Shall we Dance?

Never ever read a book which is recommended by someone saying 'I think you can understand the main character'. For me the someone in question was my Grandmother. I can understand why she encouraged me to read the book. It serves as a great way to get me into reading. I'm not much of a reader to be honest. In fact I like to think that while some people read before they go to bed I blog instead. Although whenever an application form asks me to list my interests I always include reading. I figure that makes me seem intelligent and it's far safer than writing 'blog writing' since most bloggers tend to be political radicals which I most certainly am not. Does that sentence even make sense? Anyway I'm trying to be concise here so to the point. Since my Granny implied that there was a correlation between the main character (well there's two main characters a 21 year old and a 49 year old... I assumed that she thought I was like the 21 year old... I may knit and take naps but I'm NOT 49) and myself then I've been trying to figure out what she saw.

It's very stressful. You see instead of just enjoying the book I'm reading through it thinking to myself 'does my Granny think I'm having an affair with a fifty year old!' Or even worse does she think that I'm a spoiled brat? Or does she think that I need my mother to organise parties in order for me to meet boys? Pah! It's a rather stressful situation. As I read then I immediately assume that every aspect of this character is something that my Granny sees in me. A little disconcerting but acceptable... In the case of most characters. But unfortunately little 'Theo' is a rude, lazy, beautiful (at least that's one good thing) brat. So now I'm left hoping that she'll do something to redeem herself (I'm only halfway through) so I can feel a little bit better about being compared to her. I guess she does have wonderful fashion sense... well from the descriptions at least.

I think this whole comparison business extends far beyond book characters. At my hall then some people decided to give everyone animals and celebrities which were reminiscent of us. It kind of screws with your head in the same way that the 'you'd understand one of the characters' does. I think it's because we're all such pessimists. Instead of immediately thinking cool she's gorgeous with wonderful fashion sense we leap to the negatives. Perhaps it's because they're so much more obvious. I mean it's so much easier to be infamous rather than famous. It took John Key years to become the PM whereas David Bain just had to be accused of murdering his fam to be 'world famous in New Zealand'. Also think about whenever you meet someone. You give them the look over. You make a mental note that they've got a cute bum but the point that really sticks out in your mind is that they say 'youse' instead of 'you'. Perhaps these negative judgements stem back to archaic times when it was survival of the fittest. If you knew your oppositions weakness then you were more likely to defeat them and therefore more likely to survive. Nevertheless it makes rather dreary living in our current environment.

I like to avoid asking the question 'which _________ would you be?' Instead I like to ask the question 'who are you?' You see in order to fill in that blank then either you have to adhere to some stereotype about the person or you have to make it about their most obvious trait (weakness). Doing either is a little bit hurtful. Unless of course if you explain it. Say something like 'Camilla you're like a loris because you're cute'. Then it's acceptable. However saying something like 'Camilla you're like Lady GaGa cause you're weird'. Is not acceptable. So that's Camilla's lesson on etiquette try to be positive about people and try to avoid comparisons because like it or not they'll almost always take them to be negative. It's just the way we're hardwired.

3 Good things
*Not so good for my heart but good for my belly... Chocolate Macaroons with marscapone filling... Mmm
*Using a blow torch briefly to burn the sugar on my creme brulee.
*Wondering through the gardens at night and kind of feeling fearless... although as soon as I saw a suspiciously shaped shadow I bolted with dog in tow... Still it was wicked to see somewhere that's so familiar to me in a totally different light.... ha ha cos it's literal! But actually the photos I got were pretty cool and sometimes I do kind of enjoy hanging out alone.