Keri over at IV League has nominated me for a Liebster Award.  I’m going to keep this short and sweet and I’m also going to cheat a little bit (so it could be I end up being disqualified!)  Further info here.

11 Facts:

1. I’m married with three children
2. I’m the youngest of three with a brother and a sister
3. I have a dog called Dude – after The Dude in the Big Lebowski
4. I don’t drive – gasp!
5. I like to cook but not to bake – to much weighing and measuring and not enough improvisation
6. I could be in the Olympics if they had a medal for sleeping, I have to have at least 8 hours and think nothing of sleeping 10!!  I’m worse than a surly teenager
7. I’m a book freak
8. My preferred books are fantasy, sci fi, and historical
9. I prefer wine to beer
10. I drink coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon
11. I love to travel, trips planned this year: Amsterdam, Sicily and Paris.

11 Questions:

1. To borrow a question from the ones I was asked, what phrase/motto describes your life? Always look on the bright side of life.  I’m a glass half full type of person – I think my cheerfulness can sometimes be infuriating to others but what you gonna do?

2. What’s your favorite book that you’ve read in the past year?   So far this year (and there have been a lot of good ones so far) The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore, only just read this and really enjoyed it beyond all my expectations.

3. Which of the magical powers or objects in Harry Potter do you most wish you could have? – I’d like the watch/time spinner, however, as you’ve already picked that I think I’ll go with the cloak that gives invisibility then I can sneak about – actually, maybe not, not sure I want to sneak about – i wouldn’t mind one of those little basins of water where you can look back at memories – I think I’d prefer a tardis but I’ve just swapped series there!

4. If you could talk to one famous dead person, who would it be and why?  JRRTolkien – it would be folly not to.  I have questions – lots of questions.

5. What is your favorite old movie? By old, I mean at least pre-1970.  Rebecca, (by Daphne DuMaurier) old B&W with Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier.  I love that film, I also love the book to be honest and have read it a number of times.

6. What advice would you give yourself if you could travel back in time? (It’s up to you how far back you need to travel to give yourself the advice you want.) Do NOT read 50 Shades of Grey!  That’s a few hours of my life that I’ll never get back!  Seriously, I don’t know.  I guess I could tell myself to study harder when I was younger but pretty much I’m a fairly content type of person so I’m not sure I’d change anything really.

7. What is your biggest pet peeve? Public transport – which I use a lot because I don’t drive.  It’s basically the pits.  For example, there’s no such thing as missing one bus on my route – there’s usually three all together (because buses are like cattle and travel in herds – in fact we need to coin a phrase for them – like a pack of lions, a swarm of bees, a bevvy of buses), and of course once you’ve missed three buses you know you’re now in for a long wait.  Plus, bus drivers who don’t have peripheral vision!  And people who sit next to you, invade your space and insist on telling you their life story – even though you’re clearly trying to read!

8. What were (or are) your imaginary friends’ names?  I don’t have any imaginary friends.  I feel like I’ve missed out now!  I do talk to my dog though – which I get some very strange looks for when we’re out on walks.

9. What are the nicknames you’ve been saddled with over the years?  The most recent one is OW (which stands for old woman) – by my very romantic husband (this because I’m actually three years older than he is – toy boy!!)

10. What was your favorite fairy tale/Disney movie growing up?  Beauty and the Beast.  I love the story and the film and quite a lot of the retellings of this.

11. What was the last song you listened to?  Home by Fiona Bevan and Adam Glover. (The reason; I met Adam at a friend’s party and he’s a lovely person with a wonderful voice and incredibly charismatic.  Plus I think this is a beautiful song.  Check it out below:

And now for the cheating.  I’m not going to nominate 11 people!!  How bad is that.  I’m going to leave this open so if you’d like to post a review giving 11 facts about yourself and answer the 11 questions provided by Keri and leave me a link then I’d love to know what your answers are.  And, the reason that I’m cheating is not because I’m too lazy to go and choose 11 lovely blogs (and how very dare you for even thinking that) but is (1) how could I possibly choose (2) I want to give everyone the chance to do the facts and Q&A (3) I know how busy you all are so don’t want you to feel you have to take part and (4) who am I kidding – I’m just too lazy to go and look everyone up!!  Okay, I admit it.

Thanks Keri – I love answering random questions like this and it was great of you to think of me – hope you don’t mind my cheating – rules are made for breaking after all.