Tuesday, October 17, 2006

8 things about me.

I got memed by Debra Broughton absolutely ages ago. Sorry, Debra, that it’s taken me so long. Okay. Here are 8 things (apart from it takes me ages to get round to doing these things).

By the way, this meme reminds me of Three Things About Me by Aliya Whiteley, so in honour of Aliya, one of the things below is a lie. A prize to the first person who correctly identifies the lie (sorry Aliya, I’m nicking your idea).

1. I used to have elocution lessons when I was a kid. I come from oop north, you see, and my parents thought it would be a handicap in life having a northern accent. My dad wanted me to be a newsreader. The lessons were given by a gentleman called Mr Heap, who smoked cigarettes with a holder. Very sophisticated. I can almost remember one of the exercises, ‘My father’s car is a Jaguar and Pa drives rather fast. Past drafty barns and something farms pa goes whizzing past….’

2. Also from my childhood, I have my Silver Blades certificate for ice skating. I used to be able to do all sorts of stuff, including going backwards, even had my own skates. Then I didn’t do it for years and years and years and the first time I went on the ice as an adult I was petrified and rubbish.

3. Again from my childhood, I used to go potholing and quite enjoyed it, though I was always relieved to get out. I have never felt tempted to give it a go as an adult.

4. I have long nails on my right hand and short nails on my left. Good for finger pickin’ on the guitar. I have a guitar but I rarely play it these days. I keep my nails trimmed to the requisite lengths just in case.

5. When I was at University my room was next door to that woman off the Late Show, Alison Pearson. You know the one who wrote that book, I Don’t Know How She Does It. That’s the title of the book, by the way, not a comment on her achievements, which are considerable nonetheless.

6. I drink a lot of coffee. In fact, my coffee-drinking habit provides my family with a theme when it comes to present buying. I have received coffee scented notebooks, coffee tins, coffee mugs, coffee coasters, coffee T-shirts, coffee clips and, um, coffee.

7. I once met the actress who voices Wendy in Bob The Builder and got her to ‘talk Wendy’ to me.

8. In my twenties I was quite often mistaken for Timmy Mallett by little kids.


Okay. So which one is the lie? A prize of a vintage, collectable copy of the sorely missed literary magazine Metropolitan, which also happens to contain one of my short stories goes to the first commenter to spot the lie.

Oh, and I think I have to nominate some more people. Not sure how many but I imagine it might be 8. Apologies if you've already been done...

Steve Augarde, Matt Curran, Fiction Bitch (The Tart of Fiction), Samantha Grosser, Lucy McCarraher, Nik's blog, Cate Sweeney, Charlie Williams

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oy, get your own idea! But thanks for the plug, nevertheless.

And, since I'm here, I vote for fact number one as the lie. I never win these things, as you know, but feel I should take part since it's kinda linked to me, if you see what I mean...

Aliya

Anonymous said...

Interesting list, Roger!
I'm voting for number five, applying the logic that even in mixed halls in those days, the sexes were still segregated by corridors or stairwells at least...
(Unless your uni was far more progressive than mine of course!)

mattfwcurran.com Web Admin said...

You've nominated me? Bugger. Okay... I'll get round to doing the "8 things about me" bit at the end of the week.

Er... I think I would go for number 4. Those long finger-nails on one hand kinda makes you sound like Freddy Kruger...

One-two Roger's coming for you... Three-four...

kathryn said...

Hmm. Numero 1 sounds a bit extravagant. Is that the lie?

Julia Buckley said...

Oh, oh, the last one - the Timmy Mallet one - is fake I reckon. Although, it sounds so funny I almost hope I'm wrong...

Nik Perring said...

Number 3.

Do I have to nominate when I post my eight things?

Nik - off looking for eight friends!

Roger Morris said...

keep 'em coming. I'm saying nuffin. Yet.

Froosh Bamboo said...

I think it's number four. Although the point about halls in uni is a good one. Five then, no four, no five, no.

Okay. Four.

Anonymous said...

I vote 7, though as a former guitar player, i'm sceptical about 4. I mean , what's the point of trimming nails when your fingers would get ripped to pieces on the fretboard? (I'm still voting for 7 though.)

Anonymous said...

Roger's such a tease!
But the key to number 4 is this: is Roger left or right handed or ambidextrous? And does it matter when it comes to guitar playing?
I was really tempted by the skating one, less so by the pot-holing one.
Thanks for supporting my logic froosh bamboo. I'm still going with number 5. (He didn't spell her name correctly either! She is Allison with 2 "l"s, but my memory of halls is that no one had their name on the door and no one cared anyway!)
However, Roger carefully did not say "halls". I just assumed that, as undergrads don't have any other type of "room", or do they/did they? Depends on where you went perhaps. Cambridge, Roger?
Thanks for the tease.
Apols for the forensic application, but then, I am a crime fiction reader!

birdandbuffalo said...

Most revealing, dude.

There's a lot of this 8 Me-Me going round. You might like to drop by and see what our 8 Me-Me's...

Birdy

http://birdandbuffalotails.blogspot.com

Nik Perring said...

Right. I've done mine. I'm not sure how interesting they are though.

And when are we going to find out who's won? The suspense, Rog. The suspense!

Nik.

Roger Morris said...

So 2 and 6 have got no votes yet. Hmm. I know it's very feasable that I could like coffee, but it's equally feasable that I could hate it, isn't it? A bit of a pointless lie, I know, but they all are. And why does everyone believe the ice skating thing???

So I'm not saying yet. Only to say that the staircase I was on at Uni was mixed. So you can't blow five out on that basis. Of course, it may still not be true, but I just wanted to point out that the logic is based on a false premise. And yes, cfr, it was Cambridge. How very clever of you! (A college system - I was at Clare, mixed college, mixed staircases.)

Debi said...

I vote for number 9 ...

Anonymous said...

I think you still go puddle splashing or potholing as you call it. Who can resist a good pothole. Well I can, but then I don't remember it that fondly. TK

Unknown said...

No 7, because if it is true then it is very poor attempt at a chat-up line!!

rashbre said...

The fingernails one is the most suspicious. As a writer I'm sure it would also mess with the keyboards having different feelings in each hand.

I did the debra thing also.

Its here although mine is a bit of a cheat, really.

Best
rashbre

Roger Morris said...

Thanks everyone for having a go.

As I say in my latest post, we now have a winner. Dang, I would have got away with it if it wasn't for that pesky crimeficreader.