I visit Brainfluff, a blog by Sarah Higbee, quite regular (that is, whenever I have a moment and I remember to do so) to read her reviews and other thoughts. Sarah devours books with the speed that I could only match when presented with a box of Toffifee or other delicious sweets, and when she doesn’t write their reviews, she shares her poems or interesting content found in all the nooks of the Internet. She also is the person who nominated me to the Dragon Loyalty Award, suggesting between the lines that some fiery and winged consequences might be upon me if I decide to pretend I never saw her post, so I preferred to write this post.

As with all the blog hops, the rules are quite simple: share the news of the award (also known as boasting about it or displaying it), nominate another fifteen victims … errr, I mean my dear friends to pick up the mantle (and notify them so they can avoid the dragon’s wrath), and post 7 interesting facts about oneself.

Easy enough, isn’t it?

I have to admit I love the idea of such blog hops for the mere reason I get to get back at all those people who nominated me for something else in the past (you wouldn’t think I’d forget, Myk, would you?), but revenge aside, it’s just another great excuse to get in touch and have a few good laughs when we share our most guarded secrets and embarrassing stories … Ooops, apologies, I might have gotten carried away. I mean, of course, that it’s a great opportunity to get to know each other better while we share the seven interesting facts.

Let me start with the lucky nominees, so they can’t claim they didn’t read till the end of the post and somehow they missed their name. In completely random order, I nominate:

• Myk Pilgrim – littleplasticcastle.com (alright, in his case I did lie about the random order)
• Lucy Jayne – lucyjayneauthor.com
• Meg Cowley – megcowley.co.uk
• TP Hogan – tphogan.wordpress.com
• JR Barker – jrbarker.info
• J Elizabeth Hill – jelizabethhill.wordpress.com
• Lucosef – dodgingwordcount.wordpress.com
• Allison – eclecticali.wordpress.com
• Alayna Coyle – alaynamcole.com
• Sarah Wright – smwright.wordpress.com
• CM Schofield – cmschofield.com

And that’s it! I decided to stop at 11, because it’s a nicer number than 15. All the people on the above list are great and worth a moment of your time. And if you’re not on the list, I probably still consider you cool, just forgot to put your name there. Sorry!

And for all the patient people who read through over 400 words of my rambling already, I’ve prepared a list of 7 facts about me. Whether they are really that interesting, I’m not sure, but since I’m very open about my childhood dream of becoming a witch or a ninja when I grow up, this one will not be on the list. Enjoy!

Fact 1:

I think ball-point pens were made to doodle, not to write, and I’ve been using a cartridge pen for the most of my life. It begun with cheap plastic pens covered with colorful pictures of whatever was popular at the time and ended up with a very special Waterman which actually was a gift for my father, but since he never used pens, he passed it onto me.

The pen was perfect, from the fine nib (I hate the thick ones as my handwriting is rather small) to the beautiful design of chrome silver. That pen was with me for good six or seven years until its cap became lose and got lost. During my next visit in Poland I went straight to the stationery shop that had a wide range of Waterman products and even though they didn’t have this particular one in stock, the shop owner was kind enough to order one for me, so when I flew back to Ireland, I already had it with me. And about two years later, when my bag was stolen, with no trip to Poland planned, I scoured the Internet and with Amazon’s help I got myself a perfect copy all the way from France, so my favorite pen is still with me.

Fact 2:

I write in purple ink. I never was a fan of blue, and moved on to black quickly. The green turned out to be only a short adventure as it was too bright, and the purple became a perfect match. I think it’s been good 15 years now (if not more) since I’ve been writing in purple, but since the cartridges are not very common (and I’ve yet to see them in Ireland), I shop for it in bulks when I’m in Poland.

And when I used to hand write more, especially personal letters, I often picked green paper which was a really nice match for the ink.

Fact 3:

I love beautiful notebooks and have a tendency to buy way too many of them (I’m trying to be good now). They remain empty while I’m deciding their glorious purpose which in practice mean most of them is left empty forever. Once my partner noticed the growing pile and suggested getting rid of half of them, so I wisely piled them up on the bookshelf where they sit inconspicuously till the present day.

And as a bonus fact: my second love would be boxes, especially the cardboard ones with beautiful prints, since you can stack them. And since they serve as storage for all my trinkets, I always have a good excuse to get more.

Fact 4:

I have a big stuffed panther as my “teddy”. Her name is Zu and I bought her in my mid-twenties when I really needed a cuddle and I wanted something bigger than a tabletop mascot. Zu didn’t fit into any bag, so I had to carry her home from the shop in my hand and I still remember the heads turning in the cars that passed me by. I took her with me to Ireland, and she still has her space on the bed.

Fact 5:

I don’t wear much jewelry, but when I was around 18 I decided to have my ears pierced, and ever since I’m always on the lookout for interesting and original earrings. My skin is slightly allergic, so I’m bound to wear silver (probably gold would be fine too), but I sometimes buy the ones made with other metal too and just replace the hooks with silver ones.

Fact 6:

For some reason, I really like almost anything with dragonflies. I think it’s their “design”, sleek body and beautiful, delicate wings. And in English they have a dragon within their name, so it’s even better. I don’t collect all the things with dragonflies I can find, but anything with them as a part of design will definitely catch my eyes.

Fact 7:

I met my partner on the Internet, and we talked for a year, tackling the time difference between Europe and America, before he bought the ticket to Ireland to finally meet me in person. When I met him at the airport, strangers started pointing at me and shouted “Look! Here’s the girl! Here’s the girl!” making the experience a bit … unreal. Only later I’ve learned he shared our story with some people he met on the flight, and they got excited seeing our first meeting.