another award

The lovely ReneW has awarded me the Beautiful Blogger badge. Go check out her blog, like Yancy yesterday, she has just given up her corporate job to follow her heart!

The rules for the award state that I should pass it on to 15 Beautiful Bloggers but I'm going to shake things up a little bit. Everyone who reads this blog is a pretty Beautiful Blogger in my opinion, so let's all get to know each other a little better.

Post a comment here with a link to one of your favourite blog posts and then visit the blogger who posted before you and leave a comment on their blog.

Have fun!

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The rules also state that I have to tell you 7 random facts about myself so here goes (if you share 7 random facts about yourselves in your blog, leave me a link!):-

1. I am addicted to Australian soap operas.
2. I don't want to get married, but get silly excited when other people get engaged.
3. I have two cats, both named after Foo Fighter songs.
4. My favourite film is "You, Me and Dupree" - I have lost count of the number of times I've seen it.
5. I love pancakes - when I was little I ate so many I was sick :/
6. I wear odd socks.
7. For someone who attempts to practice non-attachment, I am very attached to my pink yoga mat.

thank you!!

Thank you to everyone who posted such lovely comments on my post yesterday. It means so much to me. It's great to "meet" a few more of my readers and be assured I will be checking out your blogs over the next few days. Audrey Hepburn eh? *grins*

A little slow on the uptake I've started a yoga related Twitter stream. You can follow it here if you like.

My Saturday has so far consisted of a six mile bike ride, hot soup, a long nap and chocolate biscuits. No yoga, Saturday is my day off! And you dear reader?

Enjoy your Saturdays, whatever you are doing :)

this weekend i....

*ate the best vegan burrito I've had this side of the Atlantic in a plastic-chaired cafe behind Oxford Street (see above).
*had my wardrobe overhauled by a style advisor at Top Shop, which was awesome. Basically I got to sit around on a sofa drinking tea while the woman brought a million outfits for me to try on. It was like being a rich person. Sadly I do not have a rich person's budget so I had to choose only a few of the clothes. Came back with a pretty fantastic haul though AND I came in under budget. I tried on a ton of stuff that I wouldn't have even thought of looking twice at if I'd been shopping on my own, some didn't work, but a couple of things really looked good on me so that was an eye opener. If you adore clothes but hate shopping and can get to one of the big Top Shops fairly easily, I highly recommend this. You'll come out feeling like a princess, or a rock star depending on your style. :)
*met a dear friend for Russian Caravan Tea and vegan almond cake.
* waited forever for a train home.
*realised once again how wonderful Himself is when he paid for my taxis and had Chinese takeaway waiting for me when I got home.

Awesome weekend (and totally yoga/writing unrelated, sorry about that)!

blogspash update!

As the regular reader will already know, Fiona Robyn is going to be blogging her next novel Thaw.

Bloggers across the web will be publishing the first page of the novel on the 1st of March. The entire novel will be available to read for free online, and this 'Blogsplash' is a way to let as many readers as possible know about it.

I also have an ulterior motive, as if you, yes you dear reader, sign up, I'm in for a chance of winning a signed book and a special gift.

If you sign up and ask one of your blogging friends to sign up, you'll be in with a chance too!

There's more information here and when you do email Fiona, make sure you mention my name.

Do join in. Fiona is an awesome writer, her blogs are totally worth reading regularly, she has the most gorgeous red hair and seriously, who can possibly resist a surprise gift!

On Books and Dogs

I have been reading endless lists over the last few weeks trying to find "The Book of the Decade". All of the lists I've read have had some great books on them but every single one of them is kind of generic. Same-y. These are the books you must read for all other books are crap. Apparently. (Image via cuteoverload.com)

The problem with these sort of lists is it's all about personal preference. I loathed and despised many of the books that have been seen as "must reads". I'm not sure if that says something about my reading habits or the general bad taste of the press. I'll leave that decision up to you, dear reader, because you see I have come up with my definitive Book of the Decade and to my knowledge it has made no lists whatsoever apart from this one right here (although I would be delighted to be corrected if I'm wrong!).

(Disclaimer: all opinions expressed below are mine and mine alone. Please feel free to disagree!)
There have been some fabulous books over the last ten years and I've probably forgotten more than two thirds of them. Some of those that spring to mind are Michael Cox's Meaning of Night, Margaret Drabble's Peppered Moth, Lionel Schriver's Something About Kevin (I am the only person I know who didn't guess the ending before the end and it blew me away) and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (I read the whole book for the first time in Abu Dabi airport waiting for a delayed flight to Delhi. I know I wasn't supposed to but I fell in love with Crake).

There have also been some utterly over-rated books (The Thirteenth Tale, His Dark Materials Trilogy (oh such promise and oh so cringe-worthy at the end) and My Sister's Keeper for example) and some absolute duffers (the Twilight books, The Lovely Bones, The Historian and possibly the worst written book in the history of publishing, The Da Vinci Code to name a few). But bad books, like bad experiences can be pushed to the back of our minds as we focus on what we truly love.

And so here it is. The Suburban Yogini's book of the decade. Corazon by Joolz Denby.

I cannot stress how utterly wonderful this book is. When I gave it to Himself to read he finished it on a train to Leeds. He phoned me from the train to utter one syllable. "Wow".

I'm not going to tell you what happens in Corazon, I urge you to find out for yourself. All I will say is that I have never empathised with a novel's narrator in quite the same way as I did with this book.

Discover Joolz, you won't regret it!

(I'm also excited and honoured to be having her artwork indelibly etched into my body by the great lady herself two weeks on Friday. More on that later!)

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Apart from Crake, Himself and Dave Grohl I am in love with a brown dog called Wrigley who lives in Chicago. Nicole is a yoga teacher and general all round awesome lady who raises money for and awareness about abandoned and abused pitbulls as well as having four adopted pitbulls of her own. They are all cute as buttons but Wrigley is my favourite! Sadly pitbulls are illegal in this country so Mr Wrigs will never be able to come visit, but you can see him opening my Christmas card here!