Monday 6 February 2012

7 Things About Me...

A blog tag. This time to reveal 7 facts about myself as done by We Love Peas (who tagged me). This is without doubt self-indulgent, but here goes...

1. I hate raw tomatoes. This isn't necessarily a secret, everyone who knows me well knows this. But I consider this fact to be fundamental to who I am. Raw tomatoes are the Food of Beelzebub. They make me wretch, hurl, and heave, even just the memory of them, you know, when the offending thing has been removed from a sandwich for example, and leaves it's tinged-red foulness soggying up the bread. What I love about hating tomatoes is the number of others I meet with the same aversion to this is-it-a-fruit-or-vegetable abhorrance, and the equal number who suggest my loathing comes from not having experienced a 'proper' one. A beef one for example, full of Mediterranean sunshine and joy, bursting with glory, lovingly sliced, then sprinkled with salt from a virgin's armpit and drizzled with seventeen-times pressed olive oil. Or a little cherry one? Apparently 'they're delicious'. Apparently nobody could possibly hate these scarlet balls of loveliness. I CAN. They're VILE. Cooked tomatoes, however, maybe on a pizza base, or in a vongole sauce, even sundried, I LOVE!! This is the wonderful idiosyncrasy of my hatred. Cook the little fecker and it's suddenly divine. (There's an enzyme that breaks down with heat, for anyone who's interested. It's this enzyme that spikes my vitriol. Kill it and all is well with the world).

2.  I would love to be a Blue Peter presenter. I've wanted to be one since I was seven. It looks like the best fun ever: cooking fridge cake, making Barbie a living room out of yoghurt pots and sticky-back plastic, setting fire to tinselly coat hangers, and being crapped on by baby elephants. Awesome. And you get paid for it. And when it all finishes, perhaps in drug-fuelled shame, perhaps with a job on Countrywide, you get to go on Strictly Come Dancing.

3. I played the flute for two months aged eight. I gave it up because I found the way my spit collected inside it disconcerting. I didn't tell my mum about the spit. I made up some rubbish about not liking it as much as the piano.

4. I cheat at liar dice. Using sneaky 'magic' fingers, and while people are looking elsewhere, I flip them. This gives the impression I possess the Luck of The Gods. It's wrong. But, then again, sometimes in life you gotta make your own luck...

5. I was nearly an architect. My mother is an architect and she always seemed pretty happy with it, and I loved art and being in a studio, but wasn't good enough to be an artist, so I thought 'why not?' From the first day on the course I knew why not. I'm not cool enough. You need to have a special sort of cool to be an architect, a sort of conservative kookiness, a laid back north-London chic. I possess nothing close to this. So, after a year, I changed to History of Art and I'm now a writer. You don't need to be cool when you work all alone.

6. I share my first name and  birthday, 16th February, with Amanda Holden. We are both married to a (different) Chris. We both have a daughter called Lexi. We lived in Richmond at the same time. Mr J and I spent the night of our first anniversary at the same hotel she got married in. When my friend Vic left Sheen Amanda's daughter got Vic's son's place at Monkey Music. None of this I knew until about a year ago. I am still in shock. I'm also expecting to be a judge on Britain's Got Talent by the end of the year. Simon, call me...

7. My favourite piece of art is Auguste Rodin's The Kiss. I've seen it three times in real life, and every time I've been moved to tears. Even writing about it makes me feel excited. I get a physical buzz when I touch it (I'm not sure you're supposed to, but whetevs). Carved from a chunk of marble, capturing an almost-moment (the lovers' lips never quite meet), filled with passion and longing, with the ability to move people for generations past, present and future. How clever is that?! I mean...it was a piece of blinking rock! It's said that Rodin's portrayal of women was in homage to them and their bodies, that he had no interest in depicting them submitting to men, but as fully participating partners. Its eroticism made it unsuitable for public display, so it was hidden away in a back room, only for the eyes of those given special permission. Thank goodness our social sensitivities have dulled enough to bring it out for us all to admire and enjoy. All I need to do is persuade someone to take me to Paris for my next fix...

Please feel free to comment and add a random fact about yourself...especially if it's an aversion to tomatoes.
Now I have to tag another blogger. My lovely friend Ed who has just started blogging DELICIOUS recipes. Let's see how he copes with a bit of chatting about himself... One Man and his Whisk

18 comments:

  1. This is a great insight!! Thank you again for the laughs. Now for a question? What does it mean to be tagged? What have you done to me?

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    1. It's like 'it'. You just have to take the title (meme, I think the pros call it) and write a post yourself. ie '7 random facts about me'... (You don't have to do it...I won't tell.) And then, when you've finished you tag another blogger to do the same. (Not me again tho). xx

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  2. Fab facts. I have paid particular attention to the bit about liar dice, and shall take great care not to sit next to you should we ever be insane enough to play (i LOVE liar dice, but am really, really bad at it). Hahaha at you remembering about Amanda Holden's daughter taking Alex's place at Monkey Music. Your list of Holden/Jennings coincidences would be gobsmacking if they didn't pale into insignificance next to my Shiplake doppelganger (you know all about it, but for the benefit of your many blog-followers: same first, middle and last name, same age, same son's name).

    Oh yes, and NICE mention of your up-and-coming birthday ;-)

    xx

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    1. What you should be more impressed with is the mention of birthday AND suggestion for a trip to Paris a few sentences afterwards...now there's a wife who lies at liar dice at work! (The reason, of course, that you are rubbish at liar dice is because you do not use your 'magic' cheating fingers...)

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  3. Oops, I forgot to add a random fact about me, I think mine will be THE most random . I was once picked up - in France - (with a friend, as a hitchhiker, i should add) by a trucker whose load was Eddie the giant Iron Maiden mascot. In his entirety! I didn't believe him, so he let me take a look in the back of the truck.

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    1. For any children reading this...DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT look in the back of a truck of a Frenchman who stopped to pick two young girls up on the side of the road, who wants to prove he has a giant Eddie inside. Watch Silence of the Lambs if you need to know why... *shudders*

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  4. Wonderful, very funny, maybe we should only play liar dice with you whilst looking at the kiss, the emotion may overcome you and stop your magic fingers from working?
    Random fact, carrying on the Iron Maiden theme Bruce Dickinson took me for a flight in his airoplane many years ago, how exciting my life used to be!

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  5. Yes!! I definitely couldn't play liar dice whilst looking at The Kiss - I see a mind as devious as my own is clearly at work!!

    Wow - your random fact is COOL! Jealous of that one. How about I trade it for the spit-filled flute?

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  6. Great blog post!

    I had no idea which random fact to choose from my filing system of self facts - BUT following on from Vics....I OWN (!) one of Nico McBrain's (aka DRUMMER from Iron Maiden) old symbols! (As in an actual round piece of metal that you hit with a stick - not any other kind of symbol)!

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    1. This is fast becoming an Iron Maiden appreciators forum! Love it.

      I can add one...my dad once got given tickets to an Iron Maiden concert. My sister and I (aged 12 and 15) went with mum and dad. My mum wore high heels and a tailored suit, my dad wore pink tousers and a v-neck sweater. I am now physically shaking at the recollection of this memory. Scarred. Scarred for life.

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  7. Ha! Architect... such lack of ambition; I wanted to be a Lion-Tamer. And age 7 I ran away to London (got about 9 miles but never made it off the ring-road before being picked up by the police). I also had to be rescued off Mt Fuji after ignoring the "Do Not Pass" sign because I was desperate for a wee. And if you remember one particularly funny evening I was convinced a lizard had crawled up my bum! Final fact: I really am this dim!
    xx's

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    1. I look forward to hearing the extended Mount Fuji story - sounds like a cracker!

      You're not dim. You just attract stories...and lizards. xx

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  8. Very funny I love random facts a game that may appeal to your duplicitous mind you have to tell two facts about yourself and one big fat monkey lie and your friends try to guess the lie, great game but I fear you and your friends have far too exciting lives to make this game viable.
    My random fact I stroked Red Rum not exciting compared to everyone else but all I could think of.

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    1. YOU STROKED RED RUM!!!!! That's way cooler than filling a flute up with spit. Very jealous.

      My life is not exciting. That's why I write. I make stuff up to compensate!

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  9. I did history of art and am a writer! Oooh! But I like tomatoes so even though we're both called Amanda, I am pretty certain that I am not you. Or even Amanda Holden. Oh dear, I am so very tired. *goes back to dribbling and rocking in a corner.*

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  10. We are practically twins - or is it actually triplets...? ...oh dear. Now I'm dribbling and rocking too...

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  11. whilst cooking chilli (and the spiking enzyme out of tomatoes) I'm catching up on some of your older blogs that I missed.

    1. My Mum and Dad had a miniture replica of 'The Kiss' in our house as I was growing up and I always sniggered at it's rudeness. It now evokes childhood memories and I must ask my Dad where it is and if I can have it. Thanks for reminding me.

    2. I also hate raw tomatoes. Well technically I did. I can now eat them sliced in a sandwich as long as there is some sort of acidic dressing. However, I totally disagree with the 'proper' ones being beef tomatoes and cherry tomatoes as they are the most offensive of all in my opinion.

    3. I played the recorder aged 8 (comprehensive school) and I too was utterly appalled by the spit that I had to clean out of it - couldn't wait to get rid of the vile instrument.

    4. My Barbie was very happy with her yoghurt pot living room. And her wardrobe made from a shoe box. This is where my career began.

    5. I don't cheat at anything (square). May have faked an orgasm or two.

    6. I'm stalking your facts, just like you are stalking Amanda Holden. Hasn't she been through enough!

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  12. catching up, may i just tell you i love you :)
    tears of laughter a-rolling, i think particularly because i am lucky enough to be able to hear your voice in my head as i read, and because i am also lucky enough to be able to perfectly picture your lovely mum & dad off to see iron maiden
    xxxxxxxxx laura

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