memememememe!

No, it's not the Pontipines calling, although In the Night Garden is still high on the Cubling agenda. Metropolitan Mum kindly gave me the meme award. This award makes me chuckle because I remember days when I just couldn't figure out what a meme was, and try google it, you'll know why I got a tad confused. Anyway, many thanks MM for the award!!!

Well, it's a proper meme that's for sure, because what I've got to do is list seven personality traits of myself and award seven fellow bloggers that deserve recognition for the personalities that they share with the blogging world.

Do I have 7 personality traits? Let's see.

1. I'm very shy. To a silly and annoying extent. So much so that I can hardly remember ever speaking to a stranger before s/he spoke to me. And because of this, I've challenged myself to just do it. Which I did last weekend and failed to maintain a conversation for more than 5 minutes. At least I tried! It also means that I often crumble when having to speak in public. I really wish I could control my nerves better. In fact, I'd love to be able to speak like Obama. Ok, maybe asking for a bit much. I do have a decent degree of self confidence, so I really don't know why this shyness is still my constant companion.

2. I'm thrifty. So much so that you'll see me turn off the heating when it's rather cold. Or take children's clothes: so far all I ever bought apart from shoes came from NCT sales or similar. I love browsing charity shops and even in supermarkets will shop in the "offers" aisle first. I'm sure though that this trait must have been bestowed upon me by my mother whose thrift was even more extreme than mine.

3. I like to get things done and tick boxes, even if they're mental ones. It's just such a satisfying and motivating feeling. It's always more important to me to get something done and dusted, rather than paying attention to detail. Or rather, I try to pay attention to detail then get bored or impatient. Still, hopefully that doesn't equate to being sloppy...

4. I'm a rubbish lier. Honestly. There's a card game which we used to play in the student residence and I always lost it because people could spot when I was lying. Eventually I discovered that I was quite good at pretending to lie though which helped a bit.

5. I find it hard making decisions. Usually I look at things from all possible sides, talk to myself (!), talk to friends, go the issue over again and again until I go in circles and still can't quite commit myself to one side or another. I'm also easily swayed by good arguments and sometimes suprise myself at how quickly I can change opinion. Within reason of course.

6. I'm a people person in a strange kind of way. I need people around me and can't stand loneliness, but I don't have to constantly interact with people. To put it another way - people see me as quiet and on the introverted side, while I'm actually extroverted in the sense that I love taking part in discussions, chat, and to socialise, even if I don't take an active role in each of these activities.

7. I have a very strong sense of justice and can get very agitated, angry and even emotional when presented with an injustice. This is what got me interested in human rights and join Amnesty International aged 17, but I could never be bothered with the nitty-gritty stuff of law (see number 3) so didn't go down the route of studying law (and glad I didn't). So here's my current hobby horse of injustice: in the UK, people on low incomes are taxed HIGHER than those on high incomes in relation to percentage of their income. So wealth is distributed from poor to rich.

As to passing on the award, I'm quite keen to pass it to newly discovered blogs rather than the usual suspects. Which is why this award took it's time to be passed on, what with recovering from trips to England (do hangovers last longer as I get older?), running after Cubling for some extra days this week, having lovely visitors from Germany, and above all seeing the Boss himself play Hampden Park (can you hear me humming?). Leaving not an awful lot of time to explore new blogs, I hardly keep on top of reading my existing reader subscriptions.

Clairwil, well, she's not exactly a newly discovered one but one of the blogs I've been following the longest, and she currently has set an ambitious and fabulous 10,000 bulb challenge as part of her Guerilla Gardening activities. Do stop by her fabulous blog and consider donating bulbs to make a derilict part of Glasgow flower next spring.

Midwife Muse, again, I've been following her for quite some time. Her posts are extremely informative and really give an insight in how midwives are expected to square the circle and how difficult it is to provide the care they wish to give with ever reduced resources and increased paperwork. I admire her for not giving in and continuing to put pregnant women and their unborn children first in spite of the pressures and the toll it takes on her life.

Muddling Along Mummy who is stoically coping with a very difficult pregnancy and still manages to publish thought provoking posts. I can only imagine how hard this time must be and so hope that everything will be alright in the end.

Noble Savage - what can I say, she is an amazing blogger, with fabulous post which fuel discussions for days.

Piglet: a truly new discovered blog will take you across the pond, a blog that I find very entertaining.

Wife in the North: I'm running out of things to say because Cubling is insisting to do stickers, but I really enjoy this blog too, otherwise wouldn't nominate it, would I now?

And no 7 I leave for any reader not yet nominated for this award to self nominate (let me know in the comment box). I'm off to do stickers. See ya.