The aim of the Secret Santa, according to Lyndj, is to get people reading blogs that they haven’t read before.  I hit the jackpot by 'winning' Subville's blog.  So I started reading the posts she wrote in May 2007, when she seems to have been reincarnated as a blogger.   An hour and two coffees later, I thought I’d better get a move on to June 2007.  Later still, I concluded that if I didn’t stop exploring all the hitherto unknown (to me) links she has included, stop playing the games and quizzes, stop reading the cartoons, stop spending ages trying to do this maddening puzzle, stop listening to all her music, and instead start writing, then this post wouldn’t appear until Christmas 2008.

So how did she come across to me?  Well, she's lovely.  And she likes or thinks many of the same things I do: she loves food ; Andy; she loves Starbucks’ latte; Andy; she’s another fan of Hotel Chocolat; Andy; she loves stripy things: Andy; she loves Bob Marley; Andy; she’s a huge fan of Post Secret; Andy; she loves people-watching and analysing; Andy; she claims she is socially inept and takes ages to trust people and become friends; Andy; she is taking a stand this year against sending Christmas cards; Andy; we even share the same first name initial and the same middle name; Elizabeth - not Andy.  And she has two skills that I can only aspire to with deep envy: she appears to have a grasp of computers that is completely astonishing to this 'techno-paranoid' (another phrase learnt thanks to her blog) and she has discovered the way to beat Jehovah’s Witnesses. 

If all that wasn’t enough for anyone to get to grips with, she has a young son – Mini – who sounds delightful, she is succeeding in maintaining a dignified relationship with her ex, his father; she has had to cope with the two greatest stressors in life: separation/divorce and her mother’s premature death, she has been studying for exams (passing with flying colours) and started a new job.  All this in a relatively short time scale, whilst coping with back pain, and maintaining a blog.  I am certain that there is a lot more, but I still have a lot more reading to do, and I am looking forward to it.

Oh, and she knows someone called Andy.  I think she rather likes him!