M

Stacy has kindly given me the letter 'M' to make a list of ten things I like! I just love these sorts of tags.

1. Mount Cook/Aoraki. I've only been here twice, unfortunately, but it is probably my favourite place in New Zealand. It's our biggest mountain, in fact the biggest in the southern hemisphere, and has a whole national park named after it. It has this startling blue lake in front of it and when you stand on one side looking across to the mountain it looks exactly like one of those fairy tale scenes where you paddle across an enchanted lake to heaven - in my opinion. And then you drive around the lake to the mountains, and everything's just so big and still and noise just gets swallowed up, and the air is so fresh, and you actually feel like going on a very long walk!

2. Music. I know this is really very broad, but I think if there was one thing I would not be willing to lose, it would be music, almost all types of it, and my ability to play it. And that's all I have to say, because I just can't describe music.

3. Milly-Molly-Mandy. Did anyone else love these books whilst growing up? Because I adored them! The little adventures she had were so simple, but made such great stories, and the illustrations were perfect. I used to copy everything Milly-Molly-Mandy did. In one story, she grew her own cress, so I grew cress too. In another, she had baked potatos with stuffing, so I did too. In another, she let a little basket down from her second storey window, and people left gifts in it, so I did that too - many, many times. In another, she made one of those miniature gardens in a bowl, which became a favourite pastime of mine. And so on and so forth.

4. Masochism is Always Funny, Stacy's wonderful novel! Although I have not read the final version, I feel I can safely recommend it as a must-have and future classic of English literature. (Does this score me Brownie points, Stacy?)

5. Madeira, M'Dear. This is my favourite song by Flanders and Swann, two British comedians/songwriters from a few decades ago. It's about a dodgy old man who tries to get a girl drunk on Madeira so he can... you-know-what. It's the funniest and cleverest song ever, in my opinion. If you haven't heard it, you are missing out.

6. Murder mysteries. Whether they are by Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, or anyone else for that matter. I can't seem to get enough of these. I love figuring out who the villain is and trying to anticipate the twist.

7. The 'momentany' quote in A Midsummer Night's Dream. I wrote an essay in my first year of uni on this passage, and I love this part of it (I, i, 140-149):
Hermia: O hell!-to choose love by another's eyes.
Lysander: Or if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death or sickness did lay siege to it,
Making it momentany as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And, ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!',
The jaws of darkness do devour it up.
So quick bright things come to confusion.

8. Messiah. This has two parts to it. Obviously, I really quite like the Messiah, as in Jesus Christ. He died for me, which demands some attention. I also like Handel's Messiah, the oratorio. I go to hear it every year!

9. Malaysian food. My brother and family live in Penang, Malaysia, and my parents and I went to visit them when I was fifteen. Malaysians are very, very lucky, because they have very cheap, amazing food, and a selection of about three or four nationalities represented there to choose from. Malaysian: laksa... Indian: masala dosa... roti canai... mango lassi... tandoori chicken... Chinese: steamboat... The list goes on. And then there's the fruit there - mangoes, lychees, and so on. Deep-fried bananas. The dessert served on the beach of fruit covered in shaved ice and condensed milk. The only downside - if you go, you may be forced to try durian, which is about the most horrible culinary (and sensory) experience I have ever had.

10. Marshmallows. Especially melted between chocolate biscuits, or dipped into chocolate fondue. Right. I'm going to have to go buy some now.