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List 5 topics you can talk on for an hour without preparing any material.

I've been tagged by @sleeplessant so here we go, in no particular order:

Ceramics. My current creative passion, and one of the happiest discoveries of my adult life. Believe me, clay is very exciting! There's so much to learn and so much room to experiment, and every time you fire a piece, there's a wonderful additional benefit in having to let go of the need for control, because you can literally never be 100% sure of what state your work will be in when it comes out of the kiln. As well as that, the intense focus of concentrating on making something by hand is intensely relaxing and very good for the mental health. And you get a plate you can eat off at the end (or a bowl, or mug, or a vase, or a sculpture...).

Greece. The beautiful land of Hellas, and the Hellene people with their wonderful culture, history, language and cuisine. I could probably talk for way more than an hour on each of those topics, not to mention the legends and mythology, the landscapes and seascapes, and the joys of travelling in Greece.

Working as an artists' model, with all its delights and tribulations. I love my work and find it fascinating, but I have so many horror stories about the life room, and indeed the art world in general. Many are hilarious; some are appalling. It's an entire subculture, utterly batty at times, and full of extraordinary people, both heroes and arseholes.

Making new clothes out of recycled old clothes. Combine the fun of fashion with the satisfaction of recycling and repurposing things that would otherwise end up in landfill - and get a new pair of shorts out of it!

Proofreading, spelling, and general literacy, and why these are so important. In current education and everyday communications, especially on social media, there's a casual disregard for correct spelling and grammar; and so long as everyone is cool with that, and you're all speaking the same codes, that will work ok. But at some point or other in life we can all find ourselves in a situation where being unable to spell correctly, or unaware of how to construct a grammatical sentence, can be disastrous. You don't get a job interview despite being highly experienced in the field; your manuscipt is rejected out of hand; your dissertation is marked down so hard you fail your degree course. All because you can't spell and don't know the rules of writing in your own language, and irresponsible teachers have been letting you coast for years without learning them. Spellcheckers (and their nightmare cousins, grammar checkers) are by no means the answer - they cannot, for example, tell the difference between "now" and "not", and exchanging one of these for the other will hugely alter the meaning of your sentence. Yes, languages evolve constantly, and this is great; but it's simple pragmatism to be able to write your native language "correctly" in the present time. And if you can't, then own up to it and get a proofreader!

OK, ahem, rant over.

I'm going to nominate @thefulcrumcaptain, @ladyk23, @snooziep, @jynappreciationsquad and @dasakuryo - but only if you have the time and the spoons!