The Sunshine Award

To mark my 50th post, I must say a huge thank you to F @ The Fence of Stars for a Sunshine Award nomination!

As far as I can tell, the rules are as followed:

1. State 5 facts about yourself
2. Answer the 5 questions received
3. Create 5 new questions and nominate more bloggers for the award

Ok, here we go!

The Facts:

(1).  I know all the words to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody
(2).  I'm mildly claustrophobic after going caving when I was 12
(3).  I've only grown half an inch since I was 11
(4).  I used to have a slightly strange celeb-crush on Richard Gere
(5).  My favourite TV show of all time is a French version of 'Traffic Cops'

The Questions:

(1). What is your favourite mythical creature?
Definitely the Cyclops.  I have a thing for Greek mythology, and ever since I heard about this creature as a child, I was awed.

(2). If you had to change accents, which would you choose?
My mum and I both have a thing for certain regional Scottish accents. It got the point that, one day, when my mum was speaking to the insurance company on the phone she called me over, handed me the phone, and made me listen to the man that was speaking because he had a "nice" Scottish accent.

But I went to Amsterdam last weekend and realised how much I actually like Dutch accents.
And I also quite like Australian accents. Practically everyone likes Australian accents. It must be a default thing.

So, to answer the question, my ideal accent to adopt would be that of a Dutch-born Scot (preferably from Renfrewshire) who's emigrated to Australia...

(3). What was the last good book you read?
To be honest, I haven't really read much in a while. I have a bit of Reader's Block, although I'm really trying to get back into the habit of proper reading, and the book that started to propel me on that course was "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold.  I was lent the book by my English teacher just before the summer, and I read it all in 2 days - the quickest I think I've ever read a whole novel! It was just so gripping and spine-tingling and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through!

(4). What's your favourite modern slang word/phrase? 
 I tend to use the word "epic" a lot. It's not really a modern slang word, though...

(5). What's a little-known fact you just found out?
I found this little gory fact out this morning (so I'm cheating a little bit here) in a book called 'Elephants on Acid' : A man in Soviet-era Russia tried to artificially-inseminate female chimps in Western Africa with human sperm, in order to create human-ape hybrids.  (It didn't work, btw. Although, had he had more time, they say he may have been successful!)

So yes, my nominations are:
Sarah @ A Glimpse of Blue
Andrea @ Sempiternal Reader
Freya @ A Teenager's Guide to the Galaxy

Guys, my questions for you are:

(1). What's the last book you read, and your thoughts on it?
(2). What's your favourite quote/saying?
(3).  When are you at your happiest?
(4).  What is your party trick/ unusual talent?
(5).  Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?