No photos today: blogger is sulking.
But! 100 things about me! Wooooo!
1. As well as my way cool tattoo, my right eyebrow is pierced. I used to have lots of earring holes in my ears, but I've let most of them grow over - I only have nine with earrings in them now.
2. I have a scar on my chest resulting from my rampant curiosity as a toddler as to what was on the table. Turns out it was a kettle of boiling water. Doh. The scar is only about an inch long and half that wide, so I figure I got out of it pretty easy.
3. I was once less than six feet away from David Bowie.
4. Whenever I see a cat on tv or on the street, I say hello to it in a silly squeaky voice. I am truly lame. If I am with Gibbering at the time, we will both break off the conversation, simultaneously squeak at the cat, and resume the conversation without missing a beat.
5. I have time to do this list tonight because the bastards are showing a repeat of House instead of a new episode.
6. Because of some medication I am on, I can't drink more than one mouthful of alcohol. Sometimes this makes me very sad.
7. If I see a dog on the street or in a park, I must stop and pat it.
8. I am addicted to diet coke. It used to be Lemon Diet Coke, then that got replaced by Lime Diet Coke. Currently, I drink Vanilla Diet Coke, although I will drink Coke Zero in a pinch.
9. I make the best vegie lasagne I have ever tasted.
10. I have seen a Geisha on the streets of Kyoto. Me and the two gals I was with stopped and stared like it was a rock star. It was SO COOL.
11. I got married in a big purple and black dress. I carried a black lace fan and wore a black lace veil.
12. Our bridal waltz was an Elizabethan pavanne danced to "Colour Me Once" by the Violent Femmes from the Crow soundtrack.
13. The wedding was in an Art Deco movie theatre. Afterwards, we screened Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and provided all of our guests with choc tops.
14. I once had to have an operation for carpal tunnel syndrome because I did too much embroidery.
15. I am terrified of dentists. The first time I saw my current dentist, I hadn't been to a dentist in ten years, and I sat and sobbed uncontrollably in the waiting room. He was very very nice and I am no longer afraid to go to the dentist. I'm not thrilled about it either, but I no longer need Valium to keep me still in the chair!
16. My family had a Great Dane who was scared of the chickens in the back yard and had to have her food dish on an upturned bucket so that they wouldn't steal her dinner.
17. I like the people I work with. This is a constant surprise to me.
18. I used to be a supervisor at the Evil Insurance Company. I had to look after sixteen staff. This experience means that you couldn't pay me enough ever to be a manager again.
19. In real life, I am shy. I tend to be standoffish until I know people a bit better.
20. Despite number 19, I am a very good administrator/customer service wizard. I never lose my patience with clients.
21. Not even the client who accused me of being a bureaucratic procrastinating bungler trying to pass the buck.
22. I love Edward Gorey's artwork and writing. Especially the Gashlycrumbtinies.
23. I am considering getting another tattoo with one of Edward Gorey's characters on it.
24. I was vegetarian until I'd been in sweltering hot Japan for a few days. Then it was eat protein or die, so I started eating fish again.
25. I love to read. I have around 2000 books.
26. I collect antique children's books. I have a very fine collection, if I do say so myself.
27. I am bad at remembering when tv shows are on, so I generally wait until they come out on dvd and then watch the whole season over a couple of weeks.
28. I find it very difficult to sleep if Dave isn't there.
29. There is in existence somewhere a picture of me at our wedding dinner with chopsticks stuck in my mouth pretending to be fangs. All Class I Tell You.
30. I love going out for breakfast. It's one of my hobbies.
31. I once won a contest at a baby shower while stoned. I also bought Tupperware. I have no recollection of this.
32. Dave cheerily let it slip to my mother one day that I was stoned at that baby shower.
33. I didn't kill him. But the temptation was strong within me.
34. I think people who are cruel to animals are truly evil. I would like to lock them in a small room and hurt them.
35. I hate moving house. I hate it with a passion, and I usually fall apart for about two weeks afterwards.
36. I hate mess but I also hate housework.
37. I can't pass a puddle without stomping in it with both feet.
38. I love classical music but I don't listen to it enough.
39. I am an alto in an amateur choir, which I absolutely adore, although I know my voice isn't good enough ever to be a soloist.
40. I found out the hard way that it's less than totally acceptable to tell your manager that you'd rather eat your own feet than go to a business planning session.
41. I am a total smartarse in meetings. I cannot keep my mouth shut.
42. I always assume that people don't like me until it is irrevocably proven that they do.
43. Gibbering and I once spent an entire afternoon emailing each other back and forth with really bad Latin puns.
44. I hate walking places, but I will happily do twice the distance on the treadmill at the gym.
45. I am incredibly stubborn.
46. I actually say "Eeek!" when I'm startled.
47. I have a BA (Hons) in Elizabethan History.
48. Bad grammar and spelling bugs me - my mum brought me up properly!
49. I have a collection of strange stuffed toy animals, including two bats, a ferret, a baby Cthulu (which Purplexity knitted for me), a crow, and a teddy bear dressed as a Cistercian monk.
50. Japanese food is my favourite.
51. I am a good writer, but I rarely write anything.
52. My maternal instincts appear to be completely channelled into my cats.
53. And my 'nephew', E's son N.
54. N once threw up on me twice in one evening. I just laughed. I have three cats. A four month baby could never produce anything like what they occasionally throw up.
55. I have an ambition to learn Russian one day.
56. I am very organised at work, but at home will do things like forgetting to pick up the bag with my lunch it to take with me to work.
57. The one thing guaranteed to bring me out of a depression is someone who is feeling worse than I am. Then I forget my miseries and set about making them feel better.
58. I love buying presents for people, but am hopeless at keeping them a secret.
59. I once won a ballroom dancing competition with a partner I had only just met, doing a dance that I had only learned the night before.
60. My ballroom dancing experience comes in handy for ducking and weaving through crowds.
61. I am an INTJ.
62. I own at least four fountain pens.
63. When I was a little toddler I was in the car with my family. Someone cut my father off. I piped up and innocently inquired "Was that man a fuckwit, Daddy?" .
64. I am very proud of number 63.
65. Even as a child, I thought male superheroes were boring. Female heroes were much more interesting.
66. I read nineteenth century literature for fun.
67. My favourite gemstone is amethyst - my engagement ring is an antique amethyst flanked by two diamonds.
68. I used to have a mohawk.
69. I can't bear the taste of coriander - apparently it's a genetic thing.
70. I hate crowded shopping centres. I freak out completely and have to leave soon after arriving.
71. Dave proposed to me on top of a cliff in Cornwall with the waves crashing and the wind blowing - it was obscenely romantic.
72. I am scared to death of spiders, but Dave won't let me kill them - he will carefully take them outside instead.
73. I have a collection of vintage clothes stashed somewhere where the cats can't get at them.
74. When I can be bothered dancing, I go off like a frog in a sock.
75. Possibly only Gibbering and Purplexity will understand no. 74.
76. I loathe and detest having my photo taken, and will do grievous bodily harm to anyone who tries.
77. I adore my cats, and will talk about them endlessly to anyone who will sit still long enough.
78. My favourite colour is purple, but I have been taking a strong liking to green recently.
79. I found out a few years ago that one of the bitchy girls I used to go to school with got fired from her job at Copperart (crappy gift store) for being rude to the customers. I was almost hysterical with glee at learning this.
80. My friend E and I once went on a three day break together. We had packed almost exactly the same books to take with us.
81. I sleep with earplugs - Dave snores, and we live on a main road. No earplugs, no sleep - I have no idea how I coped for so long without them!
82. When I was in Japan with Gibbering and E, we went to a crappy theme park thingy. We went into the haunted house thinking it would be equally crappy. We ended up screaming in terror and trying to barge out of the emergency exit. The manager had to come in and get us. This was humiliating and funny in equal parts.
83. I have a thing for zombie movies/apocalyptic movies. If you can combine the two, so much the better.
84. I think Johnny Depp, Mila Jovavich, Christopher Ecclestone and Kate Beckinsale are some of the hottest people alive. Rrrowwr.
85. I hate watching vampire movies where the vampire loses and is killed by some moronic goody two shoes.
86. I once ended up in the Emergency Room because I coughed so hard I thought I'd broken a rib. I hadn't, I'd just ripped all the muscles in one side of my back. Boy, was I relieved! Not.
87. The first time I got drunk after I turned eighteen, I have a very hazy memory of dancing like a maniac doing the Time Warp. Thankfully, I don't remember much else. However, the spectacular hangover will stay with me forever.
88. Because of no. 87, I can't drink Jim Beam or Southern Comfort. The mere smell of it makes me hurl.
89. I hate hurling. I would rather be in pain than feel nauseous.
90. We have a rule in our house: if the phone rings or the doorbell goes, the other one has to answer it if you have a cat on your lap.
91. I have a tendency to say "Bollocks!" at the top of my lungs at inappropriate moments.
92. I love reading blogs.
93. I love my blog.
94. I love you guys!
95. Yep, it's obviously waaaay past my bedtime.
96. One of my childhood friends is now a well known fantasy author. She has just had her fourth book published - I am very very proud of her!
97. I am a control freak - if I have to go do errands at lunchtime from work, I'm intensely uncomfortable if I don't have the entire thing planned in advance.
98. Dave is also a control freak. We cannot ever cook together - one of us cooks, the other stays the hell away from the kitchen and nobody gets hurt.
99. When we were still in our gothy phase, Dave got rushed to the Emergency Room with a kidney stone. The nurse asked me if he was always that pale. I replied "No, but he'd like to be!" I was kind of freaked out at the time, okay??
100. That's it. I'm all out!
You thought I'd forgotten all about Project Spectrum, didn't you??? Well, you'd be half right. I didn't forget, but I am on holidays, so I've been incredibly lazy about my blogging. I have a huge photo shoot this afternoon to document all the beautiful, beautiful things you guys sent me, but in the meantime, these are my Project Spectrum items. The first is my favourite bag of all time. it is small enough to carry easily, but big enough and with enough random pockets to store all sorts of knitting projects. Melbourne people, email me for this designer's address - her prices are amazingly good.
My first ever toe up sock - in the Lorna's Laces Flames colourway - when I finish the other one (stop snickering! I heard that!) they'll be gifted.
Detail from a painting by a local artist. I can't show you the rest cause it has rude bits.
