Stealing from Clare at Boob Pencil.
I know, you're supposed to be asked, but I can't do the music one because I have very little music on my PC. And my music blogging is bigger than three eternal songs.
1) If you had to be on a reality show, which would you be on?
I'm going to have to go with Big Brother. It really is the big brother of Reality TV. Indeed, before Series 1, I watched the documentary and actually thought about applying. But didn't.
It's a Channel Four show and was meant to be a little bit left brain, off-centre, cultish. Shame it became required viewing for every 17 year old half-wit in Christendom, and the last series or two have become unwatchable, due to the homogeneity of vacuous self-obsessed youngsters.
I visualised it as a glorified student after-hours coffee party, not the sort I was evicted from, but the sort where it was possible to sit back and let minds roam over abstract subjects. Not 'the meaning of life' or those interminable politics things with no root in reality. The sort of conversation which accidentally probes the relationship of the individual to society, with lots of silliness and giggles in a spontaneous way. A chance to meet fellow misfits, a chance to challenge each others' preconceptions, a time for reflection. But I couldn't stand it. I need stimulation, even if it's just books and t'internet. And I don't think I could handle the forced intimacy.
Or sharing a bedroom.
I have a nasty feeling I'd turn into 'Auntie'. It's a tendency that's growing on me. I can't be 'Mother' but on our day trip from Taba to Jerusalem I did become a bit Auntie-like, lending money for the crossing of the border (I hasten to add that the guys and gals in question repaid me within twenty minutes of return to the hotel)
But in the end, I couldn't do it. Sure, I'd have a good wax before I went in, but it's a long time to spend exposing one's legs to the nation.
2) What author most influences your own work as a writer? Or, if you are an original, what type of writer do you think you will influence once you are published?
This is my problem as a writer. I am neither original nor of a genre. Sometimes I read a blog, and that influences my style. Probably Peter is the voice that plays in the back of my mind the most when I'm writing. But not always.
Non-blog writing. I would like to cite the great. Knowing I could never be great, I would love to emulate Marion Keyes. Freya North is my favourite in that stratum. But Marian Keyes is where I would want to be. I probably could if I applied myself. My problem is, I don't think that getting a novel published is as simple as being 'good'. It's a lot to do with who you know. So I'm cynical about the likelihood, and I just write for my own pleasure compulsion. And it's totally unpublishable. And I couldn't bear anyone else to read it. I have a wild imagination. But that's not healthy. And somebody might try some amateur psycho-analysis. The shame...!
3) If you had the opportunity to travel back in time and tell your 20 year old self all about your current life, what would your 20 year old self be the most surprised by?
I always set great store by ambition and success. Looked at it objectively, at twenty six, I had it all. A qualified accountant, in the toughest of tough institutes, and an elected councillor. Actually, some bloody achievement at twenty-six, not many people achieve that. A year later I bought a house. On my own.
Yet, ten years plus on, I am a lot happier - a job that pays way too much for old rope. Hours of leisure. No drive, no ambition. I would not be happy now if I hadn't had that whole mid-twenties success (on the surface) anyway. My twenty year old self would be deeply surprised at my life of lazy contentment, even though my twenty year old self was as lazy as fuck!
4) What's your biggest frustration?
My own limitations and shortcomings. It took me a long time to realise that my biggest fault was my laziness. It's a funny sort of laziness, I don't spend a lot of time doing nothing, even my TV watching is outcome oriented. Maybe it's not laziness but a 'jack-of-all-trades' mentality. I could never be single-minded, because I do want it all. And if something's difficult, I don't push to master it. I settle for adequate, or I give up.
5) What's in your purse right now?
In English, well, it took me two minutes to find it was I that drunk on Friday night?. Switch and Boots and Smiths cards. A book of eleven first class stamps. A five pound note, a slip saying there are no toilets at Westminster Abbey and my seat has no view. Receipt for Oyster Pre-pay Top-up. A fifty pound note and an M&S receipt. £1.77 and €1.01 - mainly Spanish but also Portuguese and German - in shrapnel, and two passport photos of me. My handbag is totally empty; much of the handbaggy stuff is in my rucksack.
