I enjoy reading, playing Scrabble (both online and in real life), cooking and baking, and doing quizzes (e.g. on Sporcle) or playing puzzle games (e.g. Professor Layton) on my DS. I don't have a television licence, but sometimes I watch programmes on 4oD.

I'm vegan and eat organic food which isn't from supermarkets. I buy organic or secondhand textiles, and ethically-made other products.

I live in Bristol, with my daughter and rescue dog.

I did a Physics degree at the University of Bristol, but I don't want to continue my career in that area.

I work for the city council. I won't go back after maternity leave though.

I'm married, but separated, and have a new partner. I have a baby (born in March 2011).

I'd like to build or renovate a house sustainably one day, and be at least partly self-sufficient in terms of food, energy, and/or textiles.

Being logical, accurate (some would label this pedantry), and organised, baking, making preserves, retaining large amounts of miscellaneous (possibly useless) information, reading, not doing some types of housework, interrupting people, my job, using (also known as wasting my life on) the internet, pointing out grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors (yes, I like serial commas!), staying up later than I want to, and being patient.

I'm OK at: making confectionery, cards, and jewellery, hand sewing (I'm no good with a sewing machine), cooking, playing Ace Golf on the Gamecube, being clumsy, and getting the accent right when speaking French or German.

I'm bad at: remembering things if they aren't written down, multi-tasking, using power tools, playing time-limited games, hearing in environments with background noise, understanding and following social rules, communicating in person (particularly with new people) - I find written electronic messaging easier.

Somebody messaged me about a birthmark visible in some of my photos, so maybe that is one of the first things.

I have another birthmark covering one of my thumbnails. The actual nail grows brown, and it's slightly thicker than the other nails. People sometimes ask me if I trapped my thumb in a door.

I wear glasses, so perhaps people notice that.

Also I'm quite tall, for a girl.

Books:
Fantasy - Terry Pratchett, David Eddings, JRR Tolkien
Autobiographies - whoever sounds interesting, e.g. Maya Angelou, Nelson Mandela, Jung Chang
Teenage fiction - not Sweet Valley High style, more like Melvin Burgess, Elizabeth Enright, Lois Duncan, LM Montgomery, or CS Lewis (although Narnia was somewhat ruined for me when I discovered the religious undertones)
Crime - Lilian Jackson Braun, Agatha Christie, Faye Kellerman, Elizabeth Peters, Ellis Peters

Films:
Sci-Fi - Star Trek, Alien, Star Wars, Contact
Action - James Bond, Terminator, Die Hard
Anime - Studio Ghibli productions; particularly Howl's Moving Castle, and excepting Porco Rosso, which I detest
Teenage romantic comedy - 10 Things I Hate About You, She's All That

Television programmes:
Comedy - Scrubs, Green Wing, Peep Show, The IT Crowd, Father Ted, Spaced, QI
Drama - Skins, Buffy/Angel, Misfits
Sci-Fi - Star Trek, Firefly
Documentaries - science, health & nutrition, social justice

Music:
Reggae, roots, & lovers rock - Junior Kelly, The Wailers, The Maytals, Lee Perry, Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear, Horace Andy, Gregory Isaacs
Funk - James Brown, George Clinton
Rap & hip-hop - Nas, OutKast, Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy, De La Soul, Massive Attack, Portishead
Folk - Nick Drake, John Martyn

Food:
Avocados, garlic, lemon, olives (green or black), nectarines, seedless grapes, blood oranges, artichoke hearts, asparagus, rocket, lime or garlic pickle, tempeh (plain or bacon-style), baked or roast potatoes or chips, porridge, hazelnut milk, tomatoes, cornichons, pickled onions (preferably silverskin), unsalted or salt & vinegar crisps, rice crackers, pistachios, cashews, dates, nutritional yeast flakes, toast, crumpets, or muffins with margarine and yeast extract, Booja Booja ice cream (except the ginger one), tofu 'chicken' steaks, vegetable samosas, vegetable pakoras, white basmati or jasmine rice, vegetable korma, vegetable tempura, meals at Vitao or Itadaki Zen (both in London).

Well this is a silly question, because the real answers are obviously: air, water, food etc.

But my faux-essentials (not in any particular order) are:
-broadband-connected laptop (I use Ubuntu, Opera, and Firefox)
-glasses
-hats - if anyone has found a navy blue tightly-knitted cloche hat in Bristol, please give it back, I miss it
-my Kindle
-Scrabble
-Kigo Edge shoes

Speciesism, human biology, health, and nutrition, the ethics and features of the products I plan to buy, and food.

Feeding my baby to sleep while reading something on my Kindle.

I'm not very socially adept. I am interested in other people, but I don't know what to ask them, or how to continue the conversation. It's easy for me to answer questions about myself, so it's better for me if someone else takes the lead. People sometimes mistake this for shyness, but I'm not shy. I have strong opinions and I am naturally very direct. Because I know this offends some people, and I haven't yet worked out the rules of how and why, I tend to stay quiet until they know me well enough not to mind me being blunt.

I'm gluten-intolerant (not coeliac).

I never wanted children, but obviously that's tough really, as I have one. I like her now she's here, though.

you:
-are intelligent