Who Am I?

I've been tagged by Colour Me In. It's been a while since I did one of the question and answer memes so given it's a slow blog material week this week, I'm gonna give it a go.

Kudos to MissyFee who gave my favourite answer to a question yet. She said she'd love to buy yarn and truffles (not the chocolate kind) and I thought, wow, what a stunning combination. Love it.

Here we go.

What Is Your Current Obsession?
Getting my current projects finished. I'm totally in the zone. I've got gifts to finish, a cardigan for me to finish, two sets of socks. I really want a clean slate!

What Are You Wearing Today?
At this very moment, purple pyjamas and my Blackrose socks. It's winter and I'm showerd, fed and comfy!

What's for dinner?
Sean made a stunning, simple dish of chicken drumsticks braised in an Asian style sauce he made up. It had turmeric, five spice, ginger, salt and pepper. It was gorgeous and we had it with stirfried bok choy from the garden and brown rice.

What Would You Eat for Your Last Meal?
Oysters and champagne. And they would be special oysters, like the ones from Coffin Bay in South Australia. I can't even imagine what champagne I'd have. That'd take some thought but there are some very fine local ones I'd not turn down.

What's the Last Thing You Bought?
A mixed salmon and tuna sushi take away for lunch from the best Japanese lunch spot in Canberra, Sushi Sushi.

What Are You Listening To Right Now?
Discussion on The New Inventors.

If you could go anywhere in the world in the next hour, where would you go?
Scandanavia. Probably Norway. I need to see a fjord and eat cloudberries. Although not necessarily at the same time.

Which language do you want to learn?
I would return to my Russian studies at ANU because I never completed it beyond second year and when I hear Russian spoken now, my heart aches for what I gave up.

What do you love most about where you currently live?
Canberra is my home. I came here on a school excursion from the coast when I was twelve and I imagined what it would be like to live here as a grown up. I've been here since the late 80s and feel like I truly belong here. Sometimes I think about the big city lights, but I know it's not really me. Canberra is like a country town with city aspirations. Lots of space and clean air and trees and beautiful mountains all around. It also has four seasons, something many Australian regions don't have.

What is your favourite colour?
Red. Or is it purple? I think it's a close tie between the two.

What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?
It's a black t-shirt I bought years ago that I adore. I've never had a t-shirt I loved more. I will be devastated when it is really, really gone. It's still holding on. How boring is that?

What were you doing ten years ago?
I had just walked out on a job as a nanny for a wealthy family in the Cotswolds, England. I was back in London, living with relatives and feeling quite out of my depth.

Describe your personal style?
Comfort. I love a uniform. I like to stick with what I know works for me in a fairly limited range. Soft fabrics, hints of the feminine, accents of colour against a basic black wardrobe. And cardigans. More and still more cardigans.

If you had $300 right now what would you spend it on?
Several new pairs of really nice shoes. I'm a bit short on nice shoes. I never seem to budget for them.

What are you going to do after this?
Make a pot of rooibos vanilla tea for us and drink it while knitting and watching Spicks n Specks.

What inspires you?
Other people's stories. Someone's experience, views and ideas put together really well, whether in print or interviews or films can lift me out of my rut and show me new ways of being.

What are your favourite films?
Jane Campion's An Angel At My Table has rated as my top film for many, many years.

Who's work/designs are you inspired by?
At the moment I'm very much inspired by Ysolde Teague, the self described 'young Scottish knitwear designer.' She's so clever.

Your favourite books?
The Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann; Middlemarch by George Eliot; The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville; Cloudstreet by Tim Winton; Persuasion by Jane Austen; The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell. To name a few.

Do You Collect Anything?
Yarn! The day I saw RoseRed's stash, I began to see the value in having really, really nice stuff close by, ready to call on when inspiration hits. Also cook books and I have a rather lovely, but small collection of early edition George Eliot novels.

What makes you follow a blog?
I see something that speaks to me.

What was the most enjoyable thing you did today?
Got to ride home on the bus with Sean and realised how much more quickly the trip goes when having nice conversation.

What's one thing you dream of doing?
Writing and publishing a novel.

Wow, that was longer than I realised. Thanks for reading!

Edited to add: I tag the following:

Amy in Rhode Island
Donna Lee
Terby
1 More Row


Bells

Favourite Photo: Laughing at the wedding

I got tagged by Amanda over at BugMum. It's a meme started by Fat Mum Slim.

It's really simple. I love how every photo tells a story. Some short stories, some long tales. I want to know what is your favourite photo of yourself. Everyone has one. The photo they look at and smile. It reminds them of something, some time, some place. A moment in time. So share the photo, share the story and then tag three other people. I want to see photos and stories all around the blogosphere.

So here is mine. It's a photo of a real photo, since we don't have this one electronically.




Is it cheesy to say that one of your favourite photos of yourself is a wedding photo? Yes, it's the day when we all hopefully looked radiant and wonderful, but they can be kind of artificial too, can't they? We never wanted posed, airbrushed, formal photos and we didn't get them.

Through a photographer friend, we had a well known photo journalist Andrew Campbell as our photographer. He doesn't do weddings per se, but once in a while he does them if the couple and the wedding feel right. Over a beer at Tilleys, he said we felt right and he got the job. Or we got the job. I wasn't sure which. Either way, we were thrilled. Twenty minutes was all it took, up at the Botanic Gardens where we married in 2004.

I love this one because I'm laughing at something Sean said. And he is laughing. My first memory of meeting Sean is that he was laughing when I first saw him. His laugh is big and infectious and he makes me laugh a lot. I like to think this photo sets us up what for what our life is like. No matter what happens, at some point, we find our way back to laughing and I think my face says it all.

I'm not going to tag people because I know far too many bloggers who don't like posting photos of themselves online. But if you'd like to do this, please let me know!

* * *

Tomorrow is going to be a great day, just by the by. It's World Wide Knit in Public Day again and Sean and I will be getting up nice and early to drive to Sydney and have a day out. He'll wander around Sydney while I plant myself with hoards of other knitters at Darling Harbour. Stay tuned for the post-event write up. I'll be wearing my February Lady Sweater so I'll have photos!

Bells

Six of six

Amy tagged me for the photo meme where you go to your sixth photo folder and choose the sixth photo.

I was a bit nervous about this, wondering what on earth might show up but it was a good one and actually not all that old. I think I only started putting photos in my own photo folder when we moved into this house in 2006. Before that I think Sean had main carriage of uploading photos from the camera so older ones are in his folders.

Anyway, this is the photo.



It's me and my lovely nephew Will, taken on a visit to Sydney in February 2007, so exactly two years ago. I love this whole series, taken that afternoon by my sister, Adele no doubt. Sure it looks a little posed, as if Adele is saying 'Smile at Aunty Bells, Will!' but the other photos from the same series suggest we were having lots of fun, goofing around.

Like this one.



And this one.



Nearly five years have elapsed since this little guy came into our lives as the first grandchild and therefore my first blood nephew. Almost five years of absolute magic and incredible love. He has the sweetest temperament, the most playful grin and a surprisingly dry wit (if you can imagine such a thing in a small boy). He is a part of my sister, and therefore a part of me and though I was very excited for him to arrive, I had no idea the magnitude of love that was in store for me.

Watching him grow, and watching my sister be the most amazing, caring mum has made every day of his life so special. 

In a couple of weeks, I'll have a new niece. My youngest sister is about to give birth. Clearly aunty-hood suits me so I've got more love to look forward to.

Thanks for tagging me, Amy. It was nice to spend a moment thinking about being an aunty. 

Bells

Day 26: This is...something I'm surprised I like

Today's This is....subject (nominated by Earl and Cookie) is something I'm surprised I like. This subject seemed at first too hard, then this morning it came to me.

Knitting!

Yes, I am sometimes surprised that I like knitting. I was a devoted crocheter for years. A friend I don't really know any more used to hound me to take up knitting. She said it was soooo much better than crochet. Call me crazy but when someone says that what they do is better than what I do, I dig my heels in. 

Apart from sheer stubbornness, I knew that I'd tried knitting and well, all those stitches! Why faff about with that when you could have the delight of just one stitch on the hook at all times with crochet. So I held off, until one day I felt a strange urge and dug out an old pair of needles and some Clechkeaton 8ply.

The rest, as they say, is history. 

And here's today's knitting. A sock I was working on this weekend while we were in Sydney visiting Kylie for her birthday party.

And that was the scene of our breakfast this morning in sunshine with small children to amuse us and birds in the trees. None of us, I'm happy to report, were terribly fragile the morning after the night before. We were good. And it was all utterly delightful. The best bit?

Giving Kylie a basket of carefully selected high quality yarn. Koigu, cashmere, Lorna's Laces, Malabrigo. I could go on. We wanted to set her into the next decade armed with fabulous delights worthy of a fine knitter and wonderful friend. 

Bells

A bit of randomness

Brit-blogger, Princess Pea, tagged me for a meme this week and given I've got little in the way of knitting to talk about, I thought I'd give it a go. I think I may have done it a long time ago but what the hell. 

Actually, I think I may have done the Seven Weird Things meme. Random is not necessarily weird. So here we go.

Seven Random Things about Me

1. I was in a school production of Oklahoma! when I was nine. I played the character called Annie and I had the spotlight for three or four whole lines all to myself. Freaky but thrilling. No idea why that just came to mind.

2. Sean and I figured out we met several times over six years before we met properly. We paid literally no attention to each other. He once visited my group house. Then we met at a friend's birthday on week when we had each broken up with other people. In the end we met properly when a girlfriend took me to a BBQ Sean was hosting at his house. He was hoping that one of his friends would bring a girl he hadn't met before. 

3. I submitted a story to the Women's Weekly when I was sixteen. It was a war romance. I even wrote my age on it, hoping the editor would see I was young and go easy on me. She did. She wrote me a nice letter about how it was a nice story but not what she was looking for and good luck with writing future stories.

4. I hate having my feet touched. Loathe it. The last time I tried a pedicure I almost kicked the girl in the face when she started filing my toenails. It came to an abrupt end. 

5. I adore ABBA. I have done since I was about three. Something about it still connects with me that little girl in an instant. One my earliest memories is singing Mamma Mia with my dad. We always stood on the rug in front of the mantle piece, back to back, trying to do the pose that the ABBA girls did. I thought we were very cool.

6. It took me until I was 22 to figure out I didn't have a sense of smell. I think I spent years pretending I could smell because I thought something was really wrong with me. A boyfriend was the first person to really quiz me on it when I said I couldn't smell the fish and chips we were eating. There is no explanation for why I can't smell, so really, there is something wrong with me. I cope.

7. I enjoy thinking about these things. I'm a total nostalgia junky and I have a memory for strange details. Everyone in my family knows I am the person to ask if they can't remember a date, a detail, a name. Even today, Adele called me from Sydney asking if I could remember the brother of twin sisters we knew from church camp in the 1980s. I remembered in an instant. Weird details come back to me easily but I can't remember what's on my grocery shopping list.

OK, I'm gonna tag some people I want to read more about.

1. Knitting Sprouts

2. Knights Don't Knit

3. Zephyrama

4. Dr Bones

5. George

And thanks for all the get well wishes. I'm on the mend, I think. Coughing a lot less violently now and actually sleeping. That makes a huge difference. 

I've also almost finished my alpaca vest. I should be able to post something knitting related this week! 

Bells

This is....how I like to spend my weekend

So I dropped the ball a bit on the Sunday night 'This is...' meme. Not sure how long it's been since I participated, but I'd be guessing a couple of months. If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, it's a lovely meme that happens weekly and is hosted by Three Buttons, although somebody different nominates the subject each week. 

Anyone can sign up. It's great fun, when I remember to do it and to look around at what everyone else is doing.

This week's theme was nominated by blogger, Bird Bath. As I was going to post about our day anyway, I thought it fitted in nicely! So, without further ado....

Weekends for me are a recharge time. That means not always being flat out. And not always talking to people. And not always having to go somewhere. We all spend our weeks going places, talking to people, rushing around. Some weekends with all of those things happening are just fine, but not all. I am not a happy Bells if I have too many weekends like that.

So weekends need to include a few carefully selected ingredients, most of them being knitting, cooking, gardening and hanging out with Sean and that's how today was. 

I started the day with tea, knitting my shawl and watching Silent Witness, which I could not stay awake for last night.


You know, that's all the repeats done on the shawl. It's so small and I've got loads of yarn left. How strange. I'll just keep going then!

There was a hint of spring in the air so we made the most of it. But before I set foot outside, I sent Sean out on errands for a while and had the house to myself (another vital ingredient some weekends!).

I made oxtail soup so it could simmer away for the afternoon.


An hour spent chopping and simmering and browning was lovely.


Sean came home and we worked hard lifting and moving broken concrete. Underneath, we found these. Aren't they amazing? Witchetty Grubs. Which apparently taste just like almonds! I wasn't in a hurry to find out but I did pause to take photos and then move them to the compost.


The rest of the day, not there was much left, saw Sean cooking a Lamb curry and me putting my feet up.

That's how I like to spend my weekend, mixing it up with a few of my favourite things. I suppose we're all the same, it's just that some people include sky diving or clubbing as their favourite things. Not I! 

Bells

This is....my favourite holiday memory

This week's "This Is" theme was suggested by Hila. Interestingly, she included a holiday memory that's a bit like mine!

Sadly, I have no photos to show of the week I spent in Haworth, England, although I've borrowed a few from tourist sites for the purpose of this story. All my photos from this holiday are pre-digital - from 1998 when I was in England for the first, and so far only time. At the end of this particular part of my trip there, I could have gone home happy, and I probably should have, because the rest of the trip was pretty ordinary. At that point, I'd done what I most longed to do.

The day I travelled by train to Leeds, then got a bus to the small village of Haworth is still very clear to me. I dumped my stuff in the backpacker's hostel and before I left, called my mum said, 'I'm here! I'm really in Haworth.' I just couldn't believe it.

Haworth, if you don't know, was the home of the Bronte sisters and since I was a little girl, I'd loved them. When I thought of going to England, I thought first and foremost of seeing Haworth.

I walked down the long road from the hostel into the village and straight up that narrow cobblestone path that leads to the parsonage that was their home. I know I was still young, and that I was alone and therefore all senses were heightened, but I really can't overstate the importance of first stepping into the graveyard and finally being there.


For the duration of my week's stay in Haworth this was my base. I went into the parsonage, now a museum, at least once a day to look at wonders there in their rooms and to try and feel them. I make no apology for sounding overly gushy here. This was the culmination of twenty years of love and I wasn't going to waste a moment.

The first night in Haworth, I went into the Black Bull pub where Branwell Bronte spent much of his time. I drank a beer and wondered where all the people were. Then I heard the barman talking about the soccer game that night. England was playing. Clearly everyone was at home and I left there feeling a bit sad and lonely. Even being in the home of your literary heroes can't make up for the feeling of isolation that comes from drinking alone in an empty pub on a Friday night.

Soon, I made friends in Haworth. I'm sure they see Aussie tourists a lot but for some reason, I fell in with a bunch who were amazed by my accent and, after the isolation of London, I found those northerners so welcoming. I hadn't made friends in London. I couldn't connect. But in Haworth I did.

Most notably, I met two brothers who were in their 40s and who told me that every year, they left their families and went to Yorkshire for a walking holiday. Together they crossed the moors and spent what they unashamedly described as time reconnecting with each other. I therefore felt honoured when they invited me to join them on part of one of their walks. They told me that they'd part ways with me at some point, because they were there to walk together, but for some reasonable distance, we traipsed together and though I can't remember a thing we talked about, they were kind and welcoming and made me feel included.

Towards the end of the week, I was brave enough to walk out on the moors alone. At the bottom of the parsonage graveyard is a sign pointing to 'Top Withins' - the ruins of a stone cottage which local mythology says is the building Emily Bronte conjured when she dreamed up Wuthering Heights.

Off I went. Those small, plain wooden signs are sparse on the moors and after some hours, I felt certain I was lost. Miles and miles stretched either side and I had no supplies and felt suddenly quite isolated. Nevermind, I thought, I'll just keep going. How hard can it be? This is a tourist trail, after all. I'll meet other tourists.

In winter. Oh how naive we are when young!

I did finally make it to Top Withins and truly, I felt like I was sitting on top of the world. It's a tumble down ruin, a low wall of stones set high up on the moors, miles of vivid landscape all around. I sat and I dreamed. I soaked it in. Whether or not it's the real Wuthering Heights of her imagination, no one knows. But it might have been and I loved it.


After a while, two figures came walking towards me in the distance and for some time, I had no idea who they were but when I did work it out, I was delighted. It was the two brothers I'd befriended! Soon, they joined me sitting on the wall and shared with me a hip flask of whisky. We looked out at land and sky and passed some lovely, reflective time.

Eventually, they moved on and pointed me in the right direction. I headed for the village and somehow found my way, arriving back quite late and feeling sure I was lucky. My sense of direction is crap when I have a map and ready street signs and landmarks.

Haworth, Yorkshire remains my favourite travel memory to this day. I'd go back there in a heartbeat.

Bells

All About Me

This is a nice meme I haven't seen before and I was tagged by PrincessPea. She's a relatively new blogger I was put onto by my friend Carol. It's fast become a favourite blog of mine.

It's the Peeps I Want To Know More About meme. Here are my responses.

The rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1) What was I doing ten years ago?

Exactly ten years ago I was working as a nanny (actually, glorified housekeeper) in a big house in the Cotswolds, England. In a town called Cirencester. I was just days away from quitting and walking away from the horrid, nasty woman who employed me. From there I went back to London for the remainder of the year before returning home.

2) What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:

As I'm about to leave work on Friday afternoon, all that's left is non-work things!

1. Go home to a house freshly cleaned by someone other than me (my cleaner. Oh the luxury!)

2. Open a bottle of wine.

3. Cook dinner (pasta)

4. Knit my clapotis

5. Watch British Friday night crime.

How good is that list?!

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Cheese. Any variety but the softer and stinkier the better.

Chocolate. The darker the better.

Peanut butter on white bread. Evil stuff.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Quit work and find something better to do with my time. Like writing.

2. Travel to Europe and set up temporary home somewhere picturesque.

3. Return to Australia and set up a permanent home somewhere near a big city but not in it, where I would write, knit and garden for the rest of my days with, it has to be said, a fabulous wine cellar.

5) Places I have lived:

We moved a lot when I was a kid. My dad had itchy feet. I've lived in Melbourne, a small mining town in Tasmania (Rosebery); a small town on the New South Wales south coast (Eden) and for thh last 18 years, Canberra. But there was that year in England in 98.

6) Jobs I have had:

Many.

Part-time library assistant. Part-time chemist assistant. Runner on my family's milk run. Part-time novelist. For the last 10 years I've been a Public Servant in many Government departments. Yawn.

7) Peeps I want to know more about:

I just scouted down my blog reader list and came up with these

Louiz

Gemma

Carol

Jess

Em

Sarah

Kim

Right, time for my weekend to begin! Have a good one everyone.

Bells

A Day In My Life: 14 May

I've watched RoseRed do this meme for a couple of months now and have always chickened out at the last minute because I forgot my camera. Not this time. I was armed and ready yesterday!

Here we go. This was my day on 14 May 2008. Start to finish. Only the interesting bits, I hope!

6am - 7am: It's an injection day. That's always a fun one to start with. Get up, shower, dress, check blogs over tea and discuss the Federal Budget from the night before. Honest response? Feeling miffed there was so much in there about 'families' of which we may never be one 'with children'. Just a reminder that makes me feel sad.

7am-ish: Leave the house together (usually we bus separately) but it's blood test day so we headed out to Deakin nice and early. The world looked like this.


and this

I do honestly live in a city although it's hard to tell from these photos. This is one of the reasons why Canberra is called the Bush Capital. Lovely, huh?

8am: Leave Sean in Woden and head for the city by bus. Treated myself to a donut and coffee (decaf) before work. I like to do this after blood tests. It helps replenish my blood sugar levels, right?

And I stopped for a moment to read the unputdownable new Yarn Harlot book which was a gift from Amy in Rhode Island. I love it and the package from Amy deserves a blogpost of its own.

8:40am - 12:00pm - Working, but not without some all important online catching up - blogs, friends who are also computer bound. Experienced deep jealousy that RoseRed was working from home and sitting on her sunny deck in her PJs.

However, somewhere in there, a package was delivered from Louiz (Random Acts of Yarn) in the UK. She asked for my address some weeks ago and lo and behold, a surprise arrived.

It's a package of these cool (literally) stickers you put on your head when you have a migraine. Louiz took pity on me a couple of weeks ago when I had a migraine but couldn't take anything other than Panadol for it. People do the most thoughtful things! And the yarn.....the yarn! Cherry Tree hill in DK weight. Here's a close up.


Pretty! I should take stuff to work to photograph more often in winter. I actually get the chance to take photos in good light since I'm by a window! Thank you Louiz. That's astoundingly kind. Louiz was a fellow steeked jacketer. Hers is black and grey and lovely.

12:15pm - lunch with fellow blogger Jess (new friend) and older friend, Karen. I got a prize for Jess's 100th blogpost contest. This is not a usual day for me - two presents!

A pin cushion - so cute - chocolate (the good stuff!) and a package of sprout seeds which is so great because I have been thinking of doing this. Jess also gave me a button necklace which I was wearing when I took this photo - it just happened to go with my shirt perfectly! Thank you Jess!

Over pasta we were entertained by their daughters who took turns trying on a hat that Jess made.

Miss 2


And Miranda

Nice lunch. Nice company.

1:30pm - 5pm - work. Emails. Work. Check Ravelry. Work. Emails. Blogs. Work. And so on. Got a call from the clinic at some point to be told my hormone levels were 'beautiful'. My nurse is called Buffy. This amuses RoseRed no end. Me, too actually.

5pm: Sean is in town so he collects me so I don't have to take the bus. This is a nice treat. It's getting dark early these days.

We discuss the fall out from the Federal budget on the way home and I don't knit because I'm too damn tired.

6pm - 7:30pm - Sean cooks dinner and I knit in my new PJs on my brother's vest, which I haven't blogged about yet. It's cool. It's the same one Donna just made and I followed her lead and converted it to be knit in the round. It's so fast that way!


Sean served up fabulous Chinese Pork Ribs with Chinese cabbage that we grew ourselves.

Then we watched all our favourite Wednesday night shows (had to tape Ugly Betty because of a clash) and at 10pm, after the Catherine Tait Show, we went to bed where I kept reading The Yarn Harlot. Nice end to the day.

Bells

This is....me pre-1985

This week's This is theme, as determined by Three Buttons, is to show a photo of yourself pre-1985.

It's been fun seeing photos from that time so long ago, especially photos of friends, long before I knew them.

Jejune kindly scanned in a few photos for me this morning after I dug them out. For my 30th, my mum gave me an album of photos of me. Some scary, some hilarious, some touching. A life, so far, in one album. So much....bad hair; odd, often hand-me-down clothes; expressions that I can still read through the space of time and memory. Weird.

Anyhow, enough of that, I bring you me...pre-1985.

This was about 1977, maybe first grade. The cuddly dumpling next to me is Adele.


What kills me about this photo is that I can see I was actually quite a cute kid. Up close, I had lots of freckles but from an early age I was utterly convinced of my ugliness. Crippled by it, in fact. The feeling has never left me entirely but I do recall it being intensely strong in childhood.

What does a child know of ugliness? It breaks my heart now to think of it, to even write of it. We were both cute girls, I think. Just different.

I treasure this photo. Adele gave it to me, framed, years ago, hence the oval shape.

Secondly, this is me in 1984, on my 12th birthday. A party at my house that I remember was overwhelming. I still don't deal with parties for me very well, although I remember really wanting this party.

I choose this photo partly because I'm wearing something hand knitted. Fingerless gloves. This was the height of my Culture Club worship and that year, Boy George was wearing fingerless gloves. My friend Sarah-Jane made them for me. I was pretty damn happy with them. I believe I wore them for ages, and everywhere.

Bells

This is my....perfect dinner party!

Have you seen the meme that's doing the rounds which changes weekly? It starts with This is my....and has a weekly theme of something you can show or tell.

I signed up over at Three Buttons. This week the theme is your perfect dinner party guest list and Georgie and I talked it over yesterday at her place. I've been mulling it over ever since and let me tell you, it's tough.

I've always thought the best dinner party conversation covered everything - high brow to low, popular culture to yes, religion and politics. Whoever said you couldn't discuss religion and politics at dinner was wrong, in my view. Some of the most thought provoking and opinion forming conversations I've ever had have been over dinner.

Still, it's a hard list to build.

Do I go with all my favourite female writers? Does anyone else think a guest list that included Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen and George Eliot might be difficult? With all that introspection and shyness, it could be a tough night for sparkling conversation.

What about my favourite comedians? Comedians are notoriously not funny in real life. I expect the conversation could actually become quite depressing as we all drank more and more red wine and sank into sad clown territory.

Favourite musicians and actors was another category. But the egos! Could you imagine? I've never actually thought that a room full of actors or musicians could be that exciting. Not all of them together.

In the end, this is what I came up with. Note, it's in no particular order.

Jane Austen. I'd rely on her for the witty one liners. I think she and guest #2 would have a fair bit to talk about. Stephen Fry. Comedian, actor, writer.

Again, good for the one liners but also a great lover of food and wine. I'd want to cook something extraordinary for him and late in the evening, pull out an amazingly good red. He'd also not be above the odd crude joke or ten. You need the crude joke people (classily crude, obviously) at a dinner party. It adds balance.

Speaking of people to cook for, I did really want to add Nigella Lawson to the list but it seemed too obvious. Since you can have living or dead people, I'd go for the woman without whom we probably wouldn't have a Nigella.

Elizabeth David. 1950s revolutionary food writer. See the glass of wine in her hand, in the kitchen? Enough said really.

But I would be rather scared of cooking for her. She was a pedant about food. I'd probably be safe with a very good roast chicken though. She did like things simple, too. We'd get very drunk and smoke a lot of cigarettes together.

Music is a huge part of my life. Has been ever since I can remember. I don't talk about it a lot here because I think it's kinda personal. But I'd have to include Tori Amos.

Few have been as influential, musically, in my life and she's not adverse to a good red either. We could discuss theories about Mary Magdalene and, with the next guest, get deep into the theological side of things.

Andrew Denton. My favourite Australian and a fabulous interviewer. Sharp wit, great heart, impressive intellect. I lifted him from one version of George's list yesterday.

It was either him or Germaine Greer. And frankly, I'm not sure Tori and Germaine would get on so well.

And finally, the eye candy. I don't like eye candy purely for the sake of it. I like my crush material to be both handsome and intelligent and though I've never met Colin Firth and have very little knowledge of him at all, I am sure he must be witty and clever.

I'd invite him to arrive early and we would have a champagne cocktail or two before everyone else arrived.

I'd never want the night to end.

Don't forget, leave a comment and go in the draw for a prize in the blogoversary contest!

Bells

Seven Things

Carol tagged me for the 7 Random Things About Me meme. I seem to recall doing something like it in the deep, dark past of my blog's life. I'm sure I can come up with 7 other random facts. Seems like a fun way to spend a Friday evening.


THE RULES:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

1. I don't like to swim in the ocean because of seaweed. It terrifies me.

2. I worked as a nanny in Gloustershire, England in 1998 for a wealthy family in a big country mansion. I had to fry goose eggs for the two little boys in my care every morning on an Aga. The boys rarely ate them and I was always jealous. The job lasted five weeks. I hated it.

3. Later on, I came runner up in a literary competition for the story I wrote based on the five week stint as a nanny. It was called The Comedian's Daughter because the woman I worked for was the daughter of a once famous English comedian.

4. My family almost moved to Canada when I was three. I still like to imagine how I'd speak now if we'd gone.

5. In year 11, I used to preach hellfire and damnation to the tough kids in my maths class. I had a teacher tell me I was the most irritating little so and so she'd ever had the misfortune to teach.

6. I have an almost irrational dislike of Tom Hanks. I can't explain why. He really seems like a decent bloke.

7. I had my first real kiss on Anzac Day 1986. I cried afterwards because it was such a letdown. I dumped the boy by letter a few weeks later.

In the meantime, I tag RoseRed, Amy from Rhode Island, Jejune, Mad Mad Rachel, Quilting Mick, Donna Lee and Em!

So there you go. I hope you are all enlightened! Have a great weekend!

Bells

100 things you always wanted to know

These 100 things about me memes are so self indulgent but they can make for great reading. I apologise if mine doesn't make for great reading. Go right ahead and skip it if you want! I've read some great ones lately, notably, RoseRed's was insightful and funnier than she thought it was.

Feeling tempted to do you own? Have a go. It's not as hard to come up with 100 as you might think!

100 RANDOM THINGS ABOUT BELLS

1. My real name is Helen and I was named after my maternal grandmother who died when she was 39 years old.
2. I never met her.
3. My paternal grandmother, who I only met twice, was apparently a knitter with beautiful tension. I like to think I inherited that from her, although my mother’s tension is also very good.
4. My nickname – Bells – is what most of my family and my husband call me. I used to be called Hells Bells in my teens but when I got all religious, I made everyone drop that. Bells stuck.
5. I am short. Only 160cm (or 5ft1)
6. I have no sense of smell, but I can taste. I’m lucky.
7. I have been married to Sean for nearly 3 years but we’ve been together for 8.5 years.
8. We met when he held an open invitation BBQ and a friend of mine took me along. He was hoping one of his friends brought a nice girl on the day.
9. I wore a red wedding dress and little red slipper style shoes.
10. I have two sisters and a brother, all younger than me.
11. The sister closest in age is the best friend I could ask for.
12. On the days I don’t talk to my sister at least once on the phone (she lives three hours away) I feel something is not right with the world.
13. Sometimes we just giggle about things like poo. I don’t know why.
14. Sean says we are poo obsessed. My sister is toilet training her three year old and we talk about that a lot. So I think Sean might be right.
15. My three year old nephew is the cutest, most amazing little boy I’ve ever known. I adore him.
16. I work for the Government. It bores me but I like the conditions.
17. I’m not sure how much longer I can just live with good conditions.
18. Until I met Sean, I would have said I couldn’t cook. He took me out for my first Thai meal and for some reason I thought I could emulate it. I haven’t looked back.
19. I now cook to relax.
20. I might not always look relaxed, especially if I’m cooking for other people but I feel great afterwards.
21. The person I love to cook for most is Sean. I love to plan a meal I know he will love.
22. I once made a cake that was so awful, even my dog wouldn’t eat it and she was a garbage guts.
23. I won a hair modelling contest when I was 23. My hairdresser needed someone at the last minute. They put me in awful, trendy clothes that I hated and I had to walk around in a room in front of judges with tall, pretty, thin girls. I hated it. But I still won the colour section.
24. I always wanted to be famous. I’ve kind of given up on that but if people read my blog, I’m happy with that.
25. I have written 2.5 novels. None of them were published.
26. My first novel was terribly clichéd in that it was semi-autobiographical.
27. I gave up writing fiction because it depressed me.
28. That was when I took up knitting. I’m a results oriented person and knitting, like cooking, gives me almost immediate results and gratification.
29. My youngest sister and I busked in the London Underground in 1998. We sang Indigo Girls songs and made very little money. But at least we could say we did it.
30. I worked as a nanny for a wealthy family in the Cotswolds and lasted only five weeks. The woman I worked for was a neurotic bitch.
31. I have no trouble saying that about someone, because she was.
32. I later came runner up in a short fiction competition with the story I wrote all about the neurotic bitch.
33. The ending in that story was a lot better than the real life ending (ie the fictional me said and did things I only dreamed of saying and doing at the time).
34. My first ambition was to be a missionary in Samoa.
35. Then I wanted to be an English teacher.
36. After that a nurse.
37. Then I got all earnest and wanted to be a diplomat even though I didn’t know what that was.
38. All the while I really wanted to be a writer.
39. I think I'd like to learn about collecting mushrooms. Mushrooms fascinate me.
40. I made a fairly dramatic exit from Christianity when I was 22. I took my defection pretty seriously, citing theological reasons and vowing never to return.
41. I still stand by that but I’m still interested in religion as a fundamental human need. I just don’t want anything to do with the religious part.
42. I once snorted green jelly out of my nose when my brother made me laugh.
43. I also tend to wet my pants if I laugh too much.
44. My sister and I used to laugh so much in church that once we had to apologise to the Minister afterwards. He told us, kindly, that even God has a sense humour.
45. I was pretty seriously bullied at school. I spent most of Year 8 and 9 hiding behind the library. I wasn’t a cool enough nerd to hang in the library. I was outside the library. No one could find me there.
46. I like to drink, but mainly only beer or wine/champagne.
47. I don’t like to get very drunk, but I love a good buzz – a bit of mood enhancement never hurts.
48. I talk a lot more when I’ve been drinking.
49. (Apparently) I snore like a fog horn.
50. I am a Cancerian.
51. Apparently this means I am motherly, a homebody and deeply sentimental. Sean says this is true.
52. He also says my deep and abiding love of cardigans is a dead giveaway that I am a Cancer.
53. I am acutely self critical.
54. It’s probably why I won’t ever be a successful writer. I agonise too much.
55. I can’t go past a fairy floss stall. It turns me into a five year old.
56. I enjoy being a five year old.
57. All my favourite literary heroines are from Victorian (or earlier) novels, like Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Bennet, Dorothea Brooke. I love them so much.
58. My other literary heroine is Anne of Green Gables. I think I’ve always wanted to be her.
59. I have loved the Bronte sisters since I was seven years old and I saw the video for Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights. My mum told me the story and I read the Brontes a little later on.
60. Going to the Bronte Parsonage in England was one of the most intensely happy days of my life.
61. I walked across the Yorkshire Moors by myself and got very scared that I was lost.
62. I have no sense of direction.
63. I get lost in my own suburb.
64. I often can’t remember where I parked the car.
65. I have ended up in emergency because I cut my finger showing off with a knife.
66. My knife skills are good, but not as good as I like to think.
67. I will eat almost anything except bananas. The thought of eating a banana makes me gag.
68. I’m not keen on raw tomato either. But I’ll eat just about anything else.
69. I look crap in pastel shades, especially mauve.
70. I have 60% grey hair.
71. I get depressed about the effort and expense of dyeing it all the time but I’m not ready to be grey.
72. I have no sense of rhythm so people laugh when I dance.
73. I don’t dance (unless I am quite drunk but even then only when I really like the music).
    I take music really seriously.
74. I’ve been passionate about music since I was three and I developed an enormous obsession with Abba.
75. I used to think Abba lived in my cassette player.
76. Singing along to Abba in the car was the only thing that stopped my chronic car sickness.
77. I still love singing in the car. I’m not sure Sean loves me singing in the car.
78. I’m obsessed with Tori Amos. Have been since 1991.
79. I’ve seen Tori three times – the best show was at the Sydney Opera House. Second best was the Royal Albert Hall in London.
80. I like cold days better than hot days.
81. I am obsessed with peanut butter. I try not to have it in the house much because it’s the first thing I want to eat when I walk in the door, and lots of it.
82. I can’t believe I left this bit til so late in the list, but I adore lipstick. Can’t get enough of it. Feel just plain wrong without it.
83. I wish I had thinner thighs and a flatter stomach. Don’t we all?
84. I don’t like working. I’d give it up tomorrow if I could.
85. Being organised makes me feel in control and happy.
86. I’m not often organised to my preferred standard.
87. Crying over a movie is one of the best, most cathartic things I can do.
88. I will often re-watch movies that make me cry so I can let everything out.
89. If I could have any magic power it would be to travel through time.
90. I can spend ages daydreaming about which time I would travel to.
91. Then I will feel sad that I couldn’t time travel to be in a Victorian novel like Middlemarch or Wuthering Heights.
92. I’m not so interested in travelling into the future. I think this is why I’m not futuristic sci-fi geek.
93. I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
94. I used to sneer at Buffy until I heard the guys from REM say they’d like to play at the Bronze on the show. Then I started watching it and figured out how damn clever it is.
95. I am obsessed with getting and sending emails. That little ping that tells me there’s new mail is music to my ears.
96. I am extroverted but only to a point. I can happily be by myself for ages and am probably a nicer person when I have enough alone time.
97. I hate housework. I do just enough to get by and not a scrap more, unless people are coming over.
98. I like making my own facial treatments out of kitchen items like eggs, sugar, olive oil or honey. I have no idea if they work!
99. I don't like to sleep in. If my body wakes me up at 6am, I'm cool with that. I just don't like to be forced to wake up then.
100. I’m a bit sad this list has finished so soon. I kinda liked doing it!

the 'where you live' meme

So far, there's been one official entry to the Where You Live meme, and one by someone who usually posts a lot of photos of where she lives anyway.

The first is from Alwen at Lost Arts Studio, a blog I've long loved for the photos that evoke so beautifully a part of the world I know next to nothing about, South West Michigan. I watched SW Michigan get all covered in snow, then start to thaw, then get all snowy again, killing off the daffodils. Heartbreaking.

I also like Alwen's blog because she's a tatter. That's a skill I've never aquired, and it's definitely on my To Do List. I have a shuttle and I had some very basic lessons when I was thirteen from the old lady who sat in the corner of our tiny little log cabin public library in the town where I grew up. So I will learn one day.

Roxy's blog also has some great location shots. She took it one step further and photographed her local Safeway recently, including a display of prickly pear leaves in the fruit and veg section. What the hell do they taste like???? They're a noxious weed here. I'm assuming they are elsewhere too.

Oh and in the comments, Carol asked about the crocheted item used as a backdrop in last night's photos. Yes, it is my own work - a lapghan I made for Sean several years ago - and no I haven't gone to the dark side, I came from the dark side! I used to think knitting was the dark side! I know! Perish the thought. I crocheted since I was a little girl. I just knit more now. I am, as Lime and Violet would say, bicraftual and proud.

So I'm looking forward to seeing more where you live photos. I know I mentioned kangaroos near my house in the first post about this, but honestly, you don't have to post cool and unusual things (like some of you seemed to say in the comments) to be part of it (and frankly I see more dead kangaroos than living around here anyway). Just a photo of your street, or the view from your front door, or a piece of scenery nearby that you like, will do. The things that maybe are mundane to you, but would be of interest to others, is the key! So get snapping (if you want to).

Bells