Mrs Almost Average over at The Rubbish Diet has tagged me to find out six "interesting" things about me so here you go.
1. I am the keeper of my mother's family archive. Something to do with spending lots of time with Grandpa and Grandma sorting out letters and pictures and so on. So they left it to me and now my cupboards are full of pictures, books, diaries, photographs, letters and family trees, some dating back over two centuries. I'm trying slowly to bring a bit of order and to digitize it. It takes ages but I love it, and can bore on/talk about it for ever.
2. I'm allergic to oysters. And I love them. I wasn't originally but had a bad reaction at my uncle's 60th birthday party. I avoided them for years, partly because I thought I should, and partly because I was pregnant and breastfeeding a lot of that time. Then I thought I'd try them again and did, and had a weird reaction, couldn't see properly, had to lie down, headache, sickness. And so I missed my uncle's 65th birthday party and spent the evening in bed. I've made a promise not to go near an oyster for his 70th.
3. I have a tattoo. Not a sign of teenage rebellion. I wasn't a rebellious teenager. My tattoo was a 31st birthday present to myself. And yes it did hurt. And no I don't regret it. But who knows what the grandchildren will think in years to come...
4. Whenever I go to Paris, I get asked directions by locals, in French. I have no idea why as I'm 6 feet tall, wear next to no makeup and am not fearsomely chic like most Parisiennes. But for some reason, the French seem to think I'm a local and will be able to help. Clearly I am flattered by this.
5. I grew up without pop music. My father was born in 1925 so by the 60s was a bit old for the Beatles. Also he played jazz guitar, was an avid fan of Django Reinhart and frankly thought these new upstarts couldn't sing or play for toffee. So we had a diet of jazz and classical at home and it was only on visits to friends that my sister and I got to hear Abba or the Osmonds or Blondie. It wasn't until I turned 16 and we were given a radio that we discovered Radio 1. A little late for punk, but my first gig was the Stranglers at Newcastle City Hall in 1983, and my father thought the world had ended. His post hoc justification was that this restricted diet gave us a broader musical education - I thought that was terribly convenient for him, as he really couldn't stand the sound. But I do have a broad taste in music and can sing all sorts of jazz standards that I probably wouldn't know otherwise.
6. I'm afraid of water. Not in every form. I drink the stuff, and wash, but I don't put my face under the shower. It took a very determined teacher four years to teach me breaststroke, and that is all I can do. Can't tread water, and won't go out of my depth. My most undignified swimming moment has to have been with my ex who on holiday in Brazil had visions of us diving from our yacht and swimming ashore to a tropical paradise. After clinging desperately to the side of the boat to the amusement of the fisherman who'd taken us out in his boat, and the frustration of M, I was persuaded to paddle ashore with a life ring. Somehow lacked that Bacardi advert feeling...
And I shall tag
alpaca.farmer
welsh hills again
mountainear
Nicki's Diet
6 comments:
LOL Thanks Eliane for taking part in the tag. What an amazing project you've got there with your family archive. Never fancied the tatoo myself...well I have but have never been brave enough. As for the water, I can appreciate how you feel, except the reason I stay away from going in the sea is I fear my feet will sink in the sand. Top decision to stay away from the oysters :-D
Oh no. I miss oysters and am so jealous when I see others eating them. My uncle lives in one of the best oyster areas in France and I'm surrounded by the things when we go there and can't eat them. Have to stick to mussels and whelks and such like and it's not the same.
Thank you (I think) for the tag - I shall mull it over.
Curiously we have 3 things in common: the family archive, the oyster allergy and inexplicable apparent Frenchness.
An interesting collection of facts Eliane.
Thanks for the tag. I shall have a muse about it. I don't know whether there are six interesting things!
Good grief Ellie - i was at that Stranglers concert in Newcastle - it was my second year at Hull Uni, my brother was in his first year at Newcastle and so i went up as the stranglers were a top fave of mine (I'd seen them 2 years earlier as the guildford stranglers in a pub in cambridgeshire!) - to think we could have met 7 years earlier!
also the allergy to oysters could be haemachromatosis which is a gentic thing that Karen has - it means you have too much iron and can lead to all sorts of bad things - to find out if you have it you need a genetic test, but if you always have a highish iron level then that may be a sign...
Don't want to panic you - but good to find out; certainly mention it to your doctor next time
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