Wow! I got a blog award!

Warning: My, oh my, this is a loooooooooooong post. Read it at your peril.

This blog about my journey with the lap band is actually my third blog; one of those blogs is now defunct since it chronicled the trip hubby and I took in 2008 ; the other blog which runs alongside this one, is about all things non-banded. Despite having blogged now for quite some time, and in various guises, this is the first time I have ever been nominated for an award, so a big shout out and 'thank you' to Tina who was kind enough to think of me.

So, this is what I have to do:

• Thank the person who nominated you for this award (Check)
• Copy the award and post it in your blog (Check)
• Link to the blog of the person who nominated you (Check)
• Tell seven interesting things about yourself (Check - took a while!)
• Nominate seven bloggers (Check)
• Post links to the blogs of your nominees (Check)

Seven interesting things about me? Hmm, let me think... Seven? Really? I'm not sure there are that many...

1) As per Tina's request, here's a little bit about our chickens. We have two chooks living in an Eglu at the bottom of the garden - Gail and Sarah-luv (names after characters from mine and hubby's favourite TV show, Coronation Street.) We did have three chooks, but had to give Audrey back when 'she' turned out to be a 'he'. These are the second lot of chooks we've owned; we had to re-home the first lot (Rita, Mavis, Deirdre and Blanche) when we went travelling. Which leads me neatly on to interesting point no.2

2) I love, love, love to travel (although I don't really like flying) and have so far visited 59 countries. In January 2008 hubby and I set off on a seven-month trip (if you've got too much time on your hands you can read all about it here) which took us to North and Central America. We had a month in California/Arizona/Nevada, then flew to Mexico City and travelled overland through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, Belize, back to Mexico then flew to New York where we rented an apartment for a month before driving through New England and into Canada to stay with my aunt. Then we flew back to England (at which point I discovered I was pregnant) and then drove through Europe for three weeks.

3) I love, love, love NYC! I've been there 14 times so far. Hubby & I got married there (in Tavern on the Green) on 10 December 2005. We had the most wonderful time. We took the small boy on his first ever overseas trip to NYC last December; hopefully he'll grow to love the city as much as we do.

4) I work for a publishing company, indexing the business news section of The Times newspaper. Luckily I work part-time, extremely flexible hours and from home, which means I get to spend lots of time with the small boy.

5) The house we live in now is the house I owned when hubby and I first met back in 2003. I sold it in 2005 when hubby and I bought a house together, but when we came back from travelling and knew there was going to be another addition to the W family, we realised the house we were living in was going to be too small (it's not that it was a small house, it's just that we [mainly me] own a lot of 'stuff'.) So we started looking for somewhere new to buy, and it just so happened that my old house was on the market, so we bought it back.

6) I studied Ancient History at university and have an MA in Ancient Social and Cultural History, specialising in Roman architecture. I really wanted to do a PhD, but couldn't get the funding. Who knows, maybe one day...

7) I love, love, love to read. I hate to go anywhere without a book in my bag, even if it means my handbag weighs half a ton with all the other 'stuff' that I seem to keep in there. I'm starting to remind myself of an old teacher of mine who amazed us all by once pulling a screwdriver out of her handbag, but I digress... There are 128 unread books on my bookshelves (I've just got up and counted them especially) but I still find it hard not to go into a secondhand bookshop when I see one (I find it hard to pay full price for a book as most paperbacks seem to retail for at least £6.99 (and more often that not, £7.99) these days.)

And now for seven bloggers to nominate for this award. Just seven? From the gazillions that I read? Ouch, this is a tall order. Luckily, quite a few of you have already received the award, so I'm going to find seven bloggers who haven't. As Tina said, we should all get the award eventually!

1) Dawn who, like me, was very recently banded. Hers was the first blog I ever commented on. She lives in Reading, like me. Although her Reading is in the USA, while mine is in the UK. She's plateauing at the moment and needs our support!

2) Athena. Another recent bandster, banded just one day before me and she's already lost 30lbs!
3) Sandy Lee Just banded a couple of weeks ago and doing brilliantly - a big shout out to Sandy Lee!

4) Bianca Banded the week before me - can you see a theme developing here?

5) Jess Banded two days after me...

6) Pie Despite the name, Pie is not someone who needs to lose weight, nor is she someone who blogs about life with the gastric band. She is someone I met while hubby and I were on our travels in Maine; she discovered my travel blog, emailed me over our shared love of Agatha Raisin and we got the chance to meet up. How cool is that?

7) Steph And on a totally different note; Steph is not a bandster but she has a lovely blog with photos of the English countryside, vintage finds, etc, etc.