Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Sunflower Blogger award!

I was nominated for the Sunflower Blogger award by Hamlette from Hamlette's Soliloquy. I'm so grateful for the nomination, but also feel a little bit awkward, because I haven't been blogging as much as I would like the last few months... Hopefully this award will be a good impulse!

The rules:

1. Share 11 facts about yourself
2. Answer questions set by your Nomination Blogger
3. Nominate 11 bloggers
4. Set questions for the nominated bloggers

Here are my 11 facts:

1. My favourite tea is Twining's Lady Grey

2. I plan to grow my hair until the end of my PhD. At the moment it's already longer then I had my hair since I was 4 or so.
3. Related to that, I've recently learned to make in a fishtail braid in my own hair
4. Since a few months I've started learning sword fighting (European medieval style) and I really like it!
5. I have colleagues from 6 different nationalities at the lab where I work, not counting the students who do their internship
6. I'm going for a trip outside of Europe for the first time this year (to Canada in July)
7. I really like sushi. We like to go out for sushi with the PhDs from our lab
8. I love making 1000-piece puzzles. I always have one 'on the go'
9. I love house plants, but for some reason can not keep orchids alive for long...
10. My dream is to one day own a house with some land and have a bunch of animals: ponies, goats, chickens, rabbits, maybe some sheep
11. Interestingly, my favourite literature, music and art eras are all different (literature: 19th century, music: Baroque, art: 15th-16th century)

Here are my answers to Hamlette's questions:

If you had to spend the rest of your life in a different century of Earth's past, where would you spend it?
Does the 20th century count (Even though I was born in it)? As much as I love history, I think if I would have to spend the rest of my life in history, I wouldn't want to go to far back, I would miss inventions like modern medicine etc. too much.

What's your favourite salad dressing? Honey-mustard

What's the worst movie (that you liked least) you saw in 2013? I looked back and I gave multiple movies I watched in 2013 a 2 star rating. But the one I really liked least was probably Conversations with other women

Do you paint your toenails? Only in summer, when I wear sandals a lot. I don't feel like it's a lot of use in winter.

What are your three favourite tv-shows? From the ones I'm watching at the moment: Call the Midwife, Grey's Anatomy and Once Upon a Time. Longtime (and no longer running) favourites are Foyle's War and the BBC 'Farm' series.

Are there any books or movies you own more than one copy of? If so, what are they? Outside of the Bible none. Though I do own more than one copy of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and Mansfield Park adaptations. But technically, they are different movies!

I nominate the next people for this award (it will not be 11, quite a lot of people in my blogging circle have already been nominated for this award recently)

Karen from Books and Chocolate
Ruth from Booktalk & More
Abbi and Katie from Christian Novels
Emily from Classics and Beyond
Sarah from How to watch a movie
Kate from To read or not to read

Here are my questions for you (the rest of you can also answer them in the comments, always nice to get to know you a little better!)

What did you want to be 'when you grew up' when you where around 10 years old?
If you could have any animal in the world, which would you like to own?
What's your favourite type of fruit?
Are you actively trying to live sustainable/environment friendly?
What is your opinion on long-running tv series? Can a series still be good after more than 5 or 8 seasons?
What skill would you like to learn someday?


  1. Congrats, Birdie! Well deserved.

    I still have hope Foyle's War may get more episodes someday. That'd be well worth putting back into production.

    1. Thanks, Rissi!

      I don't know about Foyle's War. On the one hand you can never have enough of a good series, on the other hand I wasn't too impressed with the last series. It's just not the same anymore now the 'trio' is no longer really together.

  2. Thank you, Birdie! What a super surprise! :)

    Let's see to answer a few questions, when I was about 10 I thought I'd grow up to be a librarian.
    Animal-wise - always, always CATS. :)
    Fruit - grapes or watermelon.

    1. Ah, a librarian, already a bookworm at that age? I used to play 'library' with my sister sometimes when I was a kid!

  3. I miss making giant puzzles! Some day my kids will be old enough I can haul out a truly massive one, but for now they're all stuck on the top shelf of the games closet. The puzzles, not the kids ;-)

    1. *snicker*

      I used to make big puzzles with my dad and sometimes sister when I was a teenager. It's good family time!

  4. I completely agree with you about orchids! I even got one of those "3 ice cubes a week" ones and forgot about it until it was beyond repair. Maybe my problem is placement; I always have indoor flowers sitting by the window in my living room, where I don't see them constantly. I enjoyed your post and learning some more about you!

    1. 3 ice cubes a week? I never heard of that. Real ice cubes or do they mean ice cube shapes with water?

      Thanks for the comment!

    2. I've considered orchids cuz I love the Nero Wolfe books and he keeps orchids. I read up a bit on them, even, and what I read said they prefer a moist, warm environment with only partial sun, and that a bathroom counter is the best spot in most people's homes. So thought I'd pass that along.

    3. A, so I should put them in the bathroom! Well, I'm sure my housemates will like that!