Okay, I'll give this a go...
30 Things about Me & Moonlighting:
[glow=red,2,300]ME:[/glow]
1: I was born in Birkenhead in The Wirral (ever heard of 'Ferry Across the Mersey'?) and moved down South when I was 6 (Had a big family back then: with two sisters and a brother all living under one roof). It is the setting for my first children's novel.
2: I'm an Auntie to 5 nephews and nieces (very close to all of them) and I'm about to become a Great Auntie which feels very old and grand- I think maybe I ought to become a character on 'Downton Abbey' and go around asking: 'What's a weekend?' :-)
3: My family never took us abroad when I was a kid (we usually holidayed in Wales, Devon or Cornwall) so I developed an overwhelming urge to travel in my twenties: My travels have taken me to: America (California, Nevada, Arizona and New York), Australia (Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania), France (Paris, Ville France, Brittany), Prague, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Italy (Florence and Rome), Greece (Parga, Thassos and Crete), Turkey and Malta (Emma Heming's birthplace). Next up on my list is: Germany (Bonn and Nurnberg) ;-) in June 2012!
4) When I was little I loved writing and wanted to be the next Enid Blyton...then I discovered acting!
5) I've been in copious amounts of theatre productions and musicals - favourites being Grease and Shakespeare's 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'
6) I have now gone full-circle and prefer to channel my creativity into writing once more. In fact, my sister asked me if I'd like to perform in something with her again and I gave a definitive 'no' as my answer (nothing against her, she's a superb actress, it's just that I feel like I've exorcised that part of me now).
7) I was once (around the age of 19)- a runner up for the Gold Blend (coffee) adverts- got free coffee for a year!
8) I wrote to 'Jimm'll Fix It' about 15 times before I finally gave up haha (show where they made childhood dreams come true)...
9) I have always been surrounded by cats (seems to be something us ML girls have in common huh?) - my latest fury family members are Archie and Pearl. Archie is 'easy' - as in he'll let just about anyone pet him, he's such a slut and Pearl is terrified of everyone except myself and Steve... which we like because she's so pretty and fluffy so people want to pet her but they can't get near her haha but we can! Is that mean wanting her all to ourselves?
10) I am married to an Addison AKA Steve Morris (4 and a half years now - but we've been together for 10- give or take a few breaks) - who is also a writer (except he's published already) - he mainly dabbles in true crime and runs the website newcriminologist. I used to worry about sharing a house with a room full of books on serial killers but now I'm used to it! We even have a Xmas card sent from Ronnie Defoe (The Amytyville murderer)- back when Steve was corresponding with him over a book he was going to write. Kind of weird thing to have.
11) I love to read (as well as write)...and there is never a time that I don't have a book on the go! I now have a kindle which means there is NEVER a gap haha. I am currently making my way through the Sookie Stackhouse books- alternating with more serious reads. I love my kindle and embrace new technology...it is, after all, where writers are making all of their money now. Currently reading: 'Landfall' by Helen Gordon which I highly recommend!
12) I am currently working as the deputy head of English at a secondary school - teaching 11-16 year olds. I love teaching but I hate admin...there are days when I have to work with data more than kids and that's when I think maybe it's time to leave... (that and the fact that I don't think I'm a typical teacher: I hate all that having to care if their uniform is perfect - if they want to learn, that's all I care about- tie or no tie!) I have had other careers too: acting, catering, customer service...
13) I am a bit of a fitness freak (so hurting my back this year was a huge bummer for me as I still have to take it easy)... I use exercise to gain control over my life - whilst I'm running, nobody can bug me and I have some of my greatest ideas working out!
14) On the other hand- I'm a total foody! Go figure! I LOVE good food - which I enjoy preparing (ask the guys on twitter, I'm ALWAYS cooking haha). I also love to eat out and always eat the full 3 courses. My motto being eat what you like...just go for a run later (which is why I'm curvy rather than a stick).
14) My family is pretty creative - my dad is a sculptor, stained-glass window designer and various other arty things...he's 72 and NEVER stops and my sister also exhibits her art all over... My brother writes science fiction short stories as a hobby... my nephew is a magician on tv... The pressure's on! haha
15) I never watch normal TV. I only watch movies, or television series that I can get on DVD, or download...Currently enjoying 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' - a little US gem that I've only just discovered! It's VERY funny.
[glow=red,2,300]MOONLIGHTING:[/glow]
16) I am happy to report that I watched ML from the get-go! I was 12 when Season 1 came to UK screens and my dad recorded it for me saying: 'You might like this'
17) My first crush was Michael Praed (Robin of Sherwood) and I thought that nobody would ever take his place when he left...but along came Bruce *phew* ;-)
18) I met my best friend Cathy because of this show! I went to a friend's BBQ that first summer and got talking to her about ML- she said it sounded funny and that she'd give it a go. She is now as obsessed as me (although she's not a social net-worker fan so no way could I get her on here!)
19) I won a Bruce Willis poster in a Woman's Own magazine competition haha - was so over the moon!
20) I hand wrote the scripts out for every ML episode which then myself and Cathy performed on cassette tape (I still have a couple of the tapes but no tape machine). I still have all the hand-written scripts though!
21) Cathy and I had, what we called, 'The Folder' - which we passed between us at school. It was our own episodes where she'd write a bit and I'd write a bit and we'd swap. We got a little famous for it at school and other ML fans wanted to read it so we loaned it out a few times. When we were in our last year at school we brought it to an end - and had a little private ML party (with alcohol that we shouldn't have had)... spookily enough - the date that our Blue Moon investigations ceased operations is exactly the same date as the real one. We saw Lunar Eclipse a month after we ended the folder, when it aired here, and nearly died when we saw that date!
22) Cathy, Dawn and I nearly died when our names were mentioned on 'A Womb With A View' - we couldn't think about the rest of the episode, we just kept running the tape back to hear: 'Well, I'll be a serious regular, there's Cathy...and Dawn, hi Dawn...and Nancy too!' - it made our year!
23) Thanks to Moonlighting, at 14 years of age, I staged a production of 'The Taming of the Shrew' with some school friends - it was a blast!
24) Myself, Dawn and Cathy used to turn the sound down on the TV and dub Moonlighting...obviously we got them to say the things that we wanted them to say haha- it usually ended with us in such utter hysterics that we nearly peed our pants!
25) I am not ashamed to admit that myself and Cathy also part-filmed our own version of 'The Straight Poop' with us both taking it in turns to play Rona Barrett haha - we didn't get that far but it was a lot of laughs... my mum always wondered why the furniture wasn't ever quite in the correct place when she got back home from work!
26) Moonlighting got me into Billy Joel, The Temptations, The Rolling stones... so I was listening to that more than the current trends.
27) I went to see Bruce Willis perform a private gig in London (1994) through a music journalist friend of mine... I was in heaven! Demi was also there and got up on stage with him at the end - awesomeness! Probably the most fun I've had at a gig!
28) I got back into ML when my dad bought me the box set 2 birthdays ago... I re-watched and fell in love all over again...
29) I discovered VM and read all the way through from episode one...which lead me to here through the recommendation of Diane who thought I might like it... I had been emailing her about how wonderful VM was- I think I even sent her a few of my own ML scripts.
30) Which brings me to this place - which is like my favourite bar - you just keep coming back because the beer's great and the people are greater! I've met with some brilliant people on here who I would now consider friends. I also formed my Partners In Crime - partnership with Sandra which is just sooooo much fun you would not believe! It's like having that folder again haha...only I'm swapping writing across countries, rather than the playground... we have given birth to such greats as 'the damp problem' and 'the pink box' haha. I also now love the post thanks to you guys- no longer is it just bills that fall on my mat; I also get wonderful packages from around the world which is bloody marvelous! :-) Love you all...