Wednesday 12 October 2005

I've been tagged

My friend Mireille of C'est Chic has tagged me: I don't know whether I should slap her or give her a hug.

Anyway, here are 20 random facts about me:

I hate hairdressers (I’ve cut my own hair since 1969)
The only musical I truly love is Les Misérables
Oysters and artichokes are two of my favourite foods
I’ve never been really drunk
I bit my nails for 25 years and then I stopped (more or less overnight)
I hate flying, but I hate sailing even more
I believe “a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle”
I wear cardigans – that’s how uncool I am
I should get myself a pair of reading glasses
I understand Russian swear words
I was friends with Rupert Everett when he was 16
I once had a guinea pig that had three babies a few days after I got her
I was 37 when I found love
Je suis soupe au lait (hee hee!)
I’ve tried very hard to get a crush on Gary Sinise in CSI: NY, but I can’t
I love sunlight, but I always feel better once the curtains have been drawn and the electricity switched on
I can still translate from the Latin – after 35 years
I believe actors have the best psychological insights
I haven’t read Harry Potter and have no intention of doing so – ever
I can remember the ‘60s – and I was there

Now comes the fun part. I'd like to tag:
still life of dancing in place
Tania of
Brain Trapped in Girl's Body
The Great She Elephant
Katiedid of
Seldom Nice Nowadays
and
Urban Chick

27 comments:

  1. excellent information! *copying all down for future extortionist usage* what's this about cream soup? xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, I've never been known as a poor sport, so I will oblige. I will post by late afternoon, promise. 20 things hmmm?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, I forgot to say that I love your new profile picture. Keep on slappin' girl.

    ReplyDelete
  4. happy to oblige but what does tagging mean (oh the humiliation of having to ask for clarification)? What do I have to do?

    ReplyDelete
  5. sheeesh!

    how many facts? and exactly HOW factual must i be??

    ;)

    UC

    ReplyDelete
  6. LOL, M1! Yes, you got it: "I am a cream soup". Like JFK was a doughnut. Back to the dictionary of French phrases you go, my friend!

    M2, thanks! It's not as stylish as your gravatar (can you believe that word? Generally Recognized Avatar, it's called. Horrible word, gravatar), but it'll do.

    GSE, I had to ask too, so no shame in that. You need to do the same as me and the others (C'est Chic, Janey - links on my blog): post 20 random facts about yourself on your blog, then tag five other people.

    UC, if you read a few lists you'll get the idea of what it should be like. Try not to put in things that can be used later by blackmailers, like I seem to have done. LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gawd. I don't think I know 5 people, let alone 5 people with blogs. Still, I will try.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 'course you do. Good luck! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. ok, dunnit. I suspect the list will display a shocking lack of self esteem. As with most things I do.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good! Off to read your list. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Done. See my blog.

    Soupe au lait, eh? I find it very funny that soupe au lait describes being ill-tempered in French, but being milquetoast describes being wishy washy and weak in English!

    Actors do have the best psychological insights, if I do say so myself! I learned most of what I know of human beings from 1) acting and 2) actors. Come to think of it, I do miss acting in plays. Nothing else quite compares to the fun of that kind of work. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  12. I wear cardigans, too, probably because I'm that uncool also. That and I'm one of those annoyingly perpetually cold people ;)

    Rupert Everett - sigh, lucky. He's marvelous, to watch act or just to look at.

    You know what? I think it's for the best you've never bother reading the Harry Potters. Rowling has a wonderful imagination, but I never made it past the first book because she writes just that badly. The movies are fun, though, in my estimation.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Whoops - forgot to add that I'll post my random list sometime or another tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  14. To Katiedid: The first Harry Potter book is a disaster of horrible writing. She didn't learn how to write until the second book. By the third book, she was finally good. Harold Bloom panned her viciously, and the whole world for loving her, on the basis of the first book, but it was a mistake. I sort of hope one day she goes back and redoes the first one, since it's clearly of much poorer quality than what follows.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Books 3 and 4 are my favourites. Sorry, Bela.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Can you please share those Russian swear words?

    ReplyDelete
  17. There’s an added nuance to “soupe au lait”, T: it means someone who gets angry quickly but calms down quickly too, like milk that boils over if you forget to watch it for a second and then goes clunk as soon as you take it off the heat.

    K, I’m cold all the time too (er, when I’m not having a hot flush, that is).

    Rupert was very cute: we met in Stratford-upon-Avon – he was with Ian McKellen (who was still in the closet at the time). Ian was playing Romeo that season. Dear old Rupert has done unforgivable things to his face recently: someone said the other day he must have used the same surgeon as Nicole Kidman. He doesn’t look the same at all.

    Re. Harry Potter: I remember the excitement I felt when, aged about 11, I was allowed to borrow a book – for the first time – from the adult library, on the top floor of the Mairie du 3e arrondissement in Paris. I was beside myself with pride and anticipation. Why should I want to read children’s books now? I haven’t read half the adult books I want to read before I snuff it. Life’s too short to waste it on wizards with silly names. I hate hype and I’m truly not interested.

    L, would a Harry Potter reader be someone who also likes Buffy the Vampire Slayer and spends hours watching people sleep on Big Brother or murder lovely songs on The X Factor by any chance? LOL!

    J, the answer is “Niet!” LOL! I learned them from my dear departed parents, who never stopped arguing. They always argued in Russian because they believed I couldn’t understand. They were wrong. I have to hear those words; I can’t bring them to mind so easily. Sorry.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I didn't know that nuance of soupe au lait! So you are easy to anger and then it is all over. I wish I were like that, but I am slow to anger, and once it gets simmering, it is on the burner forever.

    ReplyDelete
  19. So it could be said that Bela Does Not Sulk?

    Harry Potter has lots to say about emotions and what it means to have integrity. And I can spare the few hours it takes to read them. It's relaxing to be in a place where Good and Evil are quite clear cut. But I feel bereft over the end of book 6 (I won't give it away in case anyone is waiting for the paperback).

    I can'y believe anyone still watches Big Brother.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Bela most definitely Does Not Sulk.

    I hereby declare my blog "a Harry Potter free zone" (feel free to pepper with hyphens as required)!

    Ha! I know someone who does.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Well, chuck a boggart and and a blast-ended skrewt at that muggle in a sorting hat! A HP-free zone? Fizzing whizzbees!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Lulu, you worry me. You really do.

    ReplyDelete
  23. J, you never cease to fascinate! Thanks for the explanation of 'soupe au lait' - i always thought it might be because cream soup goes bad so easily, LOL!

    (((hugs))) from another non-Potter.

    d.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Wearing cardigans is uncool? Why am I the last to know this?

    Good list. Except about the cardigans. Are they coming back?

    ReplyDelete
  25. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this particular tag. I visited all the sites beginning with c'est chic and just followed the tagging. I agree with you Bela it was so interesting to see what others had shared not being restricted to a particular questioning format.

    And by the way, I think a bumper sticker is in order...
    I Hate Hype! Classic.

    And what's with all of the food analogies? Why is emotion linked with the things we eat?
    Cool as a cucumber
    Bland as milktoast (which I loved as a child)
    Soup Au Lait in temperament
    Having a salty sense of humor
    ...you get the picture.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Welcome back, D! Missed you. Thanks for the support: I was beginning to feel outnumbered by all those HP fans, well, mostly one really, LOL! *hugging you back*:-)

    TLP, they used to say that cardigans were the preserve of librarians and that librarians, you know, were the most b..inaudible].. people in the world. Oh, drat, I've insulted librarians now. I think cardigans are getting fashionable again - as long as they're 100% cashmere and bear a famous label. Bah! I love my b..inaudible].. cardigans.

    Hmmm... that's an interesting question, M: why is food so closely connected to our state of mind?

    ReplyDelete
  27. Hey J, interesting list of tidbits!
    I haven't read any HP yet but plan to when my kids are old enough to read them.

    I quite enjoyed the cream soup reference and, from what I know of you, I'd say it fits beautifully.

    I like that about you.
    L

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.