Pay it forward-passing on a little love

I arrived home from my Ethiopian adventure to find that a quiet but faithful reader of mine awarded my blog a sweet award. 

Comments on posts are like little gifts in the mail.  Awards are even better! 

Barbara (who gave me the little award) writes at Tanzania 5.0 about her life in Tanzania and travels in other parts of Africa. She is now back in the States, but Africa is obviously still in her heart. 

As I am not really ready to write about the holidays or recap on the year, but want to spend my last day of 2011 arranging snapdragons in vases and having a walk in the sunshine, I thought I would pass on this sweet award. It also might introduce you to a couple of new blogs that I read. 

Basically, this little award is only given to blogs with under 200 readers (phew...I made the cut!!!) and has these stipulations:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you. 
2. Reveal your 5 blogger picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog. 
4. Hope that the people you have sent the award to will forward it to their favorite bloggers.

So...my awards go to...

The Times of Miranda- Miranda doesn’t blog often, but her writing and photos of life in small town Arusha, Tanzania, are beautiful.  I also love reading the excerpts she posts from her grandfather’s diaries.  She retells stories from the real Africa, not the shiny, new one that I live in.

Seedling- Mallory is so creative. Her photos and snippets of life, to me, look beautiful. She talks of her real life in New Jersey, not just the perfect one most bloggers try to capture. She writes about her business ventures, her growing family and her new puppy Autumn; the later always makes me giggle.

Long Story Short- I have been reading Katie’s blog for a little while now. Even though I think she mostly writes for her friends and family (in that sense I feel a bit like I am sneakily reading someone’s diary). She lives in New York and her happiness is contagious, she makes me laugh out loud. I am not sure if she has more than 200 readers though-she probably does as her blog is very sweet.

Rock the Kasbah- a blog by The Loerzels, an American expat family that live in Morocco. A blog full of their African Adventures.  A recent post of hers was about the family receiving a love package from ‘Santa’ – full of cereal and other little home comforts. It made me smile, as I know exactly how that feels!

and

.heart to heart. - Hannah is, like me, a young teacher. She lives in the States and writes about hiking, running and eating...I think we would get on!!  :)

I must  mention Mud’ s blog; Not Enough Mud, which I read faithfully, and who (surprisingly) has less than 200 readers...why, she is fabulous!? I am always at the edge of my seat (or bed) reading about her adventures. Anyhow, I couldn’t pass on the award to Mud though, as Barbara also passed it on to her.  :)

I’m choosing to have a quiet Hogmanay this year. I want to awake in 2012 feeling fresh  and  healthy  and ready for the adventures that lie ahead. Hope you enjoy your celebrations, whatever you are doing. 

xx

Some little things

Nairobi seems to be becoming the hub of my little ex-pat world. Friends are having job interviews, passing through, popping over for work –all great for me. My life here now seems more connected to my previous life in my recent past, the one where I lived in Uganda!

Uganda-where, I remember, the sun always shone (except at 4 pm on Tuesdays for Frisbee, or on the Saturday's I was free to lie by the pool!). Here in Nairobi, we have had an unusual amount of rain recently (I have heard this is quite late for the rain) and everyone at the 'w' place is getting a bit sick of wet plays and soggy fields. So it is good to remember the little things; the things that make me smile in Nairobi, even when it is raining!

These are a few of the little things on my list today:

• Pouring fresh milk from a carton. No more fiddly plastic bags of milk or long life for me!
• Kellogg's that stays fresh in a box, not stale, but crunchy and crispy.  I can also buy Dorset's Cereal too...for a treat!
• Having my shopping packed into boxes and not one item per bag (if I forget my re-usable ones)-this is something that insanely annoyed me when I lived in Kuwait! Although having your shopping packed and taken to your car is always nice!
• The sweet and kind local staff at school. They are so flattering and funny. I have to write a post all on its own for this...but I will share one example; A group of  teaching assistants were talking about me, then built up the courage to ask me if I used to be a model! Yeah they did! Once I had finished coughing-up the tea I was drinking, to ask if they could explain...one of the ladies said,  "I think it because of  the way you walk." Mmmm,ok! Sounds like it should be a compliment, so I'll have it!
• The fact that I have still not tried all the cafes, bars and restaurants in my area, let alone Nairobi - and probably will never get through them all, as there are sooo many (good!) ones!
• I have worn my Chie Mihara boots lots since my arrival. Yep, they were totally worth the *** Euros I spent on them!!!
• Getting parcels without having to go to the post office to collect them (I will try to avoid that experience from now on!). A kind driver at the 'w' place now picks up my parcels and today I recieved girly gifts from my lovely friend Sara (that just got engaged!!!congratulations again Sara and Toby!)-of Scottish soap, soothing face masks and more!
• The fact that,even though there are payment machines for parking (in most places), there is usually still someone employed to stand by the machine and press the button for you, or give you the ticket from the machine at the barriers. Love it!
 

 

(PS- I watched 127 Hours last night on DVD and I keep thinking, 'Well, he had to cut his own arm off! "  Life is not tough.)