My favourite subject in school and why

 This topic from Long and Short Reviews brought back a few memories. I hated school, but was very academic, so loved to study and there were a lot of subjects I was good at, whether I liked them or not.

I was good at English and languages and loved them (although for some reason I didn't get on with a lot of the English teachers - I think they'd be quite surprised to hear I was a writer now) but my favourite subject?

Drama. Or Theatre Studies, as it was at A'Level.

At the time I wanted to be an actress, so I was always going to take that subject, even though my dad was ripping his hair out because he wanted me to take another language. I can remember working on monologues and duologues at A'Level, spending hours on the devised piece (a group piece written entirely by the students, and stressful as hell) and doing an abbreviated version of "The Tempest", which awakened my love of Shakespeare. But the other part I loved was getting to go and see plays all the time. We had to write reviews of them afterwards, but I was fine with that. I still do it now to a degree, although only a few lines in my journal these days.

So what was your favourite subject?

The first website I remember visiting

 This topic from Long and Short Reviews took me back. I didn't go in the internet much when I still lived with my parents, as they had dial-up which was incredibly slow, but as soon as I got to university I was online all the time and checking out every website I could find. Which led me to this one.

Soup Central.

For the life of me I can't remember how I found it. I think it was on a site which had given links to places you could get freebies, which sounded good to a skint student. All I can remember about Soup Central was that you could order, among other things, a sample box of powdered soups which was completely free, even the shipping (not bad when it was coming from the US). So I ordered one to my parents' house.

A few weeks later I got a very confused call from my dad. The order had arrived and he was trying to figure out if someone had sent him a box of anthrax. He wasn't much less confused when I told him what it was, but at least he didn't think someone in America was trying to kill him.

I did try one of the soups when I next visited home, but I wasn't impressed, and the rest went in the bin.

So which websites do you remember visiting?

My favourite food

 This topic from Long and Short Reviews was definitely a tough one, and I'm still not convinced I've got a straight answer for it.

Whenever people give me that question about "If you could only have one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?" I get stuck, because my favourite food varies all the time. I usually just stick to a cuisine for the answer and pick Thai, because I absolutely love Thai food (although not curries, because I can't stand coconut). 

And if I'm asked for a favourite dessert, it would probably be lime cheesecake. Lime is one of my favourite flavours, and it's never a bad day for cheesecake.

However, my favourite meals at the moment in general are probably pizza - usually a meat feast - or fish and chips. It always amazes me that apparently they don't have fish and chips in the US. Believe me, you're missing out.

So what's your favourite food?

Books that pleasantly surprised me

 I had to think about this topic from Long and Short Reviews, as it's been a while since any book has pleasantly surprised me. When I choose a book I tend to read reviews first and also download the sample, so I don't buy it unless I'm sure I'm going to like it. It's more likely that I'll be deceived by the sample and end up unpleasantly surprised.

However, I will admit to one.

Other than Agatha Christie, I'm not one for crime fiction, even cosy crime fiction. However, when I heard Richard Osman had written a book, I decided to give it a go. I took a chance and pre-ordered "The Thursday Murder Club" and crossed my fingers it would be good.

And I'm now three books in and have the fourth on pre-order. It was that good.

I'm still not into crime fiction. But the characters in Osman's series are so engaging and the plots so entertaining that I make an exception for him.

So which book were you pleasantly surprised by?