What's in your handbag?

I am writing. Oh yes. So here’s a fun meme that I stole from here.

1. BK Magazine which I read in Starbucks yesterday. I brought it home (it’s free – I didn’t steal, honest) because it had a couple of articles I wanted to remember.
2. Tiny moleskin notebook. Can’t leave home without one.
3. Tissues
4. Fisherman’s Friends in cherry flavour and sugar free: oh YaY.
5. My ‘Mummy’ pack in which you will find paracetamol, Rennies, a nail file, some plasters (band aid), a tampon, Migraleve, green cream for mossie bites, lip salve and dental floss. Perhaps there should be a tea bag in there?
6. Change of battery for my Sony camera – see number 18
7. My iPhone: this has recently replaced my Blackberry which, after three years of service, finally died.
8. A couple of notes: the next book club book title and a note from a man in a shop in Phrompong skytrain station telling me where to buy a mannekin (Platinum.)
9. My tiny Flip video camera.
10. The most perfect wallet in the world. A discontinued line from Mulberry. Once it was salmon pink now it’s just dirty.
11. A bag in a bag; a bag for life. Whatever you call them I bought this in Chinatown and I love it.
12. Aluminium can tin pulls. We save for charity. It's for the bit of the prosthetic limb that attaches to the body.
13. Passes for school, apartment and BWG.
14. Lippy. Why? Gawd knows. I hardly ever wear it and when I do this is lip colour. Peer pressure?
15. Lip salve. Can’t live without it.
16. Push up pencil. I've searched long and hard and this one is perfect. The lead is .7mm, B and it’s by Faber Castell. I can’t live without it. If you want to borrow it you might have to put down a deposit so I know it'll come back to me.
17. Skytrain pass, MRT pass, various business and appointment cards.
18. My Sony camera. I never go anywhere without it.
19. The bag of the moment is a brown suede bag I bought in Selfridges about eight years ago.

 So back to the writing. Anyone else prepared to show?

10 Signs...

I’ve been tagged. I was tagged for a meme in February 2008. Yes, that’s 2008.

Gulp.

I’m mortified at my apparent lack of manners. Charlotte, please accept my apologies for not responding but you see I am a bit of a twit. I eventually discovered it via the ‘preview in a new tab’ feature that lists the links to that page. I’ve never understood how to show links to a certain post even though I’ve turned them on in the background settings.

But I love this meme because it’s original. It might be two years and four months (to the day) since the original tag but I’m going to do it anyway.

10 Signs a Book Might be Written by Me: 

1. The cast will be dominated by women; they will be strong…
2. Setting will be important. It will take place, either partly or exclusively, in Bangkok or England.
3. It will be about feeling foreign – whether you’ve ever been away from home or not.
4. Death will be important. Be careful how you live your life, Jenny will exact revenge…
5. There will be jealousy and regret.
6. There will be no guns, no aliens, no magical realism and the end of the world will not be nigh.
7. It will involve generations and relationships.
8. There will be sinister undertones.
9. There won’t be unnecessary sex scenes.
10. There will be realistic endings.

I’d like to pass it on to all unpublished blog readers who are writing a novel. Please let me know you’ve posted it so I can check out your answers.

Ten Things about me meme

Lovely Lily (thank you so much) has nominated me for this award. I’ve had it before but you don’t see any actor turning down an Oscar because it’s their second win, do you? Anything that takes my mind off ‘the decision that still has to be made by someone else’ is super duper in my book.

The rules say I must list ten things that readers don’t know about me (oh dear, I fear three years of verbal diarrhoea might mean I’ve told you everything already. I’m rather shallow, you know.) I will try very hard to make them exclusives. OK, here goes:

1. I can’t spell diarrhoea. In fact I have blind spots about several words. –ent endings or are they –ant endings? When you have –ly endings, do you leave the ‘e‘ on at the end of the word? I have to say things to myself to get them right: ‘in-de-pen-dent’ ‘def-i-nite-ly.’ Look! How do you know to leave the 'e' on? Then there are the typo spellings: I can’t type neice (see what I did there? I know it’s niece but I can’t type it that way.)

(Oh dear, it wouldn’t be good to run out of things to say after number one, would it?)

2. One of my babies was gigantic: 10lb 10oz. (Let’s be honest, the other one at 8lb 10oz was no weeny either.) Ouch. I had her ‘naturally’ as the obstetrics world coyly call it but oh dear god it was the least natural thing ever… She came out ready for school (minus the satchel.)

3. I’m afraid of mushrooms. Husband trained me to eat the tasteless button mushrooms in the UK but then we moved to Asia. Now I’m bloody terrified. They can look like aliens or slabs of meat but, really, the texture... ewugh. Obviously I’m scared of eating them, not them jumping up and attacking me… they’re mushrooms, right?

4. If anything ever changes in my life or I develop a new interest – I go out and buy a book on it.

5. I love textiles. I’m a terrible toucher. I can’t just walk past something I have to touch it to know what it feels like.

(OK, half way …)

6. I listen, almost exclusively, to the music of Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields, the 6ths, Gothic Archies and Future Bible Heroes.) 69 Love Songs is the best album ever made. Oh yes it is. (How could you not love songs with titles like ‘A Chicken With its Head Cut Off,’ ‘Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits’ and ‘Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin’) His lyrics are beautiful and he’s incredibly, horribly talented and I’m jealous because see number 7….

7. I’m reasonably good at lots of things but not really good or brilliant at anything.

8. I’ve got a butterfly mind. In between typing 6 and starting number 7 I’ve been off to iTunes and listened to Mag Fields latest album, which I don’t have yet; and then I listened to a couple of ‘people who bought this also bought…’ This butterfly mind might account for number 7…

9. I swear much too much. I once said ‘shit’ in the (primary) school library. The little girl next to me said ‘you just swore!’ and I said ‘no I didn’t;’ then I thought for a minute and said: ‘Oh shit, I did, didn’t I?’

10. I am a bit of a hypochondriac. Lord help me if there’s ever anything really wrong with me. I blame being a doctor’s daughter. I know more than the average person (which leads my thoughts in the wrong direction) but not enough to dispel my suspicions.

11. It turns out that I can’t spell suspicions either. Apparently I also have a problem with ‘ion’ endings: I think they might be ‘ian.’ Why am I getting worse at spelling as I get older? Is it just me?

Thank you Lily.

I'd like to nominate the following five bloggers: 

Angie

DJ Kirkby

Phil

KatW

Suzanne

Only five obsessions...Easy Peasy

I was very excited to be given this award by DJ.

The "Your Blog is Fabulous!" Award stands for: Integrity. Commitment to Excellence. Stubbornly Optimistic.

The Rules:

List five current obsessions:


1. Oh my blog; blogging. Completely and utterly can’t get over it. Even though I’m told blogging is so yesterday. Do you know what? I don’t care; I just do not care. Anyway, I always was behind the times. Twitter schmitter: not interested. Facebook, nah been there, done that. (Okay sometimes I do go and look and comment a teenie weenie bit…)
2. My mini race with Sheepish. The woolly one and I are both Novel Racers but we’ve got a private race on too. We compare word counts each Sunday and so far it’s two weeks to Sheepish; one week to me. (I MUST win this week.)
3. Family: from Son’s GCSE’s coursework and climbing mountains…to my poor elderly Dad who’s just broken his pelvis. I could worry for a living (Coo, if only someone would pay me for it)
4. Costumes for the Melbourne Cup. I’m only slightly obsessed.
5. Starbucks writing-my-novel sessions. I am thinking of asking them to sponsor me. At the moment it’s the only place I can write. It’s costing a fortune in tea and the muffins… ah, terrible temptation.

Pass the award on to five other bloggers: Queenie, Carol, Redders, Leigh and Sue.

Call yourself a writer?

DJ tagged for this meme. I am off on a writing course all day today at the Neilson Hays Library, so this is a perfect post for today.

1. Which words do you use too much in your writing?
Words which dictate meticulous detail of the physical movement of my characters. I think I’m a frustrated film director.

2. Which words do you consider overused in stuff you read?
The ones that should have been edited out.

3. What's your favourite piece of writing by you?
Anything that makes me laugh because then I feel terribly clever.

4. Which blog post do you wish you had written?
Anything that makes me laugh because I am very envious of people that can consistantly write funny.

5. Regrets. Do you have a few? Is there anything you wish you hadn't written?
Nope: it’s waste of energy (but so is worrying and I do plenty of that.) I would be sad to think I’d written something that might have hurt someone.

6. How has your writing made a difference? What do you consider your most important piece of writing?
I am surprised at how it alters my mood for the better. I suppose the most important piece is the piece I’m doing here and now (whenever that is.)

7. Name three favourite words
I’ve done this before in a meme on TeaStains, so I had to go looking for it. According to that meme my favourite words are: ‘Bollocks,’ ‘vituperative’ and ‘elderly.’ I also like ‘presbyopic’ and ‘discombobulated.’

8. ....And three words you're not so keen on.
Uhm, I can’t think of any though my BF, The High Priestess of Punk-chew-ation loathes the word ‘moist.’ If you talk to her about moist belly buttons, she’ll really freak out.

9. Do you have a writing mentor, role model or inspiration?
I’ve just finished the six sessions with my mentor through The Literary Consultancy and have the industry day and the ms read to go. Also the friends I’ve made through the Novel Racers have been a huge inspiration and support.

10.What's your writing ambition?
To write entertaining stories well.

I am passing this on to YOU. Please take it if you like it. I'm going to be late for the library...

Friday Photo on Saturday

I've seen a meme going around that I wanted to do but I misunderstood.

It said you had to choose the fourth photo from your fourth folder and post it. Despite the fact that I have made a complete adaptation to digital photography, I thought this meant the physical folders of our photos.

Well, I couldn't do that. None of the thirty years of non digital photos have ever made it into folders. This is how I keep them:



So how was I going to choose the fourth photo from my fourth folder? Perhaps it could be a lucky dip: close your eyes stick your hand in and retrieve any packet of photos... The task of categorizing these and filling albums of the best ones has been on To Do list for twenty four years. Of course I imagine, now that I'm writing, this job is never, ever going to get done.




Finally, I saw it around a bit more and worked out it was them there computer folders! So I decided to steal it. And here it is:




It's come from my (digital) folder called 'Desktops/Backgrounds.' It's one of an obsessive series I make on textures/patterns/arty images that catch my eye. It's a tortoise shell - it was attached to its owner when I took it!

More meme

Thank you to Carol and Paige for passing this gorgeous award onto me.

The Rules

1. Copy and paste the rules and instructions into your post.
2. When you post about receiving this award, make sure you include who gave you the award and link it back to them.
3. Post five winners and link it back to them as well.
4. Post five of your addictions.
5. Add the award image.
6. Let your winners know you gave them an award by leaving them a comment on their blog.

Five addictions, eh? There isn’t much I haven’t already ‘fessed up to here. So, one word answers (mostly) for me:

• Tea
• Lip Salve
• Books
• Writing
• Carbohydrates

So the next step is for me to nominate five other bloggers for this award so I pass this to the Leigh, Rachel, Yvonne, L-Plate and Karen. Note: some of these are a bit on the quiet side at the moment, for one reason and another, but they are among my favourites.

T is for ...

I love a meme and this one is from Marmite & Tea. If you want to do it you need to leave a comment for me saying so, and then I give you a letter. Marmite & Tea has given me the letter T and the meme is my list of ten things I love beginning with T.

So, in no particular order…

T is for Tea: PG Tips is my favourite but I’ve had phases for Yorkshire Tea as well. Although I love a good strong builder’s tea, I can be quite classy too, partaking of green tea (oolong is my favourite) when the mood takes me.

T is for Thailand: I am part way through my fourth year here and I never thought I’d have the chance to live as an expat in another country. It was my first time in Asia and is my first experience living in a city. I think it is the most exciting thing ever to happen to me.

T is for TBR pile: I couldn’t live without books and my To Be Read pile needs to be well supplied. I always have a book on the go…

T is for Tootsie: I LOVE the film Tootsie with Dustin Hoffman who auditions as ‘Dorothy’ to get a part in a soap opera to prove to his agent he is employable. I can’t begin to guess how many times I’ve seen the film. I was going to try and tell you my favourite scenes, but there are just too many.

T is for Two children: I have two hands and two knees and when I got one of each gender, I thought it was perfect.

T is for Typography: I needed to take a year off between school and university because I didn’t know what subject I wanted to do. My Dad had a colleague who suggested a secretarial course that one of her nieces had done and I am eternally grateful to my Dad for sending me. I love being able to type. I love that I am fast and accurate and I don’t have to think what I am doing.

T is for Teetotal I wish: I do like a drink but the older I get the more ill I become. I stopped drinking red wine at University because I’d get a migraine before the first glass was finished. Now it’s any alcohol. Sometimes I’m stupid and over-indulge anyway, claiming I don’t care, but I do and it makes me so ill for so many days, I no longer think it’s worth it.

T is for Too much worrying: ‘Nuff said, really. I wish I didn’t.

T is for Trees in autumn: It’s my favourite season and I really miss the colours and weather in England.

T is for The Beast: which is the nickname of Husband.

Tagged by Leigh and KatW

I’ve been tagged for this meme. Leigh didn’t stipulate ‘one word answers only’, but KatW did, so they’re the rules I’m using (more or less).

1. Where is your mobile? Here
2. Where is your significant other? Work
3. Your hair colour? Boring
4. Your mother? Kent
5. Your father? Kent
6. Your favorite thing? Tea
7. Your dream last night? Bizarre
8. Your dream/goal? publication
9. The room you're in? Office
10. Your hobby? Sleeping
11. Your fear? Loss
12. Where do you want to be in six years? With Husband
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. What you're not? Thin
15. One of your wish-list items? Thinness
16. Where you grew up? Kent
17. The last thing you did? Blogged
18. What are you wearing? clothes
19. Your TV? Crap
20. Your pets? UK
21. Your computer? ThinkPad
22. Your mood? Good
23. Missing someone? Lucy
24. Your car? None
25. Something you're not wearing? socks
26. Favourite shop? Books
27. Your summer? UK
28. Love someone? Lots
29. Your favorite color? Orange
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Monday


I'd like to pass on this award to: You! if you haven't done it yet.

Meme

Yvonne tagged me for a six word memoir.

I am, in no particular order although it's interesting that both Husband and I put the worried/neurotic tag top of the list to describe me:

Worried
Creative
Loyal
Obsessive
Intuitive
Kind

There's another one going round that's six words in a kind of sentence. I haven't been tagged for it, but there some stonkingly good ones around. My sentence of six would read:

I'm coming to England tonight: Yay