25 things about me

This one's doing the rounds on Facebook but I don't want all these good me-facts going to waste over there!

Here are 25 things you might not know about me.

1. I have a shockingly bad short term memory and often forget what I'm saying halfway through a sentence, or ask the same question several times at 30 second intervals. I have an awesome long-term memory, though.

2. The right side of my hair is always curlier than the left because I twist it round my fingers absent-mindedly.

3. I eat out of date food. A lot. Yesterday I ate a yogurt that went out of date on November 11th. I view the date stamps as guidelines, really.

4. Top of my list of things to do before I die is see the southern hemisphere.

5. "Feel the fear and do it anyway" is one of my favourite sayings.

6. At last count I had 9 wrap dresses, which may be too many.

7. It really irritates me when non-knitters look at me knitting and say, "You're so clever! I could never do that." Do they think I was born doing it? It's a skill like anything else and anyone can do it if they learn!
(Knitting readers might recognise this fact. My favourite story to do with it is the woman who heard this while she was visiting someone in hospital - from a brain surgeon.)

8. I'm a terrible hoarder. At present, I am mostly hoarding yarn, perfume and bath products. I am also a big book hoarder - that's ongoing.

9. I enjoy making Mr Z jump - and it's really easy. Sometimes he will jump when I have come in late, banged around downstairs, been to the loo and then walked into the office and said hello, because he is oblivious. I feel guilty about it quite often, but it gives me the giggles.

10. I find it really difficult to read non-fiction; it takes me a really long time. I think it's because I don't care how it ends.

11. I like to be busy, although I'm never very productive. I am a bit half-arsed, truth be told. But I like to have lots on the go.

12. I'm really excited about holidays this year because I'll be going abroad 4 times on 4 very different trips. 2 are with school. I like doing school residentials, they're really rewarding. I don't get why other people don't.

13. I love being 30. I was excited to turn 30. My 20s felt like they went on forever and I'm really excited by this whole new decade stretching out ahead of me. Especially since I'm now a lot better off, more stable and happier than I was when I turned 20. And, I was relieved when I discovered that the school years are not the best years. I wouldn't be a teenager again for anything, unless I could take all I know now back with me.

14. I thought that stuff about your wedding day being one of the best days of your life was a load of old bollocks, until mine was. I still regret wearing those shoes, though. I should have gone for the uncomfortable but utterly gorgeous pair instead, especially since I took them off at the reception anyway.

15. I love baking, and it makes me sad that Mr Z does not really eat cake. It is just as well, though, because I would have baked us into matching gastric bands by now if he did.

16. I'm a qualified ski instructor - only on nursery slopes, though. My best instructor move is backwards snowplough whilst bent over holding the fronts of somebody else's skis. I rock that move.

17. I love pens and pretty stationery. I own more notebooks than I will ever use, I fear. They make me do more work for school, though, so that I can fill them up.

18. I am absolutely obsessed with polka dot stuff. I love polka dots. Every day, I wear something spotty. My staffroom mug is polka dot. My wedding ring is kind of polka dot. My wedding dress had polka dots on it, though you can't really make them out.

19. I still have my first car - an E reg mini - in the garage. I dream about getting a Haynes manual and fixing it up myself. Then I'd have it resprayed with a polka dot roof and reupholstered....in polka dot fabric.

20. I have an A-level in Latin. It was my best A-level grade - a B. It is more useful than I thought it would be.

21. I have only ever dated men who are computer geeks. I hold their collective knowledge responsible for my ability to teach ICT without any qualifications or formal training, and my extensive use of keyboard shortcuts.

22. I lived in Las Vegas for a year after I finished university. I didn't work or anything, I just sat around Father Hand's apartment reading and chatting to people online, and sometimes I'd cycle to the library or the cinema. I did an amazing bus trip though, and covered 9000 miles in 5 weeks. Good times.

23. When I was a student, I used to go and sit next to Alexandra Palace when I was feeling a bit blue. It was 2 buses away from my house but even the journey was cathartic. Being able to see London spread out made me feel insignificant and, in turn, my problems.

24. I kept extensive diaries all through my teenage years. I only stopped when I started going out with Mr Z. I can't imagine not telling him everything - though quite often I suspect he'd rather not know.
It's fun to read back over the diaries, but there are still bits - the bad bits - that I can't read because they're too evocative.

25. When I have a bad day at school I think of working on Playscheme and getting beaten up on the minibus by Joe and spat at by Shimu and happy slapped by Michelle, and it puts it all in perspective! I still miss Playscheme every summer, though.