If you’re reading this, you’re tagged. So there.

1. Grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 123. Find the fifth sentence.Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.

“Miss Marcy shot her a quick glance and Topaz gave her the very faintest nod. I nearly laughed – they were so different, Miss Marcy like a rosy little bird and Topaz tall and pale, like a slightly dead goddess, but just that second they resembled each other in their absolute lust to marry Rose off.

‘Perhaps we could offer Miss Marcy something of Aunt Millicent’s as a small return I suggested.”

This is from I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith which was the last book I read for my book discussion group. It was a fantastic book and anyone who only knows Dodie Smith for 101 Dalmations would be surprised to find she wrote a wonderful novel.

2.stretch your left arm out as far as you can…what do you touch first?

The copy of I Capture the Castle that I just put down on the sofa next to me.

3. what was the last thing you watched on tv?

I am watching Breakfast News on the BBC as I write this, always watch it before I head off to work in the morning.

4. without looking, what time is it?

about quarter to nine in the morning

5. what is the actual time?

8.44am

6. with the exception of the computer, what can you hear?

The weather forecaster on Breakfast News, my husband packing his rucksack before heading out on his bike for work, birds in my garden

7. when did you last step outside?

Walking from my car to the front door when I got in from work yesterday evening.

8. what are you wearing?

Pyjamas and dressing gown

9. when did you last laugh?

About half an hour ago when my husband got really excited about his address cards arriving from www.moo.com they print your own photos onto little cards with your address details on the other side. He came running upstairs having picked up the post and was like a little kid on Christmas morning. He often makes me laugh like this!

10. seen something weird lately?

Define weird….hmmm….some sweets in the food hall at Ikea called “Christmas Skum” – sounded very appetising (actually those soft marshmallow type sweets)

11. what did you dream last night?

Haven’t remembered a dream in months, probably because I’m not sleeping well/long enough

12. what’s on the walls of the room you’re in?

Blue paint, a print by Stan Rosenthal called Melin Trefin which is of a place in Pembrokeshire, South Wales where we stayed just before we got married. A very large print of a 19th century photo of Felucca’s on the Nile which I bought when I was in Egypt in 1999. Floor to ceiling book cases around the other end of the room.

14. what was the last film you saw?

I watched “Regeneration” on tv the other night, it’s about Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen and their treatment for shell shock during WW1 based on the novel by Pat Barker which I’ve been meaning to read for ages. Fasicinated by WW1 recently since reading a load of letters my Great Grandfather wrote from the trenches of Belgium, he was killed in 1918.

15.do you like to dance?

Do I ever! Don’t get much opportunity these days but known to dance round the house if the radio is on. Hubby and I were complimented by an old lady on our “exotic dancing” one evening aboard Oriana on our honeymoon!!!

16. would you ever consider living abroad?

No – I’m an English girl through and through, I’d miss my family & friends, the food, the weather (yes – the weather!!), the countryside…..I love travelling but always love arriving back home and seeing the English countryside.

17. if you became a multi-millionaire overnight what would you buy first?

oooohhh – the one thing each of my family & friends want most but can’t buy….actually I don’t know as the things I want most are things that money can’t buy.

18.tell me something about you that i don’t know.

my mum is running the Great North Run this Sunday – Good Luck mum

19. what would you change about the world?

Make people take responsibility for their own words and actions and take a time out before they say or do anything to think what the effect on others would be….and make chocolate non-fattening.