You beauty! (The Beautiful Blogger Award)

Continuing the awards catch up, I have been nominated twice in the last month for the Beautiful Blogger Award, once by Literary Tiger from The Tiger’s Eye, and the other time by Heather from Bitsnbooks. If you haven’t been to these two lovely ladies’ blogs, you’re missing out, so hop over there now!

Thank you both so much for the nomination, it means the world to me that you would think so highly of my blog.

Now, as always, there are rules for this award, but as I am finding with a lot of awards, they seem to be changing depending on where I am reading. As usual, you’re supposed to link it back to the givers of the award, as well as passing it on to other bloggers, but in some cases this is all you have to do, whereas others have specified that you’re supposed to reveal things about yourself. So I’m going to twist it for my own purposes, and reveal five things I think are beautiful in the world.

Five beautiful things:

1. The sound of the ocean. There is something infinitely beautiful about that sound, something which reaches into the very depths of our souls, and which stirs us in powerful ways. While we might often return from the beach covered in sand and grit and needing to wash desperately, I always find myself feeling cleansed in other ways from a good trip to the beach. I think I would struggle living too far away from a coastline, no matter where in the world I live in the future.
2. Waking up before the sun on a day off. Don’t get me wrong, I love sleeping in, and I struggle to function in the mornings without my coffee. As we head into winter here in Australia, I am naturally waking up before the sun most days anyway for work, and some mornings I strongly dislike this fact. But every now and then, I like to wake up just as early on a day off as well – enjoy the start of the day, relaxing, and making the most of the whole day. You soon forget about the sleep-in once you’re enjoying the morning.
3. The first few moments of starting a new book. You hold it in your hands (a real book), breathe in its smell, as your mind whirls with the possibilities contained within. The excitement that I feel when I start a new book is an amazing sensation, incomparable to much else in life. It’s also amazing when you can’t put the darn thing down!
4. The aroma of coffee permeating the air in a cafe. This smell alone perks me up, and I do that thing where I stop where I am, close my eyes, and take a deep breath, before letting out a resounding “ahhh.”
5. Relaxing with family and friends. Yes, I know this is somewhat predictable. I’m at a point in my life where I essentially live alone, and am quite busy most of the time. I also am vaguely aware that the next few years of my life will no doubt bring profound change to my life. With all this in mind, lately I have really been enjoying just spending time with my family and my friends – it doesn’t matter what we are doing, it’s just being with them that counts.

And now for some beautiful blogs:

mywithershins

Perfect Nostalgia

J. Keller Ford, Young Adult Author

A. J. Jenner

embracingthegeek

Arab Writer Chick

easyondeyes

These blogs are all beautiful, and of course they are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to beautiful blogs – there are many I didn’t mention (the list could have been many times longer), and all the blogs I have mentioned before in awards posts (I generally try and mention different ones each time to try and share the blog love) are also beautiful in their own ways! So if you want more ideas for blogs worth checking out, have a look at the posts in my Awards category from the right-hand menu.

Now, time to crawl into bed with a cup of tea and a good book.

Tea for one (dedicated to tea)

Last week I wrote a blog post dedicated to my love of coffee, showing off some of my favourite coffee mugs. After visiting my local tea shop, Montea Cristo (I love a good pun in a shop name), I thought I should write a post dedicated to tea, as well, considering tea accompanies my reading and writing just as often as coffee.

I only have one main teapot I use, although I plan to get others. I have some photos of that tea set (do you know how hard it is to find a tea set that isn’t overly feminine?), and I also have some close up shots (not necessarily good photos, though) of some of the different teas I bought on the weekend, all with the usual explanations/rambling.

This is my awesome oriental teapot. I love the colour scheme – that mix of orange and black just caught my attention. I have no idea what it says, by the way.

The teacups that came with the teapot. They’re small and designed for green teas – the teapot can probably fill five of these cups, despite only holding about half a litre. I am yet to use all four at once, though I hope to one day. Ambitious of me, I know.

This is called Lychee Magic Green Tea, and the only thing better than the smell of it is the taste. It contains sencha green tea, lychee and apple pieces, rose petals, blue cornflowers and calendula, and tastes of both lychees and green tea in equal measure. If you love the taste of lychees (and if you’ve never tried them, you must), you will probably enjoy this.

These odd looking balls are known as Buddha’s Tears, or Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls. They are hand rolled green and white tea, with a strong jasmine aroma. Rather than measuring these out by spoonfuls, you actually measure them out by pearls – 5 for each cup of water – and they unfurl as they infuse the water (so if you happen to have a clear teapot, you can watch this happen). This tea tastes amazing, but it comes at a price – about $400 (Australian) a kilogram, so something to buy in small amounts.

This is Mountain Top Oolong tea. Don’t be fooled by its odd appearance – this is in fact my favourite kind of tea. With hand rolled dragon pearls, this tea is grown in a cold mountainous climate, and has a superbly smooth and fresh taste, making it one of the most relaxing green teas around. It is about twice the price of many other teas, but is completely worth the extra money. There are other oolong teas, but this one is my favourite out of them all. Try it for yourself and you’ll see why.

One thing I have learned about tea, since I started my little love affair with it over the last few years, is that you should not use boiling water for green and white teas, but rather water at around 80 degrees celcius (or 176 degrees fahrenheit if I just did my maths correctly (I could check this properly, but oh well)). An easy way to achieve this is to pour boiling water into the empty teapot, and leave it covered for 5 minutes before placing the tea into the water. I don’t think this is as important with black teas, though. And I’m not entirely sure with herbal teas.

Anyway, I’m off to make a cup of tea and curl up with a good book, I think.

Are you a tea drinker? What kinds of tea do you like to drink?

For the love of reading – a bit of a fun exercise

This blog post is actually a bit of a game, which I am hoping will turn into something quite fun. The idea comes from two other blogs, from Susan’s blog at mywithershins and before that from Jenny’s blog at J. Keller Ford, and is basically a bit of fun to honour the love of reading, something that I suspect a fair majority of my followers and readers share.

All you have to do is the following:

• Grab the book closest to you. Closest as in physically, not emotionally or intellectually. So not your favourite, or the funniest or most clever, just whatever book it happens to be (there’s no judgement on whatever it happens to be, I promise).
• Open it up to page 60.
• Find the sixth sentence on that page.
• Post this sentence in the comments section below this post. For a bit of fun, don’t divulge what book this sentence is from, but rather let’s see if anybody else can guess what book the quote comes from. On this note, feel free to comment on each others comments if you think you know!

If you want to keep this going by putting it up on your own blog, feel free to do so, but make sure you link back to Susan and Jenny for both starting this and spreading it in the first place.

My quote is this:

“It is a triumph of self-control to see a man whipped until the muscles of his back show white and glistening through the cuts and to give no sign of pity or anger or interest.”

This book was the closest to me simply because it was sitting on the edge of the shelf in front of other books. I will give you all a clue – it is quite a well known book, by a very well known author. I will post the answer to this in exactly a week’s time, as an update to this post – so check back on this actual post next weekend to find out how close you were, and who, if anyone, was on the right track.

Now readers, it’s your turn! Remember, just write the quote in the comments below, and don’t include the book it’s from. And feel free to guess other people’s quotes.

Have fun!

The Inspiring Blog Award (including more random mini-stories about me)

I have been inundated with beautiful people nominating me for various awards over the past month or two, and have several awards posts that I have been meaning to write for far too long, so I shall begin here with this, The Inspiring Blog Award.

I have been nominated for this by two people (I think it’s two…if I forget to mention you on any of these awards posts please feel free to remind me – I am a bit forgetful and some of the nomination comments are in different posts so I get confused). I have been nominated by Arab Writer Chick from her blog of the same name, and nymuse88 from Oh My Muse! - both these blogs are awesome, full of fascinating insights into literature, writing, poetry, music and more, so if you haven’t come across these blogs before please do check them out, as they certainly inspire me!

As usual there are some rules to this award – I have to link back to those who gave it to me, then provide seven facts about myself, before passing it on to seven people who inspire me. So, firstly, the seven facts about myself (you might want to get comfortable, I tend to ramble when writing these).

Seven quite possibly uninspiring facts about me (don’t say I didn’t warn you):

1. Up until a few years ago, I had spent my whole life thinking I was allergic to penicillin. This supposed “fact” came under scrutiny when I was told I had Golden Staph (which was just delightful), and the doctor actually said “are you sure you’re allergic to penicillin?” After being met initially with bewildered looks, he explained that some people, when very young, have been told they are allergic to penicillin only because they took it while suffering from something else, and they had an allergic reaction – one which could have been caused by what they were suffering from, not the penicillin. Turns out I am such a case, and I am not allergic to it after all, which meant attacking the Golden Staph was made substantially easier. It also increased the types of cheese I can now eat, on a side note. Oh goodness I’m still on my first fact…
2. I can play guitar. When I say play guitar, what I really mean is that I possess three guitars (one of which is really quite nice), and can pretend to play all of them. I haven’t played as much recently but I do intend on getting back into that soon, because it was enjoyable (even though I sucked at it).
3. Once, when applying for a job at a much, much younger age, I remember filling out a form before an interview (there was a group of us being interviewed one by one), and on this form was a question asking if we had any special talents or hobbies. They insisted it could be absolutely anything, so I jokingly decided to test the waters, and proceeded to write “can make fart sounds by cupping my hands over my ears and eye sockets.” Goodness only knows what I was thinking, really. Anyway, about twenty minutes later I was being interviewed by a man who turned out to be the big boss of the company, and he requested that I demonstrate these abilities. He seemed quite pleasantly surprised when it became clear I was telling the truth. I got the job. (But it was rubbish so I quit after 2 weeks and half a day, but that’s another story in itself).
4. In march I had a haircut that was rather significant. Why? Because the last haircut before that was back in October 2009. I have done this three times in my life, grown my hair long and then cut it all off, and this is the first time where I quite like it shorter. Having said this…I’ll probably still grow it long again. Might book in for 2015.
5. I don’t have any piercings or tattoos. I know, pretty terrible for someone who is about to turn 26 in a few days. I don’t intend on getting any piercings, but I wouldn’t mind a tattoo. Only one, though, and it would have to be really good. As a friend once said “a tattoo either has to mean everything to the person getting it, or it has to mean absolutely nothing at all.” Anyway, if I never get one I won’t be too upset, but we’ll see what happens.
6. Although I clearly enjoy English and History as subjects a lot more (evidenced both by my love of literature and history books, and also the fact I teach both these subjects), in high school Mathematics was my strongest subject, and gave me my highest marks. I have taught a bit of this too, and it weirds the students out that I can teach this subject as well – I think in their minds it’s breaking some fundamental law that binds the universe together, by being able to enjoy and manipulate both words and numbers.
7. When I was younger, and my family had first moved to Australia, we lived in the west of Sydney, about an hour from the city centre and also from the coastline (we now live an hour north of Sydney, on the coast, which is much nicer). Anyway, we used to holiday every year for several years to this little place near the sea called Kiama. We’d listen to the Beach Boys in the car trip every time (and so that is my childhood memory of going to the beach or on holiday – singing Wouldn’t It Be Nice out loud. One day, my family is going to have to listen to Jack Johnson when going to the beach, as I have already decided this has to happen). Anyway, every year without fail it would rain. The whole time. The last year we went, we decided this would be it, our final family visit to Kiama. And the sun finally came out that time, and it was a lovely holiday. We decided not to tempt fate, and to just leave it at that point.

Seven Inspiring Blogs you should visit:

The Tiger’s Eye - An awesome blogger who writes about books, quotes and more. She also should win the coolest header image award, if such a thing existed.

Japan in 365 days - One of my favourite photography blogs, which as the title suggests, is based in Japan. Definitely worth a visit – this one is on my list of blogs I try and check daily.

Isle of Books - Another fantastic book blogger, who also blogs about poetry and other things. Intelligent and insightful, this one is deserving of your time!

So So Poems - One of the coolest ideas ever: writing poems on coffee cups, and then taking a photo of said coffee cup, and placing it up on a blog (with the poem typed up). You know you want to see this. The poetry is really quite good, too.

Books Speak Volumes - An awesome book blogger with remarkably similar taste in books to me, she is also a great reviewer. She has pretty good taste in music, too!

Book Club Babe - A passionate book blogger who has many insightful thoughts on books, and who isn’t afraid to voice her opinions when necessary.

Bigbadwolf31  - A blogger who I have just realised I have more in common with than I first knew – she too was born in Britain and moved to Australia at a very young age. Her blog is just hilarious and makes me laugh every time, no matter what the topic – if you ever need a pick me up, this is the place to go (she managed to make depression funny and uplifting…need I say more?).

Of course there are many more blogs out there I find inspiring, including both those I have nominated for awards before (I tried to focus on blogs I am yet to nominate for an award for this one), and even those I am still yet to nominate for an award. The blogosphere is an incredibly inspiring and motivating place, and I have all of you, my awesome readers and fellow bloggers, to thank for this!

Until next time….oh dear I just saw my word count. Next time, I’ll attempt to be brief. Honest.

Mugshots (dedicated to coffee)

When I say “close friends”, I am not referring to actual people, but am in fact talking about mugs. Why? Because let’s face it, if you’re going to be a writer, you probably need to take up coffee drinking at some point (or at the very least, tea drinking), and even if you don’t write but enjoy reading, you’ll probably know nothing beats the feeling of sitting down with a good book and a cuppa.

However, the purpose of this post isn’t to discuss any deep and profound philosophies of drinking coffee, but rather to show you some photos of some of my favourite mugs from which I drink this life-saving liquid. It has occurred to me recently that I collect mugs (it takes me a while to realise I’ve started collecting something else, as I tend to collect collections of things), and this revelation was mostly caused due to a distinct lack of space in my kitchen cupboards. At any rate, I won’t show you all of them, but just a few of my favourites (and I’ll explain along the way why I like them so much).

Enjoy! And maybe make a cuppa for yourself while you’re at it…

A mug of George Orwell’s classic Nineteen Eighty-Four. Readers who have followed my blog since the early days (i.e. January, February), will remember I also have a similar one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

On the left, a mug of The Beatles, with the pattern from the album A Hard Day’s Night. On the right, a mug of Led Zeppelin, featuring the cover of their first, self-titled album (the back of the album cover is on the other side of the mug), along with the four symbols along the bottom that featured on later albums. Both of these bands share the prestigious position of being my favourite band.

On the left: “Keep Calm And Have A Cuppa”. On the right: “No coffee, no workee!” Two good philosophies to live by, I think. Yes I have used the mug on the right at work before, just for a bit of fun.

On the left: “D’oh for it” with a picture on the back of Homer running. On the right: “I couldn’t agree more with whatever you said!” also with a picture of Homer. What can I say – I like The Simpsons. Always have, too.

Yes, this is a mug shaped to have bits of liquorice allsorts decorating the outside and sticking out. This photo doesn’t show it, but this mug is actually enormous, so I tend to use it for hot chocolate mostly.

To finish off this post, some coffee quotes I like:

“The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

“As soon as coffee is in your stomach, there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move…similes arise, the paper is covered. Coffee is your ally and writing ceases to be a struggle.” – Honore de Balzac (1799-1859)

“Coffee makes us severe, and grave, and philosophical.” – Jonathan Swift

“Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.” – Author Unknown

“Deja Brew: The feeling that you’ve had this coffee before.” – Author Unknown

“Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat.” – Alex Levine

Are you a coffee or a tea drinker? Do you depend on it for reading/writing, or is it just a nice way to relax?

In the beginning…(of a story)

After writing a blog last week on what makes a good ending to a story, and then following that up with another post on being frustrated with the middles of some books, I thought I might as well round it off by writing about the beginnings of stories.

We all have been told the same thing over and over through school (and for some people, university) about how to write the beginning of a story – it has to be catchy, something that hooks the reader and reels them in straight away. In the history of literature this is still a relatively new approach, but it definitely is important, although, to be honest, it is also a little obvious.

It was one of my favourite university lecturers and tutors who told me about Russian physician and writer Anton Chekhov’s approach to writing the start of a story, and it is this approach which has always stuck with me. Essentially, Chekhov believed that when you finish writing the first draft, whether it be a short story, novel, or anything in between, you should take the first third of the story, quite literally tear it from the rest (or delete it), and write that third again. Why? Because he believed that even with the most detailed planning, you don’t really feel the story, get into the mood, atmosphere and style, until you are a third of the way into the writing, by which point these aspects are firmly established and remain appropriate and fitting for the rest of the story. So by going back afterwards and rewriting the first third, it should help the story to flow better.

Of course, this may seem a little extreme, and I am not advising to adhere to this rule precisely nor am I confessing I myself work accordingly. But I do agree with the general gist of what Chekhov was trying to say – even the stories I have planned, I have found only really take shape once I am a considerable way into the story. For me personally, I tend to rewrite the whole story once the first draft is finished, but I know this is extreme and I am just very strange. But it is definitely worth at least considering Chekhov’s point of view, especially when you next edit or rewrite a story.

What do you think? Do you agree with Chekhov’s approach to writing and editing the beginning of a story, or do you think it’s too extreme? How do you write/rewrite the beginning of your stories?

This Day In Music: A must-have book for music enthusiasts

As you might have noticed by now, I am a bit of a music enthusiast. I love music, and own far more albums than I do books (a fact which shocks some people), but I also love knowing about the musicians and albums, and I love music trivia.

If this sounds like you, you’ll probably get a kick out of the book This Day In Music: An Everyday Record of 10,000 Musical Facts by Neil Cossar. The book is divided into a page a day, and on each page are listed all the musicians who were born on that day, and all the interesting events and facts that occurred on that day as well, all accompanied with photographs, newspaper clippings, and other various visual material.

It is true that there is also a website for This Day In Music, from which the book was first born. In fact, you can now follow this on Twitter, Facebook, and of course there’s even mobile apps for it for people who feel a particular need to look something up while on the go. But personally I love flicking through the book, which I feel is presented in a nicer and warmer manner, and which I have noticed contains slightly different facts to those on the website – they seem to have taken some out and put new ones in – so you’re not getting the exact same information anyway (though for all I know they may have reprinted the book with different facts). The only drawback to the book is that the facts stop around 2005, when it was printed, but it is still fascinating all the same.

For a bit of fun, here are some facts from today, May 6 (it’s May 6 when I write this, not when it’s scheduled to publish…but then it’s always tomorrow here in Australia):

Born on this day: 

1945 – Bob Seger, US singer, songwriter

1967 – Mark Bryan, guitar, Hootie & The Blowfish

1971 – Chris Shiflett, guitar, Foo Fighters

On this day:

1973, Paul Simon set out on his first tour without partner Art Garfunkel, using The Jesse Dixon Singers as a back- up group on stage. Simon’s tour of America and Europe was recorded and released as ‘Live Rhymin’.

1977, The Boomtown Rats played their first gig in England when they appeared at Studio 51, London.

1995, Oasis scored their first UK No.1 single when ‘Some Might Say’ went to the top of the UK charts.

Of course, this is just a tiny portion of the facts for each day both in the book and on the website, so if you want more, buy the book or check the website, or even better – do both!

Are you a music trivia lover like me? If so, what’s your favourite piece of music trivia?