Woo, I got an award for blogging!

My good friend Shilo over at Yikes Machine was granted the Versatile Blogger Award, and it has now been passed on to me. Thanks Shilo! This is my very first award - how nice! Check out this weirdo octopus multi-tasking!

In order to accept this award I need to tell you seven things about myself, and then pass the award on to some fellow deserving bloggers. So, here goes...

1. I am 'owned' by four guinea pigs. All of them have been adopted from the Australian Cavy Sanctuary, who rescue and re-home piggies who have often been mistreated or can't be cared for by their owners any more. I've had guinea pigs for almost nine years, and my current girls are named Harriet, Poppy, Gertie and Liesl (Liesl is Gertie's daughter - Gertie came to me as a very young piggy who had been impregnated far too early in an irresponsible breeding situation). My four piggies are an absolute handful at times, but I love them all dearly. This is a picture of me with my first piggy Esmerelda, who passed away two years ago at the age of six-and-a-half. Esmerelda was a breast cancer survivor - she had a large mammary tumour removed when she was three.

Image: Giulio Saggin

2. I am a dual citizen of Australia and the UK. Both of my parents were born in England and moved here in their teens, which means I'm entitled to dual citizenship. I have both Australian and EU passports, and the only downside is that they're both unstamped - I enter and leave the UK on my British passport, and enter and leave Australia on my other one. Thus, no stamps!

3. I'm seven years into completing a degree that will take eight years. When I got my current job in arts publishing, I started out as a trainee and had only completed two-thirds of a Diploma of Editing. I got to complete a Certificate III in Business Administration as part of my trainseeship, and because I've worked full-time since then I totally missed out on university. I've been studying my Bachelor of Arts via distance education (majoring in Literary and Cultural Studies, Film Studies and Australian History), and the end is now in sight! I'm now also completing a Certificate in Interior Decoration and Design just for fun.

4. Because I read all day editing books and then do a lot of reading for my degree, I don't get to read much. I don't really want to. Instead I like to read bite-sized articles in magazines. Perhaps when I finish studying I'll find the headspace for books again - I do seem to own a lot of them...

5. I love brussel sprouts. For my birthday week I treated myself to some very expensive organic sprouts, and I can't wait to cook them tonight - pan cooked in stock with parmesan cheese and balsamic vinegar.

6. I once spent quite a lot of time making origami cranes. I decided to complete the 1000 cranes project, and probably completed about 800 before I stopped. I had to throw most of them out when we moved house, but I have kept a shoebox filled with some. I love cranes so much that I have some bone china ones in my living room, and I've have committed to teach Shilo how to make cranes while she's still living in Brisbane.

Images: Have You Met Miss Jones?

7. For over three years I've sponsored a child from Pakistan named Fazila through Plan Australia. Fazila is five years old currently and is still too young to write me letters, but she does sometimes draw pictures. When she was two she sent me a drawing of a rabbit - not a face with big long ears, but a side profile of an actual sitting rabbit. I was very impressed.

Ok, now that's done I need to pass this award on to some others. So, without futher ado, I'd like to award the following bloggers who have made an impact on me for their fabulous and versatile content.

Being Tazim (fabulous blogger from Canada)
Cerebral Excrement (seriously, how can you not love haikus?!)
Olive and Joy (lover of interior design and decorating from the Gold Coast)
REread (local Brisbane recycler of children's books, turning them into brooches and stationery)

Your turn!