Writing tag

This is a writing tag from Anne.
What word do you use too much in your writing?
None in particular, but I do have a tendency to be too wordy and end up having to edit extensively pieces I write.
Which words do you consider overused in stuff you read?
"in time", as in "moment in time". Is there any other sort of moment?
What's your favourite piece of writing (written by you)?
My first published article - a travel piece on Kerala, India. Although a nostalgic choice would be the five-year diary which I kept as a teenager and recently rediscovered.
Regrets, do you have a few? Is there anything you wish you hadn't written?
The odd email, typed in anger, sent in haste and repented at leisure.
How has your writing made a difference?
Studying journalism has made me look at anything and everything I do through new eyes. The most mundane, everyday events now become potential stories.
Favourite words
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt signs in preparation for landing." Music to the ears after a 28 hour journey to Australia with 2 kids.
Least favourite words
"This cream is from our range for the more mature skin."
Do you have a writing mentor, role model or inspiration?
The journalist Helena Frith-Powell, whose light, witty style I hope to emulate.
Writing ambition
To have a travel or lifestyle article published by a UK national newspaper.
Plug:
Keep following the blog for more ins and outs of life in the desert and elsewhere.

The Ashes

Enough said!

Aussie husbands

It's official. According to a recent study by a British academic, Aussies make the worst husbands. This isn't great news - I married one.

Reading the smallprint, I discover that the reason for their low ranking among the 12 countries in the study is that Aussie blokes are really bad at helping out with the housework and child-rearing. I suppose I have to admit, mine's not exactly known for his domestic prowess.

Still, there are surely other considerations when choosing your life partner over and above their ability to do the ironing and change a nappy?

So it is with some optimism that I read the results of another survey in Brisbane's local paper. Around 90% of Australian males believe in true love. Only 54% of Australian females do. Maybe they equate love with laundry skills?

"Isn't that great?" I said to Ian. "The overwhelming majority of Aussie men believe there is such a thing as true love."

"Ah yes," he replied "but you are assuming that the figures apply to a man's love for his wife or girlfriend. Obviously there are loads of other types of true love. True love for the footie, or fishing, or cricket, or beer..."

He didn't get a chance to embellish any further as he was too busy nursing the enormous blow I administered to his right shin.

Still, I am better off than many wives in other societies. In Afganistan, a bill allowing a husband to starve his wife if she refuses to have sex has been published in the official gazette this month and become law.

And all I have to moan about is an unstacked dishwasher.

Downunder Highlights

The annual Aussie pilgrimage is at an end for another year. Here are the highlights (in no particular order):

1. Hand feeding the wild dolphins on Moreton Island. During the 1980's, dolphins started feeding on fish thrown to them by fishermen from the jetty at Tangalooma. To this day, dolphins from the same pod come into shore each evening and can be hand fed under the guidance of marine biologists from the Tangalooma resort. An amazing experience.

2. Main beach at Stradbroke Island. Possibly the best beach in the world, particularly at this time of year (Aussie winter) when there is no-one on it apart from a few surfers at dusk.

3. Toowoomba and the Aussie countryside or bush. This year we visited friends from Zambia who have relocated to the Queensland country town of Toowoomba. This is the view from their new backyard. We hadn't been inland for a number of years and I had forgotten how beautiful the bush is. Olivia (who is working on her Aussie-ness) told us she really liked being in the bushes!

4. Mars, Pepe, Strudel and Curly, the various family pets (voted by Olivia).This is Mars - probably the most indulged and most photographed dog in the world.

5. Going for walks and the kids being able to run free - appreciated enormously since living in Bahrain.

What were your holiday highlights?