It has to be, right? I’ve had the outing, and now Lumpenprof’s (whose name to my mine is now forever ‘Lump’ after Nate’s affectionate presumption… or is that presumptive affection? And I’m with you on number 1 of your meme, Nate, so I hope I haven’t made you self-conscious!) memed me, breaking my meme cherry complete with gracious willingness to take on karma of badness. Which I couldn’t allow to happen. So, eight random facts about me…

1. I’ve lived in three of Australia’s state capitals in my life (Melbourne, Adelaide and now Sydney). And in 5 houses before the age of 18. Such is the life of a PK (Priest’s Kid).

2. I know how to tie a bowline. That’s a knot for the non-Scouts, considered almost the perfect knot because it will not slip and yet neither does it jam (so it can be untied reasonably easily). It was courtesy of my dad who always involved us in whatever ‘jobs’ he was doing—such as tying down the trailer in this case, but also laying insulation, cementing plumbing, laying electrical wiring, lining walls, putting in plaster walls and ceilings, cleaning out bore pumps, building tank-stands etc etc etc. So actually I know a lot about building and similar, which those who know me find a bit odd; see above re: passing as middle class.

3. I broke one of my front teeth in a cafe in Brisbane earlier this year while I was there for a conference; a truly truly hideous experience all round. I still have to get the crown done, and even though I hurried out to get health insurance, the fucker doesn’t kick in til next year so I’m out of pocket on this baby. I’m just hoping I didn’t kill the tooth, though I do seem to now have slightly out-of-line teeth. I don’t really know quite how it happened. There was a tiny baby step (one I didn’t see) and I lost my balance, fell forward onto my knees, opened my mouth to say ‘ah, fuck that hurt,’ and bit concrete. Yeah, I don’t know what my hands were doing either! Fortunately it was the day after the conference finished, so the paper was already given, and one of the organisers was with me at the cafe. She found me an emergency dentist (my first real dental work ever and I’d pity the man except he was completely lacking in anything even vaguely akin to compassion) and took very lovely care of me. But let me just say there’s nothing quite like putting your hand up to a mushed-up mouth and coming away with blood pooled in the palm and little chips of white in it! I freaked, and had no idea what to do, and I’m not usually a freaker!

4. My first word was in Hebrew: abba, for those of you who know these things. Actually, I sincerely doubt it was my first word, probably just an early sound; but my dad was attending Hebrew classes at the time, and used to take me along. The teacher said I was better than the rest of the class… my dad’s affectionate name for me is the Hebrew pronunciation of my name (which you can’t know. Sorry. Unless you do already!)

5. I had my first ever filling on the Friday just gone. I survived. I’m annoyed, though, because I made it to the age of… well, wot I am, without any at all, and now…! It was weird, but fine, which given number 3 above is probably an achievement-and-a-half. The dental assistant did at one point say, “You’re a very jumpy girl, aren’t you?” as if I was all of seven. I was unamused (though vaguely amused that I could find even this mildly insulting). Apparently this is a very dental meme.

6. I am the eldest of four siblings, with two sisters and a brother. I’m probably one of those typical eldests, minus the conservatism. Strong sense of justice, wanting to change the world and so on. My sibs are all involved in artsy stuff, furniture and similar industrial design, drama and set design. They are totally awesome and I actually miss them quite a lot, even though it’d been 10 years since I lived with them full time. (Awww…)

7. I’ve written a number of entire books (novels) which will likely never see the light of day. No, don’t even bother asking. They’re crappy in genre, narrative, writing and characterisation. But I love ‘em anyway.

8. In my final year of high school, I had: mycoplasmic pneumonia, flu A, flu B and glandular fever. All at once. That was a bad year, baddy bad bad bad. I still did really well, thanks to a naturopath (I know, I hardly believed it either). It’s interesting that people don’t believe you’re having a hard time recovering from pneumonia, but mention the words ‘glandular fever’ and suddenly they’re averaging out grades and not requiring assignments of you…

Okay, so I pass on the meme-ish-ness to these eight, with the same promise as Lumpenprof: if you don’t feel like it, I shall play sponge to the bad karma. Totally optional, especially if (ahem) you’ve already done so (I tried to check, really, but it was hard and time-consuming and I stopped.) Go crrazzy, mes amis. Or not. As you will. Andrea at Sex Geek, Az at Going Somewhere…?, PetitPoussin at Truly Outrageous, nixwilliams, N Pepperell at Rough Theory, , Anne at Purse Lip Square Jaw, Little Light at Taking Steps, Helen at Everyday Stranger. (This reminds me that i really need to update my blogroll! Like, desperately!)