Finished!

[triskellian]

100 things about me

1. I really want another tattoo. They actually are addictive, which surprises me.
2. My brother and I are right-handed, non-sporty, creative, children of left-handed, sporty, non-creative, parents. We're better looking than they are, too.
3. Last summer I was within minutes of death. It felt like being trapped inside my body; my mind wanted to appeal - "just because the body you gave me is dying, doesn't mean I have to, too. Just give me another one. How hard can it be?" There was hardly any oxygen in my body by the time the ambulance arrived.
4. I'm surprised by how much I love my own cats
5. I was told I wasn't allowed to decorate any of the house purple. Somehow, we have two purple rooms despite this. One of them wasn't even my fault.
6. I can play the clarinet
7. I was in Girls Brigade, Brownies, Guides, swimming club, synchronised swimming club, two different gymnastics clubs, trampolining club, Sea Cadets, the school netball team, a non-school netball team and the school table tennis team. I get bored easily.
8. I don't regret dropping out of college
9. When I was fourteen, I broke my left leg, misjudging the speed of an approaching car. I was off school for about four weeks, unable to navigate the stairs that would enable me to get to lessons. While I was away, the whole school was treated to a road safety lecture on my account. Which I missed.
10. I think that my left leg is shorter than my right.
11. I'm increasingly uninterested in drinking alcohol. The main problem with this is that I like red wine and port. If they made non-alcoholic versions that tasted as good, I'd drink those.
12. I'm scared of spiders. I once had to go and ask my next-door neighbour to remove one for me.
13. I used to love driving. Now it scares me. I have to force myself to sometimes drive long distances, because if I stop, I may never be able to do it again.
14. I've gone out with far more Librans than any other star sign
15. I'm just inside the Scorpio side of the Scorpio-Sagittarius cusp. I read somewhere a few years ago that, because the boundaries are slightly different each year, I'm actually Sagittarius. I choose to ignore this, because Scorpio is such a great sign.
16. I've been in love five times. I'm still in occasional touch with the first, the second stopped speaking to me, and I haven't seen him for years, three and four are both still dear friends, and you know who five is.
17. My brother and I used to pretend to be twins.
18. There are twins in both sides of my family, and even lathany and bateluer's experience hasn't put me off wanting to have twins
19. I played the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz when I was 11.
20. I love my job
21. The Political Compass says I'm leftist and libertarian
22. My MBTI type is ENFP
23. I'm finding this list really hard to do
24. I use the word 'really' far too much
25. I wear quite a lot of jewellery, but I rarely change any of it. The current collection is: four hoop earrings, four stud earrings, an amber teardrop necklace (a new addition, replacing a triskell, but not permanently), seven rings (an almost plain silver band, which was my first ring; a purple band with silver cut-outs which was my Grandma's; a dragon from my boyfriend; a torc-shaped silver ring with amber in each end, also from my boyfriend; two crossed circles, from the Leeds festival; a red stone set in silver which I bought on holiday with the ex-love who doesn't speak to me; lapis lazuli set in silver, the origin of which I have completely forgotten)
26. I buy books faster than I read them
27. I think the full version of my first name is beautiful.
28. I used to collect versions of my name. I managed more than seventy. They're around here somewhere.
29. I've convinced myself that I will one day change the version of my name I use. Starting each of my last two jobs, I introduced myself by the full version, but the attempt is scuppered by the fact that I think of myself as the short version you all know me by.
30. I dislike my last name enough that I will probably change it if I get married; I don't think I would otherwise. The name that I am likely to acquire in its place goes well with my first name anyway.
31. I have five best girl friends. In practice, they're each 'best' at different things and different times, and it's currently only my Best best friend I see with any frequency.
32. I dream about houses more than any other subject. There are several recurring houses in my dreams, some of which are based on real buildings (although not all of them are houses in real life). They have secret passages, and hidden turnings, although the one house I've known with actual secrets hasn't figured. I have not yet absorbed My House into these dream houses.
33. My favourite film in 2002 was Monsoon Wedding
34. I'm completely unadventurous about music, and have acquired hardly any new favourites since I came to Oxford seven years ago.
35. I'm much more adventurous with books. I just wish I could read them more quickly. It torments me that the authors I already know about are churning out books faster than I could possibly read them, and there are so many other authors I'd love and will never be able to discover.
36. I'm currently reading a collection of 'the best of' Elizabeth David, 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius', a study of the court of Henvry VIII, 'A Portrait of Jane Austen', and 'The Coast of Utopia: Salvage' and am trying to resist the urge to start on 'The Little Friend' as well
37. My attention span is tiny and I get bored and flit between books/projects/tasks/etc at a silly rate
38. I only ever find out how much money I have in my bank account if they write to tell me I'm overdrawn, or when I'm checking my salary has gone in
39. My favourite TV programme is Buffy the Vampire Slayer
40. My favourite characters are still Willow and Spike
41. I have fun trying to work out whether it would be better to be Willow (going out with Oz) or Oz (going out with Willow). I still haven't decided.
42. I don't play computer games. That's almost a lie, because I occasionally play Sim-type games, but I consider them to be toys, not games. The reason I don't like Caesar 3 (one of only two games I own) is that while I'm trying to design an ideal city of some sort, someone invades, or the annoying citizens start demanding things, and then Caesar shouts at me for spending all of his money. I much prefer Sim City (the other one) because it's just a toy.
43. I have only been a bridesmaid once, and I was too old to really appreciate it. The couple subsequently split up anyway.
44. The fact that there is a purple flavour of Sunny Delight upsets me
45. The fact that there is a purple flavour of Walkers Crisps delights me
46. Because teachers are incapable of understanding that it's possible to do well at school with no effort, all but one of my school reports give me high marks for effort. My GCSE French teacher was more sensible. The first half of my report was awful, and the second wonderful. It took my parents rather by surprise.
47. My entire GCSE Music class failed, because the teacher kept changing his mind about the curriculum he was teaching, and we didn't submit enough work. We were later all moderated up one grade, which meant one person passed (she's one of the people mentioned in number 31, and she's a fine classical flautist), but my sixth form college were never told this, because there seemed no point. When I submitted my UCAS form, they changed my music grade down to the original one, without checking with me. I only found this out much later, but thinking about it still annoys me.
48. I've only flown twice (there and back again). Coming back, I was very ill with tonsillitis, which has put me off the whole experience.
49. My favourite word is autodefenestration. I love the fact that there's a word for it.
50. I'm halfway finished.
51. I was always going to call my daughter - assuming I have one - Morgan. I can't now, because I foolishly named a roleplaying character Morgan, and she had such an awful life that I couldn't name a child after her.
52. I still have the Christmas present I bought my maternal grandmother, just before she died two years ago. I don't know what to do with it.
53. Apparently I'm entitled to use 'Cert EM' after my name. I can't imagine why I'd want to do such a ridiculous thing, even if I was proud of the qualification.
54. I want my hair braided, but am shocked by how much money it costs
55. For the first time in many years, I'm currently only on one form of regularly-taken medication. It comes in a purple inhaler, which makes me happy.
56. I haven't worn a watch for years
57. My preferred web browser is Mozilla
58. I own two sets of fairy wings
59. I have lots of scars. One is from trying to crawl inside a tent without opening the door, to surprise my parents when they came in. I scraped a large chunk out of my knee on a tent peg, and then got salt and sand in it. Another is from trying to imitate an impressive skid my Dad did on some ice - I fell over and cracked my chin open. Another is... well, maybe that's a point in its own right:
60. I once put my hand through a glass-panelled door. I didn't mean to; I was angry with the person on the other side of the door, and I was banging my fist. The fact that the door was partially glass didn't register. It was a bathroom door, after all, and it was curtained, so it was opaque. The blood, and the trip to casualty, meant the argument I was having with the guy behind the door has since assumed a whole new level of seriousness which it doesn't really deserve.
61. I'm very bad with menus. I have a set of rules of things I'm not allowed to choose, to help minimise the agony, but I can be tempted to break them, which takes me back to square one.
62. I make a point of ordering cheese instead of pudding if the cheese is not cheddar, brie and stilton. I hope the fact that I explain this to the waiter when asking what the cheese selection is will eventually have some effect, but I've been doing it for years, and nothing seems to have changed yet ;-)
63. I don't believe in wardrobes. OK, smartarse, I do believe in the *existence* of wardrobes, just I don't like to use them. Ever since I realised I had a say in the matter, I've had hanging rails instead. I currently mostly have just a picture rail, but I rather like the idea of hanging my clothes from that.
64. If I had to give up all foods but one, that one would be pizza. If I was also allowed to choose something sweet, it would be ice-cream. This is partly because I love pizza and ice-cream, but also because it's the best way to cheat - I could put almost anything savoury on a pizza, or make almost anything sweet into ice-cream.
65. I don't like lettuce
66. I wish my hair was always the colour it is now, without having to work at it
67. I was born in the year of the dragon. I'm sure you can tell how happy this makes me.
68. I don't like titles, and avoid using them as much as possible. If someone insists on using one for me, the one I give is Ms.
69. Not being married is a good way to weed out double-glazing salesmen and the like, because they use whichever surname they've managed to dig out, and ask for 'Mr or Mrs whatever'
70. I recently made an entire dress myself for the first time. I've previously adapted things, and cobbled together items less complicated than a dress, but nothing like this before. I had large amounts of help, but I'm still ridiculously proud of the achievement.
71. I have no secrets that no one else knows
72. I sneeze constantly, and can often be heard claiming to be allergic to everything. In fact, I have the classic allergic trio of asthma, eczema and hayfever, and am allergic to things like pollen, dust and cat fur.
73. The good things the cats bring to my life far outweigh the bad
74. I wear an apron for cooking and washing up. It's black and grey check, which is the summer uniform at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches. My boyfriend didn't know this when he bought it for me, but it makes me happy.
75. When living in shared houses, I always had extremely good room karma, which I believe was earned by having the smallest room in the world in college.
76. I miss smoking cigarettes, but I didn't enjoy the couple I've had in the last year and a half
77. I don't like spirits or liqueurs
78. I was a chocoholic when I was a child
79. I'm now more inclined to occasionally have small amounts of expensive chocolate; I'm generally going off sweet things
80. Numbers 78 and 12 are gifts from my mother. I'm not particularly grateful for either.
81. My father gave me a fear of heights, which is much more sensible than a fear of spiders.
82. Both my parents have also given me many things for which I am grateful
83. My favourite game is Charades
84. I'm a woolly, undecided agnostic. Ish.
85. 'It depends' seems to me to be the answer to most questions
86. I don't like the colours yellow, orange, and bright red. At all.
87. I don't like blonde hair, but do like ginger and red hair.
88. I've managed in the last couple of years to rehabilitate grey as a colour. It was the colour of the school uniform at both of my schools, which broke it for me for a long time. Now it's one of the most represented colours in my wardrobe (metaphorical wardrobe, that is. See 63). After black, purple and blue, of course.
89. My next colour rehabilitation project is pink. I was a tomboy, and turned off pink very early. Now, I rather like it, but the idea of wearing it still freaks me out.
90. Oh god. Ten left. I am going to finish this list before I go out tonight. But before then, I have to make mashed potato (to go with the sausages I put in the oven before starting this 100 things shift), and watch Once More With Feeling. Yes, of course I've already seen it. Quite a few times. But it's on TV this evening. I have to see it again. (I lied. I didn't finish before going out.)
91. I buy an average of one newspaper a week. If I buy it on a Saturday, it's the Guardan. If I buy it on a Sunday, it's the Times. I rarely read the news sections - the bits I like are the book and film reviews, the fashion pages, the houses section (buying of and decorating), recipes, features and columns. If it's the Guardian, I read the jobs section, too. Sometimes it takes me the whole week to read the paper.
92. I buy hardly any magazines. My favourite magazine was called Deadline, and hasn't existed for about seven years. I lent some of my copies to an unreliable person who has since lost them, and I've never forgiven him for it.
93. The biggest reason I replaced my mobile phone recently was because my old one was too old for me to be able to buy new covers for it.
94. I like my eyebrows
95. I own a kite, but I've never flown it. It's purple and shaped like some sort of squid-monster.
96. I hate writing in biro, especially blue biro
97. I never bunked off school, but I did miss a couple of classes, and one whole day, at sixth form college. The day was to provide moral support for a friend who had hard and painful chores to do.
98. I never blow dry my hair. I very rarely style it. 'Wash, comb, leave' is my haircare routine.
99. I've never bought a lottery ticket, although I was in syndicates at both previous jobs. The nightmare scenario of turning up to work on Monday morning and finding everyone else has emigrated to Barbados was too vivid.
100. I've only changed the order of one of these items after writing it (although the order of writing doesn't reflect the order of thinking of, because most of the writing has been imperfectly remembering the things I've thought of in between sessions at this 'puter) but I've re-worded, edited and deleted others.

Comments

Hmm..

[venta.livejournal.com]

... I guess 87 means that the comment I just added to kauket's journal is completely wrong, then :)

I'm quite enjoying this 100 Facts idea. Thanks for yours, and thanks for starting it off!

Oh, and grey is a great colour. More people should realise that :) (Though I take the point about school uniform. My love of green survived having to wear it for five years, but I still cringe at the concept of a yellow shirt)

Re: Hmm..

[triskellian]

... I guess 87 means that the comment I just added to kauket's journal is completely wrong, then :)
At risk of repeating myself, yeah. It's red. My hair is naturally dark enough that to get it bright red I have to bleach it first.

I'm quite enjoying this 100 Facts idea. Thanks for yours, and thanks for starting it off!
Thanks :-) I'm enjoying it, too. I want more people to write some, now, though.

Oh, and grey is a great colour. More people should realise that :)
Although a comment was made about the way my top had allegedly faded yesterday, when I was wearing a top that was grey when I bought it, and is still grey. But that's maybe more to do with my general predeliction (which I'm not sure how to spell) for wearing black.

(Though I take the point about school uniform. My love of green survived having to wear it for five years, but I still cringe at the concept of a yellow shirt)
Well, yes, but so do I, and I've never had to wear a yellow shirt in my life ;-)