Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Tagged by Carol and Uphilldowndale

I’ve been tagged for a meme by Carol and Uphilldowndale. I’ve actually done this before – you can find it here – and it’s turned out rather long so I’m sticking to five things.

The rules are:

1) Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4) Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

One
I am a potato fiend. I love them: baked, boiled, fried, roasted, mashed, hot, cold: Yum yum. When I worked in York I used to go to a little Church in Micklegate for lunch that had been turned into a resource centre with a vegetarian café. I discovered ‘Homity Pie’ there. It’s my idea of heaven: wholemeal pastry, potato, cheese, onion, leeks and garlic. As the lunch deal you could choose a main dish and two side dishes to go with it. I used to order Homity Pie, a baked potato and potato salad.

Two
As you can see from above the allium family are another passion. As a small child I would eat a jar of pickled onions in one sitting. Thankfully my Dad made his own so there was always a good supply of them. I still adore pickles today, but pickled eggs? Nah, I was forced into trying a pickled egg the morning after the night before, after exclaiming at the party that I loved anything pickled.

Three
I had my left ear pierced (in the cartilage) while I was in the UK last week! I only told my sister and I swore her to secrecy because I didn’t want my Mum to find out. Yes, I am waaaaaaay over the age of consent, but somehow my Mum still makes me feel a twit for doing such things.

Four
My hair is the bane of my life. (I’m sorry, I know I make a fuss, but Novel Racers I met last week, just ignore this one.) I’ve had it long, medium, short and orange. I’ve fought for years to control the curls. My mother has spent years telling me ‘people pay a fortune for hair like yours.’ Sorry, but it didn’t help; I didn’t care. I wanted straight glossy hair. When I was seven or eight my parents discovered what I can only describe as a large and furious bird’s nest in the nape of my neck. With hair that ruptured teeth from combs on a normal day, nothing was going through that; plus, I was a screamer! I’d been playing in the paddling pool and to this day my mother swears something must’ve happened to my hair in the pool. What a load of old tosh: I know as an adult that this bird’s nest is what happens when my hair is long and doesn’t get brushed. I think because I was a screamer my mother either left me to brush it (never) or she brushed the top and ignored the sensitive bit at the nape of my neck. However, on discovery of this felted snarl of hair, the problem could no longer be ignored. It had to be cut out.

Five
I have a Music Stylist. Yes, really, a music stylist. Let me explain. I was brought up to believe that music is a good thing but my parents thought Radio One (along with ear piercings!) was a dirty word. They like classical music. In order to fit in with my peer group around 13-14 years old, I began listening to John Peel after lights out and writing names down of funky bands before they became famous. This bit was most important. I would then scrawl the names across my bag in felt tip. I discovered, before they became famous, groups such as The Thompson Twins and The Associates. I discovered a liking for slightly offbeat, whiney music.

I couldn’t maintain this research and grew up not really caring if I didn’t know who was ‘in’. I listened to whatever anyone else put on, and I occasionally liked stuff. I repressed a dark secret for liking some country and western folky stuff. Move forward ten years and The Archivist came into my life. (He didn’t call himself The Archivist; that would’ve been rather scary.) His obsession is music. He began to make us compilations – the first one being for our son’s birth. We spent weekends and holidays with the Archivist and his wife, and quite often a CD (they used to be tapes!) would appear with them. He doesn’t like mainstream music which really suits my style. One day, over the years I told his wife he was my music stylist – and the label stuck.

Every New Year (which, prior to Thailand we spent with them – they are our chosen family) The Archivist hands over The Music Stylist’s Pick of 200X. A new collection emerged, a few years ago following our skiing trip, where everyone kept talking about Vin Chaud. I am so deeply uncool that I thought Vin Chaud was a new group: it’s not - it’s mulled wine! However, after my faux pas I now get a Vin Chaud collection of Woe and Whimsy too. I’m just not passionate enough to search out examples of my own taste in music, but I do like what I like. I rely totally on my Music Stylist to supply me with a constant source of depressing and rough round the edges music.

I know this one has gone the rounds so I tag anyone who's reading this and hasn't done it yet! Yes, that's YOU. Please let me know if you do it.

11 comments:

Angie said...

Mmm, potatoes! I would love to order that meal. Sounds perfect. I am not, however, fond of onions.

I sympathize with #3. I wanted to pierce my nose, but waited until I was 20 and out of the house so I didn't have to hear about it from my mom. (Heaven forbid I ever get that tattoo...)

And the music stylist is a great idea. I like trying to keep up with cool new music, but it is tiring!

Lazy Perfectionista said...

Spooky coincidence! My parents (both musicians) would turn down the volume on the TV if any pop music came on when I was a kid, and I ended up rebelling in exactly the same way you did! I remember listening to Jo Whiley and Mark Radcliffe with headphones in the dark, and if I had to go to sleep before I heard everything I wanted, I would tape it. This left me with a huge enthusiasm for what my husband (another classical musician) disparagingly describes as 'crashy bangy music'...

Yvonne said...

That's a great list! I also love spuds and the music stylist is brilliant, what a great idea.

Caroline said...

Oh honey, but your hair looked so fabulous! Sorry ... but it did. I find the problem with ear piercing (in the cartilage) is that my hair gets tangled in the back. I took mine out as a result.

Anyway, you're clearly home safely and please do come back again, soon.

xxx

Juliette M said...

Bit random, but curlygirl.com or naturallycurly.com are great sites for curly hair tips.

I'm a member of a long hair forum (am growing mine) and naturallycurly.com is the 'swear by' site for a lot of curly haired members.

HTH!

Oh and I also love Homity Pie - from the Whale Tail Cafe in Lancaster.

uphilldowndale said...

Thanks for playing along; mashed potato, comfort food of the highest order

Jen said...

I work in the armpit of nowhere but there is a deli across the road that does home made Homity Pie. I'd never heard of it before but, oh!

And, of course, I have to ask: does the cartilage earring hurt? I've always wanted to have my nose pierced...

Leigh Forbes said...

You and my brother-in-law must come from the same potato planet. He has been known to eat thirteen roasties at one sitting.

Your hair is great. Don't care if it doesn't help. It's great, and you're very selfless to have it cut so nicely for us to admire.

Oooh, I used to listen to John Peel after lights-out too!

Glad you're home safely, but sorry you're not here anymore.

Carol said...

Thanks for doing this hon - especially since you've already done it!!

I'm totally with you on the fighting with the hair thing....had just about managed to get it under control in the UK then moved here and, as you know, the humidity really does weird and wonderful things to it!!

I'm now going to check out the sites suggested by Juliette M :-)

C x

Liane Spicer said...

Ooh, another potato freak! I've been known to order potato salad, shepherd's pie and parsley potatoes all at once, to the disgust of my table mates.

Jenny Beattie said...

Angie, thanks honey. I can recommend the potato meal: yum. Maybe best ordered alone, though.

Lazy P,Lol. My parents still are soooo disparaging; and then I hear myself talking in exactly the same tones!

Cheers Yvonne.

Caroline, Ouch. They warned me about that. They said when you twist it every day, twist half one way and then half the reverse way or your hair will tangle. Mine's short enough that it hasn't happened to me though.

Oooh, Juliette, excellent tips, thank you.

Uphilldowndale, indeed. Potato any old way is comfort food.

Jen, ooh, did you try it then? What did you think? Does it hurt? Hmmm. Yes. It'll be three weeks tomorrow and it still hurts occasionally. I'm not sure if what happened to me is what should happen. She shot the gun twice. Once to get it through and the second time to attach the back. My instinct was that something went wrong, but I could be mistaken. It hasn't got infected, but it's still a bit tender. I don't know if that's normal. You can't take it out for 12 weeks, so I guess that it does take loads longer to heal.

Leigh, Thanks honey. Nearly back to Thai time. Planet Potato: I love it. I so loved John Peel.

Carol, no problem: plenty of odd things to confess to!

Wordtryst, OMG, really? We must get together.

JJx