5 things meme (with pictures!!)

The lovely Ariel has tagged me for a meme. Apparently it's for those of us who are random and weird...
Oh... no. Sorry. It's actually for telling 5 random or weird facts about yourself.


The rules of this meme are:
Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names, and links to their blogs.
Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


Right then. These are the facts:


1. I'm someone who needs time on my own more than I need time with other people. I've known lots of people that hate being alone, and some can't even stand silence. I'm content with quiet; it doesn't bother me. Unlike others who say they'd go nuts without company, I think I would go nuts if I never had time alone... which is probably why living on my own suits me so much. I love it!


2. I watch motorbike races; MotoGP.
I have been exposed to a fair bit of motorsport over the years due to various boyfriends, but it's only been the MotoGP that's stuck (I can do without the F1 cars or the V8s).

That I like the GP is probably partly due to Valentino Rossi. He's been the champion rider for years and is very entertaining on and off the track - quite a personality and an exciting rider. (Hmm, this doesn't sound suggestive at all does it?)

Of course last year it was Aussie rider, Casey Stoner, who took the championship off Rossi. So it's been even better to watch.



3. I have a small, private collection of etchings... Would you like to see them?
Sorry. I meant to say: I have a small collection of other people's photos and postcards. They are all decades old and I just find them beautiful and romantic somehow. And a bit mysterious. Have bought them in market stalls and from unusual people at swap meets.

Here are some from the 1920s and 30s. Just click to enlarge them:

Florence postcard, front and back (a few ghosts in this one):


Who are these people? The first one says on the back it is Joe and Peter in 1932.

(Obviously not on a good day...)

These are a bit more picturesque:



And another postcard, front and back:




4. I also love owning old books. I love them all aesthetically most of all, but many for their content too, like Keats' poetry and letters. And the much outdated content of the volumes of 'The Popular Educator':


For example:

"In searching for a record of the process of creation, we naturally turn our attention to that only Book the human library contains which did not emanate from the mind of man. But [in] the Bible... we only find the sacred historian dedicating a few verses to the subject of 'the creation of the world'. Yet we may rest assured that, although the short notice only touches the prominent points, yet every word is true; and the more science has discovered, the more has she proved to be the commentator and unfolder of the great truths contained in those few words.
...Explorers now in every part of the world collect information, and every right-minded man rests assured that in the end Scripture will not be contradicted, but confirmed."

Religious Education, right? No. This is under the heading "Lessons in Geology - I". Yes, 'Educator' indeed.

In case you're interested there are also lessons in Arithmetic, Hydrostatics, Greek, Italian, Latin, German, Geometrical Perspective, Algebra, Botany (eg. Anacardiaceae: 'Flowers ordinarily dicecious by abortion... petals inserted upon a perigynous disc... imbricated in aestivation...' Don't fret people. Spell-check doesn't know what these words mean either.), Readings in French, Lessons in Shorthand, Music, Architecture, Recreative Natural History (where we learn about stages in the metamorphosis of various crabs for example), Historical Sketches, Our Holiday (which includes Athletic Sports, with diagrams: 'Fig. 1 - Running')... I think you get the idea.

There's also Comparative Anatomy, a game boys have always been fond of (after they're shown you their etchings).


5. I lived in the US when I was a kid.

When I came back to a new Australian primary school - after having been well-educated in acquiring a perfect American accent in a US elementary school (only took me 2 weeks) - I found I was a freak. No one had an accent of any kind in this school, possibly not even Kiwi. So at recess I would be in the middle of the school yard with the majority of the student body surrounding me shouting 'Say something! Say something!'.
'Uh, what do you want me to say?'
'Ahahahahahahahaha! Say something else!'
'What?'
'Say rollerskates!'
'Uh... Rollerrrskates'
'Ah-hahahahahahaha!! Say something else!'
and on and on...

Of course, after the above treatment, I tried frantically to get my Aussie accent back - and succeeded, and thankfully stopped getting mobbed.

Oh, but they all decided I was a bit strange and possibly a bit thick as in addition to my freaky way of speaking, I had learnt a different method of long division (of course I was successful at it, but that didn't mean I was allowed to do it that way!) and had never learnt netball (only baseball, softball, indoor hockey... not much use). So me, the American freak.

Many of these kids who continued on to the same high school later could never be convinced I was Australian.

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I will now politely tag (ie. don't have to do it if you don't want!) The Blakkat, Mai, Wyn Richards, Davey (cause you're all a bit weird and random... *heh*) and Rosanna (who, of course, is Practically Perfect)!