a lovely way of writing.

Nigel, Sola & Co Well, what can I say. They make me cry too, but they are tears of laughter. A hilarious blog about dogs and weird neighbours. Always good for a chuckle at least.

Mel The lovely Mel! I love the way she writes. She has a great sense of humour and a very warm and kind personality. She warms your heart!

rhymeswithplague This man and his alter ego Billy Ray Barnwell, if that is his alter ego that is, have two very entertaining blogs (so this award is for Billy Ray Barnwell too). Billy Ray has written a book that maybe isn't a book, I'm not quite sure and neither is he I believe, but he and rhymeswithplague always manage to confuse me even more than I usually am!

Barb Also known as Skittles. Makes me laugh. I admire the way she handles the difficult things in her life she has to cope with. She is probably the sanest insane person I know (sorry Barb, I hope honouring you with this award will 'cut me some slack')

Suldog I would like to honour Suldog with this award, but I'm scared of how he might react, so I won't. Just to remind you all: This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day. Suldog transmits cultural (he makes something that some people would call 'music'), ethical (he is the King of Burpyland and the inventor of Fartball), literary (he is a highly recommended writer) and personal values (see: ethical) in a way that only he can. And he has the bést job in the world! And he lóves awards! But I won't give him this one. If I had the courage I would, but I love life too much.

Oskar and Mimi, for being very creative, very funny and very modest (especially Oskar).

Jay Jay and I have something (or someone) in common. We just found that out and it almost made me wet myself from laughing. And it isn't the love for Johnny Depp! And I just love the way she writes and her sense of humour.

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Well, that's the list of bloggers I'm going to honour with the award. Maybe it isn't quite 15, but what's in a number?

I will proudly display the award with the fine writing (does anyone have a magnifying glass?) in the sidebar of my blog.

My first AWARD!

(Since this is my first award you must forgive me if I do something wrong.) First I'd like to thank Suldog for passing this truly magnificent creature to me. His description of this.....uhm.....thing is unsurpassable so I will not even try to describe the true wonders of this beautiful award. Please see Suldog's blog for that and have a good laugh! The only reason he presented me with this award is that he felt safe doing it since there is an ocean between us. Unfortunately for him I can swim. Fortunately for him I choose to see it as an acknowledgement and I'm very proud that at least one person other than myself likes my style! The words at the bottom of the award are true, although I personally would have left the 'God' and 'Corinthian' bit out. So....I would like to pass this award to my 18 followers because I like their style, but will only choose three for now. Undoubtedly more awards will come my way (ahum) and then I will burden some of the others with this bloggerawardthing 'we bloggers' apparantly do.

1. Dughallmor Beagles, because I like their style and they tried to tag me yesterday and were kind enough to leave an award for everyone to pick up at their blog. I refused both and my way of saying sorry is choosing them as my first award-receivers!
2. Cecilia, because I like her style and because she dressed up her poor dog as an alligator. For that she should be punished, I mean, AWARDED!
3. Barb a.k.a. Skittles, because I like her style and the pink colours match the top of her blog! And because she is not yet one of my 'followers' I hope this will act as a bribe too!

Well my lovely awardees, I hope you will cherish this....uhm....thing with all the love it deserves. And I believe you have to pass it on to at least three others.