The Versatile Blogger Award

The Versatile Blogger Award is a community-nominated award.

I have been nominated by Susie of Susartandfood and I am a very happy blogger! Thank you, Susie! Everyone, please check out her blog for fun posts and great recipes! 🙂

The rules:

In a post on your blog, nominate 7 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award.
In the same post, add the Versatile Blogger Award.
In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.
In the same post, share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.
In the same post, include this set of rules.
Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.

The seven blogs I nominate are:

1) Domestic Diva, M.D.
One of my favourite blogs which I’ve only found recently. Megs is hilarious – I really mean hilarious – and there are some great recipes to be found too!

2) Life in Kawagoe
Just as it says, it’s a window into one family’s life in Kawagoe. Simply written and with beautiful photos, it’ll please anyone with an interest in Japan.

3) Sifting and Sowing
Recommendations and recipes? This is top quality food writing – check it out!

4) Byron and his backpacks
Follow Byron on his journeys and life teaching in Asia. Insightful and humorous accounts that I definitely can relate to. See his post “Jumping through hoops” for a great rant of bureaucracy!

5) Tricia A. Mitchell
One woman on an enviable massive trip round Asia or “Asian sabbatical”, as she calls it. Fantastic locations, beautiful photos.

6) Waterfalls and Caribous 
A travel blog focussed on South Korea. Engaging writing/photos, and lots of food posts too!

7) Photosbotos
“One amazing photo every day!” Says it all. I follow just for the eye candy but there’s plenty of technical info provided for keen photographers.

Seven random pieces of information about me:

1) I love spiders. I used to feed ants to the spiders on the climbing frame. I named one “Hermione” and would check on her every day. Until she disappeared. Sometimes, if I found a spider in the house, I would put it in my bedroom. I also became fascinated by the superstition that if you spun a money spider around your head three times, you would become rich. I decided it would be better to keep them in my hair for extra luck. I stopped doing this when it occurred to me that I might accidentally squash a spider.

2) I live in Japan and I don’t like nori (seaweed used in sushi). I keep trying by you can see the results. This is primarily a food blog so I’m really ashamed.

3) I was a hero among local police. When I was 10, my parents put me in a karate class because I was a wimpy kid who got bullied (unsurprisingly, see #4). They wanted to toughen me up and also to improve my coordination. (I was, and still am, infamously clumsy. The scars on my legs are a testament to how many times I’ve fallen over.)

I did  eventually get better at karate and I even made it to black belt, but my parents were afraid that I’d never be able to use it should a situation ever arise. But a situation did arise. My mum’s friend was assaulted and racially abused her by two thugs. She was bravely following them down the street to make sure the police came and arrested them. Unfortunately, they decided to walk past our house and, although we live in a very “white” area, my dad happens to be a 6ft2 half -West Indian – so they picked the wrong house to be racist outside of.

As it happens, my dad is possibly the most non-violent, passive, mild-mannered man you could ever hope to meet. So my mum yelled out to my younger siblings: “Quick! Quick! Get your sister!” I was fifteen at the time, dressed in a skimpy nightie and purple slippers. Unabashed, I ran out into the street. Things started to get tense and one guy lunged at my mum’s friend. Before I even thought about it, I blocked him and punched him in the face.

I was so fast that no-one, not even him, saw what happened. Because the next thing he did was to turn to my dad and say “I’m gonna have you for assault!”

To which, I promptly responded: “What?! You’re gonna have a fifteen year old girl in purple fluffy slippers for assaulting you?!”

He blinked in surprise.

The thug got 6 months in prison for this assault and another 1.5 years for beating up an Indian man in a local hotel.

Turns out the guy lost half a tooth but he wouldn’t say how he lost it. The police had great amusement at his expense and I apparently became somewhat of a hero amongst them.

I would like to say that that was the whole story and I really was a complete hero, but actually, I slipped on my way back into the house, tore my ankle tendons in half and incapacitated myself for two weeks.

On another note, I have accidentally broken my karate instructor’s nose, my dad’s ribs and my brother’s finger. Training a clumsy person in martial arts can be a bad idea.

4) I was a goody two-shoes child who never threw a tantrum, looked forward to going to bed and always did my homework. At age 9, I precociously asked my mum what the best university was and she told me that it was Cambridge University.  “Well, I want to go there to study maths and drama,” I informed her.

I did go there, but I didn’t study maths or drama. I also got less good at doing my homework.

5) I once posed naked for a university kickboxing calendar. I kept trying to kick whilst covering my crotch with a glove. My coordination just wasn’t up to the task so those photos were scrapped The calendar bizarrely used both males and females from the club, so I’m not sure what market it was aimed at….except maybe martial artist bisexuals. We didn’t find too many of them.

6) I’m allergic to everything. You know those pills that you might sometimes take during hayfever season? I have to take 1 – 2 every day just to live a semi-normal life. I’m paranoid that most people secretly think of me as “The Tissue Girl.”

7) I can fit my whole fist into my mouth. Everyone has a party trick so I guess I just wanted to have one too. I’ve stopped doing it now, not only because it’s quite disgusting, but also because it attracts unwanted comments about the size of my mouth. Never good.