In a year where I achieved more than average, it will come as no surprise that I feel my greatest accomplishment of 2010 was having Evelina. However, I am not really sure that having a baby is really an accomplishment. It's just nature doing its thing. Ask this question again at the end of this year and, all being well, i will be able to name my single most important accomplishment was being a mama for a year. Still, for 35 days of 2010 I fed, cared for and loved our baby and this was more important than any literature degree or house move.

I watched the (fairly short-lived) TV show and enjoyed watching these intelligent, successful ladies so when I was going for a week in the sun with my brother in January 2009, I thought the book would make a perfect companion. I was wrong.

The first problem with this book is a rather basic one: the writing. It was atrocious. It made me cringe. That is not a good sign. Secondly, the characters that I had grown to love on the TV show were not a bit like their original conception. The characters in the book were selfish, immature, spiteful and I just did not like them at all. The TV show characters had their flaws, for sure. But they were likeable which is kind of key when you are trying to get behind them. I persevered and finished the book but was glad when it was over. I won't bother reading anything else by Bushnell.

Where would you go to ring in the apocalypse? These are the sorts of things that Plinky makes me consider!

Rich and I stayed in a yurt on the Treebones Resort in May 2007 and I promptly fell in love with the California coast. There is something so special about staying in a yurt, being able to hear the sea lions, the waves, looking up at that big ole sky, marvelling at the countless stars, the winding road and the peaceful breeze. I yearn to be there now. So for me, if I knew it was all going to end, I would like my last few moments to be spent on the deck of the yurt, with a glass of wine, watching the ocean with ricardo by my side.