Friday, November 16, 2012

I Miss You Blogfest

This blogfest is hosted by Alex Cavanaugh, Matt MacNish and Andrew Leon. It goes without saying that the whole blogging community would miss these guys if they stopped posting. Please take a moment to head over there and say Hi to them all. They all blog extensively and are a total inspiration.

This blogfest is about our blogger friends. Who would we really miss if they stopped blogging and those who aren't posting as often or have stopped altogether. So first up are the some of my favourite bloggers. They are funny, generous and I would bloody hate it if they didn't blog anymore.

Lily from The Incoherent Ramblings of a Moose! She is utterly hysterical, crazy as shit and blogs about really weird stuff that might, or might not, have happened to her. She is not for the faint of heart, so be warned. I love her though and would absolutely hate, hate, hate it if she stopped blogging. Like me, she has been finding it hard to blog as much recently. Is it something in the air, do you think?

Pat from It's Rhyme Time. Another one who is barking mad, or should I say meowing mad! It is written in rhyme by Pat's cat. Hmmm I think that says it all. He blogs every day, which by itself is an amazing task. I did that for one month for the A-Z Challenge and it nearly killed me! He always comments on my posts even when I don't comment on his, which is just too lovely for words. He's written a ton of books, so please go and visit his blog. You will not be disappointed. Thanks Pat. You're Top Cat.

Bridget Straub is someone who I have met through blogging and she is so great. She has a fab blog, which I only manage to comment on occassionally, as I can't seem to find time to do anything these days. She writes more than anyone I know - three books in one year! She is kind, funny, generous and brave. Check out her blog and all her books. She will be guesting on my blog very soon, so please come back and see her then.

Now here are some bloggers who don't blog as often or who have stopped altogether:

Rachael Harrie of Rach Writes was the reason why I started blogging in the first place. Her Third Platform-Building Campaign back in August 2011 started me off. She seems to have stopped the Campaigns which, although I can totally understand why as they must have been an unearthly amount of work, is a sad thing as they were such good fun and I met so many new people. She still blogs and is definitely worth visiting. She always has a lot of great information on her blog.

Gillian Hefer from A Daft Scots Lass has just stopped blogging in September. She was always off the wall and swore more than any drunken Glaswegian stumbling out of the pub on a Friday night. I will miss her tell-it-like-it-is humour and ruder-than-hell remarks. Hopefully she will just take a well-earned rest and be back with more in the New Year.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Politeness is a British Culture

My sister said this to me the other day when we were chatting. It really struck a chord with me. I started thinking about how politeness is so much a part of everyday life in England and how different it is in America. Not that I’m saying Americans aren’t polite. They are, just in a different way.

The word politeness derives from the Latin word “politus”, which means polished. My sister put forward a theory that we may have got our politeness from the mixing of the classes, when the Upstairs and Downstairs had to start polishing up their communication skills in order to socialize together and no-one knew how the hell to do it.

The English, in particular, admire politeness, reserve and restraint, although some might say we are merely stuck up, unfriendly and cold! Not so much of the Rule Britannia, but more of the Rude Britannia? Apparently, according to some research ...

If you want to read the rest of this blog, please go to The Kindness Project, as I'm blogging there today.