writer's moll

I was tagged by Cliff on 5 things people don't know about me.

1. I'm a bit slow on the uptake (oh crikey, perhaps people do know). This was on 7th January and it's taken me until now to realise what it meant. Oh, you mean tagged, oh, right, like now you're it, I get it.

2. I like reggae - With a first husband who was really sniffy about music that wasn't opera or classical, I'm ashamed to say that I never admitted liking it, but once I was free I went on my own to Poland and I remember the joyous feeling of stepping off the bus in Cracow and hearing UB40 playing Red Red Wine.

3. I have an irrational fear of getting lost. Once, when I was about 10, on a visit to my Grandmother in London, I lost my way home from the park. I thought I recognised a row of houses, but of course it was just one of hundreds of similar rows of houses. I began to walk quicker, broke into a run and finally weeping hysterically, was stopped by someone and taken to the police station. But most humiliating of all was that I didn’t know my Granmother’s address, so I had to stay at the police station until I was claimed, and when I finally walked into her house many hours later, it was to merciless teasing from the whole family. So now I fantasise about leaving a trail of breadcrumbs to guide me back home, Hansel and Gretal style, but as that’s not very practical, when I go somewhere new, I spend the journey memorising landmarks. If I do get lost, I never quite control the sweaty palms and pounding heart.

4. I did go to Machu Pichu, but I never actually saw it, because my loved one developed altitude sickness and threw up the whole of the train journey, including all over the railway tracks. He tried to insist that I went on without him but somehow the magnificence of the site kind of faded in importance, but one day I hope to give it another go.

5. I get really passionate about bread. I hate that horrible white sliced pap they sell in supermarkets. It doesn't have to be wholemeal, but it has to have some real texture, preferably with bits of grain or nuts in and enough bite to test the roots of your teeth and above all, dense - or as they say in the country - it weighs 'eavy.


My third week of jury service, a new trial and the courtroom's freezing. The judge says "ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I apologise for the room being so cold. If you're cold tomorrow ..." yes, go on your Honour, you'll fix it? "please feel free to add extra layers of clothes". Strange that he can order a man to prison for the rest of his life, but can't order another log on the fire.