I first read Animal Farm for English class in high school, back when I was fifteen years old. We were told of course that it was based on the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalinist Russia, but I was yet to formally study Russian history. Re-reading it now, it is striking how closely the [...]

After months of unseasonally warm weather, it’s finally getting cold. Apparently it could even snow this week, although the official forecast is only for sleet.
I hope it snows - sleet is nasty and cold and wet whereas snow is beautiful and romantic and cold and wet. So I’m doing my best snow dance right [...]

My uncle Chris celebrated his 50th birthday on Saturday and my boyfriend and I headed up for the bash at his house in Cardiff. Happy birthday, Chris!
My aunt Michele (left, in the purple dress) had prepared a fabulous spread of food - some of it with ingredients from her garden - including salad and quiche [...]

I think I signed up to LinkedIn.com (a professional networking site for the those not in the know) a couple of years ago and forgot about it. A couple of invitations for connections here and there prompted me to periodically update my profile but I never really thought much about it or found it terribly [...]

I know I’m a bit behind the times but I finally made it to see the new Bond film last night.
Casino Royale is every bit as entertaining and stylish as its predecessors. It is also a lot smarter than the average Bond movie (or at least the recent ones), with a great deal more emotional [...]

This is my third winter in London and its certainly the mildest so far. Normally at this time of year, I would be bundled up to my eyebrows with hats, scarves, gloves etc. This year I am wearing a coat but I don’t really need to do it up and I don’t need the accessories [...]

Last night’s meetup for BookCrossing was a literary quiz as a fundraiser for RNIB for talking books.
Last night we raised £187 - to be added to the £453 already raised - but the target is £2000 - the cost to produce one talking book. A whopping 96% of books are never made available to people [...]

The theatre - plays, musicals and ballets - I saw in 2006.
January: The Soldier’s Tale, Old Vic (my review)February: Resurrection Blues, Old Vic (my review)March: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Apollo Theatre (my review)August: Market Boy, National Theatre (my review)October: The Producers, Theatre Royal my review)Daddy Cool, Shaftesbury Theatre my review)November: A Moon for the [...]

My travel itinerary in 2006.
December-January: Australia (Sydney and Queensland)January: Shanghai, ChinaMarch: Belgium (Bruges/Brugge and Brussels)April: UgandaMay: Italy (Rome, Umbria, Florence and Pisa) - I don’t seem to have written about this!June: Paris, FranceCardiff, UKJuly: Birmingham, UKTanzaniaScotlandJuly-August: Norway and Spitsbergen in the High ArcticDenmarkChristiania (community within Copenhagen that claims independence from Denmark)August: Cornwall, UKSeptember: Whitstable, Kent, [...]

I took myself to the movies on Friday night and saw Miss Potter, the new film about the life of Beatrix Potter. I really enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who loved Beatrix Potter’s books (the tales of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck, Jeremy Fisher et al) as a child. It’s not thrills and spills [...]