Tagged - 20 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me

1. I have an uncanny ability to innocently say things that others turn into a double entendre.

2. I can't remember important dates from history.

3. I learned to read at age three because my Mother, a Primary School teacher, spent a lot of quality time with me while she was at home with my younger sister and I. I have developed an uncanny ability to spell words correctly (except when my fingers on a keyboard get ahead of my brain sometimes) and am appalled at the lack of attention many people give to the importance of correct spelling. I have happily proof-read Boo's assignments before she submits them to her lecturers to make sure that the spelling and grammar is as accurate as possible. It is my duty as a big sister!

4. I too had really bad acne at school. And it's back again. It is upsetting because it attacks my back, chest and face so I have had to modify my wardrobe so that other people don't have to look at it. Swimsuits/bathers are not my friend. If you see me with a rashie on this Summer it's not just because I'm being "SunSmart".

5. I have never broken any of my bones although I have dislocated the little finger on my right hand. I washed my hands before dinner one evening and came out of the bathroom shaking (the water off?) my hands. I whacked the little finger of my right hand against a bookcase and was in agony. Mum told me to settle down and eat my dinner, that it wasn't that bad. (This is how it is stored in my memory, anyway.) I remember it being painful. My finger eventually turned a purple-green colour and I was taken to my Dad's Chiropractor where they had a look at it, took some x-rays and then put my dislocated finger joint back in the right position giving me a few exercises to do to make sure that my ligaments and muscles and everything went back to normal. I was around 10 years old. Finger looks okay.

6. I can sound eerily like my Dad's sister. This is not a bad thing. I find it interesting. My handwriting is also a lot like hers.

7. I don't sing so much any more. I don't play on the expensive piano keyboard that my parents gave me.

8. My longest relationship is eight years, nearly five months, and still counting.

9. I like the Haileybury boys (who held doors open for me, helped me with my homework, made beautiful music and treated me like a human being) better than the Peninsula boys (who were loud and vile and threw things at cars from the bus we all caught in the afternoon). Except for Jamie who was always a sweetheart, even in Primary School.

10. I don't drink alcohol. Unless you count that skerrick they put in a Lemon, Lime & Bitters. I don't smoke or do other recreational drugs. Any drugs I take have either been prescribed or are used for medicinal reasons (paracetamol, antihistamine, etcetera).

11. I used to hide my money from myself so that when I found it I could be happy that I had some spending money that I had forgotten I had. It was like receiving an unexpected present. How nice of me to think of me.

12. I can often be found staring into space. Not outer space. Just... space...

13. I'm not a party girl but I can throw a good party.

14. I am a firm believer in living with someone before you marry them. I used to be a firm believer in not having sex before marriage.

15. I believed in Father Christmas until I was nine years old. Same goes for the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. I'm glad that my parents managed to maintain the illusion for so long. EG and I then kept those characters real for Boo until about the same age. (Plus it meant that we got extra presents.) I don't want my future kids to miss out on that sort of thing. I used to wish that the Tooth Fairy would give me wings. (Now there's Red Bull, ha!) I was also fascinated by the television shows "Bewitched" and "I Dream Of Jeannie" and I think the Fantasy books that I read now indicate that I have never really grown out of that sort of thing.

16. I still cannot believe that my cousin committed suicide.

17. I would like to live and work in a foreign country one day. When I do it will probably be in the UK, which isn't all that foreign I admit. France, Belgium, Canada...

18. I went through a period where I would only buy a CD if it was by a female vocalist because I felt that I was buying too many albums by male vocalists/groups. I have a more balanced collection now.

19. I miss Grandad and Pa. Grandad used to buy me chocolate Freddo Frogs. He died when I was five years old and I was so traumatised on the day of his funeral that I was sick and had to stay back at the house. Pa was a big influence on the music in my life, even though we didn't spend as much time together as I was growing up. I cried when I read in Florence, Italy, an email from my Dad telling me that one of Pa's fingers had turned gangrenous and had to be amputated. I had not expected Pa to be alive when I returned but I did get to see him one more time before he passed away. I enjoyed the adult relationship that had grown between us since I had started at University and was sorry that he had not lived to see me married. I am trying to cherish each day that I have with my two remaining Grandparents, Nanna and Mama.

20. I enjoy getting together at the dinner table on special occasions with my parents, sisters and other relatives if only for the stories that are brought out for an airing. EG cracks herself up with the things we used to do together, or inflict on each other and my parents have similar stories themselves. Laughing is good - there has been too much sadness for our family in the last few years.