The Lemonade Awards

Sage, whose posts I follow and greatly enjoy - and Dickiebo – have both named me for the prestigious Lemonade Award.

I am now obliged to name 10 favourite reads of mine in order to present them with the award.

The first, of course, is Sage. She always writes such interesting posts, so much so that even TBSITW has read them from time to time! With love and hugs for the difficult times she has been going through recently. A mention too for her ratz. Well, somebody has to love them.

Second is Dickiebo who is such fun I would consider proposing to him were he not already married. His comments on my blog never fail to amuse.

Third is Linda whose endlessly fascinating posts and excellent photographs have opened my eyes to a whole new world (cattle ranching in Alberta).

Fourth is a. who writes so well about life in England and France and posts some beautiful photographs. Particular mention should go to her posts about empowering women in the sub-Saharan regions of Africa. I should particularly like to thank her for stimulating me to read books in French again after a gap of at least 40 years. They are nothing grand, just police novels, but very stimulating for the mind.

Fifth is Tom Reynolds who writes fascinating accounts of life in the London Ambulance Service. He introduced me to blogging through his book “Blood Sweat and Tea”, so he has a lot to answer for.

Moving north of the border, sixth there is Trauma Queen, whose writing is of an extremely high standard, really poetic at times. I foresee a book ahead. He has finished all his training as a paramedic and just awaits the paperwork.

Dr Grumble and Dr Crippen inhabit a stratosphere where I would not dare to add them to this list

However, The Shrink has to be added to this list at number seven. Not only do I always enjoy his insightful posts, I should say that if I ever require psychiatric care I would prefer to come under the care of The Shrink and his team. This appears to be real teamwork as seldom seen in the NHS.

At number eight is Jobbing Doctor. His rants against the appalling behaviour of this government towards the NHS, and particularly GPs keep me up to date (and don’t mention Neil Bacon!) However of perhaps more interest is the other side of his life, his tastes in reading (where I have often selected books from his list and found them always worthwhile reads), and also reading of the fact that he has a baritone voice and sings in a choir and plays the cello too. All good for the soul.

At number nine is the little medic and his fiancé from whom we have, sadly, heard very little since graduation.

Finally at number ten is Michelle Au, an anaesthesiologist in Atlanta who posts about her delightful 3 year old Cal and new baby Mac. She posts many photographs. Cal is such a beautiful boy that it is reassuring to hear that he can throw a major strop, for example when going for his immunisations.

These awards are issued in absolutely no ranking order and there are many more whom I could have included.

I don’t like memes as I think they rank along with chain letters and clog up the internet, but I am happy to have shared my favourites with anyone who comes along.

Later: you nearly didn't get this post as I have spent ages reformatting it after uploading it from Word. I also apologise for no picture of the award. Can't cope with Windows Vista, XP was fine. Must be my age.