Ten lights

Jen tagged a handful of bloggers to come up with ten things which make them happy. Judging from everyone else's posts, animals feature quite highly so far.

Okay.

1) Let's start with wine. White. I'm honest, at least. And I haven't got any pets.

2) Standing on one leg. This is a picture taken from a Clarice Bean book - I have a scan of the picture in a frame on the living room wall. I've been doing yoga since I was ill with ME a few years ago, and nothing feels better than a good tree. I really ought to thank you for the yoga, since I've done a couple of sponsored blog posts here recently which have paid for a few of my classes.

3) The backs of the Littlest Latte's knees. Really. You have never seen anything quite so spindly, so cute, and so powerful all at the same time. I get to watch them a lot, because she's always running off.

4) Eye candy. You can keep your Johnny Depps and your George Clooneys. This is my pin-up of choice - the lovely J K Simmons.

When Mr Coffee and I started going out in our early 20s, I saw all the actresses in which he had expressed an interest collected together in a magazine article called something like Fabulous Over Forty. I knew at this point that he was the man for the long haul.  J K Simmons is a similar call out to Mr Coffee - go bald! Develop deep and expressive lines!

5) Candles. I love candles. My first real job was as a reporter on a local newspaper: Mr Coffee and I lived in a couple of bedrooms in my mother's house, and I spent practically all my tiny income in an even tinier shop down the street from my office, which sold candles and a load of other stuff I never even looked at.  Come Spring, we noticed that the corners of our living room were completely black with soot.

I don't burn quite as many candles now, but the love has not left me. I do like a flicker in the corner of my eye.

6) My weekly date with Whispering Bob.

7) King Arthur. I love the Arthurian legends. Soon I shall tell you all about my big library book on the Holy Grail, and you can yawn behind your hands and pretend to be interested.

8) I'm going to say 'I love riding my bike', because I know that the power of positive thinking will cause me to make extra time to ride it this week because I said that. It will. I'm sure of it.

9) (Actually I'm in a bit of a read-anything phase. I'm happy with a book, a duvet, wine and a candle. But we're still trying to trick my subconscious with regard to number 8, so we're keeping this really quiet, okay?)

10) Anticipation. At some point I'm going to tell Eldest that I've booked her such a treat in summer that I know she will squeal for at least 20 minutes. I'm not kidding. I'm so looking forward to telling her, I'm saving it up like glee in the bank. Ssssh. I'm good for a few weeks yet.