Today, I received a notification for the Liebster Award from Peaks of Cheeks, who digs, digs, digs into our mine the whole day through… Thank you so much, I am honoured to be nominated. So, (Deep inhalation of breath) here goes….

The Rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and add a link to their blog
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you
3. Nominate 11 bloggers that you think deserves the award
4. Ask 11 innovative questions to the ones you have nominated
5. Remember to notify your nominees once you have uploaded your acknowledgement post.

Questions and Answers:

1. What is happiness according to you?

Easy. Happiness is 7 years old and plays, plays, plays. She loves MLP, Spongebob Square Pants, chocolates and bouncing on her trampoline. Her name is Sophia and she is my daughter. Love you, girl! PS I love my wife, Naz.

2. Which one memory of yours will you always cherish?

What! Apart from this! I’m a father, as you’ve already found out, so meeting my daughter for the first time is a memory I will always cherish. It was an extraordinary moment. She was born in Qatar, when I worked out there, and she was also very content inside mum. She had to be delivered by caesarian. I waited outside the theatre and a nurse wheeled her over in an incubator. She was crying because they had given her a vitamin K shot. I went over and spoke to her. She immediately stopped crying, opened her eyes wide and looked me over, as if to say, “Oh, so your are the guy I’ve been hearing all this time.” We looked at each other for about 10 seconds and then she decided enough was enough and started crying again.

3. What is the latest thing that made you laugh your belly out?

Wow! My daughter introduced me to Spongebob Square pants. It’s crazy and every time I hear Patrick say “It’s a Giraffe!”, I lose it.

4. Which embarrassing memory of yours makes you laugh even now?

Somewhere out there in the wilds of the world is a photograph of me on my stag night. My friends took me out to the smoke. This was around May time, so there were plenty of tourists. As soon as we got there I was rewarded with my outfit, which was a giant, fluffy union jack top hat with matching union jack thong, which I was instructed to wear over my trousers. At this point our pub crawl begins. In the middle of this we moved to another pub and encounter some very amused Japanese tourists. We huddled, cuddled and we were photographed. Some lucky Japanese tourist has the memory…. forever burned into the eyes. Once you’ve seen it, you can never unsee it!

5. What about Mother Nature do you admire the most?

Water, especially rivers. I live close to a beautiful river in Bedford, UK. I writer about water and rivers often. I love to hear the sound of water. It’s quite peaceful. When I can, I’m going to get myself a deer-chaser.

6. Which is the first song that comes to your mind now? Can you share it?

At the moment it’s Mumble, by Whirr. Classic shoegazing. Awesome! I love finding new music using Reddit.com/r/listentothis. You can check out my playlist of tracks here.

7. What do you do when you cannot fall asleep?

As a poet, I read poetry. Instantly asleep…..

8. Have you miserably failed in delivering a joke? How did the experience go?

Any joke. I’m no Bill Hicks. I do remember when I was a young man in 1998/99 I lived in Sydney, Australia, for a while. My friend and I used to go to the local pub, which are called “hotels” in Australia. This was called the Kirribilli Hotel, in Milsons Point. They used to have a quiz night and the host sometimes had an open mic for jokes. I told a joke, which cannot be repeated in a polite channel, such as this, and the whole place fell about, and the host was so impressed that he wrote down the joke. However, as a Pommy, I wasn’t allowed to win the contest.

9. Is there anyone in your life you want or wanted to apologise to?

Good question. Only really one person. I used to go to school with her. Catherine Coldwell (when she was in my class). I said something horrible to one day and she ran away in floods of tears. Sorry, Catherine, I was a dick.

10. What is the one thing you are proud of?

Shameless plug: A Perpetual State of Attack. For me writing this was a journey in its own right and I’m very proud of the result.

11. Can you share one of your classic jokes or pick-up lines?

Straight from Reddit without any change from the original when I heard it.

My Nominations:

Thanks guys, you deserve this. In no particular order:

1. https://visionarypoems.wordpress.com/
2. https://poetic-thoughts.blog/
3. https://bustlingmindblankverse.wordpress.com/
4. https://voyage-onirique.com/
5. https://inalove.world/
6. https://drbogdan.home.blog/
7. https://narble.blog/
8. https://iwriteher.com/
9. https://chronosfer2.wordpress.com/
10. https://marandarussell.com/
11. https://ruhland.click/

My Questions to you (If you dare answer them…)

1. Are you a cat, dog, mouse, or fish person? (Explain why…)
2. What was your first music album / CD? (What was your last? Damn you, Spotify!!)
3. Which is your favourite Beatle and why?
4. If you could be any character from fiction or movie, who and why?
5. What was your most disastrous date night? Tell all the gory details!
6. No regrets. But, what is your biggest regret? (No politics)
7. What was your scariest weather moment?
8. What is your favourite city? Explain why?
9. What did you want to be when you were growing up?
10. If you could make a mixtape (OK! or, a spotify playlist), which are the first 5 tracks?
11. You have the luxury of writing your own epitaph. Please tell us all? (and make us cry…)

Good luck!