Who taught you how to ride a bike?
Training wheels. During this period, I also had an extremely embarrassing triangular orange flag on a flexible white post that stuck up in the back of my bike. It was mounted on the frame of the bike and at about 6 feet tall, absolutely towered over me. The shame was just too much to bear. One day I broke it off and told my parents I had fallen down. Problem solved!
The only way to beat the block is to refuse to acknowledge it and just write, write, write. Sometimes I just write mindless drivel until something good comes along. Other times, I just leave the mindless drivel.
What are your top 5 movies/DVDs of 2006?
Overall, I wasn't blown away by the 2006 crop. That said, there are still a few out there that I haven't made it to see yet: Bond, Stranger Than Fiction, The Queen and The Illusionist, to name a few. However, in a year of cinematic mediocrity, there were a few standouts:
- Little Miss Sunshine: easily the best move I saw this year. It had me laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face and was reduced to making little sobbing sounds. The sounds of other people snorting in the cinema was an added bonus.
- Tsotsi: my top DVD of the year. A compelling, gritty, real story acted by nobody you've ever heard of. It was great.
- The Departed: my nod to the big Hollywood blockbuster. Well cast and acted by Nicholson, Wahlberg and DiCaprio. It could have done without a few of the now-you-hear-them-now-you-don't Boston accents.
- Sin City: yeah, I know it came out in 2005, but I rented it again this year. I blows me away every time I see it. Can't wait until Frank Miller's new one, 300, comes out.
- Ice Age 2: I did everything I could to avoid watching this movie, but when I finally sat down and did it, it was fantastic. Much better than the first.
What is your pet peeve, the one thing which really drives you mad?
Submitted by Beki.
Gosh, this is a dangerous one. Just one thing is clearly impossible, so I've resorted to bullet points:
- Getting blamed for something I didn't do
- People who don't listen
- Overcrowded tubes
- People who are late
- Jargon
What books did you love as a child?
Submitted by hearts.
As a kid, my nose was always stuck in a book. If you glanced at the cover as you walked by, it would probably be one of these:
- Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
- The Magic Faraway Tree, by Enid Blyton
- Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang, by Ian Fleming
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis
Beyond that, I loved Tintin, Rupert and Asterix. A thing for graphic novels (a.k.a., comics), obviously.
