The Sunday Roast

She May Be Bored But She Packs A Real Mean Blog!

 Ah I see you are a cat lover and one of you likes red wine.

. . . . and I am sure people will recognise the donkey.

This week's interview is with Wendy

who writes the blog, Very Bored In Catalunya

Thank you for the interview, Wendy

A very warm welcome to you and your followers

Here's the first of the standard questions. Why do you blog?

Boring answer I’m afraid – for the creative output mainly but I do enjoy the social aspect side of it as well. I first started out with the intention of it being an ex-pat blog but it’s sort of morphed into a Mummy/ex-pat/observational blog about anything and everything. It’s mostly trivial and frivolous with a bit of serious chucked in every now and again to mix it up.

(A sort of BlogLand casserole, then)

What's the story behind your blog name?

It’s exactly what it says on the tin… I have far too much time on my hands and no money to be a lady who lunches or shops, and I live in Catalonia so therefore I am ‘very bored in Catalunya’.

(A good job you have your blogging mates!)

What is the best thing about being a blogger?

Having someone laugh at your posts, well the ones that are intentionally funny anyway. Starting a discussion with your views, generally having your ego massaged by people reading and enjoying your work. The social side of it, twitter, reading and commenting on other people’s blogs is a great added plus, I feel like I have made some genuine friends from blogging and ‘met’ lots of really interesting and diverse people from all over the world, simply by sitting around in my house.

(Inter-reaction in BlogLand can be very interesting and rewarding)

What key advice would you give to a newbie blogger?

Don’t take yourself too seriously, expect it to take a while before you become established in your blogging field and try to stay out of all the nasty/bitchy side of things.

What is the most significant blog post you've ever read?

Wow, that’s a tough question. There have been posts that have really made me think, posts that have touched me and ones that have educated me, but I am a sucker for humour and love posts that detail the mundane but have you in tears of laughter. Far too many to narrow it down to just one.

What is the most significant blog post you've ever written?

Not sure that I could really call anything I write ‘significant’ but the post I’d written that got the most response was one entitled ‘I’m a Shit Mum’, I wrote it in frustration and exasperation at the sheer number of posts and articles out there that pit women against each other and try and make giving
birth and parenting a competition.

Which two blogs would you recommend for roasting?

Mommy Has a Headache – a fellow expat Brit based in Baltimore. From Christmas sweaters to
oversized penises, this lady will blog about it all.


The Life and Times of a Househusband – he’s quite a lazy blogger and hardly ever knuckles down and writes anything but when he does it’s comedy gold.

(Thanks Wendy - I will write to them, both new to me)

That concludes the formal aspect of the interview but it would be nice to get to know you a little better while you are slowly turning on the roasting spit. So while you are screaming in agony above the open fire here are a few more questions for you.

Pick three things you can't live without.

Wine, Coriander (leaf, the seed I could live without) and the Internet

If we were to make a movie about BlogLand, what would it be and who would you cast in the

leading roles?

It would be a modern day remake of the Dickens classic Great Expectations, I would play Miss Havisham, rattling around an old boarded-up council house with just my laptop for company. I would take out a sized 8 mini skirt from a cobwebbed wardrobe and stroke it affectionately, whilst bedecked in a fading, holey sized 14 tracksuit. With my greasy hair scraped back I would fire off scathing blog posts about my skin’s lack of elasticity and bemoan the youth of today in between ordering bulk loads of stilton online and swigging gin straight from the bottle. The film would flashback on me in happier times (played by Jessica Alba), wearing the size 8 skirt and embroiled in a passionate embrace with Compeyson (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), before he jilts me at the altar having cleared out my Barclays current account after running up massive debts playing online Bingo.
Or something like that.

If you could live your life again who would you be, and why?

Oooh gosh maybe Nelson Mandela without the Robben Island bit, or maybe Brian Clough without the Derby County bit or the Leeds United bit, or maybe just me with longer limbs and a smaller arse?
Actually, yeah I like the last one best.

(LOL, last bit!!  But I do rate Brian Clough very highly and agree with him he should have been The England Manager)

You have been given a wonderful talent from above. This causes you to make your mark on

humanity and be world famous. In which area would prefer: a best-selling novelist, a brilliant

artist, a gifted musician, a fantastic singer, a charismatic leader, anything you choose, and why?

Not even in my warped and weird imagination could I pretend to be a gifted musician, I blush at myself when I sing in the car so that rules out the singer, my four year old draws better than I do and I’m only charismatic when I’m pissed which might prove problematic whilst leading a country, although Yeltsin managed perfectly fine (when I say fine, I don’t really mean fine… I’m just saying he ran his country whilst arseholed).

So by default it would have to be the best-selling novelist. I would pen something brilliantly witty but with a gritty northern working class underbelly. A bit of an Irvine Welsh, minus the heroin and with an East Midlands accent.

If you were an ice cream cone, which flavour would you prefer and who would you most want to lick you?

I’d be a double cone because I’m greedy, mint choc chip and cherry chocolate ice cream from my favourite ice cream shop in the next village. And because I am two flavours I get two people to lick me, hmmm let’s see… Jake Gyllenhaal and Scarlett Johansson.

(Interesting!)

Describe in one sentence your perfect day

Wake up to a full English breakfast and tea in bed in a swanky hotel room in New York. T’husband takes the boy off somewhere but leaves me his credit cards and tells me to go shopping and meet some girlfriends for lunch. Later that night a babysitter will miraculously appear from nowhere and we’ll go to a Michelin starred restaurant and have wonderful food and wine. We’ll finish up the night at a club watching a cool up and coming band. Sadly ‘tea in bed’ would be the only part likely to happen in real life.

(One can but dream, I suppose)

If you were a fiction writer which one would you be and why?

One of my favourite books is Saturday Night, Sunday Morning so I would have to say Alan Sillitoe. Gritty working class novel (we’ve been here before haven’t we?) and set in my hometown of Nottingham.

What was your most embarrassing moment?

I think I embarrass myself on such a regular occurrence that no one thing stands out. I am naturally clumsy, completely forgetful and have a tendency to get too drunk quickly – a recipe for multiple embarrassing moments. I can’t think of anything excruciating off the top of my head though.

(The average is right though, Wendy LOL)

. . . . and if you are really brave . . . .

If you awoke to find you had changed gender what would be the first and second things you would do?

Obviously I’d have to test the new equipment, it’d be rude not too, and then I’d dress in some scutty underpants and sit around all day playing on the PS3 scratching my testicles. (Seems to work for my husband).

(Hilarious!! . . . you know all you ladies think we do that! LOL)

Your turn to ask me a question if you wish.

I have two really important life questions…

1. Cheese or Chocolate?
2. As the great Brandon Flowers once asked ‘are you human or are you dancer?’

OK Here we go:
1. Definitely cheese - I am a total addict to cheese and crackers with Branston Pickle - lovely grub. I like mature Cheddar best.  With chocolate I can take them or leave them.

2. I know some great dancers but I am not much good at that myself which I guess makes me human, but having said that the dancers I know are very human, particularly when they stop dancing LOL.

Thank you Wendy for your interview. We'll just have a look at your blog screen.

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Today's Sunday Roast with Wendy is the 143rd in a
weekly series of interviews with bloggers from around the world.

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This interview will feature in The Roll of Honour

for all published Roasts. To view press HERE

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Please keep your recommendations for The Sunday Roast coming.
For those who would like to know a little more about it, how it started, the nuts and bolts of it etc, press HERE