2018 Awards

With it being New Years’ Eve, I thought that I would announce my return to WordPress with a 2018 Awards post.

I thought that a post would be a better idea than organising a formal ceremony as I suspect few people would want to attend. Also, I am too tight to hire a venue and lay on catering.

Most disappointing social media presence award

Well, I need to present this award to myself.

At one time I was blog posting weekly and throwing in extra Tweets for good measure. This year has been quite pathetic.

I don’t intend to defend this award during 2019 so I will invite certain others to do their utmost to win this award next year. I give every encouragement to Donald Trump and Piers Morgan to lead the chase for this accolade in the New Year. (Please guys, please!)

Worst country to be a girl award

Unfortunately, many countries continue to clamour for this award.

There continues to be a depressingly high number of countries where the lot of being born a girl is a likely life of neglect and abuse unless you are born into a rich family or your parents believe in fighting for your rights. Sometimes, even this is not enough.

The unfortunate irony of war within countries such as Yemen is that the lot of boys is more equal to the lot of girls in that both have an equal chance of a short and suffering life.

This is all a little depressing, so let’s listen to some music…

Movie action hero award

Chloë Grace Moretz’s turn as Mindy MacReady aka Hit-Girl in the 2010 movie Kick-Ass is a great nomination for this award should it be awarded only once every decade.

However, there are plenty of deserving cases for 2018 that aren’t in the movies.

I am plumping for Trash Girl this year. That is, Trash Girl aka Nadia Sparkes.

The ‘how on Earth do I live in the same country as these people’ award

I realised a long time ago that there are a number of my fellow country people in Britain who are not quite the full packet in the common sense stakes, so to speak.

However, this year demonstrated how even I had underestimated how inept a number of my country folk are.

KFC decided to ditch Bidvest and use DHL to distribute their chicken to their outlets. They didn’t check how many depots DHL had and this led to most of their branches running out of chicken in February during the first week of DHL’s contract.

Well, that was funny until it was headline news how people seemed to be struggling with KFC not selling chicken. Going to another fast food outlet or even heating some chicken up at home seemed to be beyond some people.

Best glass of whisky of the year award

About a month ago, I really enjoyed an evening out with an old friend fuelled by some Jameson Irish Whiskey.

My Christmas Eve tradition of a shot of whisky whilst listening to Arcangelo Corelli’s Christmas Concerto led to my first glass of Glen Keith Scotch. Interesting drop of stuff.

Both of these share the 2018 award.

Best cultural misappropriation award

Whenever I enjoy a cup of tea in the afternoon I think of Catherine of Braganza who, as the wife of Charles II, brought the practice to England from Portugal.

In further irony, my wife’s parents hail from St Helena, an island originally discovered by Portugal and now a British dependency.

…and now for 2019

These awards hopefully get us all in the mood for 2019 and more noise from me.

Anyway, a great new year to you all.

The three day quote challenge – the conclusion

Hello everyone.  Today ends my little contribution to the three day quote challenge.  Thank you again to Emz for nominating me.

And please remember that I’ve nominated you all for this challenge.  If you feel like doing it let me know in the comments to this post as I am very eager to see more quotes.

The challenge has a simple set of rules.  For three consecutive days, the challenge nominee posts one, two or three quotes.  Also, with each of these posts, the nominee nominates three other bloggers – although, me being me I’m nominating all of the blogs that I follow.

I have posted three quotes each day, the third of which is one that has made me smile or laugh when I first heard it.

Some may think it odd for a Christian to quote from a rival religion but I’ve always taken pride in listening to and accepting ideas not emanating from my own faith.  My first quote proves the wisdom of this goal, I believe.  It’s a call to action to not only improve your own life but also to improve the world around you.

“If you don’t fight for what you want; don’t cry for what you lost.” – The Bhagvad Gita

Fight for the rights and the goals of yourselves and others before it no longer becomes a possibility in the foreseeable future.

If you don’t fight for what you want; don’t cry for what you lost – The Bhagvad Gita

My second quote is from Jim Elliot.  The quote is – “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”  You cannot keep your spare time, for example.  It slips away minute by minute.  Just think what you could use that spare time to achieve.

He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose – Jim Elliot

And now, the final quote.  By now you know that I will end with a quote from a strong-willed (or legendarily difficult) Hollywood actress who started to grace our silver screens in those days of black and white talkies.

Lauren Bacall passed away less than two years ago and her quote clearly shows how she was being made to suffer modern life just like the rest of us.  My apologies to any fans of Twilight out there but I have to admit that I’m with Lauren Bacall on this one.

She said of the movie Twilight, “my granddaughter made me watch it, she said it was the greatest vampire film ever.”  Hmm, maybe that is too bold a claim to put to such a successful and vastly experienced actress as her grandmother.

“After the ‘film’ was over I wanted to smack her across her head with my shoe.”

Lauren Bacall thought of her legacy, however, and so pursued a different action.  “I gave her a DVD of Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece Nosferatu and told her , ‘Now that’s a vampire film!”

A great final word.  Modern incarnations of things are not always the best.  Many modern houses crumble to the ground or need constant maintenance, but the world is littered with castles and pyramids still standing after centuries.

Lauren Bacall quote on her granddaughter making her watch Twilight – I wanted to smack her across the head with my shoe…instead I gave her a DVD of Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece Nosferatu

 

Day two of the three day quote challenge

Hello again, y’all!  Today is the second instalment of my three day quote challenge which I started in yesterday’s post.

To recap, I have been nominated for this challenge by that superb blogger Emz.

The challenge has a simple set of rules.  For three consecutive days, the challenge nominee posts one, two or three quotes.  Also, with each of these posts, the nominee nominates three other bloggers – although, me being me I’m nominating all of the blogs that I follow.

I will be posting three quotes each day, the third of which is one that made me smile or laugh on first hearing it.

You may also note that the amusing quotes each day are all by strong-willed actresses who were all first finding fame in the days of black and white Hollywood movies.  I write ‘strong-willed’ but I could also use the words ‘legendarily difficult’ instead of ‘strong-willed’ in that previous sentence.  I’ll leave you all to do the psychoanalysis of me from that!

My first quote today is one that I may have previously touched upon when replying to other people’s blog posts.  It’s hard to remember it and to believe it, but you will often eventually receive a greater reward than that of which you are originally asked for yourself.

Sometimes God doesn’t give you what you think you want, not because you don’t deserve it, but because you deserve better

Amen to such blessings from heaven that exceed what was originally asked.

I couldn’t find the author of this first quote, nor for my next one – “It’s hard to wait around for something that you know might never happen; but it’s harder to give up when you know it’s everything you want”

It’s hard to wait around for something that you know might never happen; but it’s harder to give up when you know it’s everything you want

This second quote is one idiom that I have found myself pondering in recent times.

My third quote is by the legendary actress Bette Davis.  Fellow actress Claudette Colbert once made a statement concerning Bette Davis which remains a rather depressing indictment of Hollywood in the first half of the Twentieth Century.  I am unaware of the circumstances of Colbert’s statement, so can only guess whether or not it was meant as a compliment.  Claudette Colbert once said, “The Casting Couch?  There’s only one of us who ever made it to stardom without it, and that was Bette Davis”.

Anyway, my final quote is not from Claudette Colbert, it’s from Bette Davis.

Imagine the scene that she describes…Everyone around her is criticising those women who end up having multiple marriages.  At least Bette Davis found the words to defend her own reputation.

“I myself was guilty of four husbands,” she explained.  “I finally leaned forward and squeaked, ‘But one died!'”

Bette Davis quote

Day one of the three day quote challenge

Hello all.  My wonderful WordPress friend Eddie Mae, or Emz, has nominated me for the three day quote challenge.

The challenge has a simple set of rules.  For three consecutive days, the challenge nominee posts one, two or three quotes.  Also, with each of these posts, the nominee nominates three other bloggers.

Hmmm.  I have stopped nominating individual blogs when accepting awards.  The reason being that I would love to nominate all of the blogs I follow for each award that I receive.  I don’t want for anyone to miss out so I am nominating every one of the blogs that I follow.

Please, if I follow you, consider this post a nomination for you to accept the three day challenge.  Let me know if you take up the challenge.

So, my three quotes today:

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing – Edmund Burke

This quote is so true.  If everyone ignores the wrong doing around them then…well…nothing will ever change.  Things have only changed when bystanders have stood up for what is right.

The pen is mightier than the sword – Edward Bulwer-Lytton

When I wrote for the Amnesty International Write For Rights campaign last year, I wrote a slogan on a piece of paper which gave me the incentive to keep writing.  I wrote “Más puede la pluma que la espada” which is Spanish for the pen is mightier than the sword.

I looked up this quote online earlier today as I was curious where this idiom came from.  I found the above concerning its origins and took a screengrab with Shutter.

I will be posting three quotes for each of these three days, the third of which will be a quote that has made me laugh when I first heard it.

The third quote today is one that has made me laugh several times – in fact, nearly every time that I imagine the situation.

Actress Tallulah Bankhead was quite a headstrong character and said the following when meeting up with a previous lover at a party.  Can you imagine the gentleman’s reaction when she said this to him having not seen her since she had left him without warning a few years previously?

Yes, she said, “I thought I told you to wait in the car”.

(On seeing a former lover for the first time in years) I thought I told you to wait in the car – Tallulah Bankhead

Blogger Recognition Award

I’ve been nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award by a great blogger who goes by the nickname of Chape.  He’s a personal fitness trainer and is a respectful and friendly member of the WordPress community. I am in awe of his incredible mental energy and his genuine interest in everyone that he interacts with on WordPress, Twitter and his YouTube channel. Do yourself a favour and visit his blog.

So, the rules of the Blogger Recognition Award:

1. Write a post to show your award.
   • Check – this is it.
2. Give a brief story of how your blog started.
   • Will do. See below.
3. Give two advice to new bloggers.
   • Yep, I’m about to do that, too!
4. Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
   • Cheers, Chape.
5. Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.
   • If I receive an award I nominate all of my WordPress friends. So, it would make me very happy if all of you would please take this as a nomination from me.

So, how did this blog start?  Well, I used to blog at MyOpera until it sadly closed.  MyOpera let us export our blogs to other platforms including WordPress and I preserved my former MyOpera blog here.  I hoped to make contact with interesting people around the globe and that has been happening ever since I started.

A number of my friends are also former MyOpera bloggers a few of whom rarely blog on WordPress 😦

And, my two little nuggets of advice for new bloggers?

Be polite and friendly to everyone else that you meet online.  You will come across a variety of opinions and lifestyles on any blogging platform which may be contrary to yours.  Don’t be intolerant of these other lifestyles unless this lifestyle is interfering with other people.  Trolling is the pastime of the inadequate.

My other piece of advice is to blog as regularly as you are comfortably able to, and also to visit and comment on the blogs of your blogging friends.  I aim to blog on WordPress once per week and I try to comment on every post of the blogs that I follow.