75 Things You Probably Didn’t Want To Know About Me

Last Revised – February 2009

1. I’m a woman with a transsexual background – that’s the current politically correct phrase, but it’s a term I like because it gets the emphasis just right. For me changing over was a phase of my life which, as a young woman still, is now very firmly in my past. Nevertheless, it has been a defining ‘feature’ of my life, and has done so much to make me the person I am today.
2. I’m also a lesbian, but I have been attracted to several men. Sexuality is never as black and white as people would like it to be.
3. Another defining event of my life was the sudden death of my Mum at 14.
4. My Mum’s Mum was English. I didn’t know that until a couple of years ago. I was devastated when I found out!
5. I once climbed a climbing wall, but only got up about 15 feet.
6. I’ve cuddled a baby tiger – its fur felt like an old carpet – and a Vogon.
7. My favourite ice cream is raspberry ripple.
8. I would like to learn another language, possibly Thai.
9. A few years ago I spent a month in Bangkok, I thought it was paradise.
10. On the way back from Thailand I spent a night with a friend in Dubai, for the most part I found it desolate but I will always remember the beautiful beetle in the airport parking lot!
11. I’m vegetarian.
12. I seem to have become a perpetual Open University student.
13. My favourite novel is The Infernal by Kim Wilkins. It really struck a cord when I first read it, I was 20 at the time and just starting to come to terms with who I am.
14. Second favourite novel is Cereus Blooms At Night by Shani Mootoo, the most compelling and beautiful story I’ve ever read.
15. Some of my favourite movies – The Blues Brothers, Alien 3, Contact, House of Flying Daggers, Sweeney Todd.
16. My favourite singers are Nina Simone and Shirley Manson (from Garbage).
17. I’ve got a wonky big toe on my right foot where I dropped a shelf on it.
18. Someone once told me they wanted to set me on fire because of my gender. I credit that event with the strong passion I now have for human rights.
19. One time at a punk concert I got up on the stage and moshed with the band.
20. My brother took me to see ET at the cinema when I was around 2 or 3, and I was so scared I screamed the place down and he had to take me out and in to another film, An American Tail. The first film I can ever remember seeing.
21. I have a thing about cardboard boxes, I don’t seem to be able to bring myself to ever throw them away.
22. I’m allergic to dust mites and cats.
23. I was shot at once as a child.
24. The only record (vinyl LP) I’ve ever owned was The Wombles.
25. I’m just old enough to remember a time when I thought everyone who owned a mobile phone was a tosser. Oh how times have changed!
26. In school I once bullied a girl. Sorry Linda.
27. I’ve been studying the Daoist Physical Arts, Lishi, since the summer of last year, which includes forms of Tai Chi and Kung Fu.
28. I’m terrified of bees and wasps, and have a strong dislike of spiders.
29. As a child I had two pets rabbits and a hamster, not at the same time.
30. I think Christopher Eccleson is brilliant in everything he does, and he blew away every other Doctor before or since.
31. I’m a MacHead, I love my MacBook and my old lime green iBook.
32. I take a special pleasure in tickling Charlotte’s feet, it never gets old.
33. I don’t feel like I knew my Dad. He died when I was 20.
34. And I wish I had known my Uncle John better as well. He was an ambulance driver all his life and I have so much respect for him.
35. So much so that for a long time I wanted to become a paramedic, but a miserable week in an NHS hospital put an end to that.
36. The greatest TV show of all time was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I will not accept any argument to the contrary.
37. I’ve been in love twice.
38. My favourite animals are bunnies, hamsters, tigers, penguins and dragons.
39. My favourite painting is called The Abbey in the Oak Forest by Casper David Friedrich.
40. I once woke up during an operation. I could hear the doctors and nurses talking, I could feel them poking about and doing things and this beautiful pink fuzzy light, but no pain. It was actually very cool!
41. The first night I slept in a real bed, aged two, I rolled off and broke my arm.
42. I once build a bridge out of newspaper and sellotape that was strong enough to walk across.
43. My most prized possession is a big fluffy Chinese dragon called Monster. There are a few photos of her on here.
44. I’ve made out with an old age pensioner – you know who you are! ;o)
45. In High School I won a prize for my fiction writing which felt brilliant.
46. I once passed two tiny blood clots in my pee. I don’t recommend it.
47. I like living close to water. In Blackpool I lived a stone’s throw from the promenade and now I’m only a few blocks up from the Tyne.
48. For a long time I wanted to live on either a narrow boat in the UK or else a wee 30-40ft sailing yacht somewhere on the coast of Spain.
49. I only learned to swim in the summer of 2007 when my best friend, also a Charlotte, hurt her ankle and she needed someone to help her get in and out of the pool. You could say I took to it like a fish to water…
50. My favourite colours are deep reds like scarlet or ruby.
51. I didn’t lose my virginity until I was 22, but it was with someone I loved.
52. I like to think that I’m above reality TV, but I do get hooked on the odd one such as Beauty and the Geek and Mobile Act Unsigned.
53. I have a touch of OCD, I can’t stand other people’s germs unless I’m very close to them.
54. I wanted to join the RAF when I was a teenager, I though it would “toughen me up” at a time when I hadn’t accepted myself.
55. I have very bad balance, which I blame on having small feet in proportion to my height.
56. I passed both parts of my driving test first time.
57. I collect fluffy logo bugs.
58. A hair dryer once blew up in my hands, setting my t-shirt on fire! I have a wee scar on my belly form that one.
59. I believe that intelligent life and civilizations have / do exist elsewhere in the universe, but that we will never make contact with any of them.
60. My favourite kind of chocolate is white, especially Nestle Crunch bars.
61. I don’t think I’ve ever been in the same job more than two years, I’m always looking to advance and get ahead. (Sssh… Don’t tell my new boss!)
62. I’ve abseiled down a six storey building.
63. My favourite food is Italian, especially a nice hot spicy pizza.
64. And my favourite drink is ginger beer.
65. I can’t stand girly-girly shoes, give me a big comfy pair of Cats any day.
66. One of the things I hate the most is trying to walk on ice.
67. I would like to learn how to sing and play an instrument one day, when I have more time.
68. The first album I bought through iTunes was Rebel Songs by Goldblade.
69. I like horror and sci-fi.
70. I don’t think I’ve ever gone out of my way to properly watch either a sunrise or a sunset.
71. I have quite a number of screws and metal plates holding my jaws together. Can’t remember exactly how many now.
72. I’ve been on a ship once, a ferry to Arran and home.
73. I quite like Bryan Adams, but I assure you I feel suitably guilty.
74. I have a superpower – I have the ability to smell cheese from a distance of up to five miles, a power inherited from my great-great-great grandmother, who was the child of an illicit liaison between her mother and a mouse.
75. Okay, I made that last one up. Was trying to get to 100, but I think I’ll give up here.