You might have noticed that lately I am not that active in blogging anymore due to my health issues. Most posts I had during the entire summer and early autumn were in fact the ones I had already prepared beforehand and only needed little editing. It is not that I am out of ideas now just that I don’t get into writing them down due to very little time at my computer. So it was very surprising and honoring when I had been nominated as a honary sister for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award by Betty from Betty has a Panda.
She included in her nomination the favorite post of the people she in turn nominated. This means of course that I will also add my favorite post from her blog which is strikingly similar to the one she selected as her favorite from my blog “A method to strengthen your immune system from early on”
I guess it is time to answer the questions.
1.Why do you blog?
I can’t really answer this as I do not really know it myself. It all started back in 2013 just after my in-laws flew back to China as they had spent more than a month with us in Finland. My brain had to deal with so many oddities committed by my in-laws that I suddenly had the urge to share them with the rest of the world. I never expected to go on so long as I thought in the beginning that I will be done with writing those stories down within few months. Who would have thought that especially my crazy Chinese mother-in-law is never stopping to do weird things and thus there will be still many stories to share. I guess it is very similar for me as with Betty as this is some kind of therapy!
2. What is your favorite post from your blog and why?
My favorite post is Our Story: “How we met”. I had this post planned for a long time but it never felt right when I started writing it so it got postponed by nearly an entire year. Sitting down and thinking on how everything started was a very nice experience as I kind of relived everything again. Now over a year later it is still enjoyable to read the whole blog post again.
3. What are your favorite topics to write about?
I guess you now it already, of course MIL’s insanities! Besides that I also enjoy writing about the few travels we do as I get a chance to look at those pictures again and think back how it was there. Since this year I also added few post about cooking but sadly I didn’t get around this topic anymore for the past six months or so. I do hope to get back to it starting next year but lets see.
4. What inspires you to write your blog posts?
As said already in the previous post it is all thanks to my mother-in-law and the rest of the Chinese family. There are just so many things I experienced over the years that I needed some kind of outlet which became this blog in the end. Each story regarding my Chinese family has a lot of “back story”. I realize this only when I start writing as I suddenly see that there is so much more about the whole thing to add/ write more posts so yeah, it is very inspiring.
5. What is your favorite animals and why?
I don’t know. I guess I like pretty much all animals but I don’t have any favorite. I like dogs, cats, bunnies, even shrimps and fishes but I can’t say what my most favorite is from all of them. Right now we have two bunnies and several fishes. However I can say that I really dislike snails…
6. What is the craziest thing ever happened to you?
My Chinese mother-in-law…really I am not kidding. There are of course many other things which happened to me over the past years such as having a car crash together with my wife on an icy road without getting hurt at all or even damaging the car but nothing compares to the craziness MIL has brought to my life. There are so many occasions with her that I wonder how it is even possible. For example who on earth would challenge the security guards at the airport or destroy half of our apartment and say it wasn’t her fault?
7. What is your favorite childhood memory?
When my parents took me for the first time to our cottage in Finland when I was around 5-6 years old.
8. What do you like to spend your free time with?
Playing computer games, editing videos and pictures and of course reading nice books.
9. Where do you see yourself in five years?
Hopefully healthy! Besides that I see myself with my great family and perhaps with a little brother or sister for Nathan (me hopes for a brother while my wife wants the opposite…). I doubt that MIL wil stop doing stupid things so the blog should be also still going strong in five years.
10. If you could meet other bloggers you like in person, what would you talk with them about?
This is a hard one as it pretty much depends on the blogger. With some it might be about their experiences with Chinese families, with others about their favorite travel destinations, then some food topics or about being an author.
Who to nominate?
This is not so easy as I just saw that nearly every blogger I follow has been nominated already! I will just nominate a handful and hope that not all of them have been nominated before.
Kiwi in Korea with Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival
Sue’s Fabulous Travels by Sue with The Amazing Terracotta Warriors
The Fourth Continent by Tanny with Travel Greenland on a shoestring budget
Marta lives in China by Marta with Chinese Fashion: 10 Epic Fails
My 10 Questions:
- How did you get into blogging?
- What is your own favorite blog post?
- Did you learn on other blogs something which helped you later?
- What inspires you to write blog posts?
- Have you ever been asked about your blog by family or friends?
- Are you able to blog on a regular basis?
- Which country you want to visit?
- How did you come up with the name of your blog?
- What are your favorite books?
- What tips you have for other bloggers?
Crazy Chinese Family 
Ow I would love to see Nathan’s sibling! Brother or sister!
Sorry to hear about health issues. Hope you feel better soon.
Congrats on being an honorary sister! 🙂
Thank you. I always wondered how it is to be a honorary sister and here I am now 🙂
p.s. I am actually done with the interview for a month now but didn’t manage to check it through one last time to send it to you…I know not the best blogging approach by me.
Thanks for the nomination, “sister”! 😉
Hope you recover soon and can delight us again with your stories!
Yeah its great to be a sister 🙂
Hope I will recover soon as I am fighting with this already for about 9 months now. Even without any quick recovery I will try to get enough posts done whenever I feel well enough
Loved reading your blog, Crazy. Love all the MIL insanities you share and also about your life as it is in general. Congratulations on the award. Well deserved. Hope you get better soon. It sounds like it is annoying being sick all the time. Hope you get well soon. Stay warm and hope the cold doesn’t make you more sick 🙂
Thank you, it was a real surprise to be nominated for it. I have seen this award for the past months on various blogs but all blogger were female (perhaps i should grow my hairs long again!)
It is indeed not the greatest feeling to be ill that long time, especially all the different medications are taking their toll on my body. I dont want to even imagine how bad it would be with the cold now!
Haha, I am sure you will look good with long hair again, Crazy. New look for you to keep your neck warm during the cooler months 😀
As my hairs won’t be long enough by winter I still got the 3 meters long scarf I got from MIL few years ago :p
I didn’t know MIL was a fan of scarves. She strikes me as a hat person, but certainly not scarves 🙂
She actually knit it herself. For some years she is in some knitting club 🙂 (perhaps another story for this blog?)
Take care of your health! I hope you get better! 🙂
I will try my best, perhaps I will have an amazing next year as this one has been rather…terrible so to say 🙂
Your MIL may know better, but I think some years are supposed to be luckier than others in China, so right now the year of the Goat isn’t really up there. So if you are really into chinese superstitions, you have a better next year to look forward to! 🙂
I’m sorry to hear about your health issues. I hope it’s not anything serious? I really enjoyed reading your answers, especially the one about why you started blogging. This is how it should be, isn’t it? That you blog because you just can’t let it be:)
It is not that easy to say about my health issues. It all began with the expectations that I would be fine again after a month or so and that was in May…up till now I had all kinds of diagnosis and dozens of doctors giving me a hell amount of medications making it more often than not even worse. Right now everything seems stable and this month I spent even more days at home than in the hospital as it has been all the time before.
Blogging is really something special. I always wondered before how people have the motivation to go on and on and on, well it is because they love what they do so there is no big trouble to write it down and share it with others as I have experience also since 2013 🙂
This is really bad news to me. I hope you’ll be able to fight it off soon. Take care:)
Thank you, I will do my best as I still have big plans for the future 🙂
It’s very sad to hear your health is not good, and I know we have not met and I don’t know you (but I do know a little about your MIL – ha ha) so I am hoping that you can continue to blog and more importantly I hope your prognosis is good. Oh and sincere thanks for nominating me; you are very kind and lovely.
I will do my best to get better, nothing is more annoying than the own health holding you back!
You are welcome for the nomination, I haven’t been following your blog for too long but I have read many great articles from all over China and some other places which is really interesting for someone like me who has only visited xi’an and shortly Beijing in china .
Congratulations with the award. Get well soon.
Thank you 🙂
Hope you feel better soon. Sorry to hear that you’ve been under the weather. Take care.
Lets see what the next year will bring for me, I guess I had it coming after 2014 was just too amazing 😉
Awwww. I’m sure everything will right itself soon. Hugs!