100 Things – Mirthful

As I said I’ve been doing another 100 things – due to the old one being ever so slightly outdated (and me not really needing much of an excuse to make lists). So here it is.

001	I have stopped going to the hairdresser’s, I can’t be bothered. I now cut my own hair.
002	I am addicted to my online diary.
003	At work we have both Swedish crackerbread (knekkebr?d) and chocolate-covered bisquits freely available. I prefer the crackerbread. There are also spreads of various kinds to go with it, but I tend to eat it dry (the latter is mainly lazyness).
004	I don’t like carnations. (Except green ones, but that’s a whole different story.) To me, they are funeral flowers. On the other hand, I love white lilies.
005	My favourite song ever is The Bee Gees’ ‘You Win Again’ and I have no idea why.
006	The most excess baggage I’ve ever had on a flight was when I was moving to Britain. The allowed limit was 20 kg, I had 52,4 kg.
007	I am frequently tempted to buy sweets in the shop and then they end up left lying around for ages until I decide it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever eat them and it would be stupid to force myself to considering they’re not healthy and I throw them away.
008	I have read the first half of Kafka’s The Trial twice, I’ve never finished it. Both times I had exams shortly after where the book could have been the basis for the questions (it never was, but I could probably have bluffed my way out of it anyway).
009	I can operate the basics in the technician’s booth in a radio station.
010	I have to concentrate when I need to say the name of the UN General Secretary, Kofi Annan. For some reason my brain has his name (not him…) muddled up with Idi Amin. I doubt if he’d take that as a compliment. Vice versa, as well, obviously.
011	I spent the first two hours of Cameron’s Titanic muttering ‘When are they going to get to the good bit?’ (meaning the sinking of the ship.)
012	I am ticklish. I have never realised quite how ticklish I am, because my brother – who is the only one who’s ever really tested it before – is even more ticklish and so he always came off worse than me in any ‘fights’. I now find I am ticklish practically everywhere.
013	I’m looking forward to my 30th birthday.
014	I own two bicycles and two bicycle trailers. Don’t ask me why.
015	I can’t remember the last time I checked my own weight – when my GP asked me for my weight when I recently visited the practice for the first time I had to tell her I had absolutely no idea.
016	I think – and talk to myself – in English as often as in Norwegian.
017	When swear I swear in English. The only time I swear in Norwegian is for emphasis, as in the equivalent of ‘bloody brilliant’.
018	I wear blinkers (us: blinders) when I walk. People tend to get really annoyed with me because they’ve waved to me in the street and I have not responded. It’s not because I don’t want to acknowledge you, guys, honestly, it’s just that I go a bit blind when I get lost in my own thoughts.
019	I get asked for directions all the time. I don’t know if this is because I look approachable or because I look like I’m a really together kind of person or what, but even on my first day in a new city (I think the record is five minutes after I stepped off the bus in Leeds) people ask me for directions. Worryingly, of course, I can normally answer them.
020	I think this link is funny: #!/usr/bin/geek and that probably qualifies me to put it on my page.
021	I use “funny” (morsomt in Norwegian) as a synonym for “interesting”. Thus I have been known to say things such as “I saw a funny programme yesterday about the current hunger crisis in Ethiopia.” This does not mean I found anything to laugh about.
022	I own a pair of tap shoes.
023	I adore flea markets.
024	Until the age of about fifteen, the only sandwich spread I would eat was a certain brand (Staburet) of pork live pat?. As I was really picky when it came to full meals as well, I would frequently eat it for dinner too – so it’s fair to say I practically grew up on it. Nowadays I want it if I’ve got my grandmother’s home baked bread or on Rog-Rut (a form of crackerbread) – otherwise I eat different brands – more chunky and ‘proper’ – pork liver pat?. It’s still one of my favourite spreads and I will still frequently just have bread for dinner – from convenience, now.
025	I seem to do a lot of communicating with my boyfriend (and some of my friends, too) through the comment functions on our various websites.
026	I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
027	I don’t read enough poetry.
028	I like some really cheezy music.
029	I like having a system for things (alphabetised books and cds, database and corresponding numbering system for slides), but I tend to let them slide a little too often – I am not a naturally tidy person.
030	If someone else messes up my system, though, god help them.
031	I use a lot of parentheses and hyphens when I write, but I seldom use exclamation marks. Excessive use of explanation marks annoys me, as does incorrect use of elipsis (the three dots that suggests an unfinished thought) – there should be three dots, not two and not, heaven forbid, six…
032	I ‘tidy’ shop shelves while I’m browsing. If something is out of place – a can of beans amongst the cans of corn, a Dylan cd in amongst the A’s – I will automatically move it to its appropriate spot.
033	I have a massive collection Kinder Egg figurines, which has been aquired practically by accident. My grandfather buys me the eggs because he knows I enjoy the ‘surprise’ (well, ok, so I sometimes buy some myself) and since I’m not very good at throwing things away, I still have most of the figurines I’ve gotten since the late 80ies onwards.
034	I don’t actually particularly like the chocolate bit of the Kinder Egg.
035	The best thing about coming back from holiday is to get to sleep in my own bed again. I love my own bed.
036	I love to travel and there is hardly anywhere in the whole world I wouldn’t travel to given the chance.
037	Despite that, over the past ten years any time I’ve been completely free to chose where to go for a holiday (as opposed to visiting friends or going in connection with work) I have chosen the British Isles.
038	When I went to Scotland September 2002 it had been over a year since I’d set foot in the British Isles, and I was literally feeling ill with “homesickness”.
039	Yes, you could say that I’m somewhat Anglophile.
040	I’m off to Scotland again in three weeks.
041	I was last in Scotland two and a half months ago.
042	I have planned trips to Scotland for April and September next year already.
043	I like having explanations for things and will ask for them. Sometimes this results in people assuming that I’m worried, confused or dissatisfied rather than curious, which annoys me.
044	I have read Pride and Prejudice about ten times, listened to the unabridged audio book at least ten times, read the A. A. Milne stage version three times, seen the BBC/A&E tv-series more than fifteen times, the old BBC production twice (though I hated it) and the Laurence Olivier film version (which is very funny, though completely inaccurate) five times – and I still can’t believe everything will work out all right when I’m in the middle of the story.
045	Writing that has made me want to read it again.
046	I reread books – if I enjoy a book I will invariably read it again sooner or later.
047	I hate it when books that I think will have a happy ending don’t – or when I don’t agree with the author on what constitutes a ‘happy ending’.
048	Romantic films should always end with a kiss.
049	My favourite film is the 1934 version of The Scarlet Pimpernell. It doesn’t end with a kiss. That’s the one thing that makes it fall short of ‘Perfect’.
050	I’m half way!
051	I don’t like thrillers and horror movies. I used to be afraid of the dark (I slept with a light on until I was fifteen or so) and still prefer not to encourage my imagination to follow that sort of lines.
052	I now have problems sleeping if there is a light on, though I still sometimes see looming threats in the dark when I’m only half awake and need to turn the light on to reassure myself that it really is just my dressing gown (or whatever).
053	I would rather stay in a B&B than a luxury hotel. The only conceivable reason to stay in a luxury hotel is if they have a swimming pool.
054	I love swimming pools.
055	I have seen the sun rise over the old town in Jerusalem.
056	I like going for long walks, but prefer a smooth surface, so a walk around town or along a country road appeals to me much more than a walk on paths in the woods.
057	I still believe in Mr Right.
058	I have only been stung by a bee once.
059	I like taking things apart and seeing if I can fix them – staplers, VCR tapes, computers and so on. I have a healthy dose of ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, though, so I will actually wait until there is a problem before starting the dismantling.
060	So-called relaxing music – pan-pipes, ambience etc. – makes me agressive and inclined to throw things across the room or chop the stereo up with an axe.
061	I love “how things are made” programmes on television, especially the short films following an assembly line from start to finish that they used to show on children’s TV when I was a kid.
062	I like scars and wrinkles. They add interest to a person’s appearance.
063	I don’t have may scars, only three small ones in fact, one across my right thumb, one under my chin and one on my left knee, all aquired before I started school. A few weeks ago I cut my left little finger and it looks like I’ll have a new scar. Yay.
064	Adultery is never romantic. I hated The English Patient for that reason.
065	I love (no, really) assembling flat-packed furniture.
066	The middle finger on my left hand is about a centimetre shorter than the middle finger on my right hand, for no apparent reason.
067	I like making lists.
068	Carrots are my favourite vegetable.
069	I can eat raisins with anything, I’ve been known to use raisins as pizza topping.
070	I don’t like prunes, though (nor am I particularly fond of any other dried fruit – I stick to the raisins).
071	I can live quite happily without television (and have done – for a year in Denmark, for example).
072	The main reason I have a television now is to be able to watch DVDs – I bought the DVD-player before I had a TV set.
073	I’d like to circumnavigate the world without the aid of aeroplanes one day, just to really feel how big it is.
074	Given the choice between a week on a tropical island with picture-perfect beaches and coctails at the poolside and a week in a draughty cottage in Scottland in November with a local pub within walking distance I’d chose the latter. If you removed the local pub I’d have to think about it.
075	I don’t wear jewelry except an armband or a necklace occasionally when ‘dressing up’ for parties.
076	I hate wearing rings, as they make my hands look alien to me. (I realise this is probably a matter of habit.)
077	I never paint the nails on my fingers, but I occasionally paint my toenails in the “sandal-season”.
078	I don’t brush my hair most days. It’s so “slippery” that if I leave it alone it just falls into place.
079	New shoes give me blisters. ALWAYS.
080	I don’t like wearing anything on my feet. If it didn’t get too cold, I’d go barefoot all the time.
081	My favourite book is The Chronicles of Robin Hood by Rosemary Sutcliffe – I’ve read it at least once a year for the last 20-odd years and I still cry at the end every time.
082	I like reading aloud to people and being read aloud to.
083	I like learning poetry by heart.
084	Although I have Dreamweaver installed on my machine, I write all my web-pages in notepad or Editpad.
085	I love climbing trees.
086	I think children should be allowed to risk breaking their necks while doing things like climbing trees – I think the only way to learn caution is to feel for yourself how much small accidents can hurt. If you’re never allowed to even grace your knee, I think you will probably be a hazard to yourself and others once you get in a situation where you can really do damage – like behind the wheel of a car.
087	I realise that standing idly by while a child risks his or her neck is very, very difficult.
088	I still think interference should be limited to shouting “Be careful!” if at all possible.
089	I can carry my camera aound with me for a week, even while on holiday, without getting around to taking a single picture.
090	Once I do get the camera out, however, I can finish a roll of film taking pictures of just one thing – looking for that perfect shot.
091	I want a digital SLR camera.
092	I prefer turning my mobile phone off if I can’t answer it. Partly out of courtesy to the caller who will then not have to sit through the ringing bit to get to the voicemail, but mostly because I hate it when I get ‘unanswered call’ with an unidentifiable number. I’m waaaay too curious to handle that with equanimity.
093	I have yet to be told that I snore.
094	I prefer spiders to flies.
095	I believe there is some sort of afterlife.
096	I don’t believe in hell, though.
097	When they were handing out patience I couldn’t be bothered to stand in line.
098	I am beginning to think I might not have the patience to finish this.
099	I always try to finish what I’ve started, though.
100	I’m humming “I believe in Angels” at the moment, which is silly. Partly because I don’t like the song and partly because I’m not at all sure that I do…