Monday 16 May 2016

Who Am I?

I am someone who needs to clean their mirrors better

I figured that a new blog needed a new introduction, a whistlestop guide to me. So, who am I?

1. I am the opposite of a perfectionist - an imperfectionist? - always seeking the quick solution rather than the best one. Shelf look straight? Ah, I'm sure it'll be fine, no need for a spirit level. Skirt need hemming? No need to bother with pinning, I'll just sew and hope for the best. This tends to work out as well as you'd imagine...

2. I tell people that the first gig I went to was Elastica at Leeds Metropolitan University, but that's a lie. It was actually Take That at Bradford St George's Hall.

3. I am enormously noise-sensitive (the scientific term is misophonia) and struggle to cope with a lot of noises, most notably the sound of other people eating. 

4. The book that changed my life was The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, because it was the first book that I read on my own. I must have been about five at the time, and I remember hiding under my bed covers to finish it after my mum had tucked me in.

5. My tipples of choice are Earl Grey tea, Prosecco, and Aspalls cider (although not together).

6. I suffer from the chronic condition, IBS. If I'm ever hanging out with you and I disappear to the toilet for an hour, this'll be why.

7. I absolutely detest vinegar. The smell of it, the taste of it, the thought of it, just bleurrrgh.

8. And while we're taking about things I detest, I have a deep-seated hatred of Shaun Keaveny and his unfunny, irritating early-morning schtick on 6 Music. Any time before 10am I just need people to STFU and play music.

9. The last few videos I watched on YouTube were Beyonce's Formation, Streisand singing Don't Rain On My Parade, a video about an orangutan and a dog who are best friends, Joanna Newsom performing Peach, Plum, Pear, and a recording from the long-forgotten (but not by me) UK series of So You Think You Can Dance?

10. I'm barred from entering the USA.

I am someone who likes stripes, as you can no doubt tell from these photographs

11. There's an eight year age gap between me and Thomas. He's a spritely 29, while I'm a few weeks off 38. But with a PhD and a proper job, he's enormously more qualified to be an adult than I am.

12. While we're on the subject of education, it took me six years to complete my undergraduate degree.

13. And my big ambition for the next few years is to start a Masters degree in Gender Studies, which will hopefully not take me six years to complete.

14. I've never come out to my dad. When I was starting to figure out that I liked girls as well as boys (and non-binary folk too: one of my first partners was genderqueer), not long had passed since my parents had split up due to my mum coming out as lesbian. I thought that coming out to him would be, at best, a kick in the teeth and, at worst, 'proof' that my mum was an unfit mother and a bad influence, blah blah blah. So I just left it. And left it. But my dad regularly reads my blog so I'm pretty sure he's at least partially aware that I'm queer. It's just... never come up in conversation.

15. Despite being most easily categorised as an indie girl, the music in my collection spans everything from Marilyn Manson, to the Rent and Les Miserables soundtracks, to DJ Shadow, to One Direction.

16. I think my best features are my eyes and my hair. And my eyebrows, when they're under control (which isn't often).

17. The worst job I've ever done was working in telesales making cold calls. I lasted about two hours, until my first break, and then ran away.

18. I'm frightened of sparklers. Not phobic, but I don't like holding them. Or being near them.

19. My patronus would be a sloth. Or a super lazy cat.

20. My one talent is extremely accurate impressions of singers. I do an immense Kate Bush (if I do say so myself) and my Brian Molko is pretty good too.

25 comments:

  1. I love this post, I feel like I know everything about you! The IBS Sucks, i know, maybe we should go out sometime ... I know all the easiest toilets to get to in Leicester :P

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    1. The IBS really does suck. Yes, we should totally do that!

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  2. Would like more detail re number 10! Despite having read you for years, there are many points of which I was unaware, interesting.

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    1. It's a less interesting story than it sounds. I was arrested once on an anti-fascist demo & fined. I then went to the US quite a few times and didn't declare it because it only asks about convictions for federal offences so didn't think I needed to. Then applied for a work/study visa and they refused me as I hadn't declared the fine before, so now I can't visit at all :(

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    2. That is interesting! And also a bit sad, I was looking at your South Africa, and then America posts and stumbled upon the American plans. It's a weird feeling reading something where you know the outcome but not the lead-up to it, even though it's not my life, I wonder about the what ifs...

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    3. I think 'what if' about the teaching in America thing a lot. It sucks that I can't visit again BUT I met Thomas 3 months after I should have left Leicester so I absolutely do not regret the way things turned out! It's scary to think we might have missed each other completely.

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  3. Loved learning about you! Totally with you on noise sensitivity, I find it really hard to concentrate in meetings if someone is making any kind of noise or if there is some outside. And I want to hear your Kate Bush impression.

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    1. Today at work my boss's brother came in and sat chatting for an hour and I just couldn't concentrate at all, in the end I had to give up and go and do some photography for our Instagram account instead.

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  4. Enjoyed this, but no.10...?

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    1. Ha, I will Ctrl+P my answer above:
      It's a less interesting story than it sounds. I was arrested once on an anti-fascist demo & fined. I then went to the US quite a few times and didn't declare it because it only asks about convictions for federal offences so didn't think I needed to. Then applied for a work/study visa and they refused me as I hadn't declared the fine before, so now I can't visit at all :(

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  5. Well unsurprisingly I would like to hear more about no. 10 as well! And now I must go watch La Streisand, thanks! My b.f. and I used to be obsessed with her Christmas album in particular, she is magnificent! I also enjoy cheesy pop and the odd bit of disco interspersed with my more hip musical loves. And the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was/is magical, I also discovered it an an age where I was young enough to believe if I poked around in my parent's wardrobe long enough (there was even a fur in there, an unwanted gift of my mother), but I did love to rub my face on it (gross but I was too young to know better)and pray for Narnia to appear. Maybe if your Dad reads this it will lead to a conversation, I hope so if that's what you want. xo

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    1. It's a much less interesting story than it sounds. I was arrested once on an anti-fascist demo & fined. I then went to the US quite a few times and didn't declare it because it only asks about convictions for federal offences so didn't think I needed to. Then applied for a work/study visa and they refused me as I hadn't declared the fine before, so now I can't visit at all :(

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  6. Love these facts! Oh my, you would HATE eating in the same room as my husband! He is so bloody noisy when he eats! It drives me mad!!!!
    What was your UG degree in then, and why six years? What do you mean by Non-binary folk? Is that like all the other gender catergories other than M and F?
    I LOVE your hair! I always look at your pictures and think, "Perfect hair!!!"
    x

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    1. It really is perfect hair! Naturally I am blonde and frizzy, though, so it's a bit of a job to get it into a straight, red bob. But it feels completely 'me'. I'm going to be one of those women like Anna Wintour who has the exact same hairstyle her whole life.

      My UG degree was English Lit, Sociology & Politics and I hated it, and loved partying!, so I dropped out and then went back after a 3 year break to finish my final semester

      And yes, non-binary/genderqueer refers to people who don't identify as male or female (hence non-binary).

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  7. So exciting that you're starting a new blog! Maybe it will inspire me to blog again. And I don't know as much about you as I would have expected. Number 10 threw me too, so I read the answers you posted above, but then realised that I think I already knew that....

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    1. I actually really struggled to come up with things that long-term readers/friends wouldn't know - turns out I over-share a lot!

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  8. Great to see you back. This seems like a good way to introduce a new blog, as it sets out what's important to you right off (even though of course that might change over time).

    I am with you on Shaun Keaveny - I can't listen to him at all, and to be honest his taste in music doesn't match up with my mine as well as most other 6 Music DJs so I can't even justify listening on those grounds. Sounds like you have a good, eclectic music collection.

    Also, I love the idea of a patronus being a sloth. I have no idea what mine would be, but I'm sure I'll be thinking about it for the next few days...

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    1. We have the radio on in the office each morning (I start work at 7.30 so it's prime breakfast DJ time) and they're all pretty annoying - Chris Evans, Nick Grimshaw - but somehow Keaveny manages to be SO much worse than the rest put together.

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  9. My patronus would also be a sloth! Nice to see you back x

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  10. I loved this! Finding out if someone has a patronus is always a useful measure of whether they're good friendship material or not :)

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    1. Haha, that's also true! Patronus is such a handy concept: a non-culturally-appropriative alternative to 'spirit animal' AND with added nerd.

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