A Blog With Substance Award

The lovely Chhandita from As Good as It Gets? recently awarded me. I am very humbled to receive this considering that I am not a regular blogger let alone that my blog has any substance.

I've lately been reading Mel Ford's Stirrup Queens blog where in her latest post she writes about her experience at the BlogHer conference. One sentence that made me wake up and confirm why I blog was this: " I do the unpaid, sometimes unappreciated work for the human connection." Human connection - how odd that I feel the same way. How odd that I need to connect with humans as I type on a keyboard, oblivious to the outside world where real humans lurk. My time to write and express about my son's milestones, history with infertility, heartbreaks and other ponderings.

Has my life really resorted to sitting here alone, hoping that some human will connect with me?

Mel was mainly referring to the connections she has made in real life because of blogging; however for me her sentence defines it so much in what I feel.

I write because I like it. I know that I have improved in my writing. I will never be an author. I may have been born in Australia and English I consider as my first language now, but I never grew up surrounded by anyone academic to assist me with homework or encourage me in my educational endeavours. My parents are migrants with very little English and their existence is based on work ethics. I suffered in school because of my illiteracy and lack of support.

I've come a long way though. But does my blog have substance? What's the point sometimes? I often think that if I started writing a blog during my infertility years I would likely have tripled my followers and readership and no doubt the comments would be in 20+ range regularly if I was posting about my sufferings and negativity towards the fertile world. Later, it would have dwindled to nearly nothingness once I became pregnant or god-forbid had peace and resolution in the journey.

I blog to remember and to note some portions of my life. In the following months my posts will be a series of my mums beautiful Greek recipes. To remember, to record how she cooks so that I will continue her legacy and our culture.

I think then my blog will have substance. At least on the culinary perspective.

The rules are simple:
Name 7 random things about yourself and nominate 7 bloggers.

1. I pick my nose in public on the train. I don't care who's watching. When that booger needs to come out it bloody will, tissue or not.
2. If I was born male I would have been named Lambros after my grandfather (typical Greek tradition)
3. I can't swim properly. If the earth flooded I would definitely drown.
4. I have mild obsessive compulsive disorder - I'm a clean freak and always straighten photo frames or art pieces in other people's homes. So if you invite me over, make sure they are straight!
5. I got the cane in primary school when I was 6 because I threw rocks at the maintenance man. Even then I knew he was a dirty old man.
6. I once closed the door on my best friends fingers.. on purpose.. because she was giving me the shits.
7. I have had scabies, nasty little fuckers that I caught from homeless kids when I worked in the crisis refuge.

I enjoy reading every single blog that I follow and those that are in my Top Blog section are fantastic. Although the ones that I believe deserve some recognition, attention and what I truly believe have substance; are the ones that make the effort for others. The ones who find the time to not only read but to actually sign in and bother to write a comment.

Nothing bitchy about that paragraph, just a reality that there are still some of us still here, writing and wanting needing that human connection.

1. InfertiliTEE
2. My Path to Insanity and Beyond - My TTC Journey
3. A Half Baked Life
4. Love and other Drugs
5. One Perfect Emby
6. Who Said 3 is a Crowd?
7. A Year On.. a New Beginning

Other substance-worthy blogs include: madambipolar for her amazing insight and first person account of living with bipolar disorder and the immeasurable support and information she offers her readers. Theres' also Maybe Baby (or Maybe the Loony Bin)? and Marty-hood who are recently on maternity leave but still worth the read.