Who Am I Really?

You sort of starting feeling like a more serious blogger that proud day when a brilliant, inspiring blogger tags you into a meme. Just when I thought that, with the boys going back to the grindstone of education, my life was going to focus around ironing, folding clothes and procrasinating, the fantastic Breakfast Lady did just that. To me! Yes, ME!

The Breakfast Lady, I know, is going to be a massive inspiration to me this year. She blogs about that meal of the day that, ashamedly, I usually forgo in favour of four cups of strong, black coffee. However, if you thought that breakfast was a bowl of soggy flakes in a bowl and a couple of slices of cold, wangy (to quote St Delia) toast, think again. Since giving up the alcoholic yumminess and empty calories of Co-Op’s finest Vino Collapso for Cancer Research UK’s Dryathlon I have found myself absolutely ravenously hungry of a morning, and The Breakfast Lady has some fabulous ideas that make me almost weep with joy. I therefore insist that you read her blog, and throw that battered, six month old box of boring museli away. Mornings will be revolutionised. I can’t promise they’ll be televised.

So, back to the meme. The rules are really simple:

– Post five random facts about yourself.

– Choose five deserving blogs with less than 200 followers to nominate and link into your post.

– Tell your nominees that they have been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog.

– Answer the five questions the tagger (in my case, The Breakfast Lady) has asked.

– Ask five questions of your chosen nominees.

– No tag-backs.

So, here goes:

Five Random Facts About Me

1. I used to have a severe phobia of the dentist and didn’t go for twenty years until things got so bad I ended up in the Dental Out Of Hours at Wishaw General. Three wisdom tooth extractions, three back tooth extractions and five replaced fillings later, I now have an almost masochistic love of visiting the dentist (particularly the hygienist), and I am completely obsessed with interdental brushes.

2. The actor Ben Chaplin once laughed at one of my jokes. It was a bloody good joke.

3. I have this weird thing where, in my head, I confuse the colours pink and yellow. I see something yellow, and I call it pink. And vice versa.

4. I have broken my nose four times. I was drunk three of those times.

5. I have no debts. None at all. Not even money owing on library books.

The Breakfast Lady’s Questions

1. What do you like best about the place you live?

It has to be the Community Garden. I helped to set it up back in 2009, when it was just a boggy unused football field. Now it is home to 62 raised beds, two polytunnels, an orchard, a soft-fruit area, and various wildlife and biodiversity areas. I have always loved gardening, and was always really interested in growing my own food, as my grandparents had; but I have a garden at home the size of a postage stamp. We optimistically put our names down for an allotment in East Kilbride, and had sat on the waiting list for four years when I stumbled across a poster in the butcher’s window in January 2009 asking if people would be interested in a community garden. I eagerly signed up, joined the committee, and the rest is history. The garden opened in May 2010, and it is such a wonderful place of peace and refuge from the stresses of everyday life. I can literally spend hours there, whether it be tending my raised bed, helping out with the planting and maintenance of the crops in the polytunnel, or volunteering with site maintenance with friends. We get a lot of visitors from other garden schemes, environmental groups, schools and social care organisations and are very much seen as a flagship garden in Scotland. We are so, so lucky to have such a valuable resource in the community and I am extremely proud to have been involved with the committee since the very start.

2. If you could change one thing about that place, what would it be?

Despite having the community garden, and the wonderful Scarecrow Festival, I would love to see a greater sense of ‘old-fashioned’ community spirit within the village. The village is set in the commuter belt, and a huge amount of its inhabitants seems to come home of an evening and lock their doors, rather than get involved in the social aspect of the village. We also have the issue of social divide – at the top of the village are the multi-million pound houses where the footballers live, yet we also have the ‘sink estates’ (where I live) that face the all too common issues of unemployment, poor housing, trouble-making and general social stagnation. There is a situation where some of the richer residents do not wish to mix with others, but the opposite is also true. When we set up the community garden, we hoped that it would inspire people from the estates to come along and grow their own food, to save money and improve what they were eating; but there was a disappointingly low uptake. Sadly, many of the residents felt they would ‘not be welcome’ at what they perceived to be another middle-class, rather pretentious, scheme. Mingling, as I do, with both ends of the social spectrum, the ‘them and us’ attitude I do find extremely frustrating at times.

3. What are you hoping for from 2013?

I would really like to see some more pro-active help for Fin’s ‘issues’ which, I suspect, will be diagnosed as Attention Deficit Disorder. At the moment, I feel that we are just being pushed around from pillar to post, with nobody other than myself prepared to take any responsibility for his development, both educational and emotional. It is an awful lot to take on by myself, but I am prepared to fight tooth and nail to ensure that he is as happy and fulfilled as possible in his learning environment. Anything else, really, is a bonus. This year is all about Fin.

4. What is your favourite thing to eat for breakfast?

I am a terrible breakfast skipper, I confess. I used to feel as though I couldn’t stomach food until at least 10am. Now I have temporarily given up the sherbets, I am waking hungry and pouring over The Breakfast Lady’s blog for inspiration. On the rare occassions I do eat breakfast currently, it is usually weekends; and I love nothing more than a soft white breakfast roll with bacon (preferably Ayrshire), black pudding and a tattie scone. With just a smidging of ketchup.

5. Who is your ideal breakfast companion (not including your partner or family)?

I think there is only one answer to this – The Breakfast Lady!

My five nominees

Jade at The Natural Mummy Files. Jade and I have been friends for years, though I have never been fortunate enough to meet her in person. We met through the now sadly defunct RaisingKids.co.uk and Jade was one of those people who always had time to help other mums, and offered great advice. She still does offer fantastic advice on all elements of natural parenting, including breastfeeding, babywearing, baby-led weaning and home-schooling; as well as living a green lifestyle. I don’t know where she finds the hours in the day, frankly, but she’s a real inspiration.

Jessie at The Dull Roar Philosophy – Tasmanian super-mum, brilliantly entertaining blog, and it is heartwarming to know that life down-under can be as equally chaotic as it is here!

Mrs Flibble at Sticking Plasters For The Soul – MrsF is another of those wonderful souls I adore, but who hasn’t had the misfortune of meeting me yet. Home-schooler, Spong collector, prolific crafter and sweariest person on Facebook. She rocks!

Diary of a Half Way To Seventy Year Old – I followed this blog because MrsF made me do it. I don’t really know much about who this girl is, but she is absolutely hilarious. And very, very wise.

Mandy at Chateau Moorhen – One of the most beautiful and sumptuous blogs I have ever read, with some absolutely stunning photography. She doesn’t think anyone reads her blog. She’s wrong.

My Five Questions

1. What, if anything, have you done that you have later regretted?

2. What do you consider to be your worst habit?

3. What is your favourite thing to do to relax?

4. If you could travel back in time and spend a year living in another time, what era would you choose and why?

5. Post up one picture that you feel defines your 2012

Now…I do hope that I have done this right. This blog post looks a little weird without any pictures, so here is a random picture just for the hell of it.

Me doing my community garden pootling thang.