Sunday, March 01, 2009

Award Time


THE BIRTHDAY FANCIES

Tomorrow (Monday March 2) will be the first birthday since I began my blog that I have really come to care about some of my fellow bloggers. If they don't post for a little while I wonder if things are okay; if they go away on holiday I think about whether or not they are having a good time; when they have problems I worry about them - in short there are many bloggers out there who really have entered the French Fancy consciousness (hark at her going all third person).

Now I know there have been a lot of awards floating around blogland lately and I'd like to add another one - The Birthday Fancies. Those that receive it do not have to blog about it if they don't want to; they don't have to tag anyone and get them to do certain things; you can put it in your sidebar - or not if you think you have enough clutter already.This is it on the top left; it comes from me to you and it means that your blog means something to me. There are lots of blogs out there that actually mean a lot but, just as in real life, the chemistry is better with some than with others.

They are randomly listed and where it is a joint award I have done it alphabetically. Some of you might wonder why you are inserted in one category and not another. It was quite hard to make sure that all my favourite blogs were included and that is why some of the categories might seem rather absurd. Please don't pass it on - it is just from me to you.


Best dog with a blog Henry

Best expat in the USA Mama

Best expat in Sweden Ladyfi

Best blogger in South America Cynthia

Best father of a son Steve and The Dotterel

Best father of a daughter Brother Tobias

Best mother of a son Hadriana's Treasures

Best mother of a daughter Lane

Best pharmacist* blogger cheshire wife

Best blogger who blogged straight after surgery A Woman Of No Importance

Best nature photo blogger Blu

Best blogger with insects in her fridge Lulu Labonne

Best black belt blogger justme

Best blogger with a cigarette Jenny Smith

Best GBF blog A Super Dilettante

Best blogger who I know won't put this on his sidebar Dumdad and The Accidental Fan

Best ex-expat blogger Carol

Bloggers who get so many comments how can they even read them nikki crumpet and willow


During my celebratory lunch today whilst at our favourite restaurant I will raise a glass to you all. Unfortunately it doesn't open on Mondays so I will have to go elsewhere for my actual birthday lunch. Two meals out at two beautiful restaurants two days running - we could never have done this in the UK, not without a second mortgage.

Below is a picture of when I was about half the age I have reached today. It was easier to keep it in the frame than take it out and scan it. Can you see the stain down my dress? Immediately prior to the photo being taken I had somehow managed to upturn a glass of cider down myself. Nothing changes - almost twice as old and still just as messy.


*the word 'pharmacist' is one of those words guaranteed to make us both go into hysterical laughter - well me anyway. It dates back to an incident when we had come to France on a house-buying reccy. I had been chatted up by a pharmacist in Normandy and then, three hours later when we arrived in Brittany and I saw a man smiling at me (who to my mind did look more or less like the Norman pharmacist), I said are you the pharmacist?. It might not sound like much of a funny story but the way Mr FF tells it, with interjections from me, make it the funniest story in the world. Yeh, like a man is going to follow me in a car from department to department. Well, he might have.

38 comments:

The Accidental Fan said...

37 tomorrow then eh? Congratulations. Wow do you look *hot* in that photo.

I won't even blog at the moment let alone put awards in the sidebar, but thanks for the cheeky mention.

French Fancy... said...

TAF - well I was a bit hot that day actually.Well now you have an award to ignore when you get back to blogging.

The Accidental Fan said...

I was wondering if that was a sweat mark see...

Hadriana's Treasures said...

Thank you so much FF! I will put it on my sidebar with pride (the clutter of my blog reflects the state of my mind, our house, cars and life) and pass it on as well. Hope that is fine with you.

Like the photo and Mr. H. (also a cider drinker) will appreciate how it (the stain) occurred and will commiserate...

Happy Birthday to you twice over. You are brave to even mention it plus I don't see why you shouldn't have your very own French stalker n'est ce pas? Bisoux. Hxx.

Cynthia Pittmann said...

Thank you so much for your own award! What an honor to be singled out as someone you think about and care for...and of course I will display it! Your story of the pharmacist is cute...how we do get confused when we travel about what things mean...

I remember going into a little store that my husband's uncle owned and greeting all the unknown-to-me family members. Here people have the custom of saluting (kissing) on one side of the cheek. I ended up kissing an entire row of elderly men, one of which was not a relative but a customer.

He was so delighted that I immediately realized something had gone socially wrong. My in-laws we unable to stop laughing as we entered the car to leave...my husband said that I had made that man's day.

Happy birthday to you Mrs. French Fancy and I'm so pleased that I have been "fancied"!

Blu said...

Hee hee that made me chuckle, stalked by a man in a white coat? Many happy returns..and many thanks for your award mwah xx

French Fancy... said...

Hadriana - Thank you for my double birthday wishes. Please don't pass the award on - it's just from me to you.

cynthia - your story did make me laugh. I bet it's trotted out as often as our pharmacist story is.

Blu - he didn't have a white coat - he was youngish and had that French flair.

Henry the Dog said...

Loved that post. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, for tomorrow in case you don't log on tomorrow. And thanks for the award. That's really lovely of you. Will put it on my blog now.xxx
PS: love the photo you pretty thing you

Dumdad said...

Many thanks for the award!

P.S. There's a little birthday surprise for you on my blog.

Kathy said...

Hello there, Happy Birthday to you. I hope you enjoy both meals out, I will drink a glass of wine to you today. the kids have gone to Wembley (THFC V Man U) so I have a day to catch up. Thank you so much for this award, it is rather special, will be updating my blog today too. great photo (I never noticed the cider stain till you pointed it out lol) had to giggle at the pharmacist stalking story hehe. Have a truly wonderful Birthday, hugs, Kathy.

Lane Mathias said...

Happy Birthday! As you look very young in that photo, I'd say you are around 30 then. Hope you have a lovely celebration.

Thank you for the award. I've let awards, tags, etc slide a bit recently but I will show this one to the daughters and point and say 'See'!

Thank you. x

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for your award - very fancy! And have a great birthday tomorrow!

As for dousing yourself with cider, did that cool you down? ;-)

Steve said...

Aw shucks - you've just made my day. Thank you. Hope you have a truly wonderful birthday. :-)

A Woman Of No Importance said...

FF - Happiest of birthdays for tomorrow, darling, and make sure you wear something to disguise the wine or cidre stains - I have a whole wardrobe of wine-coloured wear!

I love your very personal award and shall treasure and display it - I am a clutterholic and your award is like a little jewel to me! I love my category too!

Have a lovely day and a fab Birthday Week, and you do look very cheeky and lovely-gorgeous in that photo - Was it the eighties? Such a beautifully elegant dress! It's no wonder that men have followed you across continents - That's what your biographer would say anyway, just as with Lord Byron!

Take care,

Fhi x

justme said...

Why thank you! What a lovely award! I am not quite sure I know HOW to put things on my sidebar.....but I will try!
Have a wonderfully happy and delightful birthday tomorrow......and a delicious lunch!
xx

laurie said...

what a gorgeous picture. the cider looks more like a shadow.

lovely face. lovely dress.

Frankofile said...

I bet you look lovely now too but how nice to have a photo of 'young you' that you are proud of. Mine make me wince!

artslice said...

A very Happy Birthday to you!!! And thank you for all the tantalizing links on this post... I plan to visit as many as I can.
~Brenda

Lulu LaBonne said...

Have a madly wonderful Birthday - with all that gourmandising you can't fail really.

I have terrible face-recognition technology installed in my brain which has led to many mistaken identities.

I'm very flattered to be fancied by you, Thank you

Tess Kincaid said...

Happy Birthday, Ms. Fancy! Hope you enjoy your special day tomorrow.

Lovely picture of the youthful you!

Thank you so very much for the unique and personal award! I am very honored.

Jennysmith said...

thank you so much my sweet. will put it on my page with pride.

What an equisite photograph and a beautiful dress. The stain gives it character. You look gorgeous in it.

Bless you my sweet xxx

This Ro(a)mantic Life said...

An early happy birthday to you! Hope it's a delightful one :)

Veggie Carrie said...

Happy birthday! Hope you have a lovely day tomorrow. Perhaps you could also eat one French Fancy for each year of your life to celebrate it?

Rosaria Williams said...

Have a nice drink and enjoy the day. Looking good is only half the challenge; feeling great is the other half.
To get the two you need two glasses.

Salute and Buon Compleanno.

Rob-bear said...

What a delightful picture of you. (Totally un-touched, I'm sure.)

Hope your birthday is a wonderful fête.

Blu said...

Just popped in to say Happy Birthday..and have a lovely day xx

French Fancy... said...

Henry - woohoo!

Dumdad - Thanks back at yer

Mama -so you are back in the UK again? You do rack up those air miles my girl

Lane - Ta for the age reformation. In actual fact I was about 24/25, can't quite remember. Too honest, that's me.

Steve -thanks matey

Ladyfi - Ta Lady. I was well known for always spilling stuff down me - I have a very clumsy set of hands.

AWONI - wow, you said such lovely things. It must have been aout '84/85.

justme - I bet you can do it if you try - how were the e-cloths?

laurie - aw shucks. (blush)

Frankie - I wish I still looked like this - the chin is wobblier and the wais t is thicker

artslice - thanks sweetie - all these blogs are truly great

Lulu - yes, I'm hopeless with faces and all these Frenchmen look the same. It's an ongoing joke though - sometimes Mr FF says 'look, I bet he's a pharmacist'

willow - thanks darlin'

Jen - you must be getting to be an expert with the old sidebar now. Thanks for the kind words

ContemTroub - thank you so much

Carrie - I'll tell you a secret - I don't much like the taste of French Fancies but I love the name and the pink colour

lakeviewer - yes, two glasses is all it takes - two glasses of the wine I had yesterday anyway - sublime stuff

Rob - If I could touch up photos I would have uploaded some recent ones and then played around with them. If you look in the index on the right here you will see other pics under Family Photos. Once you see my folks you'll see what sort of genes I was lucky enough to get

Blu - thanks lovely one

cheshire wife said...

Thank you so much for the award. I hope that you are not expecting a lot of funny pharmacist stories because I don't have any.

A Super Dilettante said...

Mrs FF. Many best wishes for the birthday and long may your blog continues!! Congratulations.

Thank you so much for the award. That's very kind of you.

Best wishes, ASD

PS. Your picture looks fabulous. I love the gown you wear. You remind me of one of the muses in Klimt's painting!

Tim Atkinson said...

You really are too kind. (And after I mixed up your dogs as well!) Thank you.

French Fancy... said...

cheshire wife - whenever I mention your blog to Mr FF (as in 'cheshire wife has written about so and so - she's the pharmacist') we have a little knowing smile at the *P* word

ASD - aw, that is so lovely to hear. I have been painted three times, but not by anyone very famous. I don't even have the paintings unfortunately.

Dotterel - you are very welcome. If you knew how often people in the UK think our dogs are poodles (the poodle is called the 'caniche' here in France incidentally).

Brother Tobias said...

hank you so much for the lovely award; so undeserved, but much appreciated. (I'm saving my few awards, and plan to put them is some sort of mini gallery or scrolling display sometime, so non-appearance in the short term is not ingratitude!). My posts thin on the ground just lately because I am preoccupied with distractions...including trying to come to terms with a PC music studio application!

nikkicrumpet said...

First....Happy Birthday...I'm late I know but I had to work all weekend and didn't get any blogging time. Work bites. I hope you had a marvelous day. And THANK YOU for the beautiful award. I love the original ones...they are very special. And thanks so much for including me in. I'm glad I found your blog...can't even remember how we stumbled upon each other...but I know it was a good day!

French Fancy... said...

BroTob - glad to hear from you - as I said I begin to worry if a blogger goes absent for a while. I realise of course that everyone does have a life outside keeping me amused however - but come back soon

nikki - I can't figure out how you manage to work so hard, run your busy life and still find time to do all those zany photoshoots of your gorgeous dogs. I know - you have a tenant who sits there all day doing your blog. I'm also very glad we found each other, nikki

Carol said...

Thank you so much for the award....I feel exactly the same way about you and your blog!!

You have made my day :-)

C x

Kathy said...

Hello French Fancy, I am so glad you had a wonderful birthday and were soiled rotten by Mr FF, what a lovely painting and it sounds like the restaurant was very nice indeed. and you get another gift too, lucky thing. Have a happy week and let the essay's wait I say lol. Congrats on your new award too.

I am in the UK for about a month (another two weeks to go), Thank you so much for the award and I will update the blog as soon as I can as I have not been able to blog at all on account of catching up with family and friends (if I lived in the UK again, I don't think I would have any time to blog). Life here is certainly different from CA lol. TTFN, Kathy.

Kathy said...

oh dear, I am not used to Stephen's keyboard and I keep missing letters out of words, I meant to say spoiled rotten of course not soiled I am so sorry lol

French Fancy... said...

Carol and Mama - about 9 months down the line I realised I'd not replied to your comments and I hate doing not answering.

So - to two of my favourite bloggers - a belated wave, kiss and a hug

x