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Monday 18 July 2022

Describe a perfect weekend getaway

 I surprisingly had a bit of trouble with this topic from Long and Short Reviews. My husband and I go away for the weekend a few times a year, and where I want to go can vary wildly depending on my mood. Pretty much everywhere we've been has been perfect at some point.

For instance, last weekend we popped down to London as I had tickets to the Globe and he wanted to visit the RAF Museum. While I was busy watching King Lear he roamed around the capital taking photos of things and then we met up in the evening to visit our favourite restaurant. It's all good.

We've also been to Rome, the Lake District and Scotland for weekend getaways, all of which I would do again - Rome in particular is a beautiful city, I could have stood at the Trevi Fountain all day - and I would love to go back to Amsterdam one day.

However, at the moment my idea of a perfect getaway would be Iceland. It's not cheap, but I would dearly love to see the Northern Lights.

So what's your idea of a perfect weekend getaway?

Monday 11 July 2022

Character in a book you'd love to meet and why

 This sort of topic has come up a few times on the Long and Short Reviews list, and I always find myself turning to Jane Austen and the Brontes for inspiration. So this time I decided to go a bit closer to home and pick one of my own characters.

As you might imagine, I spend so much time in my characters' heads that I would have to like being there, so there aren't many that I wouldn't want to meet. Possibly my arrogant medium character Reed James from I Heard Your Voice and its sequels would be one to avoid. But one I would particularly like to meet would be Azure Wilder from Photograph.


Part of this is practicality - Azure is extremely rich and lives in an American theme park, so you're already guaranteed a good time. However, as well as being fun, Azure is also caring and thoughtful, very much the type of person who would see to all your needs and keep you entertained with sparkling conversation.

So which character would you like to meet?

Monday 4 July 2022

Have you met anyone famous? Who?

 This topic from Long and Short Reviews depends entirely on how you define the word "met".

A couple of soap operas are filmed in our area, so I've certainly seen several actors around town. I saw Stephen Tompkinson having dinner with his family in the same restaurant we were in, and encountered Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan in a theatre. However, they were out in public and I didn't bother them - as an autograph collector I make it a rule never to bother a celebrity when they're off the clock.

I also encountered Ricky Gervais out jogging in Central Park once, but again I let him go straight past me. I doubt he'd have appreciated being spoken to.

I got autographs from Darren Day and Philip Schofield at a Radio One roadshow in a theme park once, which was certainly fun, but extremely fleeting.

However, the one celebrity I can say I've properly met was Lee Otway of "Hollyoaks" fame. My brother-in-law knew him and invited him to a party I was also at. I can't say I spoke much to him - he was much more interested in the food and waitresses - but he did get us into the VIP room at a nightclub afterwards, so I can't complain!

So have you met anyone famous?