pennywhistler

Hello. I am a librarian in the UK. I currently live in the country, but I am planning to move to Bristol next year.

In my spare time I enjoy mooching around museums and art galleries. I also love the cinema (mainly foreign and art house) and the theatre. I love learning new things and get frustrated that there are so many things in the world which I don't know about!

I love trying out new crafts and my favourite is sewing, although I am very much a beginner. I cannot go past a fabric shop without being tempted inside. I also enjoy making jewellery. I have recently taken up cross-stitch again. I will give most crafts a try, but hate knitting and crochet because I find them too difficult and stressful. I am also not too enamoured with scrapbooking and papercrafts, but have just started Smash booking so I have been lurking around the paper section in the craft shop recently. I am also trying to teach myself how to cook.

I am a huge book lover (no surprise given my profession). I will give most things a try, but I am not keen on chick lit/romance and science-fiction. I especially like crime novels, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I love Scandinavian crime and am keen to discover crime novels from other countries. As far as non-fiction is concerned I mainly read history, travel and sociology/psychology/current affairs. I am currently doing two reading challenges: the Around the World in 80 Books reading challenge and a Dewey Decimal reading challenge.

I love Bollywood films as they are such great escapism. I am also a big horror fan and I especially like the horror films coming out of Japan and Korea. I love discovering new films and am currently challenging myself to watch 101 films from different countries. I am not sure if I will succeed! I have a massive wish list on my DVD rental site because I will give almost any film a go, although I am not really into a lot of typically girly films.

Likes:

Orangutans (I adopt a grumpy orangutan called Amy who lives in an ape conservation park not far from where I live).

Writing paper. I have a bit of a fetish for beautiful and quirky stationery. I also love gorgeous notebooks/journals. I love the Mix and Match writing sets from Chronicle Books. I have an embarrassingly large collection of Moleskines.

Kawaii stationery.

Cinnamon-flavoured candy/gum (we cannot get this in the UK)

Journal tags that I can use in my Smash Book.

I love toiletries and beauty products, especially brands I cannot get in the UK. I love lip balms/tinted glosses and hand cream. I also adore perfume samples and nail varnish.

I like anything to do with India. I love Bollywood movies, Indian fashion, art and design.

I am fascinated by Japan and hope to visit one day. I also have a bit of a thing for Scandinavia, especially Sweden and Denmark and hope to travel there in the next few years. There are MANY places in the world that I would love to visit.

I like things with butterflies on.

Other Random Things I Like:

Chimpanzees

Medieval/Neo-Gothic design

The Victorian era

Reusable shopping bags

Dumpling Dynasty and Miso Pretty

Quirky contemporary fabrics. Well, any fabrics really as I don't have a big stash yet.

Gil Elvgren and other retro pin-up art of this kind.

Cemetery art. I also love Simon Marsden's spooky photography.

Jelly Belly jelly beans (especially coconut and sizzling cinnamon)

I like teas that don't require milk. I prefer herbal teas to fruit teas.

Dislikes:

I am allergic to champagne. I know no one is likely to send me a bottle of champagne, but sometimes friends mistakenly give me champagne truffles! I also have trouble with ear-rings in that I can only wear ones with gold or sterling silver posts or I get a rash. My skin is okay with other types of jewellery not being made of precious metal though.