Anyway, the Five Things was a while ago now, and I was then a very green and desperately earnest blogger who shrank and blushed at the unsolicited attention, even though hardly any bugger read it anyway, except darling rr who tagged me and lovely, loyal, dear Andy, with whom I enjoyed a follow-up conversation on the subject of Biggles.
I am still quite earnest. I reserve the right to remain so, figuring there are some bloody funny, witty, hilarious, satyrical, clever so-and-sos out there with whom I can't really compete so I think I'll carry on being rather serious on the whole. Does that constitute an Artist's Statement?
So, seven random facts, which I scribbled down last night after coming in from an evening out and a surfeit of fish pie and asparagus, chocolate mousse and kouign amann and of course a drop or two of wine. Some good advice picked up at Dick's once - write drunk, polish sober. Only I'll largely skip the second part of that.
1) I have always resisted having any kind of statcounter or similar here, thinking that would be conceding too much to the addictive, narcissistic, attention-seeking element in this activity which I fear is there for me at least, deny it how I may. I do, however, as a sop, sometimes sneak across to my profile page to see how many profile views I've had. When I did so last night, on observing the total was standing at 1,998, I went back and forth twice more to bring it up to 2000.
2) I have never eaten sauerkraut, or even choucroute, the Alsace-derived version by which a funny foreign dish is made acceptable to Gallic palates because it can be seen to have a French regional origin. One or two people have offered to prepare it for me so I may fill this gap in my gustatory experience, but so far they haven't delivered. I'm not sure I would like it, since...
3) ... I have tried to, but can't, like pickled things. I used to look longingly at pickled eggs in fish and chip shops, finding them utterly horrid the one time I tried to eat one. Pickled onions look positively ambrosial but make my eyes water (raw onions I also struggle with, so I am doubly handicapped here). I can only really enjoy gherkins chopped very small and added sparingly to a salad or sandwich with something very rich like pate or smoked salmon, which doesn't stop me reaching with my fingers into the jar of cornichons in the cupboard and pulling one out to munch on, only to be disappointed every time. Pickled walnuts sound delicious and sophisticated, but I find them fairly resisitible as they look a bit like something's droppings in a jar. This contrary seeking to acquire a taste for something I can't acquire a taste for is the antithesis to the old comic conceit, as expressed by Tom about pasta: I don't like it and I'm glad I don't, because if I liked it I'd have to eat it, and I don't like it.
4) I have been lurking on the blog of someone I last knew about twenty years ago. I am uncomfortable and slightly ashamed of this, and keep intending to take her off my bookmarks and not go back, but I don't. I am fascinated by how clever, funny, well-written, bitter and acerbic it is, so different from the person I thought I knew. I don't intend to reveal myself, and am very glad of the potential of a married name ( the taking of which, I felt, occasioned a few disapprovingly raised eybrows here or there at the time... the changing of the name, not the marrying of the husband, you understand) in the covering of tracks and burning of bridges. I have tried to write about this, and its ramifications, at more length, but am dissatisfied with what I've written.
5) I am the last of six children, three boys and three girls, with twenty years between myself and my eldest sibling ( blogged a bit but found life got in the way). My mother was 47 when I was born, my father 55. This may account for why large age gaps, between my spouse and myself (24 years) or between friends, bother me not at all. None of us siblings has ever fallen out with each other, though I can be an awkward and sanctimonious little cuss, and heaven knows we should have inherited a falling out gene from my mother and maternal grandmother.
6) Both the aforementioned eldest sibling and I sustained fractured skulls as very small children in life-threatening accidents. He fell out of a first floor window, and I think may have a plate in his head. I was run over by a car on Hemel Hempstead High Street and flew through the air with the greatest of ease. The West Herts Hospital failed to check my head until my mother, who had been a nurse, insisted, saying she could smell skull fracture. The x-ray revealed I did indeed have one.
The remaining four siblings survived their childhoods without broken heads.
7) I am torn between a) I hate letters torn open with fingers, rather than a letter opener, and b) I grew up under a box elder tree.
***
On review, I notice two of these are about blogging and two are about food, which may indicate something about the focus and compass of my life...
I shan't tag anyone, but anyone can pick it up if they want to.
16 comments:
I love these meme things - you find out so much about people. I think I am very nosey!
I can't recall how I got here but you r list was fascinating. You are very different to me - I love pickled things, come from a small family but I did grow up in Hertfordshire!
I shall be back.
I agree with Reluctant Blogger. I love being nosey.
I also think that I found a blog sometime ago by someone I used to know. Still not certain that it is who I think it is, but I finally quit reading because I really wanted to ask her if it was her. I guess I didn't really want to know the answer.
A delight to read, Lucy.
Thank you all three!
RB - welcome, thanks for coming,hope to see you again soon.
Mike - I know it's her because her name and picture are on it (I found her because I wondered what happenend to her sister who was a very promising artist). She's just divorced the bloke she used to be with when I knew her, they were Mr and Mrs Smugselfsatisfied. Now she's Ms BitterandTwisted and all the sharper for it, and I'm Mrs Smug-Selfsatisfied. so I think never the twain. But I long to comment and tell her how clever and funny she is, but to do so anonymously would be a bit creepy...
Dick - thanks, glad you enjoyed!
Laughed and loved this, Lucy, especially: "there are some bloody funny, witty, hilarious, satyrical, clever so-and-sos out there with whom I can't really compete so I think I'll carry on being rather serious on the whole. Does that constitute an Artist's Statement?"
I think you too modest.
go on, come clean and tell her who you are, and how clever and funny she is, and maybe the twain will meet. And if it turns out that you cant be doing with her after all, well you can always change your name again...oops,sorry Tom...
Now it's my turn to shrink and blush at that string of adjectives, all of which would be far more valid applied to you than to me!
What fun to read this! Thank you for sharing these little parts of yourself.
And it makes me all the more hope/wish that we might meet in person. I would enjoy avoiding pickled things with you, and being earnest as we share stories of our childhood head injuries. :-)
Fancy your being an awkward and sanctimonious little cuss! I always imagine you to be tall and very calm. The sanctimonious bit hadn't figured in my imagination! I'm sure you're lovely, anyway.
1. i, too, resist the lure, most of the times, because i am self-indulgent and narcissistic enough on my own.
4. i love the idea of people i once knew lurking in my blog. that is totally awesome.
5. i am last of five. not so big a gap though.
7. can never keep track of letter openers.
see how narcissistic i am? i made this comment all about me, me, me, because you care, right? bleh.
i love your refreshing honesty which naturally blossoms into humor when you write these!! i've only done it once, a long time ago and no one left a comment, when i usually would get 3-5 comments per post so i figured i really bored everyone and wouldn't risk doing so again.
I loved reading your list! I have a lovely cousin who married a man 18 years her senior. I think it was a shock to her parents, but I have always been struck by how like her father he is. Their marriage has been very happy.
Your answers were very interesting, & very endearing, to me, anyway!!
ML - thanks; I guess we all have our moments!
Rosie - mmm, nah, I don't think so. I think it's rather more she might not be doing with me, and I might say something regrettable like 'well, frankly I always thought he was a complete arse'. Anyway, though it's interesting to peek, I don't think I really want to reconnect with that period, and I'm not sure what else we'd have in common.
Andy - nonsense, you deserve it!
Sheila - likewise, how's it going? It was just a hairline, and I think I probably developed a remarkably hard head afterwards(physically, that is to say, not emotionally...), if I knocked heads with anyone in the palyground they always seemed to come off worse!
Isabelle - well now, yes, always a bit awkward in all sorts of ways, and certainly not tall, wish I was. I think Tall Girl and I teamed up at school initially in part because we made an intersting and amusing contrast! The sanctimoniousness, or shall we say a tendency to be hard in my judgements, I'm afraid came from my mother, whom I resemble in many ways, try as I might. I've been conscious of it as a danger I can fall into for nearly as long as I've been conscious, which doesn't stop me doing it. All I would say is I think I'm probably even harder on myself than other people!
Katydidn't - I DO care I really do!
Actually it is quite funny and interesting to think those people might be reading, but I think I'd rather they kept quiet if they were, so perhaps that supplies the answer to the dilemma! But do you think they'd recognise you? I'm not sure anyone from 20 years ago would know me. She hadn't changed much to look at.
Zephyr - I'm sure that was just a quiet day on your blog! I'd be interested; pick this one up if you want...
Meggie - thank you. Tom's not a lot like my father, except perhaps in build, certainly not in temperament or habits. But he was the same age when we met as my dad was when I was born, and I developed a kind of theory that maybe women sometimes go for men ( if they go for men!)who were of a similar age to their fathers when they were born. Any evidence to refute or support this theory happily received!
You know, your blog does read as 'earnest' at all... I find it winsome and it always make me smile.
Ew, am with you on the pickled things though - especially the way they're always put in huge jars like brains.
Late comment again!
I'm with you on the pickles; can't be doing with sauces either.
It would be fascinating to find a blog by somebody I used to know....I have to remember from time to time that my first husband almost certainly reads mine!
You are more amusing that you admit. I'm fond of natural humility (as opposed to the other kind), so I don't mind. I note that I dislike gossip, but I like this, which seems quite different.
I'd always thought that falling on one's head as a child was bad, but it seems to have done you good... Having parents who will insist at the very right moment is important.
Secret lurking! If that's your worst sin, you are doing quite well.
The last names thing gets to be annoying. I kept mine but am pondering a switch for legal purposes. Somehow one name is on some things, the other on others. Confuses everybody, even the IRS, which is bad. On the other hand, I am private and like a dual identity.
Post a Comment