To BB or not to BB?

Day Three: Eight ways to win your heart.

1.         Love animals. Then tell me how gorgeous, well behaved and amazingly unique my pets are.

2.         Make me laugh. Then laugh at my appalling puns, like they’re Eddie-Izzard-funny.

3.         Ask me to sing for you. Then tell me I have the voice of an angel even though I don't.

4.         Bring me chocolate. Then share it with me, but leave me all the caramelly ones.

5.         Read my scribbles. Then tell me how much you like them, and why.

6.         Ignore my faults. Then reveal yours to me so that I can return the favour.

7.         Trust me with your secrets. Then listen quietly while I tell you mine.

8.         Love yourself. Then let me discover how wonderful you are.

~o0o~

Day Four: Seven things that cross your mind a lot.
Day Five: Six things you wish you’d never done.
Day Six: Five people who mean a lot (in no order whatsoever).
Day Seven: Four turn-offs.
Day Eight: Three turn-ons.
Day Nine: Two images that describe your life right now, and why.
Day Ten: One confession

LJ still make me nervous whenever I post, so to try and loosen up a bit I’m going to do this little meme. Apologies to whoever I swiped it from … I’m afraid I forgot to make a note before I shut my laptop down. Hope you don’t mind :)

Day One: Ten things you want to say to ten different people right now.

1.         I’m sending you a box of cherries because I don’t know how to pick things up again between us.

2.         When you and I sing together, we actually make music. How great is that?

3.         Where do you go to in your head? Is it better there? One time, may I come too?

4.         I’m making you a cushion in the shape of a magpie so that you’ll smile again.

5.         Just thinking about spending time with you makes me giggle in anticipation.

6.         I would have made sure you were okay. I should have made sure you were okay.

7.         I came into this with so many preconceptions about you, and you’ve shattered them all. 

8.         Please don’t cry – I know who you are and you still dazzle me.

9.         I wish I’d said yes when you asked me.

10.       Nothing has changed.

~o0o~

Day Two: Nine things about yourself.
Day Three: Eight ways to win your heart.
Day Four: Seven things that cross your mind a lot.
Day Five: Six things you wish you’d never done.
Day Six: Five people who mean a lot (in no order whatsoever).
Day Seven: Four turn-offs.
Day Eight: Three turn-ons.
Day Nine: Two images that describe your life right now, and why.
Day Ten: One confession

I made a lot of noise about the a-maz-ing Croquembouche I planned to make for the Christmas Day lunch I was going to at a good friend's place ... in typical Graham fashion I completely underestimated how long it would take to put it all together.  That, combined with getting some new additions to the household comfortably re-housed (a pair of Red Rump parrots that I gave to Le Husband for Christmas) meant that at 10 o'clock Christmas morning I was frantically making custard from scratch and chocolate ganache-ing the slab of meringue I'd made the night before.

The icing on the cake (in a manner of speaking!) was when I went to fill the profiteroles with the creme patisserie (the egg custard folded with whipped cream).  Out comes the brand new piping bag I bought for the occasion (didn't want to take any chances with the old one!) and I managed to fill three or four when - kapow! - the bag bursts.  Panicking and squeezing the bag too fast - moi? - never!  Must have been a faulty bag!!!

It was spectacular.  I had custard in my hair, under one armpit (huh?!), all over the cake, on the floor (dogs enjoyed it), on the walls and every other place possible.  I even found some on the kitchen blind the following day.  Of course, Le Husband is laughing so hard he almost wets himself, all the while reaching for the camera.  I don't think he'll be reaching for the camera again in a hurry.  My dreams of spun toffee decoration and toffee angels wings went out the window, and I settled for trusty chocolote drizzles and toasted almonds.  I'm not going to tell you how I actually managed to fill the rest of the profiteroles, but it involved the handle of a teaspoon and an excessive amount of swearing.

So ... here it is.  The not-quite-Croquembouche-that-nearly-wasn't.  Not for the faint hearted.   It was taller than it looks in the photo! :)  (Just as a side note, Christmas lunch was a-maz-ing ... we started at 1pm with tiger prawns, oysters and smoked salmon, moved on to ham, turkey, roast pork and some amazing salads around four o'clock and ended up having dessert (mine was one of three) at 8pm!  We never actually got to the cheese platter.  My kind of day :D)
 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Does it always feel this sad to finish a story or am I just suffering some sort of post finale malaise?  Finally put MM to bed, and now there's a hole where there used to be a story ... will have to fill it with something, just not yet.

"I tend not to take life or myself too seriously but I like to do things as well as I'm able. I tend to make up stupid words just for fun. I can be a bit cavalier with the facts in my impatience to get the words written; sometimes I don't use enough words and sometimes I use too many, and when I found this site I felt like I had come home."

I really did feel like I'd "come home", like someone had looked into my head and thought "How can I make Megan really, really happy?  I know, I'll invent FanFiction.net!"  Corny, eh?  I had all these words scootling around in my head that I didn't know what to do with.  I've been writing on and off for a long time (mostly off to be honest), but I've never finished anything.  Nothing.  Zip.  Nada.  Zero.  Oh, thirty or forty poems, several hundred limericks (most of them filthy and in very poor taste.  I used to have a bit of a rep for writing limericks.  People I barely knew used to come to me and ask me to write a limerick for their brother, uncle, sister, next door neighbour's dog, whatever.  I darn near wore my limerick finger out.  But I digress.)

FF really empowered me in my writing; I've always found characterisations difficult.  Now, into this Land of the Constipated Writer came a little television show calles "Bones".  Sigh.  I love this show.  I really do.  I've never been an Eff Ayy Enn before.  Well, not mainstream stuff anyway.  I generally like things that are edgy and different.  But never mainstream.  See, everything happens eventually. 

And all of a sudden I could take all of those lovely, fully formed characters out and play with them.  Make them do what I wanted them to do.  Yay!  And I've had a BALL!  And the words just flowed.  Thanks, FF, for unlocking that for me.  *major big happy sloppy smiley face"  BTW, my status as 'fan' still mystifies me, but that's a subject for another day.  Oh, and I learned a new word when I started on FF.  "Squee".  I love that word.  It's onomatopoeic really.  Say it with a big grin on your face and you'll know how I feel when a new ep of Bones is due.

If you'd like to see what I've written you can go here!  If I ever work out how to put them here on LJ you'll be the first to know!

If you do have a look, leave a review, will you?  It's a real kick to think someone has read your story and thought enough of it to click the little review button and leave a few words.  Food for a starving writer's soul.

Just have to mention tangentially that I'm listening to John Butler Trio "Better Than" ... great song from a local.  I'm actually typing in sync.  Sort of.  Syncopated would be more accurate.  I'm also watching Hungry Beast.  But maybe you have to be Australian to appreciate the humour.  It cracks me up.

That's it.  End of rant.  For now.  Have a good one!  :D