Wednesday 28 January 2009

16 things about me


Yes, this is me! I'm about 8 or 9 in my lovely school uniform in the back garden. Sadly, I still have those knees! This photo makes me laugh A LOT!

I've been tagged on Flickr to list 16 random facts about myself. I'm not altogether sure what I think about tagging. Sometimes when bloggers say they've been tagged, it sounds like a chore they've been given. But this wasn't a chore at all. In fact, I'd been dying to do this one for weeks, as it had been doing the rounds on Flickr! Every time I saw a new contact write their list, I'd be thinking 'Tag me! Tag me!'

I don't know if that makes me self-obsessed. Possibly. I had way more than 16 facts I thought about sharing, but these were the random 16 I chose.

1. I went to an all-girls school. When I started it was compulsory to wear those hats (as in the photo). We also had indoor and outdoor shoes, and we had to wear bottle green knickers with our name tag in them! (And yes, the teachers did check - twice a year!)

2. I love cats, and would love to own one, but I'm allergic to them (as is Mr Kitsch). About the time of the photo above, my family adopted a stray black and white cat. My brothers called her Kipper. I used to sneeze a lot but never realised I was allergic to cats until I left home.

3. Other childhood pets included George the Budgie, Amy the Rabbit, Sandy the Hamster and some short-lived goldfish. When I was at college, I had a beautiful mauve-grey budgie called Bianca, and nearly got thrown out of the student hostel because she chewed the wallpaper.

4. I went to art college after school, to study graphics (mainly illustration), but I found the experience left me with little or no confidence in my work. After college I was unemployed for 18 months and then took a dead-end office job.

5. The only good thing about that dead-end office job was that it led eventually to my meeting Mr Kitsch.

6. I am the youngest of 5 children. I think this is the reason for the next one....

7. I don't have any children and have never wanted to for a moment. You can go off families, when there are seven people in the house! (And my family are all as mad as badgers!)

8. I also never wanted to get married. Mr Kitsch and I always joked that the only thing that could tempt us, would be an Elvis impersonator in Vegas. When we finally went on holiday to Las Vegas, we decided we would get married, just for a laugh. We couldn't arrange Elvis, though. So we got married in a stretch limo in a drive-thru chapel, dressed in Star Trek uniforms (classic style, of course!), that we'd bought the previous day at the Star Trek Experience.

9. I have collected toys all my adult life. I suspect that toy collectors are trying to regain some kind of perfect childhood they think they missed out on. I think that's probably true for me.

10. I also used to collect 1960s comics. Mainly US comics like Spiderman and Batman, and old romance comics, but I also like British cartoons and comics, like the Beano, Rupert Bear, Giles, and Thelwell. I also love Tintin, the Moomins. Popeye (the old ones), Krazy Kat, Charles Addams, etc. Eventually, I downsized my comic collection and went on to other addictions. (Dolls, kitsch, religious icons, tiki, handbags, jewellery, art & pop culture books, film, TV, vintage china, craft supplies, etc. etc.)

11. Yes, I am addicted to ebay.

12.I HATE windy weather. When I used to walk to work every day, my colleagues knew I would arrive in a foul mood when it was windy. By the time, I'd rescued my scarf twenty times, and got the hair out my eyes a hundred times, I would be effing and blinding at the wind like a crazy bag-lady!

13. My hair has not been its natural colour since I was about 19.

14. I am deaf in one ear

15. For a short time, in the early 1990s, Mr Kitsch and I (unsuccessfully) ran a comedy club in Bristol. Our compere was a student called Simon Pegg. Yes, that Simon Pegg, later of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and How to Lose Friends...

16. I am a lazy perfectionist. This is a contradictory and stressful combination!

if you've got this far, thanks for reading my random facts. And many thanks to femaletrouble2 for tagging me!

9 comments:

A Thrifty Mrs said...

God I love Simon Pegg, seriously it is a hardcore love that has been going for over ten years now. What a gorgeous, witty and clever man. Yum.

I am also deaf in one ear, as is Mr Thrifty.

Lovely to know more about you. Very interesting facts.

Teena Vallerine said...

Ok - I've finished laughing at Thrifty mrs - I mean how thrifty is that - they get to share a set of hearing aids! I love that lady!
Now, why don't I know who is Simon Pegg - which brings me to my main point. I LOVED reading your tag, but I got that Flickr tag and I've been hiding it in my email inbox - I can't think of one single thing to say - Well, except I don't know who is Simon Pegg, I love Thrifty Mrs and I have a nothing to say about myself. WOW! That's 3 things already! Are you sure the sneezing wasn't due to the hamster? tx

Kitsch and Curious said...

Thanks!

KitschenPink - Well, there's no reason you should know who Simon Pegg is, if you're not into recent British comedy. But you definitely know how to write entertaining facts about yourself - I've read your blog!

menopausalmusing said...

Thanks for your comment on my blog: the similarities list grows: I can't abide windy weather (it drives me bloody mad) and wait for this: I CAN'T RIDE A BIKE: it has been a secret shame for years. I did have a go in my thirties (under cover of darkness, of course) and found it a very tearful experience........ sigh! Shall enjoy looking at your blog, methinks. x Cathy

LiLi M. said...

I was bloghopping (yes I have other things to do...but not now) when I got here. Your tag post is fun! Tags aren't fun when people write where there cellphone is at this very moment, but we want to know everything about school uniforms, collections, how did you meet your husband and so on. Well done, I'll be back! No this isn't a threat!

BusyLizzie said...

Enjoyed that list Elaine, looking forward to meeting you at the V&HM fair.
Lizzie

Also HATE windy weather too... and when it is raining AND windy.. arghhhhhh

Cowboys and Custard Mercantile said...

Love your brutal honesty and fabulous wit!

Michele x

fern said...

TOTALLY agree about windy weather. Would rather be drenched in a downpour or frozen in a storm. There is something so OBNOXIOUS about windy weather.

And, oh my goodness, I heart Simon Pegg too. Swoon!

This is a great set of facts!

claire Maraldo said...

i love that photo. So cute. You look like you were fun. I had a green school uniform with fawn socks which were beyond grim. they looked horrible with my bony scarred knees. Remember indoor and outdoor shoes too!

hope your back gets better soon.