Tuesday 16 April 2013

Liebster again!

The lovely Rhia over at Virtual Rhiality has tagged me for the Liebster Award. Like her, I have been tagged before, but the award has evolved somewhat since I received it last time as now I've got to 'fess up facts and ask questions! I' scraping the bottom of the barrel this time having already spilled the beans on these seven things and another ten!

How does the Liebster award now work? I tell you 11 random facts about me, pose 11 questions and then tag 11 bloggers with less than 400 followers (although how I work that out I don't know) to answer those questions. I also have to answer the questions Rhia posed to me!


11 Answers
  1. What is your favourite book or author? Currently Ian Rankin - I'm working my way through all the Rebus books.
  2. What is your favourite type of cake? Chocolate. Sticky gooey chocoolate fudge cake. Mmm...
  3. What's the one thing you love that most people you know hate or dislike? I honestly can't think of anything. Maybe that's because I'm surrounded by people with similar interests in life, or at least people that don't hate the things I love. The closest would be jazz - I like it whereas Father Badger would rather stick pins in his eyes.
  4. Favourite sandwich? Chicken, bacon and avocado.
  5. Favourite childhood toy? Lego. None of the fancy themed stuff you get nowadays, just good old fashioned bricks you can use your imagination with.
  6. Favourite colour? Purple.
  7. If you could invent one thing to make your life easier what would it be? Detachable boobs so I could get someone else to feed Badger Cub but without him losing the comfort factor.
  8. If you could learn one new skill/language/craft etc what would it be? Willpower. That's a skill, isn't it? Willpower to get fit and healthy.
  9. If you were a superhero what would your power/name be? Captain Obsessive. Everything in its place, especially those darned apostrophes.
  10. If  you had a whole day to yourself & loads of money; where would you go? What would you do? I can't believe I'm saying this as I'm not really girly: a really nice spa by myself where I'd get a massage and pampering, lovely food and good magazines.
  11. If you could achieve one thing this year what would it be? Become a shadow of my former self: finish my year of maternity leave in the best physical form of my adult life.
11 Random Facts
  1. I played in my college ladies football team with two years in goal. Ladies' football at that level (i.e. enthusiastic but generally unskilled) is definitely not non-contact, and I once ended up with a boot imprint including studs in my stomach.
  2. During my third year at Durham University I lived yards away from the cathedral, whose bells toll every fifteen minutes 24 hours a day. You don't hear them after a while, unless you're having trouble sleeping in which case you lie awake waiting for each one...
  3. I am a trained breastfeeding peer supporter.
  4. The house where I grew up (which is round the corner from where I live now) still has a dent in the garage door from when I learnt to ride a bike. I was a bit slow learning how to use the brakes.
  5. I work in IT but have no interest in computer games, which is somewhat of a rarity.
  6. I don't do heels. I appreciate many of them as elegant works of art, but I have no intention of putting myself through the torture of wearing them. I even got married in jewel-encrusted birkenstocks.
  7. We've lived in our house for almost six years but have not yet unpacked all of the boxes. I have a suspicion that some of those boxes were also not unpacked in our previous house where we lived for five years. Just think of all the treasure there may be to find!
  8. I hold music grades in five instruments: grade 8 trumpet and tenor horn, grade 4 piano, grade 3 trombone and grade 2 violin. I suspect the violin was the most painful experience for my parents.
  9. I am a confirmed sci fi geek: Star Trek (all series), Battlestar Galactica (old and new), Doctor Who, Babylon Five.
  10. I once built a brick barbeque in the garden. My bricklaying skills are poor and it was more functional with a slight tilt rather than attractive. Thankfully that was in our last house and someone else now gets to look at it.
  11. Baths bore me. They seem like a good idea at the time but then you get in and there's no entertainment and it gets cold. Maybe someone could invent a bath that keeps the water hot?
11 Questions
  1. Marmite - love it or hate it?
  2. Which three famous people or celebrities would you like to spend an evening at the pub with and why (or afternoon at a coffee shop if you'd prefer)?
  3. What sort of cook are you? Do you follow recipes, throw things together or phone for takeaway?
  4. Which living person do you most admire, and why?
  5. What was you favourite childhood television series?
  6. What is your dream holiday destination or activity?
  7. Tea or coffee?
  8. What is your ideal comfort food?
  9. What is your favourite item of jewellery?
  10. Are you girly or a tomboy?
  11. For what are you most grateful?
Time to tag...

I'm going to go with some lovely Tweeps I recently added to my Twitter list:

Wednesday 10 April 2013

A lullaby I used to know

Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall
And down will come baby, cradle and all

This always struck me as a bit of a rubbish lullaby: I'm going to stick you up a tree and leave you there, but when the storm arrives you'll plummet to the ground. Not the reassurance I would want. I guess it's a good thing that baby doesn't understand the words!

I've always sung to Baby Badger, partly as a way of keeping myself sane during any bouts of crying but mainly in the hope it brought her some comfort. As she's grown older we still sing, and she loves it: she has a good sense of rhythm and drinks up lyrics, teaching me all sorts of new songs she's learnt at nursery. Father Badger is a little less inclined to sing after being told at primary school to mime in assembly (an unforgivable thing for a teacher to do) but is coming out of his shell in the comfort of our own home.

Baby Badger's bedtime routine has evolved somewhat. I say routine - the time she goes to bed is anything but regular, but we do try to go through the same tasks in the same order: potty & nappy, pyjamas, teeth, story, YouTube.

Yes... you heard right. YouTube. She's crazy about animals and we found out about six months ago that a couple of BBC Earth clips were a valued reward for getting everything else done. They are generally three to four minutes long and cover a wide variety of animals: orangutans, lions, Deadly 60, Walks With Dinosaurs. Would you believe some of her favourite clips are of big dinosaurs tearing apart little dinosaurs?! We were slightly concerned when we overheard her talking in her sleep one night: "meat eating dinosaurs...".

A new favourite is competing with the animals: a certain Belgian-Australian singer. Every night it's now one "animal" (although that is sometimes a dinosaur), and "The Drawing Man". So, we nominate Gotye as our top lullaby. Enjoy...

This post is inspired by Jennie over at Edspire who is campaigning for The Lullaby Trust after her own tragic loss earlier this year. Please go and show her some love.

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