DISQUS

May I interject for a moment please and ask whatever happened to Danielle? Is she on holiday? have I missed something? And by the way, it's not that I haven't been enjoying Jessica's replies to the dailies!

It's at 301 Park Avenue in NYC! I got married there and, hopefully one day, I'll get a permanent residence. I will never again have to worry about anything domestic-related and I won't have to stress about 'stuff' to own and to maintain. I'll be able to spend all of my time in art galleries, museums and libraries and all of my money on riding horses.

My Tom Ford for YSL black silk dress with huge velvet neck bow. Tom come back!!!

Money.

I would like to leave regrets behind. I've tried every year of my life and failed spectacularly. I have no reasons to believe this year will be any different but there's always hope somehow. Oh and twenty pounds too. We could all do with leaving x pounds behind, right?

This is exactly what happens to me. I shuffle my slippers, drag my heels and huff and puff at my own ineptitude when I'm home, BUT the second I hit the local Starbee, everything's perfect in my working world. I have finished a film criticism book there (out next Spring, woo hoo) and I am currently editing the last chapter of my PhD at my usual table. I don't know what it is but being removed from the domestic setting gets my creative juices flowing right away. And a caramel macchiato also helps yeah...

William, my first Dalmatian, for my uni graduation. He is the gift that keeps on giving as well as the world's most expensive dog. I spent £ 2000 in August to ensure that they would remove a radiator cap from his stomach so that he could live. And of course, many, many, many more ££££ on all sort of disasters (falling off a balcony among others...). Maybe he does have many lives, like a cat, but he is surely having a stab at ticking them off the list.

Tomorrow I am gonna finish the editing of this PhD chapter I am writing. This one in particular is about horror and comic books. At the moment I am clutching at writing straws regarding parallelisms between Batman's Joker and The Name of the Rose's Jorge but I am totally, utterly, deeply sure that after a good night's sleep I will fly through it. Now... where's the affirmations notebook...

Goodnight pals, me in the UK!

Loyal and with her heart in the right place. Says what she thinks and thinks about what she says.

It's Coco Chanel that said it. Take one thing off after you got dressed and before you get outta door. Oh, I don't think that underwear counts.

Wear what suits your shape; there is no person that looks good with absolutely everything out there! And skinny jeans do not look good on anyone; it's a toss between blue toothpicks or blue sausages and neither are nice.

I haven't got a TV, I like to read, write, horse ride and many other things, I wouldn't know what to do with a TV if I had one, except, perhaps, dusting it! I do however love some TV shows which I watch on DVD (on a computer screen if you want to know...). My favourite one is Red Dwarf from the BBC. It is super-funny, with not-so-subtle class digs in perfect British tradition. You can get to know more about it here: www.reddwarf.co.uk I also love The Jeffersons (also on DVD) which I particularly adored watching when I was a small child...!

Oh this is an easy one! I would like to win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. I have been practising the speech for many years, I also already bought the dress, a John Galliano simple-and-stylish black number, even though I will need a boob job to ensure I can go bra-less as the dress commands. I'll book the appointment once I get the nomination.

I would do exactly what I am doing now, business as usual, as they say. This is because I realised some time ago that I was partly flushing my life down the toilet trying to be someone I'm not. Now that I have found myself, I don't feel the need to change a thing and I wouldn't even if I only had 30 or 3 days to live.

I so agree too! It is terrible when people are late and the problem is, whoever is late always is a serial offender! It's like they do it on purpose. When I was a child and I used to arrange an afternoon with a certain friend of mine, her mum would always, invariably drop her off a good 30-45 minutes after the agreed time. It used to drive my mum bonkers at the time; as for me, I felt a pang of embarrassment for both my friend and her own mother. Another friend's dad used to come and pick her up one hour after the agreed time, with the result that she used to stand by the window red in the face, as my mum was setting the table for dinner and her own dad was nowhere to be seen...

I agree and I am flabbergasted that certain women see it as an insult. I mean... I am a girl and I was once told that 'I can open my own doors thanks', as if I had been a sexist cast-off from the 1950s who thinks women are for cooking meals. Blimey... I am careful who I open my doors for these days!

Which reminds me of a friend of mine whose gaze always, always, always wanders as we are having a conversation, to the point whereby she starts interjecting questions about 'that guy's car' as I am talking about something completely different. Either I am deadly boring, or she lacks basic manners.

Mine is giving, because there isn't much of it going on, yet, it makes so many people happy. I am not just talking about 'things' either; I am talking about giving time when your time is tight, giving good words when someone needs them (or when they are not even needed, all the better), giving a helping hand before it's asked for, giving in to happiness and giving up being on a selfish high horse. If only I could do half of these consistently! And on this note, I would like to link you all to a giving challenge project: http://29gifts.org/
I thought that the sort of people I believe to visit this site would be extremely interested in this small act of kindness. All the best!

My smile. Lights me up and lights everyone up (with thanks to some hardcore laser bleaching).

Totally thrilled by my upcoming agent deal and by the tail-end of my PhD. Everything is changing in my life and even when change is imposed upon us, it is a good thing; I am loving it.

A Hermès saddle for my horse (and... well... for me!).