Sareini

I'm 34 and I live in Staffordshire in the UK, along with my husband and our two cats, Lily and Cracker. I'm a full-time carer for my husband, and so I occupy my time with writing, knitting, crochet, reading, computer gaming, trying to learn new crafts and waiting hand and foot on my cats :)

At university I studied Film and Psychology, and once had the idea of combining the two together in a career somehow. The Film Studies nearly killed my love of cinema, however, and the Psychology part just left me self-diagnosing myself with nearly every mental disorder ever written down :P (Ironically, I do have OCD and depression, which were possibly the only two I didn't diagnose myself with...) Now, years later, I'm instead studying feline behaviour and psychology with a hope to one day help animal rescue charities with abused or "troubled" cats.

I like to make lists (as you might be able to tell from below...), because given the chance I will talk far too long about the things I like and so lists help me keep to the point.

I like purples and blues and variegated or blended colours; things like the Aurora Borealis, sunrises and sunsets or anything that has colours going from one hue to another are beautiful to me. I also like geometric patterns - stripes, chevrons, concentric circles and the like - and I love fractals. I also love optical illusions (apart from "Magic Eye" pictures as I have a slight eye defect that means I can't "see them :( ), particularly the works of M. C. Escher. I also love the work of Salvador Dali and other surrealist works, as well as stained glass images and the art nouveau style.

I like animals, and nature, space, water, sky and sea views, mythologies from all over the world, old book covers and posters, and food (but who doesn't like food? :P )

I have pretty eclectic tastes when it comes to music - I like most 80s music, rock, jazz, disco, punk and classical equally. Some artists I particularly like are:

• Burgmuller
• Leonard Cohen
• Nick Cave
• Erasure
• Lightning Seeds
• Aerosmith
• The Ramones
• Carter USM
• Richard Cheese
• Eurythmics
• Goblin

I have loved reading all my life, and I've been known to read practically anything - with the exception of most romance novels. Some of my favourite books, authors and series over the years include:

• Stephen King
• Terry Pratchett
• Chaz Benchley
• James Herbert
• Sue Townsend
• Diana Wynne-Jones
• Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe" series
• Kim Newman's "Anno Dracula" series
• "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
• "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
• "The Girl With All The Gifts" by M. R. Carey

I am also a massive comic book fan. I read or at least try to follow the X-Men books and the Batman books, and also like to read Hellblazer, Preacher, Transmetropolitan and Secret Six.

I love most forms of cinema, with the possible exception of the romance genre, but my first and favourite genre is and will always be horror films (with sci-fi coming a close second). I'm currently fascinated (okay, maybe it's been a little longer than currently since I looked at a similar topic for my thesis so many years ago) with found-footage films and mockumentaries, but I also love zombie films and the B-movies of the 70s, 80s and 90s. Some of my favourite films include:

• From Dusk Till Dawn
• Dawn of the Dead (1978 version)
• V/H/S
• The Avengers
• Battle Royale
• Mars Attacks!
• Shaun of the Dead
• 28 Days Later
• The Big Lebowski
• Profondo Rosso
• Transformers: The Movie (1986)
• The Blair Witch Project

I knit and I crochet - I'm not the fastest in the world with these crafts, but I do my best :) I also like to cross-stitch and am currently working on some art nouveau pieces. Thanks to my husband I also occasionally paint up wargaming minatures - not to build up an army, but because I like the model and have an idea of what might be a good scheme for it. I'm an occasional sketcher and painter as well.

Since joining swap-bot I've discovered about ATCs (and APCs) and they sound incredible. I plan to learn how to do them, but right now I'm still very much a beginner in that area. I also plan on learning how to do papercrafts, journals, zentangles... Basically I love to learn new things, especially craft things.

Just two things:

• I am allergic to caffeine. This means that I can't eat dark chocolate or drink a lot of teas or coffees. So if the situation ever comes up, please bear that in mind.

• I love learning about other religions and spiritual practices; however I do have my own faith and I am very happy in it. I don't want to offend anyone so if it is an issue it is probably best not to bring the subject up.