Friday Five - 21st November 2008 - and a couple of tags

1.) What food did you hate as a kid that your parental figure still insisted that you had to eat?
I really can’t remember ever being forced to eat anything. It was in my interest to eat what was put in front of me, though, because I certainly wouldn’t have been offered an alternative.

2.) Is it wintery yet where you live?
No it’s more autumnal than wintery – although I heard rumours we may be seeing some snow this weekend

3.) Have you made a Christmas list?
No - I don’t even want to think about Christmas. I will decorate the house though (unlike last year when I completely pretended it just wasn’t happening) and send a handful of cards. And kiddies, best mates, dad, sister and boyfriend will get presents. Ah – so yes, I guess that IS my Christmas list :)

4.) Do you call other people's parents by their first names?
No way. I don’t like using people’s names at all, I always try and avoid directly addressing people. Instead of calling “Sandra, could I….” across the room, I’d walk over to them and say “hi – could I…..” or “excuse me, could I…..”. I don’t know why that is, but as far back as I can remember, I have always gone out of my way to avoid using names.

5.) In an ideal world, what time would you go to bed?
Never! I could watch all the west coast hockey live, and I could get SO much more DONE if I didn’t have to sleep. It would be fantastic!

Now some tags.

I've been tagged this week by both the lovely Rhomany and the equally lovely Paula - they'd get on well, actually, those two, thinking about it - both gothy art journallers - I ought to introduce them....

The "rules" of Rho's tag:

Link the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links.
Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

and of the PLO-lady's:

1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

They look pretty similar to me - basically I just have to think of 7 or 13 things to say about me (depending on whether I can count the 6 as a subset of the 7, or add them together)

Let's see how many I can think of....

1. I’m a vegetarian – not that that’s weird or particularly random, but I guess it’s not something everyone knows. I gave up meat at around the age of 15, was vegan through university and a bit beyond (but missed cheese waaaay too much), had a bit of a relapse in my 30s when I ate a bit of chicken and fish, but went back to being a full time veggie a few years back and I expect it to be permanent this time

2. I occasionally consider rainbows to be direct messages to me from John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist, and all round legend), but I don’t consider myself to be loopy, just open minded :D

3. I put off going to see my local ice hockey team play for ages because I was led to believe they would be a huge disappointment compared to the NHL. Now they are a HUGELY important part of my life and I’m kicking myself for all those missed games.

4. I got a detention at school for “hypnotising” Debbie Smith and making her go onto the boys’ playground, pull down her knickers and lift her skirt right up. Now – at the time – I thought this was conclusive proof that I was a master hypnotist. With hindsight, I think maybe Debbie Smith was just a bit of an exhibitionist :D

5. I am very faddy – I always need new challenges – I love doing art and craft stuff but once I get to the point where I’ve finished learning about a technique/medium and am finally equipped to start applying all that learning, I get bored and move onto the next craft. Hence my current fascination with embroidery, of all things. Heaven help me, I’ll be knitting next!

6. Long, preferably curly, hair sticking out from under a hockey helmet makes my heart go pitter patter - I can’t help it. Now before the puck bunny accusations start flying (and to be fair, I think I’m too old to be a puck bunny anyway) – I’m a proper hockey fan, really I am, I’m not just there for the boys, I’d still go to see the Wildcats week in week out and love them JUST as much if they were all total mingers :D But if there just happen to be a couple of lookers on the rosters of my respective teams, that, as far as I’m concerned, is a bonus! In fact, I think that women get that little bit more from the game than the boys do - we can enjoy/appreciate it on the same level - hell I can discuss plus/minus, goals against averages, and the Wild's trap system till the sun comes up, try me! - but we also get that leeetle tingle on top. We lucky bitches! :D

7. My most precious (non living) possession is my Canucks stick, signed by the entire 2003-4 roster – although my game worn Kesler jersey runs a close second

8. It has taken me 40 years to work out the difference between a good man and a rubbish one, and why the former make much better boyfriends :) better learnt late than never, I suppose

9. I have been in two short films both of which won awards – one when I was little that was exhibited at Cannes and, I think, won its category (I don’t remember what it was called, just that it involved me wandering around in the woods in a white dress) – and this one that won a BBC short film prize (I’m the one with the blonde coronets, on the left, attempting to look mean and moody @ 04:45)

10. Following on from number 9, I used to teach line dancing (Wolf from Gladiators, for that film, was definitely my most difficult pupil!), and even won a couple of competitions. Haven’t done it in years though, I’d love to get back into it one day.

11. When I was younger I really, really, really wanted to be a marine biologist. I had visions of swimming alongside blue whales and learning to communicate in dolphinese. Then I found out that, in reality, the job mainly consists of examining plankton under a microscope. So I kind of went off the idea.

12. I've kept rats on and off for 20 odd years. They are the best pets evah evah evah! And we also have an African Pygmy Hedgehog in the house, called Tau, who is utterly adorabubble

13. Yay! I made it to 13! Ummmm..... I once screeched to a halt on the way to a wedding that I was already a little late for because I saw the coolest ceramic phrenology bust in an antique shop window and had......to.......own....it!!!!!

I'm not going to pass the tags on, as I hate to feel that I am passing on an obligation..... but if you're reading this and you want to play, play!

And finally (this has been a mammoth post) - one thing that bugs me about blogger is the lack of emoticons - as sometimes I think you need them to clarify tone..... so I use :) and :D a lot on here ..... just want to test if this will work: - any luck?
Hopefully you can see the little smiley, wavey man and he doesn't distort the text around him too much....