Attractive Male "Qualities"

I put qualities in quotation marks because in this blog post I am about to be incredibly shallow and list my top five things that are attractive about men on an obvious, non-psychological, non-meaningful surface level. :)



1) Voice. This is number one because basically no matter what someone looks like, they will be attractive fullstop if they have an attractive voice. (This is for me, at least.) Although I probably wouldn't insist on a great voice in a guy if it was the only thing wanting, there's something about a deep voice, or a British or Irish accent, or a charismatic voice, or a persuasive voice that makes me want to go "Ooh, please, please, can I have your babies??" ... only silently!
2) Eyes. Boring choice because this would be near the top of basically everyone's list. I always feel very sorry for those actors who always have to play the bad guys because even if they're dashingly handsome and attractively dangerous, they usually have scary slash nasty eyes and I'm not sure they'd be able to find a nice girl.
3) Smile. Again, probably a boring choice. I'd rather they weren't always grinning - it would make me feel so colourless and depressed. But if they occasionally let out a smile that transforms their face, it makes me intrigued. And, as everyone knows, people with nice smiles are ALWAYS trustworthy. (They really shouldn't let me travel.)


4) Hair, or lack thereof. Please don't look at the above picture as an example; I just chose it because it looks funny. But I do like dark hair, and I also don't mind a bald head occasionally. I'd rather guys shaved it all off than had a bald spot or - most tragic of all - a COMBOVER. Having said all that, I wouldn't repulse a blonde guy for no better reason than he didn't have dark hair, but it wouldn't occur to me to like him for quite a long time, probably.
5) Height. Okay, so not so extreme as that. But I'm a tall girl and I hate feeling like I'm dwarfing one of the male species. On the other hand, if I'm standing next to a very tall man, I feel agreeably petite. :)

Do you have a list of your own?

can you feel the love tonight

This photo is supposed to make you go awwww and feel all warm inside, because:

I am copying Stacy. Her blog post a little while ago about what she likes about her readers and the people whose blogs she reads made me go awwww and feel all warm inside, and I wanted to let you guys know I feel the exact same way as her. Here's my tribute, such as it is, to each of you:

Beck of Frog and Toad Are Still Friends and Beck’s Recipes
Besides being a great writer, Beck has to be one of the most creative people in existence. I had to babysit while on crutches two nephews aged nine and seven for a week in January – my first stop was Beck’s blog to get ideas from all the cool (indoor, in this case) stuff she does with her kids. And she shares the most incredible recipes, and blogs about the most interesting things. Her three kids are very lucky.

E. from Mirable Dictu
This blogger is an honourary New Zealander although she lives in Utah and is about to spend a year in Italy and Wales. No, I’m not jealous. She is the most incredible blogger and can make anything into poetry. Everything that happens to her seems somehow magical, the way she writes about it, even if it’s the most “ordinary” of events. On top of this, she’s arty and eclectic and cool and writes really nice comments.

Heidi of Heidikins
Shall we just say that before I started reading Heidi’s blog I never knew the pursuit of stilettos could be so interesting? She has awakened an interest in me that I never knew I had. Heidi has also single-handedly re-instilled in me a belief in romance and an appreciation of being girly, as well as captivating me with her fun and exuberant writing. Which is not to say that her blog goes only skin deep. Oh no. This blogger knows exactly how to strike the right balance between the profound and the absurd, the thoughtful and the joyful.

Jenkneebee of Or Something Like That
Besides her great taste in music and books, Jenkneebee does very funny, interesting or active things and then shares them in photographic form. She’s all about audience participation, and she overhears incredibly funny conversations. She leaves lovely and funny comments. What’s not to love?

Lynette of Tourette’s Mom
Lynette is actually incredible. Over the year or so I’ve been reading her blog, she’s gone through stuff no one should go through and yet found the time and love to be unbelievably caring and encouraging to me on this blog and also on my God blog. I guess I never thought that God could help you out through the internet but in getting Lynette to comment on my blogs and to write her own amazing stuff he has outdone himself. I’m sure everyone else agrees!

Patty of Green Tea Obsession

Patty was one of my first regular readers and commenters. She’s an amazing photographer and gave me so much good advice and encouragement. Now she’s moved over from Blogger to her own webpage which is a very styly and beautiful collection of her photography, regularly updated. Go visit her and tell her I sent you ‘cos I’m her biggest fan!

Pilgrimchick of Spark of Madness
This blogger is one of the first who commented on my blog and whose blog I actually deigned to read. And I haven’t stopped, because her blogging is incredibly clever and interesting. And there’s not that many other people I know who have had jobs pretending to be pilgrims.

Sara of Putting the Sara in Sarakastic
I mostly read the above blog but Sara has a multitude of hilarious blogs that contribute, oh, maybe 45% of the joy in my life? She also only dates ninjas and is obsessed with cool things like tiaras and Gilmore Girls, and leaves always funny or kind (or both!) comments on other people’s blogs.

Stacy of Welcome to the Confessional

By most standards, Stacy could be termed an old online friend of mine by now. When I first “met” her I was probably fifteen or sixteen, although I can’t remember exactly, so a reasonable period of time has passed since then, obviously, and I can’t believe I’ve never actually met or talked to her because she’s just been a part of my life for so long now, whether as The Dictator (semi-private joke) or critic or blog commenter or, I would say, a friend. Her blog posts and her writing both cracks me up and makes me think, she is thoughtful and incredibly intelligent and unique, and I can’t wait to tell everyone I know her when she gets famous.

Stanbul of Linglay’s Thoughts, otherwise known as Bonsai when she comments on my blog.
This utterly cool blogger was a friend of mine at school – just to demonstrate how cool she is, when we finished high school she got the award “Most Eccentric”. :) Once you start her singing you cannot stop the flow. While the rest of us did boring stuff like go to uni straight out of school, she went and spent a year in Minnesota and now she’s studying zoology and great sounding words like that. Her blog is a mixture of hyperactive stream of consciousness, thoughtfulness and a lot of quoting of songs.

Trish of Trish’s Dishes
I think I started reading Trish’s blog through Stacy and was immediately hooked. Trish is a funny and intelligent writer whose book I cannot wait to read, and she is also obviously a truly caring friend. She somehow comes across the funniest, weirdest or greatest stuff that’s available on the internet and shares it. She’s going to be famous and still somehow finds time to comment on obscure Kiwi blogs. She’s cool.

Tusk of Pigs from a Gun

I haven’t read Tusk’s blog for long but I’m a convert. Tusk forms my entire male constituency, he’s from Britain, and he also contributes to a God blog called Number One Reason. Sometimes I have no idea what he’s talking about – two words: British Sports – but overall he’s great to read :)

Virginia of The Virginia Monologues
I haven’t been reading Virginia’s blog for very long either but I love it! At the ripe old age of 21 she makes me look forward to being 30 :) She has cool friends like Bill Clinton and Dixie Carter and routinely makes me laugh out loud with her blog posts.

Also on my reading list at the moment is Tavis Xavier of Canadian Abroad, but this is a very very recent addition – I will only say that this blog is GOOD. And if I have missed anyone I heartily apologise. Leave me a comment, I will come visit you, and then I can add bits on to the bottom of this!

Response to a few comments on my last blog post: No, I'm not going to say anything else about Inappropriate Mystery Man. Please believe me when I say that I really shouldn't dwell on it and don't want to encourage myself because he literally is inappropriate in five different ways. I'm sorry for dangling that carrot but I was very tired and annoyed with myself and it was good to vent a little and now all I need to do is stop thinking about it! So, that was a no. :)

on being a girl

I've always felt glad that I'm a girl and not a boy (and no, I'm not sure at which point I'll be able to start calling myself a "woman"). But sometimes, girliness makes me feel a bit vulnerable. Here are several reasons why this week I felt glad I'm girly:

1) Four days this week I looked after two nephews aged 9 and 7 who are in the middle of school holidays. Besides making me respect even more the fortitude of full-time parents, this made me super happy I'm a girl. When my nephews got bored, we couldn't go running around kicking a ball etc because I'm still unable to walk, and so we had to think of other things to do. Lots and lots of board games, DVDs, books about technology, and Lego. Which is all very well, but I can't help feeling happy that when I was a kid I was able to do girly things like making pretty crafts or playing with paper dolls, things that are totally boring to my nephews, but SO MUCH FUN!

2) Probably the thing I am most looking forward to about walking again is shopping. And if that's not girly I don't know what is.

3) You may remember my post about a month ago on being a bridesmaid. Well, today I met up with Jane Doe the bride, and two other bridesmaids, and Jane's friend who will be doing our makeup and hair. We ate hot cross buns and chips, and had our makeup done and our hair styled, and it was so fun! I feel PRETTY! My eyelashes are so stiff and long I feel like they could inflict a puncture wound on someone. Our hair is half tied back and the rest is a cascade of curls, while Jane Doe's blond hair is tied back in a very elegant low bun. I love doing girly stuff! Three weeks to the wedding... yay!

the joy of womanhood

Last night two of my sisters and I went out for coffee. One is pregnant for the first time and the other has three children and before I knew it they had launched into an intimate womanly chat involving each of my elder sister's labours in quite some detail. I had never heard how horrible labour can be before and I do not want to hear it again. I don't think I will ever make the mistake again of thinking of childbirth as some precious, non-traumatic experience, every moment of which a mother treasures forever. And I think I will have to forget a lot of what was said if I am ever to consider having children again. (I really think that if they sent a whole lot of women who had had difficult labours in to speak at Sex Ed classes, the numbers of unplanned teenage pregnancies would drastically drop.)

The funniest moment, however, was when some unsuspecting male sat down along the cafe couch from us with a newspaper in hand - my pregnant sister had just launched into a description of the stretching exercises and tools a pregnant coworker of hers uses to prepare her nether regions for labour. It took maybe half a minute for the penny to drop and then, slowly, our eavesdropper turned carefully away and slid further down the couch while we grinned with satisfaction and continued our discussion. That alone, I think, made womanhood seem worthwhile again.

The photo: I went to the zoo today, accompanied by five children, sister, her hubby and my dad, aaaand my new camera, which arrived about twenty minutes before we left. Hurrah! I love it. 12x optical zoom. Yummy.