I have been tagged in a meme created by the rather lovely Kerry, over at Multiple Mummy. The premise of this meme is that she had to go to a dinner party last week and, wait for it, wasn't allowed to talk about nappies or weaning. (I'm not sure that they actively banned her from that, but she did have to try and remember how to talk to adults about something other than her children.)
Obviously my family make my world go round, but remembering what things make me tick, ignite my passion, strive for more and give me confidence and self esteem is also very important. So what are they? What are my interests? I have found this actually quite hard. It is like writing that crappy bit of your CV when most people say things like they love climbing and then get caught out in interview, because they can’t name one other Mountain other than Snowdonia!
Ben Nevis, Sugarloaf, Scapell Fell, Mount Everest. Wahay! Go me, and I didn't need to refer to Google either!
Not the point here. What are my interests?
Ok, Here goes:
- Gardening: I'm pretty damn sure that the weeds in my flower bed would like to raise their leaves in protest at this point, but just because I don't have time to weed doesn't mean that I can't make things grow, because I can. My garden (when it's looking tidy) has lots of compliments from a range of people. When I look out of the back bedroom window, ours is the only garden that has had anything done to it. Other people have retained their uniform '70×30 foot rectangle of grass, concrete path to the end of the concrete washing line and nothing else' garden exactly as it was 50 years ago. The first thing we did was cut down the hedges, knock down the line and kango hammer the concrete path. I then drew a plan to scale, laminated it and within six months that garden had been produced.
- Photography: I know that I am not Annie Liebowitz or Lord Snowden, and that some of my photographs are a little like 'snaps', but when I whip out my Canon EOS 300D and actually concentrate then I can produce some photographs that I am really proud of. Like this one, or this one. Before The Boy, I had the time to experiment and understand the manual setting a lot more. Nowadays, I am confined to the restrictions of the automatic settings. Composition is something that doesn't take much effort though and stems from my next point.
- Painting: Specifically oils or silk. I did Art 'A' Level and it was my minor in my teaching degree. I get rather passionate about children being taught the correct mechanics of drawing, once they understand that, they then just have to battle with their natural ability. I used to love painting with oils and produced some decent paintings; my sister had one on her wall for years. Silk painting is something that is so effective and easy to do, everyone should try it. My number one medium though is probably pastels. My parents have still got my 'A' level exam piece on their wall, and I do feel a sense of pride when I look at it.
- Reading: I know, I know. It's the one thing that everyone puts on their CV and the one thing that employers groan about. I was going to say "I'm not that good at it", but that sounds wrong. I clearly can read, I mean the analysing of the text. Hence only getting a 'C' in my GCSE. However, I do enjoy a really good book be it Wuthering Heights or Divas Las Vegas.
- Blogging: I'm not entirely sure I'm any good at it but it's something I enjoy. My original purpose was to share a few stories and to create something for the future. However, through my reviews I've managed to gain some lovely goodies and share these with people in competitions. I've combining my love of photography in my 365 project, and I've come across some fantastic reading material (which is just as well since I've not finished my book that I started a month ago!)
This is not a tagging meme as Kerry has set up a linky on her blog for it, however I'm tagging in the hope of guilt-tripping them into taking part. Who do I want to converse with in my metaphorical dinner party? Lets go with these lovely souls:
Christine over at Thinly Spread
Garry over at The Blog Up North
Kate from The Five Fs
Helen from Jessies Crazy Kitchen
Lauren over at The Real Housewife of Suffolk County
