All About Me > Reviews (1462)

Some of you may have known me before in my previous Ciao life as flickpugh. I still write on Dooyoo under the same name, but have come back here under a clean slate as my previous account was deleted and I couldn't be bothered to get it up again. I left because I got heartily sick of certain elements on Ciao - mainly the bitchiness and vindictiveness/ arrogance of just one or two members. However, I was still enjoying writing and thought I'd give it another go. Enjoying it again so far and it's nice to catch up with 'old friends'. I intend to get busier on product reviews in the next few weeks (after I come back from holiday in Cornwall) but meanwhile he's a general review/ challenge thing that I first read by a young member called chriswynne16.

• Family

I come from a traditional nuclear family so I guess that makes me quite a rarity these days! There's my mum, dad, brother and I. Mum and Dad still live in a little town in Wales where I mostly grew up but little brother (well nearly 27 now so not so little!) has up sticks and moved to Hong Kong for the time being at least. My mother comes from a family of 5 children. My Gran, who's my last remaining grandparent, is 87 now but still as sharp as ever. I have lots of aunts uncles and cousins on both parents' side and a lot of them live abroad which gives great travelling opportunities. In January I will travel to New Zealand and Australia and divide my time between my dad's sister in Canberra, my cousin and her 3 children (all under 5, yikes!), also in New South Wales, plus my mum's sister in Dunedin and a cousin and his two young boys in Wellington. We're a close extended family so I'm really looking forward to catching up with everyone again.

• Pets:

I love animals but sadly having a busy career, social life and living in a 3rd floor flat in London, pets are no longer a possibility. As a child and teenager I had a dog (a beautiful Golden Retriever called Joe) and two horses - Sandy a stubborn golden palomino full of character and Kimberley - my competition horse who was much better behaved but very spirited. One day I would like to live in the country again and have a house full of cats and dogs (not sure how this will work …) and a field full of horses. First of all I have to earn my fortune in London in order to be able to do this though!

• Me - General Appearance/Features

5ft 6, blonde with fluctuating weight. 30 years old now so noticing the odd crow's foot appearing under my eyes but generally I'm not one to fret too much about my appearance, life is far too short!

• Favourite things

Sports:

I love horse riding (just about to go on a riding holiday to Cornwall, already been on riding trips in Italy and West Wales this year), that's my passion but again living in London, it's not the easiest hobby to do regularly. I love skiing but can only do that a maximum of once a year and won't be going at all next season due to the down under trip so will probably have forgotten how to do it by the next time I go!

I belong to a gym so try to go at lunchtimes to catch up on a bit of daytime TV whilst pretending to exercise. I'm also a keen swimmer so try to swim a few times a month although my new gym doesn't have a pool unfortunately.

• Music:

I recently got an Ipod and a month later really can't understand why I went so long without one! In marketing we term people according to how long they take to purchase new technology or products and I'd say I was definitely a laggard as opposed to an early adopter! Anyway, it makes my morning walk to the station and commute by tube infinitely more bearable now that I can block out the noise of the trains, announcements and chattering of school children. It has caused me to miss my work stop several times but it's still worth it!

I have always been into indie/ alternative type music and pop. Can't stand most dance music and hip hop. My favourite bands at the moment include Scissor Scissors, Gorillaz, Snow Patrol and the Killers.

• Films:

I like films but I'm certainly not a film buff. I did win premiere tickets to 'Goal' recently though which was very exciting indeed. Saw dozens of celebrities and got Michael Owen's autograph, which was quite an embarrassing experience as it took about 6 attempts at getting pens before I got one that he could get to work properly. I'm not a professional autograph hunter by any means! It was a good film though, a bit cheesy like any sporting triumph film, but full of humour and definitely 'feel good' with an unexpected twist. I may well get round to writing a review on it one of these days if Ciao have added it yet.

Other than that I like mainly drama films and lighthearted comedies (but not slushy rom coms). My favourite films of all time include The Sixth Sense, Artificial Intelligence and Finding Neverland. The latter two both made me cry and I'm a bit of a tough cookie!

• Television:

I do like soaps as they are great 'unwinding tv' after a hard day at work. Coronation Street is definitely my favourite. I do watch East Enders although I don't find it nearly as good, far too many silly story lines involving gangsters and no humour. Also love series such as Bad Girls, Footballers' Wives (trashy but fun), Cutting It, Teachers (sadly finished) and currently addicted to Lost even though it's completely ridiculous as long as you don't try to take it at all seriously it's absorbing stuff.

Other hobbies

I'm an avid reader. I always have one book on the go and on a week's holiday will probably get through 5 - 7 books easily. I love autobiographies, biographies and historical fiction, basically stories that are based on something that really happened and people that really existed, although you do get the odd novel that I find impossible to put down.

I also love travelling, both in Britain and abroad. I'm not really a beach holiday person and prefer to go somewhere where there's lots to see or on an activity break horse riding, skiing or hiking. That said a few days by the pool is always nice, I prefer pool lounging to beach bumming.

Can't stand the sand!

• Food:

I love food, Thai, Spanish, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, roast dinners are just some of my favourites and one of the best things about living in London is that you have easy access to cuisine from just about every country in the world. Have even tried Polish (not to be recommended), Ethiopian, Tibetan and Korean food since I've been there. Before I moved to London I had barely even tried sushi.

• Drink:

I do like the odd alcoholic tipple. A nice glass of wine or two always goes down well with a meal. I love cocktails, especially the really fattening and naff ones like pina colada. Soft drinks wise, I'm a bit addicted to diet coke, but try to limit how much I drink of it, also love hot chocolate in winter and fresh fruit smoothies in summer.

• Bad Habits:

I'm pretty addicted to using the internet, spend several hours a day on it, on Ciao, Dooyoo, competition and freebie sites, travel forums and webmail. I'm also pretty bad at tidying up and tend to have a flat that gets progressively messier as the week goes by which leads to me having to spend several hours on a Sunday evening sorting things out again! I think in general I'm a bit of a procrastinator, I was always the same at school and uni and would leave studying to the very last minute possible. I try not to be the same at work, but I do definitely work better to a pressurised deadline. Right on that note, I better get packing for my holiday as I leave early tomorrow morning!

Thanks for reading.