ThinkingShift

Yikes! Matt Moore has tagged me and I’m supposed to reveal eight things people don’t know about me. Matt’s blog post poses two questions: do the people he’s tagged read his blog and do we have a vanity feed in place? Well, the answer to the first question Matt is yes, I read your blog, it’s on my RSS feed. The answer to your second question is: no, I don’t have a vanity feed in place. Not sure why not, but frankly it’s never occurred to me!

Now, generally I don’t like doing these sorts of things where you talk about yourself and (hopefully) reveal something witty or amazing. I’m actually quite a secretive type (there’s something random about me). But I have done one before for my “young” friend, Patrick Lambe of Green Chameleon and I’ll respond to Matt, although I feel the pressure :)- I’ll respond quickly because if I think about it for too long, I’ll get paralysed! Mind you, I think I’m going to be hard-pressed to cough up 8 random or unknown facts about me. Why do I say this? Because a quick scan through my blog posts shows that I’ve already revealed a lot about myself. Here’s what you could say about me:

• a conspiracy theorist
• slightly if not totally paranoid about any form of surveillance or invasion of privacy
• wanted to be an astronaut or archaeologist when I grew up (well, I still haven’t grown up, so there’s hope for me yet)
• believe in global warming
• in despondent moments, believe that the future will be a dark place
• concerned about how human activity is threatening other species on this planet.

Okay, so here’s what people don’t maybe know about me and it will probably show you that I’m a frightfully boring person. And I’m not really sure how much one is supposed to reveal, so I’ll just go with the flow:

• I collect roosters: not real ones, just rooster images. I have a large and varied collection from all around the world - crystal roosters, jade roosters, metal roosters, rooster statues, rooster tiles. Sad but true.
• I design jewellery and many of the pieces I wear are original designs or designs my husband (architect) has conjured up.
• I worked for many years in a psych hospital as a teacher of emotionally disturbed children.
• My background is Welsh - my maiden name was Evans-Jenkins (can’t get much more Welsh than that). Although I also have some Russian ancestry and could once speak very good Russian; more rusty Russian these days.
• I visited the USSR before it collapsed and was tailed by the KGB, along with my Russian friend - scary stuff that I vividly remember to this day.
• My favourite place in the world is Madiera.
• I travel to far-flung places to do special things - Namibia to see the fur seal colony; South Africa to adopt a cheetah; Nicaragua to explore the jungle with a native plant expert; Mozambique to learn about medicinal properties of herbs and plants.
• I dislike cities/urban areas and choose to live in the “bush”. I would one day like to live on some remote island somewhere, far removed from “civilisation”, and lead an eco-friendly lifestyle.

Okay that’s eight, enough. I think I’m now supposed to tag another eight people, but will have to think about who the victims - sorry - people would be as most of them have been tagged already - Patrick Lambe, Matt Moore, Dave Snowden…….