I’ve been tagged by Michelle, who’s blog can be found here

1. Who is your all-time favourite author, and why?

That is a very hard question and not one I think I can answer. I like such a variety of fiction that to pick one author would be too difficult!

2. Who was your first favourite author, and why?  Do you still consider him or her among your favourites?

My first favourite author was Virgina Andrews and the Flowers in the Attic series. I don’t know why I started reading these books but I still have them on my bookshelf 17 years later!

3. Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favourite authors, and why?

It has to be Raven Hart and the Savannah Vampire Cronicles series. I love love love this series of books and I would definately class Raven as one of my favourite authors ever!

4. If someone asked you who your favourite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth?  Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?

Hmm let me think…..Raven Hart, Barbara Erskine, Jean Auel, Martina Cole, James Herbert and Sarah Pinborough. I am sure I have left someone out but these are the ones that spring to mind.

The rules:
Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your meme, answer the Author questions, tag some people in your post, let the tagees know they’ve been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog, let the tagger know your entry is posted.

Tagged:
In the wee hours

Life gets in the way

External Appearance

Well what a week! But what a lovely one. Here’s what has been happening:

New home - I have had my new sofa, armchair and storage foot stall delivered on Monday. They are stone in colour and just the most gorgeous things you have ever seen! So now I have neutral furniture I can FINALLY redecorate my lounge in ‘plum’. So I ordered some aubergine curtains and new voiles on Monday. I was told there was an eight week wait so imagine my joy when I got home yesterday and found a note saying they had been left with a neighbour! So as they had arrived I then went and got some paint which I liked and this evening I have been painting a feature wall ‘juniperberry’ which is a browny purple and matches my curtains perfectly!

New hair - On Wednesday I went for my regular hair colour and had lots and lots of pink streaks put in as well. They actually look really really good and I havn’t washed my hair since as I don’t want them to faid…..

New car - Today I picked up a lovely shiny new car! It’s all clean and gleaming and has that new car smell. It is lovely to finally have a car with the ‘mod cons’ such as remote central locking and electric windows! But one of the best features is the quickclear windscreen, which will be very handy in the winter to get rid of the pesky frost, ice and snow!

New books - I have received three review books this week and one book from Read it swap it. The review books are: Lost and Found by Jacqueline Sheehan, The Ingenious Edgar Jones by Elizabeth Garner and Before the Storm by Judith Lennox and the RISI book is A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown. All of these books look very good so I can’t wait to get started on them!

Old friend - An old friend who I went to college with tracked me down yesterday on Friends Reunited. I was so touched that she went to the effort to find me as I am only listed on there for my senior school, not college. We have been exchanging emails since then catching up on the last 15 years and even better she is on Facebook as well! The only bad bit is she now lives in India so I don’t reckon I will be seeing her anytime soon!

The only bad thing about this week is the weather…what’s happened to it? This time last week we were basking in temperatures of 26 degrees and today it was 13 degrees and I was blimming freezing…..

Virgin Radio ran a competition this morning asking the question ‘would you rather?’.

My friends daughter actually won this competition and her prize is an electric guitar signed by Snow Patrol! Needless to say she is very pleased!

Her winning question was - ‘Would you rather Jeremy Clarkson for Prime Minister or Gene Hunt (Ashes to Ashes) as Head of the Police?’

So my question is, which would you rather? It’s a really tricky question and to be honest I can’t decide!

  or  

The gym I attend provides you with a free copy of the Daily Mail so recently I have been reading it. Now normally the Sun would be my newspaper of choice but now I am quite enjoying the Daily Mail.

Does this mean I am getting old and turning into my parents?

I am finding the Daily Mail particually interesting as I agree with all they are writing about the state of this country. What with the cost of food and petrol ever increasing and the state of our prisons. However that is a whole different topic all together!

So at the tender age of 32 should I be enjoying the Daily Mail so much that I would prefer it to the Sun?

St. George’s Day is celebrated on April 23rd. The life of St. George, the patron saint of England, is shrouded in legend and fable.

Most famously he slayed a ‘dragon’ in Libya, and saved a sacrificial maiden. He distributed a reward amongst local villagers.

St. George held a senior post in the Roman Army, before being executed for protesting about the treatment of Christians under the rule of Emporer Dioclesian.

His popularity spread throughout Europe from the 10th Century onwards, following stories of his chivalrous actions.

English Heritage has launched a campaign to dispel the apathy surrounding St George’s Day and encourage more people to celebrate their patron saint.

A survey by the Government agency revealed that 82 per cent of the public knows that St George’s Day falls today, but fewer than one in five actually celebrates the occasion.

I think we should have a bank holiday just like the Irish do on St Patricks Day.

It was good to see the English spirit alive and well walking to work this morning. I saw vans with the England flag hanging out their windows, my local sandwich shop had England flags and banners outside and I saw a pub covered in England flags.

I am proud to be English and I wish we would be given the opportunity to celebrate it as a country.

Thank you to Burkes Peerage and The Telegraph for some of this post.

I broke one of my most important dieting rules today, it was beautiful sunshine outside and I didn’t go for my walk….. Bad Nici I hear you all cry….BUT……I did something far more exciting…..

I got a new phone! A nice shiny Nokia N95! I had a pay as you go phone and was getting fed up with running out of credit and not being able to access my voicemail and also having no credit for an emergency so I decided to go back on contract.

It does everything you can imagine! I can access my googlemail very easily, I can chat on MSN Messenger and Skype and even visit my favourite websites.

It’s the most beautiful phone EVER!

I was just talking to a friend whilst listening to Guns n’ Roses - Estranged and I went all goosebumpy when Slash did his solo as it is such an excellent song. My friend said that that is the sign of good music.

Does anyone have a song or group that they go goosebumpy to when they listen to it/them?

“The news that Prince Harry was serving with the British Army in Afghanistan leaked out much earlier than its intended publication date. The story was broken by an American website, The Drudge Report.” *

“Prince Harry returned to the UK on Saturday after a news leak cut short his front-line deployment. He was 10 weeks into a tour on the front line in Helmand Province.” *

“The leak led to fears he would be targeted by the Taleban and he was returned to the UK after 10 weeks.” *

“For once in his life Harry was able to get on with a job he obviously loves…away from prying eyes - Well the foreign press stuffed that one up.” *

“The head of the editorial team at The Drudge Report should be extradited to face questioning in a UK court. For once the UK media did the right thing and upheld the blackout request, so what was TDR’s excuse?
This is totally unacceptable behaviour by TDR, and they may well find themselves responsible for the deaths of British soldiers serving alongside the Prince. If so, I hope they face legal action brought by the families of the deceased.” *

* Quoted from the BBC Website
* Quoted from the BBC ‘Have your Say’ website

This story has made me really really mad. There was a media blackout so that Prince Harry could serve in the army without putting himself and the people he served with in unneccesary danger. It also gave Harry the opportunity to “be himself” without the media hounding him.
It isn’t just Prince Harry’s life that was put in danger but also the many many people he served with.
Then some idiot decides to break the news blackout and tell the world about it. What was the point? What has he gained? Certainly not popularity. I cannot write on here the full extent of how annoyed I am with this story.