Any Questions Answered

Sarah tagged me in on the Liebster blog tag recently and I haven't done one for a very long time, so here are my answers:


1. What was the last song you listened to?

Creep by Radiohead




2. When was the last time you laughed, and why?

I cried laughing after getting out of an interview with a colleague. I'd written the questions: she hadn't had a chance to read through them till we got in the room. Got to the last one which was something along the lines of "summarise working pattern, start date etc. Any questions?" and she, god love her, didn't realise and read it out deadpan, a la Ron Burgundy reading the autocue. We kept straight faces during the interview, god knows how, and then nearly fell down the stairs laughing afterwards.




3. What did you do for your last birthday?

I turned 30 but not in wild style or anything. Took the day off work, rolled round in bed surrounded by wrapping paper, went for sushi and a film with my dad, then out for dinner with mum, brother and sister in law. All very relaxed and lovely. Then Char whisked me off to Bath the next day for a truly wonderful weekend of books and bonnets!





4. If you could spend an afternoon with any two people, one male and one female, dead or alive, fictional or real, who would they be and what would you do?

*gnashes teeth* I can't decide! I had a hard enough time narrowing it down to 5 fictional characters for my dream dinner party. May I have one of each?

Fictional, probably Marcus Didius Falco and Helena Justina from the Falco books. They would be great fun. I could help them solve a mystery and then sit around quaffing the finest Roman wine with them. (I would also be very tempted to hang out with Chrestomanci or Sam Vimes or Dominic & Mary Alistair but I think Falco & Helena are the best match for the requirements given)

Real, I would love another afternoon with my grandparents but how do I choose between the four of them? Impossible. So I'll go for the real but dead option and head back to the glamour of Hollywood to lounge in a director's chair and watch Gene Kelly and Katharine Hepburn do their thing.




5. What's your most visited website, except your blog?

I do spend a lot of time on Twitter and browsing blogs but my most visited website is probably a horsey forum. It's a busy one so there's always something new and interesting to read. Plus the people on it understand this.

6. What are you currently coveting?

Not an awful lot. My tastes are pretty frugal and I'm mentally reining them in even more recently. I would very much appreciate a new Kindle though as mine is just about readable but has developed lots of horizontal lines on the screen which won't go away.




7. Which genre do you most like to read?

I honestly do read pretty much everything except misery memoirs. I quite often glom a particular genre so the one I like best varies depending on what I'm reading at the time. Romance novels are probably my favourite though as there's such scope within the genre - contemporary, historical, suspense etc. Basically I love a happy ending.




8. State three words that describe you best

Stubborn, bookish and shy.


9. Do you have a tattoo, and if yes what is it? If no, why not?

Nope. I'm not anti-tattoo or anything: I love them on other people but I've never found a design that I want permanently etched onto my body. If I did have one it'd probably be some form of literary quote. Too many to choose from though! I could quite fancy this one somewhere a little more discreet...




10. Sweet or savoury?

SWEET. I am very fond of bread and chips but SWEETSSWEETSSWEETS




11. What's one superstition or conspiracy theory that you believe in, or that you think has some merit?

Must admit I'm not much of a one for conspiracy theories. As for superstitions, I have to click my fingers three times if I say "thank you" after someone has said "bless you" once I've sneezed. Why? No idea! It's muddled up in my brain with a vaguely Peter Pan thing about fairies dying if I don't do it.

So, my 11 questions are:

1. What scares you?
2. What is your favourite word?
3. Who was the last famous person you saw in real life?
4. What was the last film you went to see and why did you choose that one?
5. How much cash is in your purse right now?
6. Which piece of clothing do you most regret buying?
7. What's the oddest compliment you've ever been paid?
8. Which book do you love so much that you want to buy a million copies and thrust them at people?
9. What's your karaoke song?
10. Were you named after anyone?
11. If I gave you £1000 right now, what would you spend it on?

I won't do the whole tag-11-people-thing cos by the time this has done the rounds for a couple of weeks, everyone has already been tagged! But if you fancy answering my questions, please feel free. I'd love to see your answers!

A Trip & A Tag

Ooh what a lovely weekend it's been.

Despite having to get up at an ungodly time for a Saturday, I was in London by 10am and, feeling very girl about town (am very much enjoying feeling more confident navigating my way around London), headed off to meet Margaret of Penny Dreadful Vintage fame. We had a little charity shop mooch, wandered around in the sunshine and then had coffee in a tremendous little cafe. And I'm pleased to report that she's even funnier and lovelier than I expected. Enviably dressed too! Isn't blogging fab? I am always a proper wuss about meeting new people but find when I meet fellow bloggers that I'm much less shy. I suppose there's already that sense of friendship there from all the chatting and commenting.

The original point of the jaunt to London was for Lee and I to see In A Forest Dark And Deep starring Matthew Fox and Olivia Williams. We very much like to get tickets for plays that feature our favourite actors and they're both high up on his list. The play was, well, hmmm... not very good. The acting was great - no complaints whatsoever in that department - and we had 3rd row seats which meant we could appreciate them up close (close enough for Lee to get hit in the foot with a prop can of Bud that fell off the stage). I just thought the dialogue and characterisation, particularly in the female character, were really poor in parts. The plot was a bit all over the place as well with lots of little things suggested and then never followed up on, and I saw the big dramatic moment coming a MILE off. The lady sitting next to me did not and let out quite the overly dramatic gasp when it happened.

We'd planned to meet one of Lee's pals in the evening for drinks but she couldn't come and working on the assumption that we'd easily spend £20 each in the pub, we bought tickets to see Flare Path starring Sienna Miller, James Purefoy and Sheridan Smith instead. I am SO glad we did. Despite the fact that we were sitting right up in the heavens and obviously didn't get to see any of the subtleties, I absolutely loved it. Mind you, it would have had to have been pretty bad for me not to. I love fiction and drama set in WW2 and have a real soft spot for RAF centred things, especially those about Bomber Command. But this really was great. Very funny in parts, very sad in parts, full of jolly 40's slang, really enthralling and with fab costumes and set design. Sienna (who admittedly I don't like very much) was much better than any films I've seen her in but Sheridan Smith was the winner for me. Such a sweet, emotional subplot.

Oh and we stayed in an EasyHotel. The hilarity. The orangeness. The lack of anything except a bed (seriously, wouldn't have killed them to put up a shelf or something). The bathroom was quite nice though.

Self with the perfect late night accompaniments - wine straight from the bottle, fake Pringles, a vegan Mars Bar and some roasted broad beans. What a classy bird I am.

I was terribly cultured today though. Lee's coach left about 3 hours before mine so I took myself off to the V&A for a look round. Oh my. I could have spent days in the place. I restricted myself to one little section and didn't even have enough time to do that properly. I was in my element in the British Galleries 1500-1760, with a very short dash through the 1760-1900 section as I realised I was running very late and had to scamper to the exit. Bliss, especially all the 17th century clothing and the Elizabethan room. The Hilliard miniatures are just exquisite - I stood gawping at them for ages. I didn't go to the Yohji Yamamoto exhibition but there were pieces dotted all around the rest of the exhibition rooms which I thought was a very nice touch.

Then just to round the trip off nicely, by strategically selfish bag placement I had a double seat to myself on the coach on the way home. Hurrah.

And finally...the tag. It's The Handwriting Challenge which the ever-lovely Char posted about the other day. I adore looking at other people's handwriting so do have a go at this yourself if you want to. The rules are simple, write down the following:

1. Name and blog name
2. URL
3. Write 'a quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog'
4. Favourite quote
5. Favourite song
6. Favourite band(s), artist(s)
7. Anything else you wish to say..

So, using a scrap of paper from my brilliant Edward Monkton notebook:

Didn't realise that I made the word "crap" look so much like "oap"!

Scavenger Hunt!

The delicious Helga tagged me with this and I thought, as I'm feeling ROTTEN and not wanting to share outfit photos today, now would be the time to take her up on it. So I have to track down the following things:

Favourite You Tube vid:

I can't embed it in here but please click here to see it. Too funny to miss.

Post a picture of something geeky:

I really love board games. Perhaps not Monopoly because it goes on forever and bores me but I'll play Cluedo, 221B Baker Street, Trivial Pursuit, Echelon, Articulate, Scrabble, Carcassone and lots of others until I fall asleep on the board.

Find a picture of something that makes you go awwwwwwwwwwww:

Well, every picture ever taken of Oscar but I must try not come across as a crazy cat lady all the time so...

I want romance.

Find a funny T-shirt:

I love Balcony Tshirts, especially the range of town/city tshirts that they do. It's a close tie between this one and the Basingstoke one but I'm part Yorkshire so this one wins. And just because I know Helga will appreciate it, here's another.

Post a still from my favourite film:

It's from Ever After. Mock if you wish. I love films and will watch pretty much anything, but my favourites list is generally composed of cosy things and I have such a soft spot for this film it's untrue. It's either this or Mary Poppins* depending on how I feel on the day. Today my girlcrush on Drew Barrymore wins.

* And you definitely can't mock Mary Poppins because Mark Kermode loves it too and he is God. So there.

A blog I have recently discovered:

Foof & Faff. She's lovely, go read her blog.

Something from my wish list:

Rock & Rule pj's from David & Goliath

I really want them, especially as I've just got rid of most of my ancient and baggy pyjamas, but I'm just not prepared to spend £35 on pj's!

And I'd like to tag:

Laura at A Daisy Chain Dream

Kel at Hair Advice and All Things Nice

Kandi at Kandipandi's Pad

Belle at Bellevintage