• buy / make toffee apples
• have a cheesy horror film marathon
• make pumpkin soup
  • lots of it! freeze some!
  • try some other pumpkin recipes
• read some horror
  • The Shining by Stephen King
  • The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
  • Slade House by David Mitchell
• start Christmas shopping in Oct.

a, b, c

• Albin
• Alexei
• Amaury
• Archibald
• Arthur
• August
• Avery
• Benedict
• Benjamin
• Bennett
• Casper
• Caspian
• Chandler

d, e, f

• Dorian
• Elior
• Ezra
• Fabian
• Felix

• 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

• 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 only children (I wasn't lonely growing up, I'm not socially illiterate and I know how to share)

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...

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

an asterisk means I've already read something by them, otherwise they are mostly unknown to me.

• Truman Capote*
• Elena Ferrante
• Khaled Hosseini
• Madeline Miller
• Terry Pratchett
• Muriel Spark*
• Amy Tan*
• Donna Tartt*
• Irvine Welsh*

• 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

Sept. 18

• licorice tea
• my reptilian coworker
• stroopwafels (again)
• aniseed
• Somebody Feed Phil II

a, b, c

• Agatha
• Agnes
• Anastasia
• Anna
• Annushka
• Anwen
• Arabella
• Araminta
• Beatrice
• Birdie
• Blodwen
• Bronwen
• Cassandra
• Cecilia
• Cecily
• Celia

d, e, f

• Daisy
• Daphne

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

• 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
• sharks

• 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
• Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
• The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

• 11:11 wishes
• 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

• French revolution
• Greek mythology
• Judaism & Jewish history
• marine life
  • cephalopods
  • sharks
• modernist literature
• Norse mythology
• Russia
  • Cold War
  • communism
  • literature
  • Romanov dynasty
• Scandinavian history

• 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 )
• Ludo, Sir Didymus and Ambrosius ( Labyrinth )
• Nana ( The Travelling Cat Chronicles )
• Salem Saberhagen ( Sabrina the Teenage Witch )
• Sharik ( The Heart of a Dog )

• bees
  • banded white-tailed bumblebee
  • early bumblebee
  • honeybee
• birds
  • blackbird pair
  • dunnock
  • house sparrow
  • song thrush
  • starlings (around 40, all at once)
  • wood pigeon pair
  • magpies
  • wren
  • hawk!!!
  • robin!!!!

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

• 10 Things I Hate About You
• The Addams Family
• The Aristocats
• Beetlejuice
• Breakfast at Tiffany's
• Cool Runnings
• The Death of Stalin
• Dirty Dancing
• Ghost
• The Goonies
• Grease
• Guardians of the Galaxy (series)
• Isle of Dogs
• Mamma Mia!
• Mermaids
• Mulan
• The Princess Bride
• Pulp Fiction
• Reservoir Dogs
• Star Wars original trilogy
• T2: Trainspotting