Ooh, ooh, ask me, ask me....

Ooh, I've just discovered I've been tagged for another of those meme things. I'm a sucker for any sort of quiz really - The Husband and I cemented our burgeoning relationship in the dark days of the early 90s through the medium of pub quizzes and, on the side, I'm quite a girly swot and thoroughly enjoy the grown up equivalent of sticking my hand up in the air and shrieking, "me, me, Miss, I know the answer, ooh, ask me, ask me". I also seem to have one of those brains with an amazing capacity to store 'really useful' pieces of information that make you quite good at Trivial Pursuit (like 'what is the largest country in Africa?') at the expense of pushing out genuinely useful pieces of information like how to work out percentages.

There are a lot of 'oohs' in that paragraph. Not an expression I get to say much in real life these days.

Anyway, I was just wandering around the blogosphere and stumbled into exmoorjane's world to find that she'd tagged me for some questions a couple of days ago. So I'd better get on and answer them then, hadn't I?

What are your current obsessions?
I seem to be currently obsessing over coloured glass, preferably cut glass. It started with a lime green cut glass bud vase that I bought from a charity stall for 50p a year ago. I put it on my kitchen windowsill earlier this year and marvelled at the sunlight shining through it. "More, I need more", I panted. So off to eBay I went. My criteria are that the object musn't be too large, as it has to sit on that particular windowsill AND NO OTHER, and I would prefer it to be a solid colour rather than what is called 'flashed'. This is hard to describe but it's almost like a clear glass object has been dipped in a dye which sits on the outside layer. A design is then cut through to the clear layer underneath so you get a mixture of the clear and coloured. There's lots of Bohemian and Romany glass like this out there. I don't really like it but have been resigned to having to get some in order to get some red glass in there. You just can't easily find solid red cut glass. But, look, isn't it all so pretty?



I have only recently really got into blogs and blogging, and having found some absolutely fabulously funny bloggers (I'm looking at you Jaywalker and Antonia), I now find myself clicking my Google Reader list up to and including several hundred times a day in the hope that something new and entertaining has appeared to distract me from everything else in my life that I should be getting on with.

Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often?
I don't seem to have a single item that I wear most often, but I do live in Gudrun Sjoden clothes as they're bright, colourful and designed for layering. I also wear Birkenstocks these days - The Artist was smaller than me so heels were avoided and I never got back into them again. But, then again, when you can wear silver holographic comfortable footwear, like this, where's the problem?


Oh and fuschia pinky-purply trainers, forgot about them:



What's for dinner?

Dunno, what d'you fancy? I'd like Peking Duck please if you're offering...

Last thing you bought?

Some beading stuff from eBay. Specifically some African blue opal, Bronzite, blue sponge coral and yellow jasper. I make jewellery using unusual semiprecious stones that you won't find in the average High Street and mix them with pearls. I also make dichroic glass (I'm planning a future post on fusing glass). Why yes, of COURSE there's a website, thanks for asking - www.venerablebead.co.uk.

What are you listening to?

The sound of the birds in the garden and the neighbours slamming car doors in the street. Musically, I tend to either have my iPod on shuffle (so it could be anything from industrial metal-banging by Einsturzende Neubauten to Handel) or Radio 3. I have catholic tastes in music.

If you were a god/goddess who would you be?
Ooh, good question. I've thought about it and I'd quite like to be Odin but he only has one eye, he does have a couple of ravens which is a positive aspect but I don't think that outweighs the whole monocular thing. Anyone who mucks about with the animals is appealing, so that includes Herne the Hunter, Cernunnos, Epona, Diana, Athena amongst others, but I think I'm going to have to go with Bacchus - he'd give the best parties!

Favourite holiday spots?

Las Vegas - big, showy, noisy, glitzy, both 100% fake and 100% genuine at the same time. It makes absolutely no bones about what it wants from you - it's a town that loves you when you have money but doesn't want to know you when you don't and doesn't try to hide that fact. And I love sparkly coloured lights. And the buffets.
Arizona - hot, desert dryness. Red. Canyons - in fact, the biggest of them all, the Grand Canyon. Ancient American tribal sites. Meteor Crater.
Cornwall - St Ives. Cream teas at The Idle Rocks Hotel in St Mawes. Tintagel.

Reading right now?

'Return of the Native' by Thomas Hardy. I asked for a load of Hardy books for Xmas and have started with this one. Victorian prose can be a bit like wading through treacle and Hardy is no exception but once you've got your head around that style of writing, and the fact that it demands a bit more from you than your average Kathy Reichs or Marian Keyes, then the tragedies of the Wessex landscapes draw you in.

4 words to describe yourself.

Colourful. Loyal. Animal-loving. Calm.

Guilty pleasure?

Those freakshow documentaries - 'I survived a 200lb tumour', 'The 34 stone teen', 'Half man half tree' - that sort of thing. I am perpetually curious. Also 'You've Been Framed' with Harry Hill, especially the animal videos.

Who or what makes you laugh until you’re weak?

My husband still makes me laugh after all these years - in a good way!
Father Ted.
Bottom.
Eddie Izzard.
My brother (who I don't see enough of) is hilarious.

If you were to come back as an animal, what would it be?
A swift. Fastest flying creature on the planet, lives for 21 years, always seems to be having a good time. That, or one of my cats who are pampered beyond belief.

Planning to travel to next?
Hopefully Jamaica early next year for a family wedding on the beach. Sand! Sea! Sun! Rum! (not necessarily in that order).

Best thing you ate or drank lately?

Two days ago was my birthday so we went out to The Percy Arms in nearby Chilworth which is part of a very small chain of pubs owned by a couple of South Africans whose USP is that you can choose which size and cut of steak you want, see it cut in front of you, and have it cooked how you want. They truly do the best steaks I have ever eaten this side of the pond. On Thursday I had an 8oz fillet steak cooked medium rare which was so soft you could almost have eaten it with a spoon. Fantastic!

Flower of the moment?

Tricky. I'm rather fond of orchids right now. I love the fact that they give so much, and for so long, for such little attention. Great big blowsy blooms that keep going for months and all they want from me is a tiny drop of water every now and then.

Favourite ever film?

I love so many films, I don't think I can narrow it to just one. My favouriteS though include Godfather II, Goodfellas, The Right Stuff, 2001, The Shining, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Alien series, Predator 1 and 2, No Country for Old Men, Fargo, The Big Lebowski. As you can see, I don't do chick flicks. Although I also love The Sound of Music and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Care to share some wisdom?

Keep calm and carry on.
Don't sweat the small stuff.
When you're going through hell, keep going.

Rules of the meme. Respond and rework. Answer questions on your own blog. Replace one question. Add one question. Tag 8 people.

So, then. I've done all the above except add one question as I think there's enough there already. Now I just have to find 8 people to tag.

Jaywalker at Belgian Waffle (although she's probably too busy with the weepette, tortoises and beautiful Mexican boys)
Katy at Katyboo1's weblog (although she's probably too busy with family dramas)
Pochyemu at It's mostly about me (although she's probably too busy with exams)
Antonia at Whoopee (alhough she's probably too busy with her false moustaches).

Actually, I think just 4 will do for me for now. This post has been way too long.