The Sunshine Blogger Award!

I GOT AN AWARD!!!!!

 Sullivan McPig nominated me for The Sunshine Blogger Award.

HUZZAH!!!!!

The Sunshine Blogger Award is a sort of electronic chain letter (for those who are old enough to remember when communication by mail required stamps) and is given to those who are inspiring and bring sunshine into the lives of their readers and fellow bloggers through their blogspace and/or their social media. 

The Rules
The Sunshine Blogger Award does not operate in an atmosphere of chaos, ergo there are rules as follows:
- Name drop and link to the blog of the person who nominated you.
- Answer the eleven questions from the blogger who nominated you.
- Nominate up to eleven wonderful bloggers and write (or borrow/steal) eleven questions for them to answer.

Sullivan's questions are

1. What is your favorite scary movie?

Tough one to answer.  Boston Strangler with Tony Curtis is a favourite but not super dooper scary. Footsteps in the Fog with Stewart Granger is a wonderful black & white Sherlock Holmes/Jack the Ripper style twist on a twist on a twist movie too.  But I still haven't watched Nosferatu yet either.
2. Zombies or Vampires?

Definitely Vampires!!
3. What movie or book do you turn to if you want to be cheered up?

The Tough Guys (movie) with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas.  It's hilarious!!!
4. If you could be an animal for a day, what animal would you want to be?

What's wrong wiv being a mouse?
5. There's a hippo chewing on your electrical wiring. What do you do?

Turn the power off!  Wouldn't want Hippo to get Mouth Burn......
6. What's the scariest thing you ever did?

I rode on an air o'plane a couple of times and Andrea jumped out of one with a parachute once.
7. Would you rather be king/queen or the power behind the throne?

The power behind the throne.  That way I can make all the decisions but the king or queen gets the shit for.
8. You suddenly turned into a T-Rex. What's the first thing you're going to do?

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!  (see?  You jumped there, didn't you?!?!?)
9. Star Wars or Star Trek?

Star Trek.
10. If you could star in a movie, what kind of movie would you want to be in?

I'd want to be in a 1940s or 1950s black & white "Golden Age" movie where men were Tony Curtis, John Wayne or Stewart Granger and women were Maureen O'hara, Rita Hayworth or Lauren Bacall.  And the title song was sung by Frank Sinatra and Liza Minelli.  You know, REAL movies.....
11. What would be the title of your autobiography? 

The Big Squeak

My questions are
1.  You borrow the Tardis and can go to any town, any country, any time period.  Where do you go and what time period is it?
2.  During your travels on the Tardis, you board the Mary Celeste on its' final voyage before it's mysteriously abandoned.  Would you tell?!
3.  Why (not)?
4.  After discovering what happened, you then travel to visit your favourite historical person (royalty/artist/musician/author/politician/whoever)  Who is it?
5.  After chilling with them for a while, you decide to investigate another mystery in another time period.  Which one would it be? 
6.  Finally, you decide to retire to a Royal Court anywhere in the world, any time period.  Which one?
7.  You're visiting London for the first time.  Get around by bus or underground?
8.  Starsky and Hutch or Cagney and Lacey?
9.  You win the Presidential/General Election and rule your country.  What's the first rule you make?
10. Regular Navy or Pirate ship?
11.  You buy an old locked wooden box from an estate sale/yard sale/boot sale that looks old and dusty and when you get it home, you find a key stuck to the bottom.  You open the box and inside is.......

As for nominating:
I'm bad at nominating.
I'm going to put some names down here of people who I think are inspiring and bring sunshine into the lives of their readers and fellow bloggers, if you see your name and feel like answering my questions: go ahead, but if you don't want to, you don't have to.  But if you feel like answering the questions anyway, please do, and accept the Sunshine Blogger award anyway!!!!!
Jerry and Ben.
Alexander Mackenzie Bear.
Bob T Bear.
mim4art

Travelling Sketch book.....!

We've had a couple more pages completed in the sketchbook - pages 36 and 37 to be precise.... and if you want to see, it's here!!

All the international drain covers!!

Asta found this one in Prague in June 2016!

 We found these ones in Budapest, Hungary (October 2015)

Sullivan found this one in Berlin, Germany!!

The pineapple one was found in Florida by Ryan!

 The Aero bubble one above is Canadian and so is the froggy one underneath!!

Alexander MacKenzie Bear found this one in Vancouver, Canada!!

 The one above and the one below were both found in Quebec, Canada by my mate Mim!!!  (But there's still a few pictures from France that are AWOL - still looking for those!)

 The one above and the following six were found in Paris in May 2014

Sullivan found this one above in Normandy!

 Well, some of my drain cover pictures have gone missing but I'm still trying to find them on Google Images.  Meanwhile, Hammie found three more in Brittany for me!!! (Above and next two)

And then found these three in Lauwersoog Holland!  (above and next two!)

 The ones above and below were found in Bremen, Germany by my friend Hammie!!  The one below, if you put a coin through the slot in the middle it plays songs for you!!!!  Isn't that great!!!

My friend Emily in Australia emailed me this photo of a drain cover in Wellington, New Zealand!!!  Isn't it brilliant!!!  I'm going to add this in to my collection...!!

 We found this drain cover in Lille, France, in March 2013!!

 I found these ones in Brussels in February 2012!  This shell isn't really a drain cover but it's still rather pretty!!  So far, all these are European except for one.

That's the last Brussels drain (above)!!!

Recently, I got some mail art from a friend called Kaz who lives in Japan.  Kaz sent me a picture of a man hole cover!!!!!

I can't remember where he said it was - I think it was either Japan or LA, but I'll check and update this update later!!!

Hammie went on holiday a while ago and sent me this picture of a drain cover he found!! 

These are French!

Hammie sent me two more pictures today - he found more drain covers on his camera!!  This one is from Amien in France...

And this one is also from Amien in France!!!

Last week, Andrea got out some old photographs from a trip she took to Barcelona.  She went there before she met me, which is why I didn't go.  But she showed me a picture of a Spanish drain cover she found there!  It has lots of little pictures all over it!!!

She also showed me this picture in Barcelona.  She found this on the pavement/sidewalk but she's not sure if it's a drain cover or not. 

She says it might be a fancy sundial or something...

My friend Hammie went on vacation in the Brittany area of France (August 2011).  Because he knows that I like looking at drain covers, he took lots of pictures of different French ones and said I could post them here!

I'm not sure what towns they're in but maybe he'll tell us!

This one looks like a telephone cover!!

A circle inside a rectangle!  We don't get those in England!

This one's almost a Fleur De Lys design!!

A spotty one!  It has measles!

That looks a little bit like the English Gas covers...

I think Hammie said these three are from St Malo.....

Wow!!  Those are pretty!!  Thank you for sending those, Hammie!!!

This one was recently found in Prague, Czech Republic by my friend Sullivan McPig (he has his own blog too, listed on right).  He took a photo of it specially for this collection!

I found this one (above) in Groningen, Holland back in February 2011 and has the Martini Tower on it!

These ones are from Groningen, too!