Over a month and half ago, Amber tagged me for a “seven facts about myself” meme. I was inordinately excited by this first-ever tagging, but the problem was it occurred the day before I went to Paris, which translates into the day before the toe spiralled into hospital-worthy crankiness. In amongst the ensuing anxiety, determination-to-endure, and euphoria that marked my last month of travelling… I maybe forgot about the meme a little bit.

Je suis no longer in Paris. Le sigh.

I remembered about the meme at 2am last night. I had just popped out of bed to open my bedroom door and turn on the lights in the hall, in the hopes that the three enormous moths carrying out an elaborate mating ritual on my ceiling would be attracted to the light and get the dickens out of my room (oh, house-sitting gig, will your joys never end?). Such remembering proved very fortuitous this morning, as I discovered that Simply Life had given me an award (first ever, again!) which also entailed giving a few facts about myself. So here we go*:

1. I love to read. When I was younger, the “naughtiest” thing I’d do was read under the covers with a torch after I’d been tucked into bed. I was also a voracious rereader. I read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books so often that, years later in Year 12, I glanced over at a girl in my class reading Little House in the Big Woods, saw a certain small picture on the page, and said “Oh, that’s the part where Laura climbs a tree with Clarence and wishes she was a boy so that she could wear shiny shoes”. I still remember the gobsmacked look on the girl’s face.

2. I tend to go through phases of being obsessive about a particular snack. Before I went overseas, I would have a bowl of microwaved broad beans every night (which I ate without double-podding). Right now my favourite thing is to roast legumes in the oven until they reach crunchy deliciousness. Chickpeas and kidney beans are pretty good, but I’m in love with roasted lentils.

What's that there? A plate of yum? I think you're right.

3. I miss playing piano and clarinet. I started piano at the age of three and completed my Grade 8 exam in Year 12, and played clarinet from about the age of 10 until the beginning of Year 12. Then uni hit, my piano teacher moved to Mozambique to work at an orphanage, and my music dwindled into the occasional playing-and-singing-to-myself escapism. I’d like to rectify that.

4. The fact I just wrote, rewrote, then deleted.

5. I tend to forget how old I am, and usually have to think about it for a moment when someone asks me my age. I think this is because, all my life, I’ve felt simultaneously older and younger than other people my age.

6. I cross-stitch, and I’m not afraid to admit it. In fact, this could be fun (for me)… why don’t we have a peek at the current state of the one I’m working on, and if anyone’s interested, I could show how it progresses during/after my post-surgery non-movey-movey weeks? Let me know if this is a completely dull idea, though.

It's a little bit scrunched on the left because I don't have an embroidery hoop. Owning an embroidery hoop feels a little too 17th century, even for me.

7. Sparkling mineral water is my beverage of choice. Although very, very occasionally, nothing will do but caffeine-free coke. I blame that on a certain family friend in California – you know who you are.

Detail! So very, very many different shades of blue and purple. I cannot tell you how giddy I was the first day I got to stitch some yellow. It's the little things in life, isn't it?

I know that one is meant to tag other bloggers at the end of a meme/award, but how’s this for a variation: can I tag my readers? I know some of you don’t have blogs, so maybe everyone (blogger or not) could give one or seven fun facts about themselves in the comments? (This would be an awesome time to delurk, too! Wouldn’t it be fun to say hi, silent readers? You know I love you…)

* It was actually a bit tricky to think of these. As Conor once noted, I seem to be pretty candid on this blog, so writing facts like “I enjoy chocolate” or “Sometimes I use too many adjectives” didn’t seem quite cricket.