18th Jan - I got tagged!

Thanks to Coralene, I have been tagged to bore you all with 10 random things about me. This is so hard when you get put on the spot because really, who can just put out ten random facts or bits of information about themselves? It seems kind of unashamedly self indulgent, but what the heck, atleast ONE person wants to know these kind of things, so you all have to read about it now!

So I have really been thinking, because usually, for me atleast, stuff like this comes up every so often, like when we are talking about some anecdote that happened to a friend and it triggers some strange memory from way back when, or when your husband does something and you suddenly realise that you are actually afraid of vinegar. (Don't ask.)

1. I don't know if this actually really counts, but I am starting with one because I started talking about it on Coralene's blog... I was pretty musical as a kid, always singing and dancing (still do at most awkward times) but the one musical instrument I can play awesomely is also the recorder! My party piece is playing along to whatever song comes on the radio/iTunes/etc with one. I can't wait until Addie is old enough and I can pass on my recorder legacy. The best songs to recorder to is basically anything by ABBA. I used to be part of some recorder group at school and I have problems reading music, so basically the person in charge would play it to me maybe once or twice, and then I'd go into the stock cupboard and figure it out for myself. It isn't that I couldn't read music, it was just that my brain couldn't process it quick enough like everyone else, so once i had realised that the note I needed was a C, everyone else would be about 7 bars ahead. And besides, I had a much better ear for tunes, I just did it all that way. I would compare it to having a photographic memory, but for sounds instead. I am actually really good at knowing what songs are within the first few seconds of playing on the radio etc. I'm great in a musical pub quiz. I think this is because I know so many different songs and the lyrics to all sorts of different genres. Patrick thinks I am a bit mental because whenever we go out to the market, or in the car, or out for food, I am sitting there, singing along to a song that that is older than me that he has never heard. And if he changes the station, or we leave, I am still doing it. Also, because of this tape recorder brain, I am really good at learning languages and copying accents pretty quick.

2. I have been 'put' in two books, initially without realising! The first, is a comic book which name I forget, illustrated by my friend Jamie McKelvie. Here is a snippet of the 'me':

Yes, I do have an entire arm of outlined stars on my arm. I don't regret it as such, but I can think of better things to sleeve your arm with. And look he did my koi as well, even the maple leaves are in their right spot! He also make me a bit thinner and didn't draw in my muffin tops, which I love him for.

The other book, is a tattoo book. Last summer Patrick was out with friends visiting at Marcus Kuhn's shop and he was flicking through a tattoo book, and saw a full page of my Maneki Neko tattoo by David Sena (who also did my koi)! The book is called Tattoo Delirium, by Eva Minguet. it actually won an award at a tattoo competition I took part in. Normally though I think tattoo competitions are pretty stupid. I can't get a good shot of it, because it is hard to take a picture of your thigh:

3. I am a fussy eater. I used to be much worse and am trying, but really, in the grand scheme of things, I am pretty bad. It has been made worse by the fact that my doctor in Jersey (by method of deduction) came to the conclusion finally that I also have IBS. Unfortunately a lot of things I like, are on my "if you eat this, then you are an idiot" list. Like bread. Although I have eaten a lot less bread since I have been here, because American bread is horrid. My big problem is that a lot of the foods I don't like and shouldn't eat, are usually in a lot of meal combinations pretty heavily, like say, vinegar (I hate vinegar! I am terrified of it! The smell makes me wretch! Urgh urgh!) which is in salad dressings and mustards and ketchups (which I'd never go near) or say cheese (which will upset my stomach). I swear to go I think my mother in law puts cheese into everything. but then I really like pizza, but it will leave me with gut rot for days. I digress. it is probably easier to say what I like to eat, that list all the things that I don't like. I'm a simple girl, with simple eating habits, and I actually never really realised this until I moved in with Patrick's family and had to compare my eating habits with other people. maybe though they are the weird ones because none of them really eat a lot of green vegetables, and I used to live on them. Patrick has a funny stomach too, and has to watch what he eats for a medical condition, so when we get our own house it will be easier, to deal with the logistics of cooking for two people with sensitive stomachs, neither of which eat red meat.

4. I am really struggling can you tell? Ummmm well my mum died when I was 12. Part of me is all boo hoo, life isn't fair about this, because when people ask about your parents and you tell them this, they usually go "oh that must have been so hard for you etc" but the rational part of me says, well you don't miss what you don't know, do you? Growing up for me was very awkward as my dad isn't the emotional type and my brother is stark raving looney, so sometimes I did feel somewhat alone, but I expect that was heightened by teen angst, which flows through us all at the time. She had some really aggressive form of lung cancer and wasn't expected to last more than 6 months, but she fought it for nearly a year and then died the day before my dad's birthday, which must suck for him. I never really felt like I knew her, because although I was 12, we lived in a village and both my brother and I were so immature and sheltered, I don't have any real memories of her, or who she was as a person or what she sounded like. I only remember things, almost like secondary information that other people told me she was like, or things from photographs. Patrick doesn't really understand this and thinks its weird or I am lying, but you know, when you are a kid, the things you see and remember are so rarely what is actually happening, so what would be the point if I did remember anything? Maybe I blocked it all out or something. I don't have any bad memories, I just remember without sounding super clichéd, that my childhood ended the day my dad told me she was sick and told me not to tell anyone. Some days she was better than others but I never expected her to die and when my dad told my brother (he was 10 t the time) I initially thought it was a joke and was waiting for him to laugh, but instead he cried and cried and at that second I wanted to crawl out of my skin. It was at that point my brother Olie and I just became little adults and it felt like the three of us co-habited. That year our Christmas tree stayed up until late March and we never put up Christmas decorations ever since.

5. Something more light hearted: I am a terrible drunk. Here is some photographic evidence. My worst drunken times involve me pissing in someone's wardrobe in New York, when I was staying in a youth hostel with some boys I barely new and had met the night before. They carried me home by all accounts and I got into a fist fight/water fight/make out session with some random stranger.

The bunk of my boozing was done in Jersey, where I used to get impish and start picking off letters on signs of buildings. Here are some of the letters I have collected:

As you might have guessed, Thomas Cook, the travel agent, bore the brunt of the damage. This picture is super old, you can't see my feet tattoos!

I don't really have time to drink anymore, and I have pretty much learnt my lesson, since Patrick and I conceived Adelaide drinking a handle of Crown Royal.

6. Jeeez this is really hard. I have had to consult Patrick, my good old resourceful husband. He said that one of my random facts is that I have a tattoo on my bottom that says 'EAT ME' which sounds totally tacky but in my defence, I think its kinda cool as it was done by Chad Koeplinger and is a skull and knife and fork in a crossbones styley. Technically I would have been days pregnant when I got it. Ooops. Nevermind. This was a short one! Yay!

7. I'm very tall. No really I am. I hate it when people say they are tall, and they are barely 5ft 10 or something. But according to the averages, I am mucho taller than white (I'm not racist, I am white) women in both the US and UK. So there you have it. I am over 6ft and I hate to wear heels. If I do, you can see my amateur tottering about being about a bajillion foot tall. I also have big feet, otherwise I'd fall over. They are a UK mens 10 (womens 9 1/2). Which I think is a US mens 10 1/2 or a womens 12. So basically I live in sneakers or flip flops. Currently I am living in my mens Emu boots, which were a bargain purchase and a somewhat stressful shoe time for me because I left it right before the first snow fall. I mean literally it snowed the day after I got them and we all laughed!

Patrick just reminded me that he likes tall women. Apparently he told me this ages ago, but knowing me I probably forgot it, wasn't paying attention or just am that inept at talking to men all I heard was white noise.

8. I really like ABBA. A lot. Patrick said that I should mention that I am a geek. I figured everyone would probably gather this, but I don't know what really qualifies me as a geek. He said, lets look at what I love, other than ABBA: I like comicbooks, toys (mainly lego), Star Wars, robots (old ones mostly), a lot of random movies, cartoons, vintage and kitsch housey things, thrift stores, things that serve no purpose whatsoever but just look nice or look a bit different, tattoo stuff, Mexican cultural oddities and things like that.

9. I really like WW2 stuff. In a not scary way, I am obsessed with nazis. I love watching a movie with a nazi in it, that or a bad guy Russian in it. I used to live in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, which was the only part of the United Kingdom that was invaded and occupied during WW2 and it shaped the island dramatically. There are reminders and loads of information available there, and its fascinating to learn about how it affected people on a person to person levels, the lengths they went to to survive, eating seagulls etc, and how the young people couldn't help who they fell in love with and then were treated so badly at the end of the war because of it. And then the Blitz! The black market trading! The dances! The rallying together to fight Jerry! Careless Talk Costs Lives! The Land Army! Don't get me started on how interesting that is. Seriously, wars aren't fought like that any more; its all corporations with vested interests pushing for invasions and remotely pushing buttons and detonating bombs and such whereas then it was a world without information being so readily available and the media not being so heavily involved or so technologically advanced. yes the propaganda machines were in full force then, but in a different way. Both sides, people rallied together to support the war effort, either rationing or working in factories and the children were evacuated from major areas. Yes people go off to war now, like they did then, to the front, but it was a much more remote concept. You couldn't phone home, or Skype or email someone. I am not glamorizing war, I just think its so interesting how it touched people, and in a couple of generations those first hand accounts will disappear if we don't remember them properly. Our house will be full of propaganda posters when we have one.

10. Okay, last one, lets make this a good one! Something random.... hmmmm. I hate blogging. NO! Not really! Just making sure you are paying attention. I really really hate it when people refer to things by the wrong name. Namely calling tattoos TATS or INK. Really? It makes you sound like a retard. I could go into a full on tirade about it, but really, you guys have been very patient with me for this entry. Just call them by their proper name that is all I ask. Otherwise I shall call you by something instead of your name, and it'll be mean.