Meme

I've been tagged by Calistro to do this meme, so here goes!

What were you doing 10 years ago?

I had just finished my A levels and was counting down the days until my first legal drink.

Five things on your to-do list for today:

1. Work out where the wedding I'm going to tomorrow is.
2. Find out what time it starts, and what time I need to be there for a rehearsal beforehand.
3. Learn the music I'll be singing at the wedding.
4. Buy a wedding present (can you detect a theme?).
5. Finish the vocabulary analysis I've been doing at work.

What are three of your bad habits?

1. I go to sleep whenever I'm a passenger - cars, buses, trains, planes - nothing is safe from my slumber.
2. I secretly think it's a waste if I'm not reading while I eat. I'm not sure why, but I think words make the food taste better.
3. I am EXCEEDINGLY messy, and if I try to tidy up, chances are I'll find a book after 2 minutes and accidentally start reading it while trying to put it on the shelf (or, more likely, one of my many piles of books 'hidden' in the corners of my flat, which my lovely husband kindly ignores).

What would you do if you were a billionaire?

Move to Italy and take lots of courses, but also travel wherever and whenever the mood took me.

What are some snacks you enjoy?

Prawn crackers
Carrot sticks
Green and Black's dark chocolate with ginger
Stem ginger without the chocolate
Fishfinger sandwiches

What were the last five books you read?

1. Shakespeare - Bill Bryson
2. The Secret of Lost Things - Sheridan Hay
3. The Woman in the Fifth - Douglas Kennedy
4. The Cairo Diary - Maxim Chattam
5. The Dante Trap - Arnaud Delalande (I haven't quite finished this but am on the last chapter...)

What are five jobs you have had?

1. Nursing auxiliary in a nursing home
2. Telephone fundraiser for my university
3. Fundraising researcher, also for my university
4. Editorial assistant at a medical communications agency
5. Medical writer

Five places that you have lived?

1. Uckfield, Sussex
2. Horam, Sussex
3. London
4. Paris
5. Manchester

I feel a bit guilty about not tagging people, but I know this one has been doing the rounds for ages, so I think almost everyone on the planet has done it already!

Think before you quaff...

Ribena were giving away mini-cups of their new juices at Manchester Piccadilly this morning, and as a sucker for anything free, I gratefully accepted one. I headed to my train and took a big swig, which was immediately followed by the thought, 'Yeah, this doesn't really go with toothpaste... urgh.'

I'm sure it's nice to drink before cleaning your teeth though...

Excuses, excuses

While I have been doing a little writing over the last week or so, I've taken on a rather ambitious project - translating a novel from Italian. This is really only for my own benefit, as I'll be studying it for my A level next year, and want to get a head-start, but it has sapped some of my creativity and writing time. I think it will balance out once I get into the swing of things, and will probably be good for my writing, as I'm having to delve much deeper into the text that I normally do when reading a book. Fingers crossed, anyway...

Training...

As part of our preparation for the Ribbon Walk, we walked 11 miles over the hills yesterday. Having checked the BBC weather forecast on Friday at work (black cloud, rain-drops), obviously Sunday was the most glorious day we've had so far this year. And I am now slightly stripy in the shoulder area and my feet are polka-dotted with blisters. Nice.