20 May 2007

Eight Things About Me

I stumbled across this meme the other night and decided that if I hadn’t been tagged by the end of the weekend I’d take up Raidergirl’s open invitation. Then Bookfool tagged me! (Thanks for that).

Here are the rules:

1: Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2: People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
3: At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
4: Don't forget to leave them a comment and tell them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Eight Things About Me

1. I sleep like the dead; telephones, vacuum cleaners, loud music, roaring traffic, neighbours with power tools, thunderstorms and earth tremors have all failed to wake me. My mother is the exact opposite and I’ve lost count of the number of morning conversations we’ve had like this:

‘How about that storm last night?’
‘What storm?’
‘You mean you didn’t hear it?’
‘Hear what?’
‘But it was loud enough to wake the dead!’
‘Er, well ... obviously not....’
She’s often joked about installing a cannon.

2. I will freely reveal my weight, but I will always lie about my height; I never admit to being anything less than 160cm.

3. I say I’m a lefty because that’s the hand I write with, but I’m right-handed at every sport my high school made me try ... except archery, at which I’m left-handed. I use a spoon with my left hand and scissors with my right and, bizarrely, I knit right-handed and crochet left-handed. (I’m hoping all this means I’ve got a well-balanced brain.)

4. When I was younger my bedtime reading material of choice was the Collins English Dictionary, and nowadays I can often be found browsing through encyclopaedias for fun.

5. I am fanatical about sunscreen and if it’s daylight I will never leave the house without SPF 30+, even if I’m only going to check the letterbox.

6. During exams, if I have time I’ll correct all the spelling and punctuation errors in the question paper. In red ink.

7. When I was little I used to collect rocks - any rocks. I drove my mum nuts by constantly arriving home from school with my pockets full of pebbles quarried in the sandpit. I am much more discerning now; the only rocks I bring home are of the semiprecious variety and have holes drilled in them ready to turn into jewellery. :-)

8. Strange but true: I once had the living daylights startled out of me in Phnom Penh by a gecko leaping out of a toaster.

Now I’m supposed to nominate eight more people, so I’ve hunted around for fresh blood and decided on:

Acquisitionist at Literary Acquisitionist
Dancin’ Fool at In The Pink
Marianne Arkins at Reading, Writing, and Stuff That Makes Me Crazy
RhiGirl at Slipping in the Rain
Sarah in the Sky With at Wannabe Inkling
StuckInABook at Stuck in a Book
Sulz at Bloggerdybooks!
And anyone else who feels like it.

I don’t think any of them have been tagged; if I’ve doubled up, smile because you’re popular :-). Your mission should you choose to accept it: complete this meme - and try to find facts more interesting than mine!

13 comments:

  1. I enjoyed reading through your responses. My husband is the one who can sleep through anything. I guess someone needs to get up with the cat in the morning (and he knows I'm the one to go to), but there are many days I wish a certain someone else would be the one to drag himself out of bed to feed the animals and let the dog out. Haha I'm an early riser by default, not by choice.

    I love that you correct the grammar in exams--and with red ink no less. That's really funny. Have you ever gotten a response back about that?

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  2. I'm also one to lie about my height. This list was great. I also laughed at your extra diligent red-ink corrections. Will post my list in the morning.

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  3. LOL about the grammar in tests -- that always bugged me!

    I have no problem admitting my weight, height, age, or pretty much anything else about me. Why be bothered by what IS?

    I am a ridiculously light sleeper -- I can't remember the last time I slept more than an hour or two without being awakened by something... my DH or the dog snoring, the wind, the neighbors or whatever. I wish I slept as deeply as you.

    I'd already done this, but you can read my answers here if you'd like.

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  4. Hello! Thanks for this, and what a fabulous list of quirks you have!

    I too am tickled pink at the thought of an exam paper being returned with corrections to it's content and presentaton marked on it! Good for you!

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  5. Now that really was an innocent mistake but I now know you will spot it...I meant presentation!

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  6. 6. During exams, if I have time I’ll correct all the spelling and punctuation errors in the question paper. In red ink.

    This made me laugh out loud! Your profs don't get mad at you for that, do they?

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  7. Lol!! I used to do the same thing with my grammar tests in high school, my teachers thought I was hilarious. Mostly because I have atrocious grammar. I completed the meme but put it on a different blog of mine...

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  8. hey, you don't have to be so conscious about your height - i barely pass 150cm! it's my weight i'm pretty conscious about, since i'm not lollipop-shaped, nor am i "pleasantly plump". besides, i never scale myself on the weights, so i wouldn't really know anyway!

    i'm reading jonathan strange now too, as you can see from my blog's sidebar. it's a chore reading it so far, and i've yet to pass the 100-page mark...

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  9. My husband is the same kind of lefty. My kid is a lefty too. She also collects rocks- by the pocketful.

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  10. That was too fun! I particularly loved the gecko story and the fact that you used to be an avid rock collector. I was, also! I once climbed a cliff to try to get to the perfect little mica outcropping . . . and started to slide. And, my husband is ambidextrous like you. I don't know how he decides which hand to use for different activities, maybe whatever feels most natural.

    My son sleeps like you do, so I won't leave him alone in the house - even during the daylight hours - if he's asleep. But, anything and everything wakes me up, even the cat walking into the room (her claws click against the floor).

    Thanks for participating!!

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  11. Literary Feline: My mum would relate to that; she hates being the only one who has to listen to our neighbour revving his engine at 6am and the pigeons that like to sit on the aircon and coo their little hearts out.

    Sulz, Marianne: The logical part of my brain knows that 160(ish) isn't really that short, but the not-so-logical part remembers the years of schoolyard belittlement for being . . . well, "little". Though I've long since gotten over being teased for my ghostly complexion so I guess in time the height thing will follow.

    I would never go near a set of scales either, except that it's the easiest way to gauge the size of my anual Bookfest haul: weigh me, then weigh me holding the bags. (Since the scales aren't big enough to hold all the books at once!) I'm actually quite enjoying Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, in spite of occasional bouts of frustration!

    Dancin' Fool: Don't worry, I'll blame it on a typing error rather than a spelling error!

    Bookfool I think yo'r right about your husband; that's how I decide which hand to use for what. The gecko incident is one of the weirder things that has ever happened to me; needless to say, now that we live in gecko territory the toaster is kept carefully shut away in a cupboard!

    And no . . . I have never had any comment on my paper-correcting efforts. (I haven't noticed much improvement, either!)

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  12. Hey, hope you are really well? One for you!

    Grab the book that is nearest to you (no cheating), turn to page 161, post the text of the fifth full sentence on the page, post the rules and tag three people.

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  13. Finally got around to doing this! Sorry it took so long...

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Header image shows detail of A Young Girl Reading by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, c. 1776