There is a song out at the moment which resonates very much with how I currently feel. It is the Bruno Mars track "When I Was Your Man".

If you don't know the song then allow me to tell you a little about it. It is a song of love - not unrequited love - but one that was shared and returned - until the singer took his love for granted.

It's a story as old as time and familiar to all of us I am sure. But even as I listened to the words of the song and understood that he had "never bought [her] flowers" or taken her to parties because she "loved to dance", it saddened me and got me to thinking about love.

What is love? What is that stongest of emotions, that sometimes takes us unaware and holds us in its grip, however fleetingly? What makes it happen and what sometimes prevents it from happening?

Someone spoke to me recently about an "electric" feeling they had when they met their partner and people often talk of there being a "spark" with others they meet or not. But why does one pairing engender this response and another does not?

The obvious answer is looks and levels of attractiveness but I think this is misleading. Look around you. There are numerous couples around where the level of attractiveness between the couple is not the same. Perhaps he is tall and lean with a good physique, while she is short and stumpy with an unfortunate case of acne. Or maybe she could be a supermodel contender and he looks like something hit by a bus.

You may scoff but believe me its there in plain sight. There is a young couple I see most days whilst walking my dogs. Both in thier teens, he is gangly and pimple bedecked, whilst she is slim, pretty and I should have thought, infinitely out of his league in terms of looks.

And yet she appears to hang onto his every word and gazes up at him as they sit together on the wet grass, with such doe eyes, it makes me almost embarrassed to watch them. But like a furtive peeping tom, I feel my gaze drawn to them as if by some strange osmosis, what they have can be drawn from, as easily as drawing water from a tap.

Young love I remember it well.

So a little warning to you lovely readers. Love is strange, wonderful and yes, sometimes painful. But to seek it out is, I believe, part of the human condition.

If you are lucky enought to find it, work damn hard to keep it and make sure you treat your partner well becasue if there is one thing I know, then that is that it's worth the effort. x 

What's in a name ?

Well to completely ignore what Shakespeare thought about it all, including roses and all that, it is a rather strange affair.

I'm sure we all know a variety of John Smith's or Adam Jones's and so on but up until the advent of the internet and Google, I had pretty much thought that my name pairing was unique.

You see I have both Spanish [hence the Carmen] and Italian heritage [the Capuano]. To my mind there wasn't much chance of many people being called the paired first and second names of Carmen Capuano ...but there are. In fact a few of them are on my facebook page now! They mostly live in Spain or Italy [logical I guess] but it is still strange to see some other face looking out on the world with my own name beside it.

So if you have never Googled your own name, why not try it. If nothing else, it is a good talking point [and giggling too for that matter] with friends and family. Who knows who the other 'you' might be! A famous road builder or jewelry maker or even just someone who has their own blog page.

But whatever they are and indeed whatever they are like, they are not you. And that's what makes it such a weird experience.

When I get a little time to write more, I'd like to tell you about my experiences in Brean over the past week. Until then, happy Googling! x

I am just back from holiday.

As I drove home I was singing along to Emeli Sandé's, "I'll be your clown" and "Read All About It" at full voice and full of facial expression [Lord knows what the other drivers who passed me thought of it...a strange, tired looking woman who was performing weird facial contortions.. they probably thought I was having a stroke!]

But I made a strange decision. If my books ever become films, I want Emeli Sandé to write and perform the title tracks.

Oh and I want Scarlett Johansson to be the character Sophia.

Now that wouldn't be asking too much would it? ;)