Thanks, Aki!

Aki, of 7% solution (one of my favourite blogs) gave me an award!!  Thank you so much!  So, this is the one lovely blog award and the rules are as follows:
 
- Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.
- Post seven things about yourself.
- Then answer the questions listed below.
- Pass the love to 15 bloggers. Let them know they received an award.




I'm really glad that it doesn't require me to pass this on to fashion bloggers because I read lots of cool blogs that aren't exactly fashion-related.  So, to start with:

I've already done seven things about myself and seven things that I'm anal about, so this time, I thought I would do seven things that I absolutely hate.  I've found that this list is quite irrational and arbitrary, and I'd love to hear what goes on yours!


1)  I loathe hand dryers.  I never use them in restrooms, I think they are a noisy, fussy, startling, uncomfortable waste of energy.  

2)  Cockroaches!  (Though I once kept 30 of them as pets for a science experiment.  I nearly died.)



3) Being hassled by any kind of tout.

4) Toilets and sinks that flush or go on automatically.  What's the need for automation when it comes on while you're still on, if you get my drift?  I'm perfectly capable of pressing a button or turning a handle, thank you.

5) People who have no sense of humour, or are easily offended.

6)  Static electricity.  I really really hate it, to the point that I am occasionally frightened by it and walk around jabbing at random things to earth myself, particularly after collecting washing from the dryer.

7)  I've realised that my list of hated things is so long that I had to think long and hard about what should jostle for the final spot.  I'm going to settle on flakiness.  I really really hate being stood up, or being promised things that never happen.

NAME YOUR FAVORITE COLOR: Black and red.

NAME YOUR FAVORITE SONG: Ever?!  I don't have one absolute favourite song, but my favourite song by my favourite band, The Beatles, is Girl.

NAME YOUR FAVORITE DESSERT: A really good banoffee pie.

WHAT PISSES YOU OFF: People being judgemental.

WHEN YOU ARE UPSET, YOU...: I cry and talk to myself. 

YOUR FAVORITE PET: I've had something like countless fish, eight hamsters, two budgies, a cat, a dog and a bat.  It would be sort of unfair to say in writing and make official which of these is my favourite, but if you've been following this blog in any small way, you'll know.

BLACK OR WHITE: Black!

YOUR BIGGEST FEAR: Uncertainty, or a lack of control.

MY BEST FEATURE:  I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

EVERYDAY ATTITUDE: Um, anxiously optimistic.

WHAT IS PERFECTION: I hate the word perfection.  Nothing in life is perfect.  I prefer happiness.

GUILTY PLEASURE: I was going to say something NSFW, but I'll settle for bingeing on chocolate instead.

Nominees:
1) Season's Ingredients
2) Pieces of Scookys
3) Starbucks and a Girl
4) A Plus B in the Sea
5) Sache e Bombom
6) Solo Lisa
7)  Lexy!
8) Soy Confessions
9) Dressing the Higgenbottom
10) Qin at the Disco
11) Grace
12) The Cat Hag
13) Miss Dorothy
14) I accidentally spent my wages in Topshop
15) Tori!


I'm curious to know all your answers!

I am?! THANK YOU!

Thank you so much, Be!  Be, over at Tripping Over Stars gave me this blog award and I'm really touched... We read each other's blogs and comment regularly and I was really surprised that she chose me to pass this award to.  Do check out her blog, it's not exactly fashion centric, but it's refreshing and funny and I love it!

Special thanks also to Mimi at Soy Confessions, from whence this award originated.  She has a great fashion blog, very quirky and all her, and I love reading it and getting her very sweet comments. 

So as most awards usually do, this one came with a set of questions, so I'll answer it just in case all four of you readers are interested :P  (I totally did pat my back after reading the award, by the way.)

Cat or Dog?

I'm actually both a cat and a dog person, the same way I drink equal amounts of coffee and tea.  I don't actually understand how people can be so polarised over this - I once had both a cat and a dog at the same time and I can tell you they're both very lovable animals, and if I could, I would have a menagerie of both.


True Love or the Ability to Live Forever?

Definitely true love.  Who wants to live forever?  (If your answer is anything to do with Twilight, please keep it to yourself.)



Being Blind or Deaf?

This is SUCH a hard question, obviously because the one thing you lose with deafness is music and it's such a huge part of my life.  To not be able to enjoy a concert or play the piano again would be devastating, but of course, with blindness, I think you lose a lot more independence and mobility.  Can I cop out and say neither?  Or say blindness but with the proviso that I became a Stevie Wonder-like musical genius after?

No TV or no Computer?

Chuh, easy peasy.  No TV.  I've already not had a TV for nine or so months because the TV license in UCK is so damn expensive.

2 Hours of Sleep or 48 Hours of Sleep?

Two hours, definitely.  I have a massive problem in that I like to sleep, but anything longer than 9 straight hours of lying down and my back starts to hurt like blue murder.  I know, I don't understand it either.

No Makeup or No Breakfast?

No makeup, obvs.  I love love love breakfast and would kill the person who made me give it up.

Cold Shower or no Shower?

Okay, so, let me tell you a story.  Back in that horrendous time of my life called Winter, I'd just finished playing a sweaty game of badminton and came back to fill up the bathtub, only to find that the water heater wasn't working.  The water was like six degrees cold, and I tried to put my foot in but almost died.

So, and this is painful for me to admit, I wiped myself down with moist towelettes and slept on the floor so as not to dirty the bed.  In the morning, I slunk over to the sports centre feeling very angry and miserable to use the shower there.  I didn't sleep too well either.

So no shower, but only for a short while.  Hey, I'm from Singapore.  I can't take anything below scalding.

To Blog…or not to Blog?

Um, I would say yes?


As always, awards are made to be passed on, so I'm passing them on to people whose answers I would love to hear (because I read them regularly):

Grace at http://heartbrokenstorm.blogspot.com/
Shriya at http://seasonsingredients.wordpress.com/
Katherine at http://styleidoscope.blogspot.com/
Nav at http://navlandstyle.blogspot.com/
Camille at http://sacheebombom.blogspot.com/
Lea at http://prettyprudent.blogspot.com/

Can't wait to read all your answers!

Thank you MIXXEDCULTURE!

Thank you so much!  She gave me this award a couple of days ago, and I'm so excited!  So:

To Do Now:

Thank the person who gave you the award and link him/her on your blog:

MIXXEDCULTURE

 

She's one of the permanent links in my bookmarks list.  Please check out her blog, she does a wonderful mix of her own photos and fashion pictures from other sources and the blog is cute, girly and a little bit dreamy, all things I absolutely love in a blog.  She's also wonderful with replying comments, so please go ahead and leave one!

List 7 things about you:

I did seven things about me recently and so I thought I would do something a little different.  Here's seven things I'm really obsessive about (hold on to your horses, it's a long list):

1)  My PB and J sandwiches.  I am obsessed with PB and J and I can eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a late night snack, but always, ALWAYS in the same format.  Open-faced wholegrain bread toasted to nearly burnt, a thick smear of chunky peanut butter so you can't see the bread below and the thinnest smearing of a tart jam (think blackcurrant or raspberry) so that I can see right past the jam to the PB.  No sloppy jam for me!  And a roughly 1/2 cm margin round the edge of the toast so nothing drips over.  I know, I'm really easy, right?

 

2)  Tomatoes.  I loathe raw tomatoes and obsessively check every salad and sandwich for them.  Still they're quite soft and pulpy and leave behind lots of traces, so for someone who hates tomatoes, I eat an awful lot of them.  (I ate like half a one just last week.  Hah.  "Half a one".  What kind of English is that?!)

 

3)  Lip balm.  At least four or five times a day and always right before I go to bed.

4)  The quality of my notebooks and pens.  I'm REALLY obsessive about my stationery and sometimes, when people try to sneak off with one of my special pens that I can't buy here, I try really really hard to be calm and rational and not all OCD freak on them, but I ain't gonna lie, it's hard.

5)  Keeping my windows open at least half the day for fresh air, even in the dead of winter.

6) My handwriting.  I took AGES to get my handwriting as neat as it is.  I'm not a naturally neat person so my handwriting used to be this ugly scrawl, but my love of journalling made me whittle it into a small, neat, cramped hand over six or seven years.  I still scribble when I write quickly so I don't bother to police it in class and such, but in my diaries or journals... well, this is really horrendously embarassing, but I've been known to stop using a diary if the neatness of a single post displeases me.  (Do I sound like the Queen or what?!  WE ARE NOT AMUSED!  Or, I am, but WE aren't.)

7)  Always, always, always double spaces after a full stop.  Even though Facebook, this blog and chat windows automatically "correct" it.  Always.

Give the Award to 5 people:

My favourite part!  There are people I've been dying to give awards to but couldn't because they weren't exactly fashion bloggers.  Well, watch me go now!  These five people are some of the most friendly people I've had the fortune to meet on the Interwebs (one in real life) and I love reading all of them!

1)  My friend Shriya over at Season's Ingredients.  Her food blog is fun and it's interesting because you get to see how she works around the food and money restraints of living in a hostel.  Plus, she has agreed to do a chunky peanut butter comparison for me soon.  YAY!

2)  Ai from Candy Apples.  She makes bread, she writes and she takes photos of all kinds of interesting things about her life in Japan from meals to holidays and although I'm not always fond of reading about people's everyday lives, every single one of Ai's posts fascinates me!  Something about the presentation, perhaps?

3)  Jenni from Stop Making Sense.  Jenni has been uber friendly since the first time I met her on the Interwebs, she's one of those people who replies every comment!  Plus her blog is beautiful, with beautiful photos in lovely locations and outfits and will you LOOK at her gorgeous hair?!

4)  Zarna at Zarna's Runway.  Zarna's runway is one of the first fashion blogs I ever read, back when she was virtually unknown and now she has tons and tons of readers.  I LOVE the pictures on her blog.  She dresses well, but you can also tell that she's innately stylish! 

5)  Qin from Qin at the Disco.  Qin, my fellow countryman, marches to the beat of her own drum.  Her style and outfits are so unique and so her and I hugely respect that in any personal style blogger, that they're not just copying whatever comes out of magazines.  Strongly recommended.

I hope you guys enjoy my recommendations, and thank you again, MIXXEDCULTURE!!  <3

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Random things about me:

1)  I am the only person I know who actually likes spoilers (unless I'm reading a short story or watching a movie with an intentional twist).  If someone is in danger, or on the verge of dying, I must know how it pans out or I can't concentrate.  I paused Studio 60 two episodes before the finale to Wikipedia the fate of the characters and I flipped ahead in the Knife of Never Letting Go to check if the dog died.

2)  I don't wear any make-up, ever.  The last time I wore slap was in the school choir and it killed all my urges to ever wear it again.

3)  I love eating raw lemons.  Sometimes, I'll sit in front of the TV with nothing but a lemon and a knife. 

4)  One of my childhood ambitions was to be a teacher.  I told everyone it was because I liked children.  In reality, it was because I loved the "taktak" sound the chalk made on the chalkboard.

5)  I have a very strong aversion to Cadbury's chocolate because it doesn't taste like "chocolate" to me.  I am currently situated about an hour from the REAL ORIGINAL Cadbury factory and village, and have not experienced the urge to visit it in the least (although I'm sure we'll all go at some point). 

6)  My favourite curse word is "balls".  I came home from kindergarten and said it to my mother when I was four, and I've been saying it even since.

7)  Seven is my favourite number.

YOUR TURN!  Tell me something weird about you in the comments, or feel free to link a post about yourselves!