Six weird things about myself (meme)

Earlier this week, I got tagged -- along with six other individuals she considers to be "strange and interesting people"! -- to reveal six weird things about myself by Bibliobibuli's Sharon Bakar.

According to the rules of the meme: People who are tagged should write a blog post of 6 weird things about them as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

So here goes (and please don't say that you've not been warned!):-

1. I've not worn a skirt in at least five years, and a dress in eleven and a half years.

Even as a child, I didn't care much for wearing skirts and dresses. And this before one fateful incident which saw my dress get caught on one of the spikes of the then spiked front gate of my family residence as I attempted to climb over it, with the result that I was left dangling fearfully in mid air for the better part of a few long minutes!

Then, much later, when I was a student at Beloit College, I used to get annoyed by it being so that every time I put on a skirt, I would get people asking me whether I was going out on a date that evening (and if so, with whom)! So much so that it gradually was the case that I only ever wore skirts on laundry day, when I had run out of clean pairs of trousers and shorts to wear...but since I've not had days in which I've run out of trousers and shorts to wear in years... ;)

2. I organized Communal Screams at my college.

At boarding school in England, a friend took me to an isolated end of the school grounds one day and introduced me to the wonders of destressing by screaming. In my first semester at college in Wisconsin, I decided to take the screaming to a new level by having a whole host of others scream with me at the same time for a fixed period. After getting the permission from the college authorities to organize such an event at midnight on the eve of Finals Week, the Beloit College Communal Scream was born.

Imagine, if you will, what seemed like a whole college screaming in unison for five minutes at a fixed time and place. And individuals being inspired to add to the experience by doing such as recording their screams in advance on tape and then playing the tape at full blast over their hi-fi stereo's speakers or augmenting the act of screaming by scattering their term papers from the windows of their dorm rooms...

It may all have seemed like bedlam to those not in the know. Except that it actually was organized bedlam. So organized, in fact, that before too long, the college actually took to funding the Communal Scream (and paying for the printing of the posters and for the artist who designed the posters)! As an American liberal arts college student -- like I was at the time -- might say, "how seriously cool was that?!" ;D

3. I used to think that I wanted to have my ashes scattered at Highbury after I died.

For those who don't know, Highbury = Highbury Stadium = the home of Arsenal Football Club (the English association football club and team I've supported since 1978) until the Gunners moved in the summer of 2006 to the far more modern plus larger capacity Ashburton Grove (AKA Emirates Stadium). And I used to fantasize that if my ashes were scattered there after I died, my ghost could maybe help Arsenal by doing such as trip up opponents and help block those of their shots that otherwise might have been goal-bound!

However, Highbury is now in the process of being converted into luxury apartments and penthouses and, as yet, I don't feel even half as much love for Arsenal's new home as I did for its old one. Perhaps, in time, I will come to yearn to have my ashes scattered over at the Emirates Stadium. But I think this development will need to involve at least as many visits there as the number of pilgrimages that took me to Highbury. Therefore, in the meantime, I'm open to suggestions as to alternative places to have my ashes scattered after my death! ;S

4. I ate 96 chapatis in three and half weeks in Kenya.

As mentioned in a previous blog entry, I went to Kenya in the summer 1986 at the invitation of a friend and stayed with her family for the bulk of my visit there. But what I haven't written about until now is how much I loved my Kenyan Indian friend's mother's cooking. And in particular, how much I loved her chapatis.

So much did I love those home-made flat breads that every meal that we ate in my friend's Nairobi home, be it breakfast, lunch, tea or dinner, I would choose the chapati option over, say, rice or Western style bread. Before too long, this came to be noticed by my friend's mother and the rest of her family, and they decided it would be fun to count the number of chapatis I ate during my stay in Kenya.

Later on, as the end of my visit neared, that motherly cooking genius proceeded to announce that I wouldn't be allowed to leave Kenya until I had eaten 100 of her chapatis! Alas, despite my valiant efforts, I never did eat 100 of her chapatis -- at least, not on that particular visit. Still, the woman did generously decide to allow me to head home without having achieved that feat. Though not before enquiring only half in jest, as I got ready to head to the airport on the final day of my visit: "Are you sure you don't want me to pack four chapatis for you to eat on the plane?" ;D

5. I was bitten by tsetse flies in Tanzania.

As also has been mentioned previously, I spent two years of my life in Tanzania (Kenya's southern neighbor). Towards the end of my stay in East Africa, I decided to treat myself by going on a wildlife safari that took in visits to the ecologically diverse Lake Manyara National Park, the truly vast and animal-filled Serengeti National Park, the seriously awesome Ngorongoro Crater and surrounding Conservation Area, and elephant-rich Tarangire National Park.

For the most part, this wildlife safari was a wonderful experience. However, even in this modern day and age, this kind of experience is not without its problems and perils. For example, at one point, one of our Land Rover's tyres developed a puncture and, since an unpunctured spare tyre couldn't be found for miles, the car had to limp along very slowly for a few hours.

Then there were the tsetse flies which dogged us for much of our stay in Tarangire. And, I found, were well capable of biting through layers of clothing, socks and safari leather boots! While these insects' bites were painful and thus bad enough, what worried me more was that they are known carriers of the incurable disease popularly known as sleeping sickness. Fortunately, however, it does look like the tsetse flies that bit me weren't carriers of that fearsome disease... ;S

6. I have lots of dreams in which I'm doing things like reading, writing, watching movies and -- these days -- blogging.

In conversations with various friends, I've been told that they don't dream much. Or, at least, don't normally remember their dreams. I, on the other hand, feel like hardly a night goes by without my having at least one dream.

Something else in which I differ from many of my friends is that they tend to have -- or, at least, only remember having -- dreams which tend to be really unusual. Meanwhile, I seem to be stuck with having generally mundane dreams. Ones in which I do a lot of what I do in real life -- e.g., read, write, watch movies and, increasingly, blog and check my blog's site meter! I wonder: Is this because I don't have much of an imagination; or is it maybe a sign that I'm generally happier with my life than most? ;b

In any event, here's going ahead and tagging the individuals behind the following blogs* and requesting that they divulge six weird things about themselves on their blogs:-

Falling Stones are Not Heavy
Morsels of Peach Souffle
The Places You Will Go
Cultural Snow

Now off I go, as the meme's rules direct, to leave "you are tagged" comments over at their blogs! :)

* Addendum: As per the rules of the meme, this group originally was six in number but two individuals have asked to be "let off" having to write six weird things about themselves. However, if there are any volunteers to replace them from among this blog's readers who have their own blogs, please let me know and I'll happily add two of you to this list!

** 26th April update: The game and interesting individual behind Collecting Tokens has volunteered to be included on my list of "taggees" for this meme. Here's looking forward to seeing her "weird" revelations over on her blog at some point in the near future! :)