The versatility of C…see?

Gosh! Look what I found waiting for me over here!

I have seen this on my travels around the blogosphere so imagine my surprise!

Thank you Katherine …

Muito Obrigada, Merci beaucoup, Baai Dankie

Seize the day I say (actually I didn’t say it first but you know what I mean).

The weather has taken a turn for the worse; the thunder and lightning variety, so wrapping up with my laptop and catching up is called for.

Suffice it to say I have more than a bit of catching up to do on my climb up the alphabet ladder so methinks it will be a good idea to combine today’s letter …C…with the conditions attached to this nomination.

And this is what I have to do:

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.  P

2. Share seven random facts about yourself.
Okay… here goes…

• Cape Town… seems the right place to start this randomness; this is where I say I come from when asked. But it was not where my childhood was spent. I was born in Rhodesia now known as Zimbabwe and raised for 12 years on a farm just outside Bulawayo. At the age of 12 the family moved to the city of Salisbury now known as Harare. I was sweet 16 when the family packed up and flew to the latitude of 34 degrees south.

• Comedy theatre… a passion I left behind when I moved away from Cape Town. I was introduced to the world of amateur dramatics when a friend asked me to work backstage as a Prompt. I don’t know if a star was born but a love for theatre and things cultural certainly found its rightful place in my life and a hidden talent emerged. My favourite role? Playing ‘Olive’ in the female version of ‘The Odd Couple’ (the Jack Lemon part).

made with love and care by Moi!!

• Cooking… a passion I discovered in my new hometown. I think it proved the theory of time and place. I’d always been able to cook but hadn’t bothered much until the move away from Cape Town to join my newfound love (meh) included taking over a floundering restaurant. And thinking about “walking the boards” I think my restaurant became my own personal stage…service time was like curtain-up and the customers seemed to love it and the holiday makers returned time and again. The food wasn’t half bad either J These days I relish making Curry, folk go weak at the knees at the mention of my Chocolate Mousse and any catering I do will involve the creation of canapés!

• Calamari as in a calamari Cook-off competition! Did I mention the restaurant was floundering… as in no passing trade… no customers? Well, the promise of summer brought with it the “bare foot festival” of which the cook off was an event that all the hotel and restaurant chefs entered. Chefs! I decided to enter as a means of promoting the Café … just to participate mind you, not to compete… well, I walked away with first prize for my winning recipe as well as first prize for the design of the stand (I guess my set designing experience from the theatre really helped me here!!) and thus came into my own as a Restauranteur.

• Colonectomy. Colonoscopy. Colon cancer. Far too many damned C’s in there! I thought there could be nothing worse than a colonoscopy. I was wrong. Seriously, I cannot stress 2 hyphenated words enough …check-up… get one! Now! Two years of constant indigestion and the need for a medical clearance certificate forced me into the specialist’s rooms whereupon I had a gastroscopy – that is by far the worst procedure – after which it seemed rather cowardly to continue resisting the colonoscopy. It was nothing! A week later I was being wheeled into theatre and five hours later my colon was considerably shorter. And do I think about the years of resistance and how maybe the pain and suffering of this operation might have been avoided by having had the scopes? Hell yeah!

(mind you with an anaesthetist as cute as Mcdreamy it wasn't all bad!)

• Calheta is a municipality on the southwest coast of a Portuguese island. Ironically it is situated on the latitude of 34 degrees north (!!) and is where I now live! And if you stay on that latitude and keep going lto the eft it arrives in Los Angeles where my brother and his wife live; where I lived for a while. On its way there it more than likely also bisects that bloody crop circle in Texas where I lived existed stayed for 6 months. Moving here was not as easy as just getting on a flight and arriving.  Sure our family has been coming to the island for over a decade and we now own property here, but to stay longer than the standard 90 days required Police clearance, Medical clearance (!!) and copious letters of recommendation and motivation, all duly translated. And it didn’t stop there, getting that stamp in my passport just gave me permission to stay here long enough for my permanent residence application to be approved or denied. More pieces of paper! Clearly the Champagne flowed 3 months later when the approval came through.

• Curly hair. Naturally curly auburn hair to be precise! The bane of my mercilessly teased childhood but ultimately a blessing that set the adult me apart from the arbitrary!

Right… that’s 7 and hopefully suitably random… what next…

3. Pass the award along to 5 new-found blogging buddies.

Well I am sure all 5 have received this award time and time again but you know what? Bite me! The common denominator with this particular quintet is their collective way with words. Brilliant, witty, hilarious, inspiring - all entirely different; individuals.  

So without further ado here they are: Annabelle (I think we might have been separated at birth), Sunday (I have immense admiration for your endurance) (I also want your dog!!), Mommakiss (the new Fanny Flagg), Mynx (what can I say, you personify versatile!) and Semi True (yes I can relate!).

Now here’s the thing y’all, here’s another C word… CHOICE. You have the freedom to choose whatever you want to do with this bit of bling. You can do the 7 bits of randomness if you so desire… or not… this is more just my way of leaving a mark on your mantelpiece!

This has been fun.

Now ‘scuse me whilst I go pour myself a glass of Chardonnay and then...
4. Contact the winners to congratulate them. P

(that of course was HOURS ago when Blogger was in a coma!)