• Eat Up by Ruby Tandoh
• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (hardback special edition)
• How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
• A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled by Ruby Wax
• Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

• I have a significant duolingo streak
• I can focus on one job now instead of balancing two
• and I have time to focus on myself
• there are two regular customers I'm incredibly fond of at work
• I am really enjoying Jane Eyre right now
• I've spent very little since my last pay day
• two of my orchids have re-bloomed

alternate title: call me grandma

• I like sitting out in my garden, reading and watching the birds
• I've started buying a lot of bird food
• I own a lot of plants
• big, cosy cardigans are my thing
• I hate loud music, it disturbs my quiet time
• I am somewhat out of touch with current popular culture
• I love shopping in charity shops, for books and mugs mainly
• I naturally wake up early and I go to bed early
• I also love naps
• I sometimes forget that I have a cup of tea to drink until it's gone cold
• I have conversations with my pets
• I carry snacks around and sometimes flasks of tea
• the members of my favourite bands are all...

• Anouk
• Antoinette
• Anwen
• Araminta
• Beatrix
• Bronwen
• Camilla
• Cecilia
• Cecily
• Cosima
• Edith
• Elowen
• Emilia
• Evadne
• Frances
• Frida
• Geneva
• Gwen
• Ianthe
• Isadora
• Josephine

• apocalypse, end of the world scenarios
• family and friends, only they have turned on me
• guns
• haunted ventriloquist dummies (thank you, R. L. Stine)
• heroes / villains from media I have recently consumed
• isolation / separation
• malevolent spirits
• military figures
• school
• serial killers
• a skeleton buried in the garden (this was a recurring nightmare I had a child, but I eventually befriended him)
• supernatural clowns (thank you, Stephen King)
• witches, the bad kind
• zombie-like, contagious diseases

• people who insult me for my vegetarianism. leave me the fuck alone
• sending emails!
• reading slumps; not knowing what to read next
• repetitive sounds
• the societal pressure to like The Beatles
• not having a pleasant local library (my town's main library is full of somewhat unpleasant people - a man recently became angry when I queued behind him to speak to the librarian)
• days so grey that the greyness seeps in through the windows and into your mind
• sleeplessness / sleeping too much / sleeping in past 10am (all signs that I'm in a depressive episode)
• over-listening to a song / artist to the point where you ruin them for yourself
• people who are weirdly prejudiced against...

• Grandmama Addams
• Hermione Granger
• Hilda Spellman
• Margarita Nikolaevna
• Minerva McGonagall
• Molly Weasley
• Paige Matthews
• Phoebe Halliwell
• Piper Halliwell
• Prue Halliwell
• Sabrina Spellman
• Zelda Spellman

• blankets
• candles and incense
• cushions
• globes and maps
• magnets
• mugs
  • I have at least 20
• ornaments
• photographs
• plush toys
• postcards
• rugs
• wall art

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
• The Funeral Party by Lyudmila Ulitskaya
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• ✔ The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
• Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

• hearing a loud, steady thumping coming from the escalator, which goes up, and finding a middle-aged man trying to run down it. when I pointed out we had stairs, he let himself be carried back up and went to use those instead.
• the man who started spelling his first name when I asked for his surname, and when I said I meant his surname, he shouted, "that is my surname!" (again, it was his first name)
• all the people who ask for books that don't exist

Oct. 18

• The Princess Bride (book and film)
• youtube commentary videos
• chocolate panettone
• The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
• only having one job!!!!
• my new iPhone XS (I never buy new technology)

Sept. 18

• licorice tea
• my reptilian coworker
• stroopwafels (again)
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch
• aniseed
• Somebody Feed Phil II

there are no songs with my name in the title

• Barbara Ann by The Beach Boys
• Brimful of Asha by Cornershop
• Cassandra by Abba
• Cassy O by George Ezra
• Cecilia by Simon and Garfunkel
• Celestine by Spector
• Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners
• Dawn (Go Away) by The Four Seasons
• Gloria by The Doors
• Hazey Jane II by Nick Drake
• Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield
• Mary, Mary by The Monkees
• Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin
• My Sharona by The Knack
• Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac
• Sherry by The Four Seasons
• Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond
• Vincent by Don McLean
• Walk Away Renee by The Four Seasons

• Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body by Sara Pascoe
• Eat Up! by Ruby Tandoh
• How to be Champion by Sarah Millican
• Is It Just Me? by Miranda Hart
• The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking
• A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled by Ruby Wax
• Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig
• Sane New World: Taming the Mind by Ruby Wax
• Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

• bearded dragons
• bees
• capybaras
• cats
• cephalopods
• chickens
• cows
• dogs
• ducks
• elephants
• giraffes
• goats (we have a connection)
• goldfish
• guinea pigs
• hedgehogs
• honey badgers
• pigeons
• pigs
• rabbits
• rats
• seals

• alcoholic drink → whisky and coke
• animal → all of them
• artist → Vincent van Gogh
• biscuit → fig rolls
• cheese → cheddar
• chocolate → milka
• coffee → latte
• colour → mustard yellow
• comedian → Sarah Millican
• dessert → French macaroons
• film → Dirty Dancing
• Friends character → Chandler
• fruit → tomatoes
• holiday → Christmas
• ice cream flavour → mint chocolate chip
• kitchen utensil → my cafetiere
• make up brand → Nyx
• muffin → blueberry
• music artist → Abba
• musical → Jersey Boys

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• The Humans by Matt Haig
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
• Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith
• The Princess Bride by William Goldman
• Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
• The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

I very often say, "I'm not buying any more books now," and then, a few days later, start looking longingly at books while I'm shelving them at work.

• A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie by Kathryn Harkup
• A Sting in the Tale: My Adventures with Bumblebees by Dave Goulson
• Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
• An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris by Georges Perec
• Bee Quest by Dave Goulson
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
• I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
• Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley
• Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living by Linnea Dunne
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
• The Inner Life of Animals: Surprising Obs... by Peter Wohlleben

• Albin
• Asa
• August
• Bennett
• Chandler
• Ernest
• Ezra
• Gideon
• Hadley
• Henrik
• Ira
• Ivo
• Ivor
• Jasper
• Jesse
• Joakim
• Jude
• Kasper
• Kingsley
• Leo
• Lev

• 11:11 wishes
• being awake before everyone else
• cups of tea that fix everything
• day moons
• déjà vu
• full, bright moons
• kind gestures from strangers
• lavender
• long, melancholic summer evenings
• piano music
• seeing beautiful art in person
• soft morning light
• starry nights

• At Bertram's Hotel *
• By the Pricking of My Thumbs
• Death in the Clouds
• Death on the Nile
• Murder is Easy
• The Mystery of the Blue Train
• The Pale Horse
• Sparkling Cyanide *
• There Is a Tide ( aka Taken at the Flood )*
• collections
  • The Complete Short Stories: Hercule Poirot
  • The Complete Short Stories: Miss Marple and Mystery
  • The Mousetrap and Other Plays

* | read

• alias Andrew Martin ( The Humans )
• Behemoth ( The Master and Margarita )
• Dobby ( Harry Potter )
• the Doctor (9 and 10) ( Doctor Who )
• Hedwig ( Harry Potter )
• K-9 ( Doctor Who )
• literally every dog on trash island ( Isle of Dogs )
• Ludo, Sir Didymus and Ambrosius ( Labyrinth )
• Nana ( The Travelling Cat Chronicles )
• Salem Saberhagen ( Sabrina the Teenage Witch )
• Sharik ( The Heart of a Dog )

I never really liked making lists of all the places I want to visit, in case it never happened, but I've realised there's no harm in hoping.

consider this list a permanent work in progress.

• Belgium ↺
  • Brussels ↺
  • Ypres ↺
• Denmark
  • Copenhagen
• France ↺
  • Paris
• Germany
  • Berlin
  • Hamburg
• Israel (except I probably won't go)

• I take my coffee strong and very milky.
• I take my tea strong and with a splash of milk.
• I love dunking biscuits in my tea/coffee.
• I cannot choose between dogs and cats.
• I save greetings cards and cinema, theatre and train tickets.
• I never fold the pages of my books.
• I used to have pet rats named Antigone 'Tiggy' and Calypso 'Cally.' I miss them terribly.
• my accent is a mix of Yorkshire and London.
• I was a featured user on listography years ago.
• I hate the taste of coconut, but love the smell.
• I love listening to classical music, but can name hardly any pieces.
• I have a dainty, high-pitched sneeze and ...

• Blood Brothers (Russell)
  • Marilyn Monroe
  • Shoes Upon the Table
  • Kids' Game
  • I'm Not Saying a Word
  • Tell Me It's Not True
• Chess (Andersson/Rice/Ulvaeus)
  • The Story of Chess
  • Difficult and Dangerous Times
  • Embassy Lament
  • Nobody's Side
  • One Night in Bangkok
  • The Soviet Machine
  • Someone Else's Story
  • I Know Him So Well
• Jersey Boys (Crewe/Gaudio)
  • Ces Soirees-La
  • The Early Years: Scrapbook esp. Silhouettes