Too much information – let’s get random!

Aaaah, the first meme of the year!  Fresh and crispy and new.  And as it wafts through my mail slot, it falls onto the huge dusty pile of old memes that I started responding to last year but never finished the posts!!  Aaaarrrrgh.  I still have half the childhood food memories meme saved as a draft so that may still see the light of day.  But to start the year off on a non-procrastinating foot, let me deal with the meme at hand.  The “Too Much Information” meme requires you to share with the world 10 little-known and random facts about yourself – so here goes:

1. I wrote and distributed a slightly subversive (and definitely slanderous!) satirical newsletter for four years at high school.  It was full of stuff like a mock review of the film Cronan the Barbarian (our librarian was called Miss Cronin…) and quotes like “The ancient Romans made up myths to describe what they couldn’t understand or explain.  So does Miss _____, but she calls them science notes!”  Clearly, I needed to get out more.

2. I have an absolute obsession with keeping stuff in chronological order.  If I show someone a pack of photos and they mess up the order, I fume secretly and put the photos back in date order as soon as I can.

3. I can wiggle my ears and flare my nostrils at will and can raise my left eyebrow independently.  But it has been a constant source of disappointment to me that I have never been able to raise my right eyebrow independently…

4. I am an 80’s music buff (an obsession which I share with my brother) and still have many of my old copies of Number One and Smash Hits magazines somewhere in storage.  My brother and I like nothing better than to spend hours playing “Beat the Intro” with his extensive CD collection.

5. I don’t suffer from jet lag, no matter in which direction I fly.

6. I have kept a journal in some shape, manner or form since I was 10 years old.  Some years are patchier than others, but I could give you a vague idea of what I was doing today 5, 10, 15 or 20 years ago, should the need arise…

7. When I was about 20, a runaway bushfire threatened to destroy our house and the fire bridage told us to evacuate.  I had about 10 minutes to load into the boot of my car everything I wanted to save.  I had the presence of mind to take all my diaries and photo albums, but then lost the plot and saved my matric dance (like a senior prom) dress and my toothbrush.  Guess what the local newspaper reported the next day – with photos, yikes!!  And the fire never reached our house.

8. I am a night person.  However tired I am at 5p.m., by midnight I am wide awake.

9. I had my hair streaked blonde for almost 10 years.  When I qualified as a barrister, I was the youngest person there and one of only 2 women out of 35 barristers.  At my first annual bar dinner, I had to say something, so I stood on a chair in my little cocktail dress and told the following joke:  “What’s the difference between a blonde and a brick?   The brick doesn’t follow you around for 2 weeks after you’ve laid it”.  It brought the house down.

10. While I was at the bar, I met and defended 14 accused murderers at 2 maximum security prisons.  They were the most unremarkable, unthreatening people imagineable and I found it very hard to connect the horrible deeds they were accused of with the men seated in front of me.  But having said that, I think most of them did it or at least had something to do with it.  I don’t think you can do criminal defence work without developing a deep appreciation for the human capacity to deceive.

So there you have it.  Random indeed.  And I hope you don’t all give me a wide berth now that you’ve read these!  As for tagging people, I’ll make five suggestions, but please don’t feel any pressure…  Also, I haven’t checked whether you have been tagged previously so forgive me if I’ve retagged you!

Anthony from Spiceblog

Moira from Who Wants Seconds?

Stephanie from Dispensing Happiness

Johanna from The Passionate Cook

Jenni from Pertelote