Awards | But I Smile Anyway...

SIPB SUMMER BLOG TAG

11 Aug 2018 40 Comments

by Ritu in Tags, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, SIPB Tag, tag

Here’s a fun little tag set by a great little FB group I am a member of, Sharing, Inspiring, Promoting Bloggers. Read Amelia’s, Esme’s and Rachael’s too!

They have put forward 10 questions to answer about ourselves, just a little ‘get to know you’ kinda thing, and I do like these kinds of tags!

My answers…

What is your favourite Summer holiday destination? I don’t have a specific place to be, to be honest. Just getting the chance to relax is the best, wherever I am!
What is your favourite childhood memory of Summer? I loved spending my summers in Kenya, with my family out there, carefree, enjoying life, visiting various amazing places while I was there!
Which do you prefer: ice-cream or frozen yoghurt? It’s got to be ice cream, but at the moment, if I get a frozen delight it has to be low carb, and low sugar, so Keto friendly ice pops made from cream cheese, and fruit are refreshing, and so are sorbets!
What is your go-to dinner on a hot Summer evening? A nice big salad with grilled meat of some sort!
What is your favourite BBQ food? I love to make chicken kebabs with vegetables, smothered in oyster sauce, yum!
Share a song that takes you back to an amazing Summer. Killing ME Softly by the Fugees. 1996. I was going to be starting my last year at university and it was an awesome summer!
How do you beat the heat in the Summer? I stay in where possible, wear minimal clothing, unless I have to look decent, drink lots of fluids, have a fan on, and sleep with just a sheet.
Do you prefer swimming in the ocean or a pool? I like to swim in a pool, but I enjoy paddling and splashing in the ocean!
Do you prefer to travel with family, friends or solo? I think there’s a place for all! I love my family trips, creating memories with young and old, I love to go away with friends, as there’s a different sort of joy you can have with your buddies. I’ve never travelled alone, but I’d like to try, as I think the beauty of choosing what you want to d whenever you want could be really freeing!
Flip-flops or barefoot? I am a total boho barefoot babe where I can be! I love the feeling of grass, sand etc under my feet!

Here are the questions if you fancy a go!

What is your favourite Summer holiday destination?
What is your favourite childhood memory of Summer?
Which do you prefer: ice-cream or frozen yoghurt?
What is your go-to dinner on a hot Summer evening?
What is your favourite BBQ food?
Share a song that takes you back to an amazing Summer
How do you beat the heat in the Summer?
Do you prefer swimming in the ocean or a pool?
Do you prefer to travel with family, friends or solo?
Flip-flops or barefoot?

Spidey’s Serene Sunday – Part 181

05 Aug 2018 38 Comments

by Ritu in #bloggers bash, Audio, Family, Spidey's Serene Sundays, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Memories, Quote, Serene, Spidey

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”

Dr. Suess

Thanks, Spidey.

I’ll keep it simple.

Cherish every moment of your day, you never know when you’ll feel the need to revisit it…

Enjoying my precious last hours with my parents until I have to get back to my place…

Is there a particular moment which you cherish?

Have a peaceful Sunday Peeps ❤

Blue Sky Tag

02 Aug 2018 21 Comments

by Ritu in Tags, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Blue Sky Tag, Questions and Answers

Just sitting here browsing my reader, as I do, and I came across the Blue Sky Tag, as responded to by my dear Blog Sis Willow – Check her responses out here!

So here’s the thing…

There’s a thing about 11 for this tag:

11 rules…no.

11 cups of coffee… had it been tea, I mighta…

11 tags – nope, you’re all IT!

11 questions

11 answers… Something like that.

For me, I’m going with this…

Consider yourself tagged.

Join in, have a bit of bloggy fun, use the awesome Blue Sky Tag banner (that Rachael designed).

Here are your Questions. Enjoy and have fun!

If you only had 24hrs to live what would you do? I’d spend it with my loved ones, doing all the things I love to do, read, eat, sing, dance, be merry!
If you could have a drink or a meal with anyone, dead or alive, real or fictional who would they be? I always respond the same to this… it would be my grandparents, all four of them, as I never really got to know them, and I’d love to learn so much from them about the past, and family history.
Do you like poetry or prose? I like both at different times. Love to write them both too!
What is your favourite meal? You can’t ask a foodie that! I love food, generally, apart from most seafood!
Where would you like to live if money was no object? Honestly? Closer to my folks, wherever they live!
What was your most interesting job? I really love my day job at the moment, teaching preschoolers, but one of the most interesting was my first ever job as the assistant manager of a designer boutique in Kingston-Upon-Thames. It was well before the era of reality TV, but really, there could have been a great fly on the wall series made about the customers that came in, and the owners. I loved it!
What was your most boring job? I can’t say any have been boring, because I try to make all I do a little fun. The most boring element of any job I had was stuffing envelopes during marketing campaigns in the office job I had for nine years. Though even that wasn’t bad, as I had great company!
Ice-cream or lolly? Ice cream first, followed closely by ice lolly!
Cat or Dog? Obviously cat, Sonu Singh would kill me if I said anything else! but I do have a soft spot for the canines out there too!
Soap opera or Drama? Again, a hard choice. I do love my Eastenders, and the one Indian soap I watch daily, Yeh Hai Mohabbatein, but then again, I can get gripped by dramas too!
Which book has truly influenced you? I don’t think there has been one book that specifically influenced me. It’s more that all books influenced me to want to write. All books influenced me to want to create worlds that others can get lost within…

And there you have it!

Now, I hope you take on the Tag and have a go at answering my 11 questions too! (Borrowed from Sarah!)

Do you judge a book by its cover?
What’s your favorite color? (Specific shade would be awesome…just saying.)
Which animal is smarter: chimpanzees or dolphins? (Except if Geoff Le Pard plays because he will say “mice”.)
What’s your least favorite part about writing: editing, revising, or proofreading?
Are there any mythological creatures you believe are real? (Or wish they were?)
Which ridiculously popular book did you not enjoy?

Do You Prefer / Which Would You Rather questions:

Pen or pencil
Wine or beer
Bean bags or straight-back chairs
A pile of proofreading or a stack of math worksheets
Monty Python or Three Stooges

From The Heart Award

31 Jul 2018 25 Comments

by Ritu in Awards, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Award, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, From The Heart Award

Well, it’s been a while since I accepted an award, and a totally new one at that!

And this time I was in receipt of the From The Heart award.

From the Heart

Thank you so much to Emily from A Literary Life for thinking of me for this lovely award!

WHAT IS IT?

This award goes to bloggers who primarily focus on personal writing. These posts are often from the writer to the world at large, or from the writer to the writer themselves and they just allow us access to their mind.

RULES:

There are no rules, no questions, no participation requirements for this award. It is given from bloggers to other bloggers. It was designed by the Haunted Wordsmith and is given to other bloggers as a gesture of thanks and appreciation for their work.

I feel so touched at receiving this as I do like to write from the heart. Many times my words soothe me, but I hope they can help others, make them laugh, know that others out there are going through sh*t just like them too, so THANK YOU again Emily! ❤

My Nominees

There are so many of you who write from the heart, wish I could honour you all!

Spidey’s Serene Sunday – Part 180

29 Jul 2018 41 Comments

by Ritu in #bloggers bash, Audio, Family, Spidey's Serene Sundays, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Home, Quote, Serene, Spidey

“Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Thanks, Spidey.

Is it just me, or do others instinctively think of being at their parents’ house as being ‘home‘?

I may be forty+, married with a Hubby Dearest, children and pets of our own, with a roof over our head that is our home, but nothing can beat the feeling of going ‘home‘.

This building I visit, the house that Pops and Mum live in now, has never been the place I grew up in. In fact, they bought it shortly before I became a mother myself.

Yet it is ‘home‘.

Because of the people who live here, the love they have showered upon my brother and me, and the memories they created for us.

Don’t get me wrong, my own little home is a very special place, and when I am back in my normal life, there is nothing better than pottering around in my home.

But coming ‘home‘ is just the best feeling ever ❤