8 Things - playing with the cool kids :o)

Jan really threw me when she tagged me for a meme. My problem? I don't know 8 bloggers! (Sorry, CK, Jan got me first.)

Here are the rules:

Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.

So here are my 8 things:-

1) Within my family, I am the youngest person of my Generation. I have cousins with grandchildren older than me (Auntie Zara's mob). It's because my parents were 47 and 49 when I was born (just before their 48th and 50th birthdays).

2) "T" is for Tired (and also, Thyroxin). I never knew bone-weary tiredness until I developed hypo-thyroidism. Everything slows down and you ache; it's like the 10 minutes before the cold symptoms kick in with the flu. There were days when I'd be ready to go back to bed at 9am, having got up for work at 6. I fell asleep on the couch more evenings that I can remember. After 2 years, I'm still not sure I'm on the right dose of thyroxin - I'm getting tired too often for my liking, but as I'm losing weight on Weight Watchers I don't think I can argue my case effectively. My blood levels have fallen within the normal range since my first post-thyroxin blood test (and they doubled my dosage after that). In our house, Thyroxin is also known as "Kick-Start". The worst part about having a thyroid problem? It’s ruined my memory. I used to have really good recall and now it's gone.

3) I hate being stereotyped. Nothing annoys me more than people assuming I won't be interested in something because I'm a woman/white/Jewish/middle-class/sing opera/went to a private school/knit/sew/whatever. Why assume? Why not ask me instead? (Radical idea, I know.) Yes, I drink wine - but I like dark beers. My birthday is usually celebrated at the Great British Beer Festival. Yes, I studied opera singing - even passed an exam in it - but I listen to Rock. I'm seeing 13 Proms this year, but the last CD played in my car was by Linkin Park http://linkinpark.com/ (Minutes to Midnight - I like about two-thirds of the tracks). I may wear make-up, but I know more about car engines than either of my husbands.

4) For the record… Besides the usual academic subjects, I studied woodwork at school together with pottery, singing, cooking, dressmaking and tennis.

5) I’m a born procrastinator. Witness it taking over a week for me to respond to Jan’s Meme. When I’m procrastinating, I don’t tend to do related activities – I just avoid them all together. A good example? I need to block the fronts and back of my latest knitting project, so that I can ensure the design on the sleeve is placed in the correct position (got to get the lines in the colour-work matched up). I’ve never blocked a thing in my life but I’ve purchased all the kit. The sweater’s been at the critical stage of “got to do it now or can’t knit any more” since yesterday. I’ve been home all day waiting for a delivery – guess what hasn’t happened? I’m afraid I’ll ruin something, so I’m avoiding starting.

6) I have never dated a Jewish guy, nor did I marry one. Never, ever. It wasn’t deliberate; it just didn’t happen. I don’t think my mother despaired of me, but she did try to matchmake a few times.

7) I’m left-handed, but I play golf, knit and crochet right-handed. Since knitting requires the use of two hands, I’ve never understood why a left handed person has to do it differently from a right-hander. You don’t need a huge amount of dexterity to knit (unlike writing or drawing), so why confuse the learner with mirror knitting? To me, it’d be like creating a special keyboard for left-handed typists. The golf is easier to explain – I figured that there was little difference between hitting a golf ball left-handed and hitting one right-handed, so went right-handed because clubs are cheaper/more readily available.

8) If you want to sell a gadget to me make it small with zillions of features and a huge amount of memory/storage space. For example the next mobile phone I buy, I want to be a cross between a phone and a palm pilot, with a built in MP3/MP4 player, full internet functionality (and access), a 5 mega pixel camera (with flash), and at least 2gb memory plus cards. Oh, and it has to be less than 3 inches by 2 inches and not more than 2 cm deep. Oh, and my preference is for Samsung since I’ve already got 2 of their chargers. Impossible, probably, but that’s what I’d like. The key words here are “small”, “compact”, “packed with features”, “multipurpose”, “sturdy” and “cheap”.

- Pam

I tag: Kara , John, Polarg (at least I hope it's her), Stephanie and Very Herodotus. Piney, I'm sorry, but I've lost my link to your blog.