The Happy Tag

It's been a little while since this tag was making the rounds on many of the blogs I read, but I really liked the idea, so here is my take on The Happy Tag, which has only one rule: to list things that make you happy in a number of categories.

If any of you want to play as well, please do!

Books:

Delicious games

I have something to confess. Sometimes, I can get a little bit addicted to games. Most often, this is phone games like Set or Alchemy or 4 Pics, 1 Word and I want to play them all the time. To finish more levels, solve more puzzles, get a better high score! Then, there´s a few weeks each year when I´m completely into the new chapter of Delicious!

Elegant Blogger Award

I was nominated for my very first blog award by Carissa, thank you so much!

The rules:

- When you receive the award, link back to keepcalmandsparkle1099.blogspot.com and the blog that nominated you: Musings of an Introvert
- Display the award button in the post
- Answer all of the 12 questions given in this post (do not make your own questions)
- Nominate 8 bloggers (see below)
- Notify them that they have been awarded.

Laugh and learn!

Hello dear readers,

I'm going on holiday today! Yay! Which means I won't be posting anything for the next 10 days... Less yay.... I'll try to keep up with reading my f-list though.

I'll leave you with a link to this very nice YouTube channel from C.G.P. Grey. Two weeks ago, my colleagues and I were discussing about The Netherlands. I happen to have colleagues of 4 different nationalities, so the colleagues from abroad are usually interested in learning new things about their new country. On YouTube, I found this very funny vid about why you can't call The Netherlands Holland (I bet some of you did, right?). But I browsed the channel some more and found there were a lot of other funny but also educational vids about historical and geographical questions we all ask ourselves sometimes: what is the difference between the UK, Great Britain and England, how does the Vatican work as a country within a city, what is a leap year etc. Have fun and I'll see you soon (with pics from Germany and Austria!)

Becoming a fangirl

Last week, I've reread one of the very favourite books of my teenage years: Geef me de ruimte! by Thea Beckman (freely translated Give me space).

In this first book of a trilogy, Marije, daughter of a rich middle class family in the thriving city of Bruges hears she is to marry soon and that to a boy she absolutely can't stand. Spurred by stories about France from a travelling storyteller, Marije runs away with nothing but a set of extra clothes and her trusty horse Victor. Arriving in France, she rescues and later marries the troubadour Berton de Fleur. While war and epidemics rampage through France, Marije, Berton and their traveling companions journey across the country, bringing music, stories and news to all and making friends in high places.

The first time I read this book I must have been about 14 or 15 years old. It started of my 'love affair' with the Middle Ages, where for years I devoured everything (book and movie-wise) connected with this period. But this book also made me a fangirl, even before I knew what being a fangirl meant! I made a list of who I would cast as the characters where these books ever to be adapted.... This was before the age of IMDB, so I simply chose actors and actresses from series I watched and loved at that moment: Doctor Quinn, Road to Avonlea, ER and some Dutch series.

I dearly wish I could find that list again and laugh a little over my teenage fantasies. Not too much though, because don't I still make dream casts in my head (and sometimes on the internet) for books that I would love to see adapted? I'm afraid the list did not survive though and if it did, it's buried on the attic somewhere. But it sure was fun rereading this book and thinking back to the early days of my being a fangirl!

If you would like to read about the single book of Thea Beckman which has been translated in English (and adapted!), read my article about Crusade in Jeans in Femnista May/June 2013 here