Seven

Eek! Was very excited that my new blogging friend Katie from Australia tagged me in her blog this week to get me to answer the following seven questions. So here we go....

1. What book(s) are you currently reading right now?

'Handle With Care' by Jodi Picoult. My Aunt got me into Jodi Picoult just over a year ago and I love love love her books! She writes about some really contemporary and difficult issues for instance 'designer babies' or children born with illnesses, as is this case with this book. She looks at the situation from all perspectives and writes really beautifully and descriptively, and writes each of the chapters of the book from the perspective of a different character in the book. The other nice thing for me in the mad rush towards my wedding in 11 days (yey!), is her books are nice and easy reading. They may be heavy in topic, but her writing style is as light as a feather.

Image from monkeyread.wordpress.com/

2. Whats your favourite song ever - or just right now?

This is a ridiculously hard question as I love music and have a silly amount stored in my itunes, furthermore my favourite music tends to vary with my mood or where I generally am in life. However, I shall name a few (bit of a cheat I know....sorry!). One of them has to be 'Read My Mind' by The Killers- it has an awesome beat and it's all melty (that's not a real word I know) and echoey which I love in music. Another has to be 'Got to Be Real' by Cheryl Lynn- makes me dance around the room everytime and feel very womanly. At the moment I also really love 'Free Fallin' by John Mayer as he has such a great voice and the song is lovely and mellow sounding- perfect for summer evenings.

3. Whats the best piece of advice (funny or sweet) that anyone has ever given you?

I once read this (rather than it being given to me) advice from Theodore Roosevelt which says 'Do what you can, with what you have, where you are' (or something very similar). I'm a neurotic, hard working, perfectionist and will often go mad if I feel something isn't as it should be plus I always like to be busy and feel guilty if I haven't spent enough time with people or on a piece of work or something similar. Therefore this advice is really important to me, as it made me think about doing what I can rather than what I feel I should in order to be super woman (which I think women of our generation are sometimes made to feel we should be). I think the 'with what you have' includes talents/skills as well as time too meaning not that you can necessarily just do your best, but you can only do your best with what you have (which sometimes means not enough time or resources or energy!)

4. What is the one place that you really want to visit that you haven't been to before?

I'd love to go to Egypt for one (though I adore travelling so there are lots of places I really want to visit), as I love history and even did a paper on university which included studying a bit of Ancient Egyption religion which was ridiculously interesting. My ideal trip there would be to spend 2 weeks on a old school cruise boat and stopping off in the day visiting the pyramids, riding on camels, going to the old temples and palaces, and walking round museums in Cairo. All this would be topped off by candlelit meals on the boat in the evening, how very colonial sounding I am :S

5. What is your most embarassing moment?

Oh goodness! Where do I begin?!? I'm naturally clumsy and sometimes quite socially awkward too I think so I often end up having lots of them. One of them would have to be hiccupping REALLY LOUDLY in the middle of prayers on Easter Sunday at Church. It literally echoed and then you could hear everyone turning around to look at my beetroot coloured face.

Another would be blurting out 'honeymoon' instead of the word 'honey' to what was then my new boyfriend, but who is now my fiance so that wasn't too much of a disaster!

6. What is one of your favourite family traditions you have?

I like the fact that we all have special names for one another in our family. Like my Mum calls me Beckski and I call her Mumski, my Dad calls me Chicken and I call him Turkey, my cousin calls me Boggy and I call him Toggy back! It's all a bit geeky but I think it's kinda cute!

I also love the fact that whenever one of us has a birthday in our family, we all pile onto that persons bed in the morning with our presents and have a cup of tea whilst the birthday girl/boy opens up all their pressies.

7. What is something fun and inspiring you have seen online lately and would like to share with us all?

I've not found many crafty/vintagey/pretty blogs done by people in the UK yet, but I've recently stumbled on a blog called Junkaholic . The lady who does this blog looks like she can do wonders with bits of 'junk', which I particularly like as a)I'm getting married on a budget soon and need inspiration for cheap finds and b)I'm moving with my hubby to be into our first house soon and therefore need inspiration for more cheap finds to make my house beautiful. Plus her home is so cute and she's also done a post about the Isle of Wight where I went last summer which is so beautiful and made me all nostalgic.