Animals I wish I could have as pets

 Having now recovered from my first dose of chemotherapy, I'm back on the Long and Short Reviews topics and quite liked the sound of this one.

I follow a number of pets on Instagram. Most of them are cats and dogs, but there are two in particular I love - one is an alpaca, the other is a lioness.

Believe me, I'm well aware of why it would be a bad idea to have an alpaca or a lioness as a pet, at least without having a huge amount of training and relevant equipment to manage them. But I absolutely love the idea. I have this image of friends coming into our kitchen, looking out the French windows and seeing an alpaca standing calmly in the garden. "Oh, that's just Alfie. Don't mind him."

And, having had one too many salesmen at my door, I would love to have a lioness come padding up alongside me and give them the eye.

I'm interested to see what everyone else will say!

A celebrity I'd like to meet

 I'm back on the Long and Short Reviews blog challenge after recovering from surgery, and this was an interesting one.

As an autograph collector, there are a lot of celebrities I admire, but whether I would want to actually meet them is different. Judging by what I've heard about some who shall remain nameless, it's best not to meet your heroes. 

On the other hand, I'm told Dave Bautista and Keanu Reeves are unfailingly lovely, so they might be a good choice.

However, my choice would be Benedict Cumberbatch. I love his ability to disappear into a role and always find him entertaining - plus I'm told he's also a nice person, so wouldn't completely ruin my good opinion of him by being rude.

I'm interested to see what everyone else will say!

Audiobooks I've enjoyed

 I've taken a few weeks off from the Long and Short Reviews blogs due to medical issues, but I had to pop back in for this one, just because it amused me.

The thing is, I'm not really an audiobook person. I prefer to read with my eyes, not by listening. I don't know why, but the words don't go in as easily and my imagination struggles with audio. So there's only one audiobook I've ever actually bought, and I did enjoy it.

"Last Human" by Doug Naylor, read by Craig Charles of Red Dwarf fame.

I had already read the book, but I decided to buy the audiobook for reasons that Craig Charles would probably not thank me for. I had a huge crush on Craig at the time and this particular book has his character, Lister, having sex on numerous occasions - so I bought the book simply so I could hear what Lister sounded like when he was coming.

Yeah, I can see you all facepalming from here. Hey, it got them a sale.

I'm interested to see which books everyone else will have enjoyed!

Song lyrics that made me cringe

 I did like this one when it came up on Long and Short Reviews's list, because I like watching lyric videos on YouTube (if I want to listen to a song I don't want any background weirdery from the official video, so lyric videos are easier) and have often been surprised at what people have got away with.

The first one that startled me was the Bee Gees' "You Win Again".

 "I'm going to hit you from all sides, lay your fortress open wide

Nobody stops this body from taking you."

 OK, there are a couple of ways that could be taken, but it sounded very dodgy from my perspective.

 And then we have "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". Not for the same reason, of course.

"Now laughing friends deride tears I cannot hide..."

Um, get some new friends. Seriously.

There are a couple more I can think of, but I think "Young Girl" and "My Sharona" are a bit too obvious. :) 

I'm interested to see what other people will come up with! 

Will you watch the Super Bowl? Why or why not?

 This one from Long and Short Reviews made me laugh, simply because this is a question that pops up in our house every year.

Because I live in the UK, the Super Bowl is something that happens in the middle of the night and gets recorded. Nothing surprising there - I got into NFL while writing "The Hand He Dealt" and still like watching it from time to time, so it makes sense that I would record the Super Bowl.

Will I watch it, though? That's the question.

The thing with NFL is there are a lot of breaks, which means the Super Bowl tends to run for hours. I dare say this is fine when you're having a Super Bowl party with your friends and are happily eating and drinking your way through it, but it's less fun watching a seven-hour game when it's just me on an average evening after work. My husband is an NBA man and has no real interest in American football, so I wouldn't even have him for company.

So what tends to happen is I record it, I find out who won the following day, and then it sits in my Sky box for a while before I give up and just delete the thing.

So what does everyone else think?

New books I'm looking forward to this year

 It's time for a new year of Long and Short Reviews blog posts, and this is a topic I always like - although I have fewer books on my pre-order list than usual.

The first is "The Fatal Unpleasantness at Netherfield" by Claudia Gray. I always love her Jane Austen-inspired mystery series, although I do hope the slow-burn romance is going to burn a little higher in this one.

And the second is "Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel" by Lucy Foley. Agatha Christie continuances are always risky, but after the many Poirots by Sophie Hannah it'll be interesting to see a Miss Marple one for a change.

Other than that I have seven other books in my "currently reading" pile and will be working on those while I wait.

I'm interested to see which books everyone else will have on their list!

Something I wish I were better at doing

 We're coming up to Christmas now, so I'm closing off this year's Long and Short Reviews blogs with something I often think about at this time of year.

As a teenager I wanted to be an actress. Specifically in musical theatre, although I'd have been fine with pretty much anything. According to my drama teachers I was a decent actress and, at the time, I had a good singing voice - I was classically trained and was good at the musical theatre songs.

Unfortunately I fell down hard when it came to dance. I have reasonable rhythm but I can't remember steps for the life of me. I did ask my parents for dancing lessons but my dad REALLY didn't want me to act and so refused point blank. 

He also started many arguments about my wanting to study acting, which ultimately resulted in me giving up on the whole thing and going to university for something else entirely.

Do I miss it? Yes. I don't sing any more either and I don't have time to get back into it. But I do wish I had been better at dancing and that I could still sing.

I wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!