Interview meme

So, both as a warm up to getting back into writing, and because ladybirdintheuk wrote me some lovely interview questions and it would be rude not to answer them....

1 - Why do you want to move to London? (not that I'm questioning your judgement or anything, I just wondered?)
The decision came from a lot of things coming together at the same time. I'd just started visiting London and loved the place - it was so alive, and wild, and ancient, and endless, and completely inspiring - even though I was heading home exhausted, I was also invigorated. And much as I love Leeds, I've somehow spent the past the past eight years there living a cosy little life in suburbia, which is never what I signed up for. And then on top of that I was (am) getting frustrated at work and desperately wanting to move on, and London is a massive hub for design. (I was told many years ago that to get anywhere in design I'd ~have~ to move to London, and so being a stubborn bitch I refused - having now done pretty well for myself I feel I've proved a point and can now go see what the London design world has to offer.) And I now know more people living there than ever before, so even though the idea of leaving a huge network of friends behind in Leeds is still terrifying, I still feel I could survive there.

At the end of the day, though, it's mostly because I fell in love with the city itself.

I still remember when moving there became something more than a vague idea. It was very early last year, one of those days when the air is frozen but the sky is blue; I was crossing the bridge over from the new Tate to the city, and ended up trapped halfway across, captivated by the view. I've always been fascinated by the relationship between rivers and cities, and hate that so many cities now bury their rivers deep underground like guilty secrets. But not only is the Thames too big to bury, it's still at the heart of the city: not only is it still an active waterway, but - more eloquently - all the major buildings along the banks still turn to face it. And there was something in that breathtaking expanse of wide open water, and the city bowing down in reflection either side... the thought suddenly popped into my head 'I could live here'. And that very quickly grew to become 'I should live here' and the rest is (almost) history.

The point when I knew I could definitely live in London came last November, when I was stood at the top of Primrose Hill watching the sun set over the city. Partly because it was an escape-and-rise-above place, and I need at least one of those to live anywhere. And partly because that was where I discovered the Watchers on the Hill, and realised that I was writing my own London mythology (and writing myself into it) and had already adopted it as My City. Since then I've pretty much treated it as the home I've just not quite moved to yet.

2 - Your favourite cocktail - what is it and how do you make it?
Ooh, that's a difficult question as it changes completely depending on what mood I'm in and what I tried most recently and if there's something on the menu I've never tried before and what the bartender recommends and how cute they are! For a long time I always used to drink Yellow Birds, which was some kind of combination of banana liqueur, white rum (or maybe malibu?) and pineapple juice.

I love drinking flatliners, partly because I actually ~like~ tabasco, tequila and sambuca, and partly because of how other people react when I drink them... apparently what really throws them is the fact that I have no expression on my face when I swallow >:-)

One of my new favourite cocktails is one they serve in the Mango Room (brilliant Caribbean restaurant in Camden) which contains things like chambord and coconut milk and tastes like raspberry angel delight, but I can't remember the recipe (or the name). So unfortunately I will just have to go back there sometime and drink more to find out!

Patrick and I accidentally invented the absinthe daiquiri (wwe ~are~ the Bad Idea Bears) which consists of absinthe and mountain dew and is a lot nicer than you might expect, but is probably banned under some kind of international arms treaty. And tonight I have to work out what goes into a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, so that may be my new favourtite cocktail, or the point the UN finally move in to stop me... or both!

3 - Where would your top-secret evil genius hideout be?
Currently it would be under a volcano. Partly because when constructing an evil genius hideout it's important to respect the classics. Partly because I was bemoaning the way the UK is woefully behind in its volcano technology, and really needs to make more of an effort, and it's always important to put your money where your mouth is. And partly because it's still freezing in the office so the idea of volcanic central heating is very appealing. And partly because we came up with a way of pushing imaginary people into a volcano (it's a maths thing) and I feel it needs testing. (Never start a conversation on the tube with 'So all we need is a small child and a volcano...') Plus they're pretty. And they make lightning. What more could a girl want?

(However on those grounds it almost certainly ~wouldn't~ be under a volcano, because the best location for your top-secret evil genius hideout is the one place they'd never think to look for you...)

4 - What was your favourite book as a child?

and

5 - There is some kind of special learning-things-quick machine like in the matrix. You get to choose 3 things to learn - what do you pick?

will have to wait until tomorrow, as I've run out of lunchtime...