Aubrey's meme

I don't usually do memes but this one is infectious.  Here are the rules:

1.  Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.

2.  People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post the rules.

3.  At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.

4.  Don't forget to leave them a comment on their blog and tell them they've been tagged, and to come back and read your blog for the whole story...

Facts (random, I am trying to keep these interesting...)

1.  I can't give up biting my nails.  They don't look that bad so I've never really worried about giving up.  I actually don't like having long nails either, it makes me feel ill, in the same way that having long hair makes me feel ill.

2.  I don't like long hair - on men or women.  I have tried having long hair myself but I hate the feeling of having it down.  If I am on the bus or subway and a stranger's hair touches me I feel physically ill.  I also hate it if I have random hairs stuck to my coat.  Weirdly though, this only counts when it is human hair.  I have no problem at all with animal hair, even horse.

3.  I am one-quarter Sorbian.  The Sorbs are apparently a slavic minority group from north east Germany.  They were persecuted at different times in history.  This is as much as I know about them.  When my sister worked in Poland they thought she was Polish.  My Grandmother (she of the Sobian parents) hated the fact that she was German and not even a 'proper one' at that.  So she pretended it wasn't there and traced her husband, my Grandfather's lineage back to the Mayflower and claimed it as hers.  I like the idea of having a secret family history that isn't even that secret.  I don't think it makes me interesting, but one day I would like to find out more about it.

4.  I never really want to travel outside of the West.  I don't think I have any business going anywhere else.  It irks me when people go to India or China or something and act like they have found the answer to life itself.  It's patronising and orientalist and I don't like it.  You don't have to leave your bed to go on the longest journey and 'find yourself.'  Read a book, listen to music, it's all there.  We are all just brains with bodies.  Travel might broaden the mind, but other stuff does the job just as well and doesn't damage the environment/expolit people in the 3rd World.  I've had lots of arguments with people about this.  I know that tourism supports economies overseas but really it mainly supports the fat cats and the ordinary people don't usually benefit.

5.  Anyway, on a lighter note, I was talking to my sister yesterday and we were saying how nice it was that we have always had each other.  (Well, she has always had me, I had my parents to myself for 2 years.)  Our brother is like an only child because we are so much older than he is.  He reacts badly to people touching his toys or distracting him from a computer game.  This is because no-one has ever a) made him drink tabasco sauce, b) thought his goldfish might like to see out of the window and removed it from the tank, c) made him eat a slug, d) trapped him behind a door and slammed it repeatedly, e) thrown a jam jar at his head, f) peed on him, g) made him climb the scaffolding outside their house, h) made up a bucket full of wet mud, taken all their clothes off, covered themselves in mud and gone round all the neighbours' houses asking for money with him, or g) taped over his favourite video with one episode of My Two Dads and then whatever was on there for another three hours.  All of these things are important aspects of growing up and it never did us any harm.

6.  I still have my engagement ring from when I got engaged when I was eighteen.  It cost £109 from Ernest Jones and it has a sapphire and six tiny diamonds.  I look at it about once a year and feel glad that I am not wearing it now.

7.  I have been run over by bicycles quite a lot.  I don't think I am very good at crossing the road.  Luckily I have only been hit by a stationary car.  I guess I walked into that one.

8.  I really like Christmas pop songs.  My favourites are 'Last Christmas' by Wham and 'Wonderful Christmastime' by Paul Macartney.  Don't tell anyone.

I am passing this meme onto anyone who wants to do it - and I hope you can think of more interesting things than I can.