Weird things about me

I got tagged by Deb to tell you weird stuff!

Six weird things about me: THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

1. When a baby is in the womb, before it's eyes open, there is a special blood vessel which runs to the back of the retina to supply the developing eye with blood. After this is done the vessel disintigrates. But mine is still there. According to my optician I'm one in a billion! (I always knew I was special!)

2. I can't breath through my nose and was offered a nose job to fix it.

3. When I'm stressed out I clean the house. And I chuck things out till I feel better.

4. I could not silently burgle the upstairs of a house during the night because my knees creak so loudly when climbing the stairs that all the residents would wake up and find me!

5. I suffer from Claustophobia.

6. I count things. All the time. Fence posts, window panes, drawers, tiles, street lamps, people. My brain has to count things in 2's, 3's, 5's, diagonally, in lines, my brain needs to see the pattern in things. It's always worse when I'm pregnant and drives me insane. I have to catch myself doing it and make myself stop. I can tell you the pattern of drawers in my bedroom, how there are 14 of them and which ways they can be counted. I can also tell that the blinds in my bedroom have 14 slats, 7 on each side, which is nice because it goes with the drawers. LOL. I'm serious. It's strange because I'm not at all mathematically minded.


People I’m tagging (is there anyone left who hasn't already been tagged?)

Tammy
Kolfinna
Davy
I think everyone else has done it so I can't come up with 6. Sorry.

Christmas meme

Christmas Meme, tagged from Lin's blog...


Name three things:

* that you had hanging on your tree:
Christmas decorations from my childhood & my Mums childhood.
Chocolate baubles
Some home made 3d decorations that myself, Jude and Luke made.

* that you’ve eaten / drunk lots of:
Schloer
Pate
Gherkins

* that you said most often this Christmas
"This is what life should be like all the time, not just at Christmas"
"Lets all quickly bless the mess around this house so that we can relax... if we all help it will only take a few minutes"
"Lets take a photo of that to show Emanuel"

* that you heard most often this Christmas
"Mummy can you watch me sing This Is Halloween?"
"Would you like a cup of tea my dear?"
"Can I have a chocolate off of the Christmas tree?"

* that you’ll do again next year
Have an open fire every evening
Read a lot
Play lots of music

* that you’ll *never* do again
Accidentally buy chicken instead of turkey
Buy so many fattening treats
Go to Tescos with 3 kids a few days before Christmas

* that you didn’t do this year but hope to do next year
I'm finding this one hard to answer. Hmm. Nope, I just can't think of anything honestly.

* favourite presents this year
My pink welly boots!
The phone call from Emanuel
The handmade cards from Tinkhani

* that you’re glad you didn’t get for Christmas
A cold (I usually do!)
Granny Knickers (seems to have become a tradition)
Tights (I usually get loads of tights and I never wear them)

Name 3 people to tag:
Sharon, Davy, Tammy

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Honourable Lady Hazel the Prohibited of Puddleston St Droop Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Everyone's doing it.

Well, everyone else is going it so I thought I would too. The idea is to highlight in bold the ones you've done. Gone on, if you've got a blog give it a go.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 10 provinces
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your cds
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on a first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror.
96. Raised children.
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an illness that you shouldn't have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school (can't WAIT to do this one myself)
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146: Dyed your hair
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head
149: Caused a car accident
150: Saved someone's life

A book meme

Thanks Sharon for tagging me.

Oh this is a tough one to fill in. Some of my answers are going to be a bit of a cop out I think. And some of them I won't be able to keep to just one option. LOL. Also, I could answer 'the Bible' to a lot of these questions, but I won't, as I'm thinking it's supposed to be about literature. Ok,

1. One book that changed your life?
I'm not sure any one book has changed my life, as such, but there are some that have influenced my life. Euripides 'Medea' introduced me to a whole new genre of reading that I didn't know I would enjoy, it's a Greek tragedy, a play. Then there are so many books about diet and food that have changed the way we eat. I couldn't begin to list them all.

2. One book you have read more than once?
As a child I read the Enid Blyton Enchanted Wood books, over, and over, and over. They took me into a complete fantasy world. I must have read them so many times. I remember feeling daft at school when I found out everyone had grown out of them years before me, but they were just so magical that I couldn't stop reading. I read one of them to Jude, and the memories all came flooding back. (Except Jude made me change one of the girls names to Daisy, as she couldn't stand the real name (not one that's used these days!) and it was very hard to remember to say Daisy every time.)

3. One book you would want on a desert island?
Hmm, is there one called Cooking with Coconuts? How to make fire? How to build a log house from palm trees? I have no idea about this. I guess I'd want a book I hadn't read before, but if I haven't read it then I don't know if it's any good, do I? Failing that, I bought Sam a book called The American Boys Handy Book, and its a great read. It tells you how to do all sorts of things that could be handy, or just fun, on a desert island. How to build a bridge, fly a kite, make a fire, build a hut from sticks... yes that could be handy.

4. One book that made you cry?
Hmmm, this is a tough one. For fiction, The Green Mile, by Stephen King, made me cry (I read it before the film came out). True life, the three books in one by Dave Pelzer were heart breaking to read. The story of a child abused by his mother. The three books are called A child called it, the lost boy and a man named Dave.

5. One book that made you laugh?
I'm really struggling to answer this one. Although I'm sure I will think of heaps of answers once I've posted this. I'm not sure that I ever read funny books, except some kids books. Nope, my mind has gone blank for this one, I'm afraid.

6. One book you wish had been written?
How to time travel effectively. Or, how to add extra hours to your day. Both of those could be useful.

7. One book you wish had never been written?
I don't know really. I haven't read a book that I wish hadn't been written. There's been books that I've put down after a few pages because they were so awful. But I couldn't say I wish that they'd never been written.

8. One book you are currently reading?
I'm reading a lot more than one book at the moment. At the book fair I picked up a copy of How Children Fail, by John Holt. That's my bedtime reading at the moment (despite the title this book is more about how schools fail children). I'm also browsing through a copy of The Over Scheduled Child. For a bit of light reading, when I want to relax, I'm currently reading The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, and Six More, by Roald Dahl - a series of short stories for adults. These are good to read at night, because each story is just the right length to read in one go, some are amusing, and some are factual, but all are written in Dahl's unique style.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?
Ahh, most of the books that the kids have in their study room, I look at them and think, I must read that sometime, it looks really good. Here are a few of them... the railway children, black beauty, little women, our island story, the story of the world volumes, robinson crusoe, treasure island... Basically, there are a lot of the kids classics that I've never read, and keep meaning to.

I'm tagging Breeze, Tammy, Anna, and I think everyone else has done it, more or less.

Homeschool Meme (Tagged)

Homeschool Meme (Tagged)
Breeze tagged me.

1) ONE HOMESCHOOLING BOOK YOU HAVE ENJOYED
Well, there are quite a few that we have enjoyed over the last year. Sam loved Trial and Triumph, (stories from Church history with all sorts of gory tales about martyrs, which really made him think about how different things used to be for Christians), we all loved Story of the World Volume 1, and are looking forward to the next few volumes. I thought Minn of the Mississippi and other books by the same author were enchanting.

2) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULDN’T BE WITHOUT
The internet. No doubt about it. To answer all the questions that I don't know the answers to - why does it rain? what do wasps do to help with nature? who discovered the tomb of tutankhamun? Can I print out all the flags of the world and colour them in? Can I learn to write hieroglyphics? Can I learn how to write my name in Japanese?

3) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT
The Story of Mankind. We wasted almost a year trying to read it, and even I didn't understand what it was talking about.

4) ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST YEAR
The Ulster Museum in Belfast. Firstly it's free, secondly it has a mummy, and thirdly all 3 kids got something from our regular visits.

5) ONE RESOURCE YOU WILL BE USING NEXT YEAR
Singapore maths series.

6) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY

7) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH EXISTED

8) ONE HOMESCHOOLING CATALOGUE YOU ENJOY READING
I have never read one of these.

9) ONE HOMESCHOOLING WEBSITE YOU USE REGULARLY
www.amblesideonline.org and www.enchantedlearning.com

10) TAG FIVE OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS
I'm not exactly sure how to do this but Im trying to tag...

Deb1 Sharon Tammy Deb2 Anna

Am I supposed to tell them they've been tagged???

Steal this meme:

Wikibirthday to you.
"Go to Wikipedia and do a search for your birthday (day and month only, exclude the year).Post three facts, two births and one death on your blog that match your birth date including the years."

Here are my facts:
1170 - Thomas Becket is slain in his own cathedral by knights eager to please Henry II of England.
1937 - The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.
1997 - Hong Kong begins to kill all the nation's chickens (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.

Two births:
1721 - Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France (d. 1764)
1972 - Jude Law, British actor

One death:
2003 - Bob Monkhouse, English comedian and game show host (b. 1928)