Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Putting the Me into Meme: 8 things you might not know about me

After begging to be memed, it's hard to know where to start.

You already know the colour of one of my eyes, for sure, and with a light hoeing you can easily find out my favoured books, music and what I'm up to most days - so what's left?

1. I am the passenger, but not just in an Iggy Pop sense.
The only time I have commandeered a mode of transport apart from my own two feet was when I "raced" against MSFT colleagues in a quad bike; I was told it looked like I was mowing the lawn. I would like to learn how to drive, however, and have been eyeing up those new little electric cars, delivering the milk a step up on my personal mobility scale.

Simon Callow2. My second teenage sexual dream starred Simon Callow.
"Sexual" is mine and Freud's interpretation anyway. He was in leathers riding up my garden path on a 1950s-style motorbike (no sniggering at the back). My first teenage sex dream was pretty dull and involved kissing a classmate by a big oak tree (ditto).

3. Aged 16, I was on teatime schools gameshow Blockbusters (in a pair, no gold runs).
I still use the red calf-leather-bound dictionary signed by Bob Holness but not the cream and turquoise shellsuit bomber jacket with 2 "B"s in hexagons embroidered on the chest. We were robbed, incidentally.

4. I suffer from coldsores especially in times of stress.
When I arrived at university I appeared to be sporting a hitler moustache made of cornflakes. This may have been me during freshers' week.

5. My annual tights spend is too shameful to share.

6. I've told everyone for so long that my first single was Turning Japanese by The Vapors I started to believe it.
It was my big sister Susan that bought it, but I recall some involvement in the decision to buy. I may have been more instrumental in the accompanying purchase of January February by Barbra Dickson, however.

In the process of writing this, I've just remembered my first single was actually Starvation/Tam-Tam Pour l'Éthiopie, a sort of ska Band Aid on the Zarjazz label. This would be cool were it not accompanied by the knowledge that this was part of a self-imposed penance to assuage my guilt at not buying Do They Know It's Christmas? I also bought the Live Aid video which thankfully put paid to any notions of self flagellation or similar.

7. My first album was Olivia Newton John's Greatest Hits Vol. 2.
I can remember even Mother's incredulous "Are you sure?" as I stood grinning up at her in the queue at W H Smiths, Romford. I wasn't, but still enjoy Xanadu.

8. When I was 17, as "payment" for giving me a lift to the local underage pub du jour, Susan used to make me wear the Blockbusters bomber jacket right inside the pub.
My lips tingle at the memory.

Thanks to Richard for obliging me, now it's over to Adam, Jon, Andy, and Helen ...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Done&dusted at http://aarkangel.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/meme-myself-and-i/

ArkAngel said...

Oops, Blogger has cut off URL in its prime so here we go again in short form:
www.arkangel.tv Meme Myself and I on 19 Mar 08