Dear little “Slouching Mom” [note the careful use of a 'c' rather than a 'g'!] who sloughs around “Slouching Past 40″ has kindly given me this award, just to add to my weight of shame. Yes my fine friends, I now have to admit publicly, that although I have lived in the United States of America for 12 years now, there are still things that I need to learn.

I have learned that Swedes are called Rutabagas.

I have learned that Pavement is not a Sidewalk.

I have learned that Plums are really Prunes.

I could continue to list the great advances that I make daily, but sadly I appear to have completely missed something that is all to obvious. I learn today [probably last week by the time I get to post this] that in America bananas are called ‘blings.’

Clearly I am a blithering idiot.

To be fair, the word ‘bling’ has cropped up in a wide variety of different circumstances in my life, but never for one moment did it ever occur to me that it was in fact a reference to the humble banana, the ultimate in convenience foods.

Ah well. Now I begin the oh so onerous task of matching the award to other blogs. Who should I wish to send a banana to, may I ask? Maybe a little randomness should be the order of the day? Same and fair.

So this delightful little monkey shall go to the next seven commentors.

Who shall it be?

Aha! My pal “Linda” over at “Are we there yet!” Now there’s a woman who is a real trooper [now that I think I understand what a trooper is supposed to be - it always sounded like an insult!] There are so many different aspects to Linda’s blog but if you’ve not visited before then her posting here called “Count five things” is a great introduction. [and I'm sorry I called you a sausage, I know that should have been 'hot dog'!]

Next to “Elissa” over at “Managing Autism,” which indeed she does, admirably. If you have not visited before then I would suggest that you nip along and read “Coping with Life.” We all wear many different hats in our everyday lives. When I read that post originally, I was wearing my ‘I am under the weather at the moment’ hat. When I read it today, I am wearing my chef’s hat as I flip pancakes. Her message makes sense for everyone. If I ever read it again, I wonder what hat I’ll be wearing?

Then to “Mel” over at “Random Thoughts [International Blog}" is a man of faith from the Phillipines, a regular visitor and a prolific blogger. Whilst this award may seem frivolous, I already know that Mel's big heart will find some terrific friends to share it with.

Then to "Casdok" at "Mother of Shrek." This is probably the ultimate in 'think differently' sites. The variety of her posts is amazing. There is always something fresh, new and mind bending! I defy any to visit and not be hooked. If you have not visited before then this post entitled "Big Pants."

To me this is evidence that despite being British, Casdok has international appeal without the need for translators. Knickers!

Next we have poor old "Veronica" over at "Some Day We will Sleep" who is 19 years young, last time I checked. "Veronica" and I need to have a serious chat some time soon about her sloppy definitions so that we can remain on the same page. What exactly does she mean by 'sleepless'?

Take your average night of perhaps 8 hours, at night time. If I sleep for 40 minutes each hour, every hour, then I am sleeping for the majority of the night, aren't I? Maybe instead I sleep for five of those hours uninterrupted but spend three hours of the eight changing bed linen. Does that fall into the sleepless category? What if my bed time is delayed by three hours for the same exercise in laundry, or curtailed prematurely, early in the morning? Do either of those count as sleepless?

I don't know how it is for Veronica, but in my case, I think the best solution is to improve my laundry skills, as 180 minutes would be in the category of severely inefficient!

I'd point you to a specific page but I can't figure out how to do that for her template.

Then to "Mr. Bloggerific Himself" over at "Your Packaging Sucks!" As an English person myself, I feel that this title should have a health warning = ' do not suck your packaging as this a dangerous pastime and you may choke or poison yourself.' As an American person, I appreciate that the word 'sucks' really means 'of inferior quality.' Fortunately neither term is appropriate in this case, otherwise I wouldn't be reading!

Where to start if you're a newbie? How about trying "why I don't like soup or coca cola." A long post [for some] but it just goes to show that as we grow up, sometimes we can figure it out for ourselves and we all love those light bulb moments, or at least I certainly do. As an aside, I am led to believe that if you don’t like coca cola, this constitutes grounds for deportation!

Now “Furiousball”is in the wrong order but I couldn’t access his blog at “Furious Blog - in my diatribe” yesterday. However, this morning I’m through. Frankly I disinclined to give that chap anything at all, as people are always sending him real, tangible gifts through the Royal Mail…..er……can’t think what that is in America for a moment. Where is my word retrieval? Senility can be a blessing sometimes. Er…….UPS! There’s so much to be jealous about; his little furious ball icon, his blog design, his strings, his presents…..did I already mention his gifts? Anyway, in case you haven’t visited this thoroughly gifted individual before, I would recommend that you start here at his post entitled “staying on the line,” because everybody has a complicated life.

So there you go. Isn’t that encouragement enough to post a comment?

Cheers dearies