And Again!

Enormous thank yous to penandpaints at http://penandpaintswriting.blogspot.com/ for another Stylish Blogger Award. It's a lovely compliment to be stylish twice over! Here are seven more things about myself. I haven't thought about them yet. I'll just see what spills out of my head on Sunday morning.

1) As a small child, I was obsessed with limping. I would limp round and round the garden with a bamboo cane, pretending to be a little old man.

2) I am a slow, slow reader. I re-read sentences I like, savouring the words like that first sip of a gin and tonic. Ages pass before I turn the page. My husband whizzes through books, but I worry that he is missing something.

3) I insisted on wearing my stilettos when I worked in a toy factory during school holidays. One day they took me off my seat on the assembly line to work on a machine that punched rivets into plastic parts. It was a standing-up job. After the long walk home, my feet were so painful my mother had to make a mustard bath for them. But I still wore the heels the next day. I was utterly faithful to high heels and I still am, despite the torture. I don't understand the flat pumps my daughters wear.

4) When I visited my husband in hospital following his five-hour operation to remove a facial tumour, I had forgotten my handbag and ran out of petrol. The first thing I said was, "Have you got any cash on you?"

5) I eat mint-sauce sandwiches.

6) When a story I'm writing is going well, my heart beats very quickly. I feel it might jump out of my body. I get the same sensation just before a good story idea forms in my head. As though my body knows what is about to happen before my mind sees it.

7) A story came into my mind recently, fully-formed, with the main character complete and real. I felt he was mine to know and love and worry about. I sent him to a competition and know that if it isn't shortlisted, I shall be utterly devastated. I have been scared to read it again since, in case it's actually rubbish.

Thank you to penandpaints for giving me carte-blanche to bear my soul once more.

Stylish Blogger Award!

I'm so delighted to receive the Stylish Blogger Award from Rosemary, whose own blog, http://ros-readingandwriting.blogspot.com/, I love reading. I am now in the happy position of listing seven things about me, so here I go:

1) I was thrown out of Girl Guides for refusing to remove my bright red nail varnish.

2) I am not at all rebellious by nature; the above is the most appalling thing I have ever done.

3) I have had three operations on my nose to repair damage caused by falling crockery (definitely falling, not flung at me), which joyfully resulted in my nose becoming much neater in size and less bulbous. In effect, a free nose-job. It no longer casts a shadow over my moustache.

4) I enjoy having a general anaesthetic.

5) I began to learn to play the piano in my mid-forties, without any prior knowledge of how to read music, and am now coming up to Grade Five. I am a plodder and have no natural ability. I drive everyone mad by playing the same three bars over and over again until I have mastered them. I am the same when I write. If a word doesn't seem right, I stare into space until the perfect solution arrives. I can't continue until I feel satisfied. I can't leave errors. I have to correct as I go. I love finding things to circle with red pen, from my days studying to qualify as a proof-reader. (I achieved Merit, but they sent me a Distinction certificate by mistake. I was tempted to keep it, but decided to do the right thing and send it back.)

6) I was supposed to spend the summer after A Levels working at Butlins in Bognor with my best friend. She had to go on her own while I stayed at home and stole her boyfriend. I will never forgive myself for this. But it might make a good story.

7) My middle daughter tells me I show off with my dictaphone, waving it around with a hideous flourish in the car as I finish recording random ideas. I also gush at her friends, flirt with her boyfriend and embarrass her at check-outs by saying, "No thanks" to help with packing, then adding, "I've got my little helper with me."

Thank you so much, Rosemary, I've enjoyed this!