![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Twenty-five things
Feb. 7th, 2009 05:25 pmIt only reached 40 degrees today and it's a positively balmy 39 degrees outside right now. Because of this, I have given in. Sold my soul. Listened to the dozen friends who tagged me to do the Twenty-Five Things about me meme. Except I'm not going to tag anyone to do it. Please do it if you want - please don't if you don't want. It's too hot to play tag.
1. I am a book addict - I'm as addicted to writing as I am to reading.
2. I enjoy anime.
3. I come from Melbourne originally.
4. I wish I were an inch taller so that I could reach the top shelf in libraries.
5. I spend more time writing in an average day than I do talking.
6. I am a lucid dreamer.
7. I secretly yearn for someone to come and catalogue my books.
8. I am a foodie with significant allergies (I am like a carnival attraction – come, roll, up, see the Gillian die by fish! Die by nuts!) and an Orthodox Jewish upbringing. It makes life interesting.
9. I very seldom use recipes when I cook. Mostly cookbooks are for reading and most pots and pans are for cooking.
10. My least favourite days of the year are generally the days my fathers died, Tisha B'av, and Christmas Day. Some years Christmas Day is lovely. The other three days are never lovely.
11. If I am incapable of making a bad joke then there's probably something wrong. Though I have been known to make jokes simply because things have gone so very far wrong.
12. I have chronic illnesses. Plural. Today I don't want to talk about them.
13. I used to make very fine crochet lace.
14. I have a violin, but refuse to play where anyone can hear. There are good reasons for this.
15. I am overweight. I know it. I often wish people would not feel impelled to tell me so. Nor give me diet suggestions. If they would cure my chronic illnesses (see 12) then that would help with the weight problem.
16. I prefer salty and savoury food over sweet food 90% of the time. For the remaining 10% of the time either I'm unwell or the sweet food is very creamy and rich (and probably contains dark chocolate).
17. I believe very strongly in emailing daft questions to friends. For instance, I decided to give myself a thinking-up-questions-break and asked Sharyn what she wanted to know about me, so the next seven questions are from her.
18. My favourite chocolate brand – I don't have one. I do prefer very dark chocolate that has a single source, that has been treated kindly and that has a really wonderful mouthfeel. I love exploring different varieties of chocolate.
19. My favourite coffees change over time, but they are usual single source (I am a simple person). Mocha Harar is always on the list, and right now the rest of the list is Yemeni Ismaeli, Costa Rica Tarrazu, Nicaraguan Maragogype and a rather nice East Timor organic coffee. I don't like roasts that are too dark. I make my coffee according to whichever method I feel like. For instance, sometimes I use an expresso machine, sometimes I make it in historical styles (not right now, because I've mislaid the right piece of equipment) and sometimes I use a plunger. Right now, I'm drinking Louisianan coffee and chicory, because it's perfect for summer and doesn't make me hyper.
20. How did it feel to do a US book tour? It was so much fun. It was three of the best weeks, ever. I met all sorts of amazing people and got up to all sorts of mischief. My favourite mischief was in an empty parking lot in Austin, Texas. My name was in lights (everyone needs this once in their lives) at BookPeople and we had finished the work side of things, so we demonstrated 4 different football codes to each other, using a rubber chicken. There's a blog from the tour online somewhere (probably my publisher's website), but it only covered some of what we did.
21. I don't have a single favourite colour – I have an array of them. All the vibrant jewel tones from a peacock's tail.
22. I adore flowers. I don't have a single favourite flower, either, though I am particularly partial to rose, daphne, gardenia, frangipani, apple blossom, orange blossom, cherry blossom, hellebore (to look at, not to eat), forget-me-not, violet, lilac, wisteria, royal bluebell, waratah, boronia, azalea, camellia, carnation, daffodil, jonquil, cornflower, freesia, miniature iris, lavender, magnolia, peony and a bunch more I can't quite recall. I am easily made happy.
23. Sharyn asks "Where you'd like to go if time, space and money was no object?" I have a list a mile long. Places I want to visit. People I need to see. Things I need to do. Too much for blogging.
24. She also asks if I would enter someone else's made-up world if I could. Yes, maybe. It depends on the world and how comfortable I would be in it. I don't want to go to Middle Earth and live in Mordor during Sauron's reign, for instance. Everyday comfort is more important than glamour for me (I know, it's sad).
25. "Should there be more rainbows?" Mostly. It's not a numbers game, though. We need the right rainbows at the right time in the right place.
1. I am a book addict - I'm as addicted to writing as I am to reading.
2. I enjoy anime.
3. I come from Melbourne originally.
4. I wish I were an inch taller so that I could reach the top shelf in libraries.
5. I spend more time writing in an average day than I do talking.
6. I am a lucid dreamer.
7. I secretly yearn for someone to come and catalogue my books.
8. I am a foodie with significant allergies (I am like a carnival attraction – come, roll, up, see the Gillian die by fish! Die by nuts!) and an Orthodox Jewish upbringing. It makes life interesting.
9. I very seldom use recipes when I cook. Mostly cookbooks are for reading and most pots and pans are for cooking.
10. My least favourite days of the year are generally the days my fathers died, Tisha B'av, and Christmas Day. Some years Christmas Day is lovely. The other three days are never lovely.
11. If I am incapable of making a bad joke then there's probably something wrong. Though I have been known to make jokes simply because things have gone so very far wrong.
12. I have chronic illnesses. Plural. Today I don't want to talk about them.
13. I used to make very fine crochet lace.
14. I have a violin, but refuse to play where anyone can hear. There are good reasons for this.
15. I am overweight. I know it. I often wish people would not feel impelled to tell me so. Nor give me diet suggestions. If they would cure my chronic illnesses (see 12) then that would help with the weight problem.
16. I prefer salty and savoury food over sweet food 90% of the time. For the remaining 10% of the time either I'm unwell or the sweet food is very creamy and rich (and probably contains dark chocolate).
17. I believe very strongly in emailing daft questions to friends. For instance, I decided to give myself a thinking-up-questions-break and asked Sharyn what she wanted to know about me, so the next seven questions are from her.
18. My favourite chocolate brand – I don't have one. I do prefer very dark chocolate that has a single source, that has been treated kindly and that has a really wonderful mouthfeel. I love exploring different varieties of chocolate.
19. My favourite coffees change over time, but they are usual single source (I am a simple person). Mocha Harar is always on the list, and right now the rest of the list is Yemeni Ismaeli, Costa Rica Tarrazu, Nicaraguan Maragogype and a rather nice East Timor organic coffee. I don't like roasts that are too dark. I make my coffee according to whichever method I feel like. For instance, sometimes I use an expresso machine, sometimes I make it in historical styles (not right now, because I've mislaid the right piece of equipment) and sometimes I use a plunger. Right now, I'm drinking Louisianan coffee and chicory, because it's perfect for summer and doesn't make me hyper.
20. How did it feel to do a US book tour? It was so much fun. It was three of the best weeks, ever. I met all sorts of amazing people and got up to all sorts of mischief. My favourite mischief was in an empty parking lot in Austin, Texas. My name was in lights (everyone needs this once in their lives) at BookPeople and we had finished the work side of things, so we demonstrated 4 different football codes to each other, using a rubber chicken. There's a blog from the tour online somewhere (probably my publisher's website), but it only covered some of what we did.
21. I don't have a single favourite colour – I have an array of them. All the vibrant jewel tones from a peacock's tail.
22. I adore flowers. I don't have a single favourite flower, either, though I am particularly partial to rose, daphne, gardenia, frangipani, apple blossom, orange blossom, cherry blossom, hellebore (to look at, not to eat), forget-me-not, violet, lilac, wisteria, royal bluebell, waratah, boronia, azalea, camellia, carnation, daffodil, jonquil, cornflower, freesia, miniature iris, lavender, magnolia, peony and a bunch more I can't quite recall. I am easily made happy.
23. Sharyn asks "Where you'd like to go if time, space and money was no object?" I have a list a mile long. Places I want to visit. People I need to see. Things I need to do. Too much for blogging.
24. She also asks if I would enter someone else's made-up world if I could. Yes, maybe. It depends on the world and how comfortable I would be in it. I don't want to go to Middle Earth and live in Mordor during Sauron's reign, for instance. Everyday comfort is more important than glamour for me (I know, it's sad).
25. "Should there be more rainbows?" Mostly. It's not a numbers game, though. We need the right rainbows at the right time in the right place.