30day challenge: 1.

Day 1: A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself.

 

So, I shall start the 30 day challenge, taken up recently by so many of my wonderful twitter peeps, on a day that is not the first of the month, or even the first of a week, but a nondescript day being the 6th of the month, on a Wednesday. Because, just like any exercise challenge, don’t put off starting tomorrow what you can start today; excuses are for the weak. And what is this, but an exercising of the mind?

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Dailybooth has the most recent photo of me. I used to have so many photos to choose from, but as I get older I tend to shy away from the camera; I don’t seem to be as photogenic as I was 5 years ago. Sad ‘tis.

 

 

I quite like this photo. It’s a good representation of where I’m at right at this moment in time. Bloodshot eyes, freckled face, but cheeky smile nonetheless. A defiant grin emerging out of the darkness. A floating head in the void. Warped and who cares.

 

1. I was actually baptised Mormon. Yes, I didn’t find this out until quite recently, but I was properly baptised into an organised religion. Thankfully my parents quickly switched to atheism and brought me up as such. I’m so glad I got to make up my own mind when I was old enough. Every child should have that privilege. A friend of mine married a Catholic and had to agree to bring up any of their future progeny as Catholics before they were allowed to marry. That doesn’t seem very fair to me. It smacks of number-swelling if you ask me.

 

2. I did 5 years on a music scholarship through high school. I played the flute in primary school, well enough to be accepted into a scholarship program, although I switched to clarinet purely because it’s what Woody Allen played. It didn’t take. No music career for me. But I’m so grateful I did it, because I have such an eclectic taste in music now, from Baroque through to electronica, minus Justin Bieber and Lady Gag.

 

3. I can raise my eyebrows independent of each other, roll my tongue to the left, right and in a circle, wiggle my ears and flare my nostrils. I hold steadfast to the idea that it’s all a sign of high intelligence.

 

4. I was once engaged to the man that took my cherry. I was with him for 11 years in total – 8 before he proposed, 3 afterwards. He chickened out. I made up for lost time after that.

 

5. My heritage is Maori/Scottish/Spanish. I have one single red hair from my Scottish side. I swear – one single red hair. The earliest ancestor I know of is Manuel Jose and he has his own website. My maternal side is so big when we have a reunion it makes the news in New Zealand. I’m related to NZ royalty (the All Blacks, that is). Oh, and let’s not go into the fact that Manuel was a polygamist…

 

6. My tribe is Ngati Porou (te iwi ngati porou). When I found out about this I can’t tell you how much power it gave me. To know that I had a tribe, and a canoe, and a mountain, and a river, and land, and a coat of arms was just so empowering. I truly believe that any person will hold their head up high when they find out their roots.

 

7. I can remember numbers from my childhood, like phone numbers of friends when I was in primary school, but don’t ask me what I had for lunch yesterday because I will struggle to remember.

 

8. I first drank alcohol when I was 15. Got so paralytic my friend had to slap me. Ended up peeing on her neighbour’s lawn and jumping in her pool fully clothed. Well, I’m sure that’s pretty normal by today’s standards…

 

9. I’ve dabbled in drugs but I’ll never inject or snort. I have to draw the line somewhere.

 

10. I truly believe I have two guardian angels looking after me – one male, one female. I don’t know their names, but I know without a doubt that they are there, and I love them profusely for all that they have done for me. I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for them. I don’t care if that makes me sound like a loony, they’re real, and they’ve been by my bedside many times when I’ve been bawling my eyes out, providing hugs and caresses at my darkest times. I love them a lot. I also hope they forgive me.

 

11. The reason I love boobies so much is that I had a scare with my own and it made me realise how precious they are. Boobs are the best invention ever. I love mine to death even though they’re hardly worth writing home about, but I think of the alternative of not having them at all, and it makes me appreciate them every single day. Plus, boobies are so pretty I could look at boobies all day. Anyone’s boobies. Especially Jessica Alba’s and Monica Belluci’s. Bewwwwbs! #boobs.

 

12. I struggle with the black dog more than I like to admit. He’s a bad dog. I’m getting better at it though.

 

13. My power animal would definitely be the gecko. I love them. I don’t know why. Perhaps because they are cute as a button when they chase my most hated critter, the mosquito.

 

14. I’m a terrible extrovert. I can’t help it. I share too much of myself when I really should just keep cards close to my chest. It just seems like such a waste. We’re all humans on this planet trying to work out what’s going on. Why keep it to yourself? If you can resonate with someone by sharing something about yourself, why hesitate?

 

15. I can’t stand to see people in distress. I have to leave the room when prank calls are playing on the radio, I can’t watch practical jokes in action, I can’t lie to someone as a joke. However, animal cruelty will always cut me up more than human cruelty. To see defenceless animal taken advantage of makes me red with rage. Don’t even get me started on it.

 

Phew. The end. Well, only 29 days of this to go eh. Will you join the ride?