Memetastic!

Thank you so much Lynn at Present Letters for giving me this lovely award

Now the rules are to list 4 truths and 1 lie. I will reveal which is the lie on Saturday.

So, some weird and wonderful things about my family ...

1) One of my ancestors, Katherine de Mattos was Robert Louis Stephenson's cousin (and rumoured lover). She was also an author writing under the pseudonym of Theodor Hertz-Garten. Robert Louis Stephenson dedicated Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde to her and included in the dedication a part of a longer poem he had written to her,

It's ill to loose the bands that God decreed to bind;
Still we will be the children of the heather and the wind.
Far away from home, O it's still for you and me
That the broom is blowing bonnie in the north countrie

2) My great great uncle was born in 1831 - the same year that Isambard Kingdom Brunel started building the Clifton Bridge (aged 24 unbelievably). Work stopped on the bridge in 1843 because of financial and political problems. Brunel went onto other projects and my GG Uncle started to work for him in 1852 When Brunel died in 1859, my GG uncle was appointed as project manager to complete the construction of the Clifton Suspension bridge as a memorial to Brunel. The bridge was opened in 1864. I guess the Civil Engineering genes came from somewhere!

3) I have already told you about my great great great great grand father who was a Portuguese count who left Portugal during the Peninsula War in the king's retinue to travel to South America (and given the number of de Mattos in Brazil, I'm guessing they went there!)

4) My first cousin was editor of the Financial Times, London for a time and was listed in the top 50 most influential people in the world

5) Another of my relatives Edward AFT de Mattos once owned the Great Eastern Steamship Company (not sure when exactly, but he died in 1835 according to the grave I found in a local cemetery). He bought the Eddison Steamroller company for his son Joseph Hilbert to run, although according to a book charting the history of the company, he was a little more interested in the horses!

So I am going to offer this lovely award to Jenn at You know .. that Blog because Jenn runs the awesome Sensational Haiku Wednesday which is just so much fun.

Star Blogger

The last two weeks have been particularly busy for me, so I have not been visiting blogs very much lately. However I wanted to thank some wonderful friends for give me a couple of awards. But first I want to announce a new award. The problem with the awards that require recipients to pass it on to 7 or 15 people is that if everyone did we'd each be receiving hundreds every week within a month! So instead of passing my awards on, this is an award for just ONE star blogger.



Here are the "rules"

1) Link back to the person who gave you the award and share something about them.
2) Nominate a new recipient and tell them how special their blog is to have been singled out for this exclusive award
3) Share ONE thing that makes you laugh, ONE favourite thing and ONE place you would like to visit

So the very first recipient of this award is .... Madeleine at Scribble and Edit

Madeleine's blog is always a pleasure to visit. Her posts are creative and entertaining, with great graphics and well laid out. Blogging is all about give and take and Madeleine puts so much energy into other people's blogs.  That is why Madeleine is the first Star Blogger.

Now, onto my awards :)

Thanks to Zan Marie and Sully	Thanks to Deborah Walker, Jys and Zan Marie

So all I have to do now is reveal 7 things about myself:

1) I bought our first house before my wife had a chance to see it. It was a wreck and took us a year to make it habitable. I think she forgave me!

2) I used to play the flute, until I sat on it.

3) My favourite colour is red

4) My great great great grandfather was the son of the dutch widow of a german, who was then adopted by her second husband Alexander de Mattos, whose father, a Portuguese count, fled to South America during the Peninsular War

5) As a (young) teenager I was hugely excited to see Mars hanging large and red low in the evening sky ... until my Mum told me is was just a "harvest moon". Ah well.

6) I have been singing in a church choir since I was nine (with a six year gap in teenage years). Twenty five years of which have been in the same church.

7) I started making cakes when I was seven. Whilst making my very first cake I managed to "fold" the mixture onto the floor. Oh well - I spooned it back into the bowl, no harm done!

Engineering for Writers will be back next week, when life is a little less hectic!