Happy Tuesday! I spent the weekend as a grease-monkey, assisting Man in the garage as our dear car needed a clutch change. The car got stripped- exhaust, drivetrain, wires disconnected, etc. And then started the ‘fun’ part…and no easy feat. I joke you not, we spent 3 full days trying to undo one (1!) bolt which just refused to come loose before we could even attempt to remove the transmission box. I guess, after days’ worth of hanging off the spanner it had to (right to tighten, left to) loosen at some point. But then the scary part began… removing the transmission box to get access to the clutch disk. Yeah, I have learned so much about the inner mechanics of a car than I bargained for but it all boiled down to a very simple thing- Suzuki 4x4s are a b*tch to work on 😀 Hardly any room for maneuvering, and the transmission box is mahoosive. Like dangerously massive and heavy. For this Man built a robust timber/steel ‘thingy’ on wheels to lower the box on… and… with help from a fellow, bright as a spark, experienced mechanic, it was lowered off the car safely and the clutch got a new shiny, unworn disk. All this bloody hassle for a teeny-tiny part. The car is now back in one piece, but we still think there is a problem with the clutch system as the bleeding gave troubles for hours on end and it engages very low now… so, more to be done on it… the joys!

My car troubles is not what I came to post about though… I just felt like sharing 😀 What I did come here to today was a blogger award… I haven’t done those in a while so I decided to finally approach the Sunshine Blogger Award that I was tagged for by the wonderful Norrie who is Reading Under The Blankie 🙂

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What the rules say:

Thank the blogger who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog. √
Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you. √
Nominate 11 (I went with 7) new blogs to receive the award and ask them 11 new questions √
List the rules and display the sunshine blogger award logo in your post/or on your blog √

Let’s get stuck in and see what Norrie asked…

#1 What is your favourite breakfast? – The rare times I do sit down and have a proper breakfast are, well, rare. But I very much enjoy porridge (of all sorts: oats, buckwheat, semolina), maple-frosted cornflakes with a dash of milk and banana, and good old brown bread (in Estonia it would be the proper black rye bread) with cheese, tomato and/or cucumber with a healthy sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper.

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#2 What was your dream job when you were a child? Are you in that career now? – I was never very ambitious or goal orientated. I still kind of don’t know what I want to do… but I think being a small cog with a comfortable wage would do me fine. Hell, I’d be happy to be a cleaner so that at the end of the day I can close the work-door behind me and go live my humble life…

As a child, I spent a lot of time in the village library so of course I wanted to be the library lady because it looked really cool- smell of books mixing with the smell of coffee, the crackling of fire in the fireplace, mellow tunes from the radio and the occasional visitor. At this moment in time, I am unfortunately not a librarian.

To be honest, the work I do now is something I never thought I’d find myself in. Marketing, sales, IT support. Yeah, I’m not just a one trick pony 😀

When I was in high-school, I wanted to become a mariner, but my maths teacher talked me out of it because I suck at maths so hard and she was insistent that I simply wouldn’t cut it and according to her I was too short to be a proper mariner anyway and could possibly only make do on a submarine.

Following that, I wanted to become an  outdoor tour guide- hiking, camping, 40 km treks, the jazz… but that idea went to pot when I stopped pursuing it and moved to Ireland. Silly me… I am a flake!

In the future, because I do not want to continue working at a position I am at now (and for some other reasons that I will probably reveal in the near future when the time is right) I would like a more physical job than sitting in the office. Offices kill my soul and break my spirit. I have found that I do not want a career that keeps me chained in the corporate world for hours on end. I want a simple position that pays me enough to live on- a position that might not be ambitious or ‘cool’ enough for some of the society, but I care not.. I work to live, not live to work. I find home and family are more important and enjoying the simple pleasures than tearing your hair out with 24/7 stress. YOLO.

#3 How do you drink your coffee? – In various ways, I’m not overly fussy… But my go-to is black coffee with a good dash of honey. Man likes to take a sip of my coffee every morning to comment on how much more like tar it tastes as the days go  by…

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#4 What’s your current favourite TV show we should all check out? – I don’t have one 😦 Not at the moment anyway. The free time I have goes on reading and that free time is currently quite limited so Netflix of TV binges for me I’m afraid… But, I have been known to binge on Vikings, Spartacus, Mr Robot (I haven’t watched Season 2 yet!)… Oh! OHHH!!! Stark will be so disappointed in me for not saying this right off the bat! The End of the F*cking World is BRILLIANT!!!!

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#5 What is your favourite way to relax? – Reading, of course, for one. But I can only relax with a book once the house chores are done and man is fed. After everything and everyone is sorted and happy, I sit down and give zero shits about what’s going on around me. My ass is firmly planted to the couch and I am glued to the book.

I also like to spend time outdoors. Ireland has a lovely nature, but horrible weather, so I don’t get out much. In Estonia you could always find me rummaging through a forest or camping out on a hill, by the lake… just, outside. I love the feeling I get when in the woods alone- it’s so silent and the air is so fresh and, well, woodsy, and it feels like there’s all this life around me. There is, but it feels so ‘touchable’… So, yeah, the forest for my sanity and zen.

#6 What gets your day off to a good start? – Not having to rush. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this but in the mornings time goes way quicker.So, if I get x amount of things done in the evening within 30 minutes, then there’s no chance of that happening in the morning. Those 30 minutes in the morning seem to just go by in 5 minutes flat and I always curse at the clock, thinking- wtf, mate!?! Having to rush makes me super cranky. Super-duper cranky! And I know that waking up earlier is a solution but I have a really, really-really nice blanket that I never want to part from in the mornings!

#7 Do your friends & family follow your blog? – No to family. I think no as well to real life friends, not that I have many of those anyway. This lil’ blog is mainly followed by the online book community folk, of which many of you have become quite near and dear 🙂

#8 Would you be ok to stay in a cabin in the woods by yourself for a week? – Oh, hell yes! Can I stay in a cabin in the woods forever until the end of time? Can I go there now? I’m packing already!

#9 Describe yourself in five words. – This is the hardest! This is always the hardest thing to do! I’m quite a ‘hands-on‘ (1) type of person, meaning if there’s a job to do I don’t immediately think I can’t do it. If one person can do something, why couldn’t I? I think I am also ‘selfless’ (2) which sometimes works against me as the people closest around me will always come ahead of me which can mean I forget to take care of myself. If I go by past evidence, I am also ‘protective‘ (3) of those I care about and I have been known to wage wars with people on behalf of my family because I care not what they think of me. I’m quite a ‘curious’ (4) person as I like to know the inner workings of pretty much everything. And finally, I think I am a ‘good listener‘ (5) – I know waaaayyyy too much information, including the skeletons in their closets, about waaaayyy too many people.

#10 Do you travel light, or take half the house with you? – Light! I moved to Ireland for a year (ended up staying 10+years) with 8kgs worth of a cabin bag. No problems.

#11 What are your hobbies, other than blogging? – Wish I could say something interesting here.. I used to play drums, I used to knit a lot. I used to love playing soccer… I do none of those things anymore. If I am not at work, I read and take care of daily chores. The time that’s left over is spent on sleeping. The light of life is lost in me for a while now and I feel it. Ohhh, the drama… Things need to change.

Here are my Questions:

#1 Two bookworms walk into a bar… what happens next?

#2 Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 becomes a reality, what will you do to save the books?

#3 You’re hosting a dinner party and you can invite 4 (dead or alive) authors- who and why?

#4 If you could be an author of a published book, which book/author would it be?

#5 You’re stranded in wilderness all alone, it’s a lot of feet of snow outside and you have supplies to last you a month. You find a magic wand which allows you to bring to life 1 character from a book to spend time with you… which character would you choose and what would you get up to?

#6 You need to plot revenge on a fellow bookworm (for whatever reason, they tore your favorite book to pieces, let’s say), how do you pay back?

#7 If you could read in a foreign language, which language would it be?

#8 Has a book ever angered you? Which book and why?

#9 Which fictional character is most like you?

#10 What is the most unique thing you have ever learned about through reading a fictional book?

#11 And finally… What is your favorite classic?

Bloggers I nominate- Consider yourself awarded- we all deserve a little sunshine in our lives… but to name just a few (who are in no way obligated to answer my questions):

| Random Melon Reads | Excuse My Reading | Secret Library | The Tattooed Book Geek | The Belgian Reviewer | La La in the Library | Raistlin0903 |