Friday, February 10, 2012

A picture of the cats as kittens and a bit of a tag thing


They're bigger than this now.

One of the problems of posting every day is that I have less time to visit and comment on other people's blogs (and I do have rather a lot on my Favourites list) so I'm having a minor catch-up tonight and discover that I've been tagged by Libby on http://d-scribes.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html (can never remember how to do the proper linky thing). I'm a bit hesitant about doing this because my bloggy friends probably know too much about me anyway. However, I have nothing much else to say so here goes.

The instructions are to:

* post 11 random facts about yourself
* answer 10 questions
* make up 10 questions for the next tagee
* suggest 10 people to tag

Some facts :
1. When I was a little girl I had a ball on an elastic string and I pretended that it was my dog.
2. I would like to go to Iceland.
3. I've wanted to go there since doing a year (or was it two?) of Old Icelandic at university - reading the sagas in the original language.
4. Unfortunately I've forgotten a lot of it. Who am I kidding? Most of it.
5. A strange boy told my friend Dorothy and me the facts of life when we were 12 and picnicking on Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh's city hill. Actually, she already knew. But I didn't. I was very surprised.
6. He offered us half a crown to do it with him. We weren't tempted.
7. I invented bungee jumping (the general idea - it needed some refinement) as a punishment for my horrible maths teacher. I used to imagine shoving her off a tower block with elastic tied round her ankles. I should have patented the idea (this would be about 1965.)
8. My granny used to have a square of asbestos in her kitchen - she put in on the gas flame and then put the teapot on top, to keep the tea hot and stewed, the way my grandpa liked it. This doesn't now seem like a good idea but they lived to be 86 and 89.
9. My friend Dorothy was killed when she was knocked down by a car at the age of twenty-three. Another friend died at the same age, a year earlier, in a car crash. I often think about all the life they missed. And it had a great effect on me too. You never quite recover from such events.
10. If I lived on my own, I would possibly never cook again. It doesn't seem like a good use of time (unlike this, of course...).
11. Not all that long ago I wrote a little hello email to my dad's email address. He died nearly 5 years ago. I thought it would bounce back but it didn't and I know it's silly but ... I found that slightly comforting. Yesterday was his birthday. I haven't forgotten him.

Ok, that's enough. I'll do the rest tomorrow.






7 comments:

  1. Nos. 2 to 8 come as new to me, and I'm your daughter... not that I thought I knew everything about you, necessarily.

    If I lived alone I would also cook considerably less than I do now, I think. If I don't have an audience I am quite happy with scrambled egg.

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  2. I would love to go to Iceland too - and if I were coking just for me I would never eat broccoli again. Your little kitties were very sweet, weren't they?

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  3. I always find these random survey things interesting to read, but resent the time it takes to actually complete one myself!
    No.8 brought back memories of the asbestos mat that was on our stovetop for many years, discoloured with use, but we are all still alive and well with no signs of lung disease.

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  4. I came to thank you for the very kind comment you left on my blog, and now I feel I know a little bit more about you - and such interesting random facts too. You made me both smile and feel wistful, and thank you for that!

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  5. Sirius and Cassie were lovely kittens!

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  6. I am sorry about your friend Dorothy. She was lucky to have you.

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  7. You are too funny Isabelle. Those facts of life bullets were surprising, but I chuckled at your use of the term "do it". Maybe we should all have a blog meet up in Iceland. You could interpret for us ;-D!

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