A big thank you to Mere Woman from No Damn Blog for passing on The Versatile Blogger award to me, Piglet!
Mere Woman is certainly a versatile blogger, inspiring me each week with her Wednesday Word, Friday Photograph and snippets of her take on life in France. I enjoy reading her blog and learning lots of new things at the same time, all whilst feeling comfortable and enjoying the photos.
Thanks to her, I recently discovered that my cats were plotting to kill me so I am now being extra careful. If they don’t get me within the next few weeks (I’m being extra nice to them you in order for them to change their minds) then I will consider that Mere Woman saved me!
Part of the award is to reveal 8 things about myself although apparently I am not obliged, so I will keep my deepest darkest secrets to myself still if you don’t mind! I’ve realized that I’ve been sharing more and more information about myself as time has passed so now’s the time to share some more:
8 things that I’ll reveal:
The pained look on my face takes many, many hours of perfecting...
1. I was British Junior Ice Dance Champion two years running. It was ice dancing that brought me to France to train alongside Gwendal Peizerat and Marina Anissina. when I was 16.
2. My written French is perfectly appalling, but when I see my French friend’s efforts I realize that it’s just normal.
If I was rich enough I would spend half the year living here...
3. I don’t actually know if I like living in France. I certainly prefer it to the UK but I’m afraid that I always think the grass is greener elsewhere. In January 2010 I seriously wanted to move to The Grenadines and had even found a business to buy but eventually decided it was too far away and that it would be better if I could afford to live there just 6 months of the year.
4. I have aspirations to write a book. One day it will happen.
5. I am scared of failure and sometimes to do not have the courage to do things in case I fail.
6. Ants creep me out. The way they march in a parade and manage to transport large objects despite their tiny size scares the hell out of me.
7. I love Jam Wagon Wheels and am gutted that I can’t buy them in France.
8. I hate speaking on the telephone, face to face is fine but over the phone don’t expect to have a very long conversation with me. A psy would probably say that it’s because I am traumatized by endless rude conversations in French and that I no longer associate speaking on the phone with pleasure.
Now, I have to pass this on to another versatile blogger, so if she’ll accept I’ll send on to Sarah at St Bloggie de Riviere who has been busy blogging about Slim the Vegetarian Ogre and story building software recently and suggests that we make wine and not strikes! Definitely a lot of versatility going on there!
Wow, I’m dead impressed with the skating. I’m lucky if I get to stop without crashing!
I agree with you about living in France. It’s kind of lovely but it doesn’t half get on my nerves.
Some fascinating info there (with you on failure), and thank you for nominating me and helping me pimp my little book. You’re a lovely lass.
I shall have to get my thinking cap on.
LOL! I’m not sure that I would be able to stop without crashing or falling over anymore!! It’s been 11 years now since I have stepped foot (or blade for that matter) on ice…
I’m glad to have found someone else who has similar feelings about France, it’s a strange situation I live here because I do not because I dreamt about living in France.
I’ll look forward to reading you reveal and your book in due course!
Hi Piglet
I realise I don’t have an email for you. Could you email me at dslfr at hotmail dot com so I can send you the pdf?
Many thanks
Congratulations Mad Post Office Ranter!
Am I forgiven?
All the best
Keith
P.S. About writing that book… it’s easy! First you write one word and then you add another. Repeat this enough times and.. voila!
My oh my are you forgiven! How could I not forgive you with the public apology you gave? You should win an award for that! I have just realized I did not accept your apology, how rude of me! Sorry, I have been too busy shouting obscenities at pedestrians whilst driving these past few days; I shouldn’t be let loose in the city!
Very impressed with the skating! I was a competitive figure skater up until the age of 18. Funnily enough, a bunch of my friends in the US have recently joined adult clubs and I’d love to join the one here in Paris if I didn’t travel so much for work.
What a small world! Never would I have expected another expat blogger to have been a competitive skater!
What led you to stop out of interest?
I did both disciplines until age 13-14 and then choose ice dance as I was training full time. I stopped completely at age 19 and carried on living in France.
I’ve never been back in the rink but still remain in contact with many skaters from my generation! We seem so old now compared to the youngsters now, although there are quite a lot at the tope of the international world scene with whom I skated against or trained with.
Congratulations! Well deserved! Love learning more about you too – I have that same fear of failure..
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by pigletinfrance, Sarah Hague. Sarah Hague said: Piglet's been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award – well-deserved too http://bit.ly/8XrwQy Discover 8 fab things she reveals about herself ! [...]
I really like this post! Go and do write the book. I am sure it will be great! x
Gosh, I wasn’t expecting that! An ice-dance champion. Bravo. You must be very brave. I only tried ice-skating once, and found it absolutely terrifying. It looks so easy and graceful; but not when I did it.
I’m completely with you about the telephone, something I also hate, but I think ants are wonderful.
Do write the book. Just start at the beginning, or in the middle, or even at the end. That’s something my agent told me long ago – you don’t have to write sequentially. Just write what comes, when it comes, and when you’ve written all there is, put it in order.
[...] Piglet in France graciously accepted the Versatile Blogger Award, and revealed that she is a two-times British Junior Ice-Dance Champion. [...]
Do write the book..please.
@Lindsey: I’m glad to know I’m not alone on that…
@Metropolitan Mum: that’s for stopping by and for the encouragement. I will try and conquer by fear of failure and then start writing…
@Merewoman: what makes you think ants are wonderful? Are they the same reasons that I’m creeped out by?
As for ice skating, well I was lucky enough to start very very young so it was less a question of bravery, more a question of stupidity… I’m not sure I would bode very well now if I tried to skate mind…
Good idea about writing what comes. I often find I want to write something but haven’t written it as I haven’t got a beginning or anything yet, just a vague plot. I’ve jotted the ideas down but then lost the notepad…
@Fly: thanks for the encouragement, I will try but it may take 10 years!
Wonderful! I have always loved ice-skating ,although I have never put foot/skate on ice. But it’s been one of my favorite things to watch over winter time. I am so gald I know now an ice-ace !
)
Ice skating on the TV looks so easy and is wondeful to watch. I actually just started watching it myself again this winter!
How funny – I was a figure skater when I was younger too. Is there some kind of career progression that transforms us into bloggers in France afterwards? Maybe it’s the passion for rollerblading here that attracts us!
Wow, that’s amazing! So that’s two people other than me who read my blog that used to skate, there’s definitely something to be said about France, skating and blogging there as you say!
In my case it was the skating that brought me to France in the first place. If it hadn’t been for the skating I would never have moved here!
How about you? Why did you come to France? I see on your blog that you’ve been back and forth and even to Italy!
I originally came to France because I was studying French, liked it so much that I came back for another year and finally came back for the third time because I got a great job here. So not quite as glamorous as your story (and I was never such a good skater)! I would love to read more about what it was like to come here to skate at 16 and why you ended up staying!
I love hearing stories about what made people move here, there are so many different and interesting ones… You obviously really wanted to be in France and made it happen which is not an easy task when you need a job here to survive. As they say third time lucky!
[...] some of you may have gathered from my last post when I revealed how I could easily have moved to The Grenadines, I have been restless lately and Mr Piglet and I have a common disease known as La Bougeotte. We [...]
Hi Piglet!
Oh I’m late to the party to wish you a congratulations! But here it is: Congrats on your award.
I love your eight things, and I really hope that you write that book someday about what it was like to be an ice dancer who moved to France and what happened to her thereafter (like moving to the Grenadines, which has the coolest name because it is just like the syrup, lol).
Hope you are well, chickadee. Now I am going on to the next post!
Thanks Karin! I love the name Grenadine too for exactly the same reasons. Grenadine is my fave sirop in France and I drink it all the time (especially now I’m preggers and can’t drink wine!). To top it off the islands are absolutely beautiful – the picture in this post was taken by little old me on a desserted island near Tobago Cays where part of Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. It’s such a beautiful place, I can totally see myself living there in my filmstar life!