Tuesday 27 April 2010

Two Awards

I have been really grateful to receive two awards recently, but have been so busy I have only just managed to post them!
The first one I got ages and ages ago, (sorry) from Old Kitty at Ten Lives and second chances.

And the second more recently:

from Alijane at Gingercat.

Both awards require quite a lot of thought from me to come up with 7 interesting/unknown things about me, I'm cheating slightly (as usual with me) by combining the seven things from both, as I'm sure I really can't think of fourteen. And I think I may have been supposed to do something else as well and possibly haven't done things quite properly but I'm so busy right now this is all I can manage! By now most of you realise I won't be actually passing anything on to specific people, but I do appreciate them both, thank you both of you very much.

So I leave you with seven random things, not sure how interesting they are! (they are a certainly long enough, I got a bit carried away once I'd started, for which I apologise.)

Perhaps the most interesting, although it's not about me really:

1) My mum is/was the first woman to read the news - she's not famous as it was only the regional news on a programme called Points West rather than nationally, which is why nobody really has ever heard of her. Here she is in 1957:

Now sadly the press cuttings from the time are buried somewhere in her hoarded papers and I can't wait to find them again one day, they contained some amazing letters from people, expressing opinions along the lines of - "how can we allow a woman to read the serious issues of the news - she just cannot give it the gravity it deserves" and "we don't want our husbands being distracted by looking at a woman" - I can't remember exactly but these were the kind of sentiments being voiced, really incredible and so interesting to see how things have changed.

Of course to me my mum is my mum, but she has had an absolutely fascinating life, involved in travelling theatre as an actress and even in 'A Town Like Alice'

She's the woman on the left. She only had one line, and died in the desert!
Anyway, that's my most interesting thing! Perhaps one day I'll share some more about her.

2) I grew up in a Sixteenth Century timber-framed cottage - reputedly the oldest house in the village. The walls were originally wattle and daub, with brickwork later, and I had holes in my bedroom wall that I remember plugging with pink toilet paper. My mum still lives there.

3) You wouldn't know it to see my DiY now but in my student days I wrestled our (I lived with a girl friend) dying twin-tub onto its side while it was half-full of water and somehow fixed it (I think prayer may have been involved in this process somehow - seriously!)

4) When I was seventeen I camped half way up a welsh mountain in gale force winds and rain, with other people from our youth group - we had gone on an activity week at an outdoor pursuits centre. It felt like one of the longest nights of my life. I don't camp any more.

5) One summer holiday when I was a student I got a holiday job in a cafe on the edge of Lake Winderemere in the Lake District. I hated the pressure, couldn't use the till and one day flooded the whole cafe with milk from the milk machine because I forgot to turn it off. Apparently everyone did it once. I decided to leave after a couple of weeks to make sure I wasn't the first one to do it twice.

6) I used to work full-time in a reprographics department with a massive photocopier, it seemed ten-feet long but was probably only six or seven. It did whole booklets at once, and with an attachment even folded and stapled them. Surprisingly very happy days, due to my lovely colleagues.

7) I was a terribly deceptive child - I used to hold the mercury thermometer over the heater while my mum went out of the room so it looked as if I had a temperature (got to be careful with this though to avoid making it too high). I coloured my thumb nail in with a pencil to make it look bruised so I could get out of a piano lesson (could only use this one once) and when I was fifteen I managed to get out of a whole half-term's swimming lessons by lying creatively, for a whole six weeks (I absolutely could not bear to be seen in a swimming costume). I can't believe I did all this now!

Well, that's quite a lot of information, not sure if anyone will have made it to the end!
Have a good week everyone.

13 comments:

  1. Your mum was quite ahead of her time, really! Or, breaking new ground, I should state. Fabulous! We seem to have come so far, at least in the West, but we still have a long way to go in many ways.

    I enjoyed reading your seven--six--things! You've had interesting adventures and appear to have been a very creative story-teller (sounds better than liar). LOL!

    Congratulations on the awards!

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  2. Wow. Wow. Wow!! And thrice more wow, wow, wow!

    Amazing.

    I'm still in AWE at the knowledge that your mum - your beautiful wonderful artistic and talented mum - is Armine Sandford.

    What a pioneer. Wow.

    Well it would explain why you are so super talented and artistic. Wow.

    The house you grew up in sounds so magical - wattle and daub (and tissue paper)- my but that's not old that's pre-historic! LOL!

    Oh and I worked in a cafe once (so that my friend could have a two week holiday - and keep her job!). It was a little cafe by St Paul's at a time when that area was one building site. It was really good (as in the people were nice) but it was so busy esp in the morning - there's be an influx of builders all wanting tea and coffee and toast - and I had to make them 40 times over. LOL! Thank goodness it was only temporary.

    I don't think you were deceptive at all! And agree with Kea - you were just a creative story-teller!

    :-)

    This was such an amazing post, thank you!
    p.s Big hi!! to adorable Archie!

    Take care
    x

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  3. All those things I didn't know about you and your Mum. I'm sure you couldn't lie now if your life depended on it. x

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  4. I might lie again if I thought I had to go swimming in public!!

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  5. That was brilliant. Love to hear more stories of mum when you find those clippings.

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  6. You were a wild child !!!

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  7. Your Mum looks like a truely elegant 50's lady. I think we can all be inspired by women like her.

    Loving all of your stories, particularly the one about the milk. x

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  8. I loved reading that! Thank you for sharing it all :o)

    Wow your mom is a real ground-breaker for women in the workplace! I am in awe. Love the old photos - she looks beautiful in them.

    I sympathise with the milk machine flooding :o) I did it with lager when I was a bar maid at 18. It poured measured half pints, I didnt know & kept my finger in the lever...lager everywhere.

    x

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  9. Great facts, it was worth the wait.

    I didn't have you down as a devious person at all. I am shocked!

    Have a great week.

    Alison
    x

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  10. OOooo, you dark horse you ! giggle wiggle.

    Re your thermometer trick...I remember putting some soggy bread mixed with vinegar into a plastic bag, and tipping it out onto the girls changing rooms floor; exclaiming that I had just been very sick !!...anything to get out of playing hockey !

    Really interesting reading Lu,
    x

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  11. Great blog - what a lot we girls owe to mums like yours!!

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  12. Congratulations on the two awards!You absolutely have to share more about your mother, it all sounds so interesting!
    Can't wait to read more about her -especially the part about the theatre activity!
    Have a wonderful weekend
    Love,
    Annalisa

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  13. Hello my dear!
    It's Tracy have had a lovely time reading you blog, and looking at pictures of your mum and reading more about her. It was an absolute pleasure to be with you all on the day. I had a real sense of the kind of person she was.
    Love all your work, everyone comments on my little flower I wear on my coat!
    I have a new website with piccy's would love to hear your comments.
    www.crazyfaces.org
    Meanwhile have a restful, gentle week be good to yourself.
    Love
    Tracy.
    xxxxxx

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