Randomness

I've been tagged on a couple of lovely blogs (Thank you- well if being mentioned on someone else's blog, or a link to yours is on theirs, if this is what being tagged is? Otherwise I'm completely off target do please excuse the following if I'm wrong and put me right!)

I think now that I'm supposed to reveal 8 random things about me so hope this is vaguely interesting, eyes shut, deep breath, here goes...

1) I don't wear trousers - well not often anymore (apart from my divine brown, velvet ones that I slouch around the house in in the evenings). I've finally realised that they don't really suit me. Too short, too round etc. A really good pair of jeans would work miracles but I need to spend a bit and that's kind of off the agenda for now so... skirts are my lifesaver and they're so comfy.

2) I am addicted to buying cards which I know I am not going to give to anyone. One day my inner shabbiness will surface and I will actually whitewash/distress a pile of frames and put them up (rather than being overcome by an inspired moment in the charity shop, buying a load of grim ones and thinking "these'll look great cream, I'll order a F&B tester pot today" then promptly leaving them in the boot for weeks). So for now the cards sit in a bag in the dresser and I occasionally root them out and coo over them. Be better on the walls though.

3) My first job was at the Tower of London. No, not as a Beefeater (wasn't quite hairy enough) but as dogsbody in the press office. I wasn't really cut out for London and only stayed for 18mths but it was a terrific experience and I got to see so much behind the scenes.

4) I don't really like the summer. For various reasons (mainly clothes, wasps, rubbish weather) but as it goes on I find it really hard to enjoy it when autumn is just around the corner - which I love! Everything from the colours, bonfires, hearty food, bleak landscapes, the run up to Christmas, conkers, scarves, big coats - I know, wishing my life away but you watch this blog, come 1st September I'll feel like I can breathe out and revel in the wind down of the year.

5) My reading matter is very limited and I don't mind a bit. Thesedays reading time is in pretty short supply so I read just what I like, mainly medieval romances that I can curl up on the sofa with and get completely lost in. I feel a bit ashamed not to have ever read a Jane Austen and perhaps one day I will .

6) I wish I enjoyed cooking more but if I'm honest I get a bit bored. I do try hard, the boys get rather healthy stuff and I cook a mean roast chicken with roast veg and nice soups but I can't bake and I've only recently mastered a cheese sauce! (opps, bit embarrassing). I do love food shopping though (especially farmer's markets) and eating it, but I've got simple tastes. If I read a magazine recipe that requires anything vaguely exotic (like lemongrass) I turn over! The thought of planning a five-course dinner party and experimenting with dishes fills me with dread. I admit I'm a lot more interested in the eating part.

7) At school I was in the synchronised swimming team (ok enough laughing now). I swam three times a day plus competitions - obviously these were the days before I seriously discovered chocolate. All down hill from then on!

8) I'm rubbish at putting clothes away. Takes me two weeks to get up the nerve to plough through the ironing basket then I leave it in piles in rooms for days until they're creased again. Could I annoy myself anymore? And lets not even mention the pile of clothes I've already worn!

So there we go, hope that wasn't too boring... thanks for sticking with it if you did!