Before I start, the most important part for me of the total Secret Santa experience is getting to know a bit about my Secret Santa so my favourite things are the ones which come from their local area, or which are chosen from their personal preferences, e.g. the music or books they love.

1. what is your age range? 49

2. gender? F

3. Do you have a favorite color? This is the easiest question on the list: Purple & all shades of it, including magenta, violet, indigo etc and especially combinations of these

4. favorite authors/ type of book? Difficult to say - I love Margaret Atwood's books but have most of them. I have a whole Dewey Decimal system worth of books in my collection so I guess my book preferences are as wide a range as my music preferences - therefore you would have a wide choice on books (not very helpful I know) Your own interests or local area would be wonderful.

5. what books have you really been wanting? Secondhand is good. Most of my collection is secondhand - but none that I can think of

6. what type of music do you like? Everything! I used to say "everything but Country & Western and Opera" but that limitation doesn't even apply any more so I really want to find out what my Secret Santa likes

7. what cds have you really been wanting?

Nothing specific.

8. What movies (vhs is in the price range) have you been wanting?

Secondhand is good. DVD's are difficult anyway because it has to be playable in Oz, although we may be able to work around it. Pal is the Oz VHS format but I can play NTSC videos.

I just remembered - I would really love a copy on video or DVD of the Ethel Merman classic Call Me Madam. It has been re-released I think. It may even be on the secondhand lists now.

9. what is your t-shirt size? Medium - large

10. do you collect anything? if so, what? Kaleidoscopes

11. what are some of your other hobbies?
working, looking for work, getting depressed through lack of work, trying to live without income - oh, sorry - that was the last few years. Last week I got into a temp job with possible future prospects so job hunting may not be my main waking-hours preoccupation any more.

Other hobbies: pastel drawing - haven't done any for a long time, and playing Celtic harp, trying to learn piano, and wanting to learn more music theory, especially harmonies, accompaniment, chords, chord progressions etc

12. do you prefer gold-tone or silver-tone jewelry? probably silver, with a Celtic flavour

13. please include anything else you feel is important that would help your secret santa know what you would like

Anything which shows my Secret Santa's preferences and local area would be perfect.

Helen