Honest Scrap Award

I’m feeling thoroughly ashamed of myself! It’s ages since Bogey at A View From the Fairway gave me this award. In fact I was on holiday when he posted it. My thanks and abject apologies to you Bogey but not only am I a procrastinator extraordinaire I'm also an inefficient Blogger. I found this was still just a draft as I checked through my posting list. What a wassock!

I’m really honoured that you thought me an honest blogger. I do always post as honestly as I can, hopefully without offending people.
Well it’s all about honesty so I have to post 10 honest things about me. Now that has taken some time, that leads nicely to the first on the list:

1. I don’t open up to people easily or show emotions in public. That's probably how I've taken so long to do this. Sadly it’s a family trait I inherited from my Dad. My Mam was very different, wish I had been more like her. I’ve tried to open up on lots of occasions but it’s just not my nature.
   
   
2. I like my own personal space. Don’t like people invading it. Hugging doesn’t come naturally to me unless it’s with my grandchildren. After I went to Spain to stay with a family it helped, a bit!
   
   
3. I’m a bit of a perfectionist about lots of things so I put off doing them or I don’t complete them in case they’re not quite right, well perfect really. Sadly I think my grand daughter has inherited an even more extreme version of this trait!
   
   
4. I’m a messy, untidy person. I used to have a sign on my desk that said “A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind”. It made me feel better. Luckily I shared an office with a woman whose desk made mine look like I was obssessively tidy. Hers was a public health hazard!
   
   
5. One thing I’m not messy with is my clothes. I’m a bit fanatical about washing them in lots of separate colour washes, ironing every crease out of them and repairing them. It all has to be done just right! I'm such a pain but I can’t help it.
   
   
6. I hate the sound of the phone ringing. I just keep thinking, “Go away!” I detest using my mobile, they’re the devil’s invention at times.
   
   
7. I hate cooking and feel really guilty when I try to get out of it. I do love eating though.
   
   
8. I despise dishonesty.
   
   
9. I’ve never had my ears pierced and never will. Why? When I was little my Mam told me that only common people and gypsies had their ears pierced. It stuck in mind. It didn't go down well with her mother in law though. She had pierced ears!
   
   
10. I’m lazy, really lazy. I could sleep until midday in winter. I hate housework. I do clean the bathroom and toilets regularly though, can’t abide them being dirty. I would sit and sew or knit all day and night if I could. Once an old very houseproud great auntie told me that my nanna (her sister) could sit and sew while the ashes from the fire were falling off the fireplace. I burst out laughing and told a shocked auntie that at last I knew who I took after. I know that if I lived on my own I would stay in my pyjamas all day unless I had to go out somewhere, eat sandwiches for every meal, hoover once a fortnight and sew all day and night!

Well I hope I’ve been honest enough.

Now to the rules of this award:

1. You must brag about the award. (Not sure how to do this)


2. You must include the name of the blogger who bestowed the award on you and link back to the blogger.


3. You must choose a minimum of six (6) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.


4. Show their names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog.
   
   
5. List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself.

Now I find it hard to pick just 6 people as I subscribe to so many brilliant blogs. I’m going to cheat here and say please feel free to take the award. I trust you!

For my final piece of honesty here goes. When I first saw the award I misread it. I didn’t see it as Honest Scrap. I missed the letter S in scrap. Sorry but as I said earlier, it’s all about honesty.

Post 127

Blood Rock - James Jackson

I think I'm getting a bit obsessional about Malta and its history since we visited Valletta again last month. Strange because history never grabbed me at school, I preferred geography.

My previous posting about Mark Harris' book, The Information Officer, covered the second Great Siege of Malta during World War 11, this book is an excellent historical novel based on the epic Great Siege of Malta in 1565.

The Knights of St John are under siege in Malta from the great Ottoman armada of Suleiman the Magnificent who intends to wipe them out. They are greatly outnumbered by the Ottomans and there's also a traitor amongst them whose identity is hidden until the very end. It's a brutal story based on fact and fictional characters are intertwined with the historical ones like The Grand Master of The Knights, John Parisot de la Valette and Mustapha Pasha, commander of the Turkish land forces. The hero, Christian Hardy is a bit of a cliche and on occasions more of a superhero than a soldier, nevertheless he's an interesting one.

I have to say the book makes history come to life and would make quite a good film. It's a far better read than Dan Brown's novels which are frequently historically inaccurate.

For anyone contemplating a visit to Malta, it gives you a good insight into the geography of the country as well as the appalling hardships the people of this island have endured over the centuries. Post 126