Doubly Stylish

When I switched my electrical babbage engine on this morn, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my unobtrusive little blog had won another award - the Stylish Blogger Award, given to me by the lovely Gloria Alex from That Vintage Broad. I had to go out soon afterwards, but imagine my delight when I returned later in the afternoon to find that the equally lovely Kitty over at Kitty's Vintage Kitsch had bestowed the selfsame award. Two awards in the same day - thank you both, girls, I'm flattered!

I've said it before but I never thought that my interests, the little tit-bits of news that I unearth and my ramblings thereon, would be so popular, so my thanks again to all my followers and readers for sticking with me. I just write pretty much whatever comes to mind and it pleases me no end that you all find it worth looking at.

Right, gushing acceptance speech over; on to the ever-present "conditions" that accompany this award. Having thanked and linked back to the conferrer(s) I must now list 7 things about myself that you, my readers, do not know. Note it doesn't say "interesting" - I lead a very quiet life and am probably one of the dullest people you'll ever meet, so if you skip over this bit I shan't hold it against you(!).

1. I don't own a mobile telephone. Never have, never will. I could go on about how I think they are the bane of modern society; how they have led to the death of politeness, patience, punctuality, common sense, awareness, self-reliance and initiative and how we all got along perfectly well before the damned things were invented. But that's a rant for another day.
2. I might (and heavy emphasis on the "might") be distantly related to Charlie Chaplin. His mother and my paternal grandmother share the same maiden name and both families lived in the same area of London (Lambeth) at the same time in the late 1890s/early 1900s. Sadly I haven't had the opportunity or wherewithal to investigate this properly, but it remains a tantalising possibility that I hope to get to the bottom of one day.
3. I collect coins and stamps (and have done since I was a boy). My collection spans 5 albums and continues to grow, although again thanks to circumstances these days less so than when I was younger. The pride of my coin collection, which is predominantly British pre-decimalisation (£ s d) is the Edward VII gold half-sovereign from 1909 that my grandfather gave me; my stamp collection contains many hundreds from all over the world but some of my favourites include a selection from Germany post-WW1, when the country was ravaged by hyper-inflation. The lowest denomination is 100 Marks, the highest 100,000,000 Marks!! Some have even "overprinted", as we philatelists call it, because the original face value became worthless so quickly! Whenever I look at them I am always given to wonder what such a situation must have been like and how Germany - and the world - suffered in the first few years following the Great War.
4. I used to do a bit of singing and amateur dramatics. Nothing fancy, mainly Gilbert & Sullivan operettas and show tune concerts. Always in the chorus, of course. Some people still think I've got a half-decent singing voice(!).
5. I am currently trying (and failing) to learn how to play the ukulele. Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer is my musical hero in this regard. If I can get to be a 1/100th as good as him, I'll be elated.
   
   
   
   
6. The 3 most prized books in my possession are: an 1894 copy of Cobbett's Advice To Young Men, a 1919 The Handyman's 1000 Practical Receipts and the 1929 Tit-bits Yearbook. I shall try and work a few blog posts around them in the future.
7. I don't drink coffee ("I take tea, my dear", as Sting sang in his 1987 classic An Englishman In New York). I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times in my life I have had coffee. I just don't like it. Cocoa, yes. Hot chocolate, definitely. And I've been drinking tea in one form or another since I was about six months old. But coffee? Urgh.
   
   Well, there you have it, and believe me it was hard to think of just those seven things! Now I've got to pass on this award to 10 more blogs. So without further ado, congratulations to:
   
   
   Bake Do and Mend
   Francy Flicks
   The Idle Historian
   Ray Frensham World
   Swell & Dandy
   Tallulah May
   Tickety Boo Tupney
   Traditionally Styled
   Vintage Laura xx
   Vintage Rose
   
   
   Thanks again to Gloria and Kitty and here's wishing you all a great weekend!
   
   Pip-pip!