Courtesy of Marie, I've been tagged.

1: What was I doing ten years ago?
I was working myself into a frenzy in the final few weeks of the run-up to Odyssey. (That being the 1998 National Exhibition of the Association of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers.) If you know the long, sad, tangled story of what went on behind the scenes, well - I need say no more. And if you don't, I'm not saying any more anyway! Except that the Exhibition was in my view a huge success, broke new ground in lots of ways that are still not acknowledged today, but there you go. Other than that, I was just getting started out on my brand shiny new teaching career.

2: What were five things on my to do list today (not in any particular order.)
Clean the bathroom.
Finish the laundry.
Knit some of the lace shawl.
Write a letter to go by snail mail.
Make a cake for my mother, who celebrates her 90th birthday tomorrow.

3: What snacks do I enjoy?
Tortilla chips with salsa, or sour cream dip
Scandinavian rusk-type things with too much butter
Olives. Really good ones, not those under-ripe things that have been dunked in something I am told is sulphuric acid. Although those will do in an emergency.

4: Where are some places I have lived?
Northampton, whilst a little sprog, where my parents ran a pub. Cromer, on the North Norfolk coast, still to some extent my spiritual home. Newcastle upon Tyne, where I went to college. Cambridge, first job and where I met the DSM. Kingston upon Thames, for his first job. Cockermouth in Cumbria, so going to Woolfest is extra-special. Biggleswade in Bedfordshire, armpit of the universe, but I met Jenny Dean who lived nearby and who taught me to spin and dye. And here, in the West Yorkshire Pennines, where the only thing wrong is it is too far from the sea.

5: What things would I do if I were a billionaire?
Buy a shop in town to run as a cafe/drop-in/craft centre/place to run workshops for fibre people, and not have to worry about making a profit.
Be ready to help out my niece if she needed extra support to continue her art career.
Fund scholarships to fibre events.
Sponsor kids in the third world somehow.
Buy a narrowboat.
Encourage the DSM to retire so we could travel.

Barbara, India, Freyalyn, consider yourselves tagged in y9our turn. Anyone else who fancies a go, too!

Those of you who are alert will have spotted the cake making reference, and that tomorrow is my mother's 90th birthday. I'm going over, with cake (and I am not the world's best cake maker, but it will have to to) and a ginormous bunch of flowers. I did consider a balloon with 90 on it in big friendly letters, but decided she wouldn't appreciate that all that much. She is - and I kid you not - trying to follow the habits of a lifetime and not let on to anyone.

I'll try to remember to take my camera and record the birthday girl.