10 things you didn’t know about me

behind you!!!

I never* do memes but since I suddenly have a few more followers than I used to, when another dad tagged me in this one, my first thoughts were of solidarity and putting some facts about me out there.

1. I have a terrible memory. For names, faces, times, places and pretty much everything. I can’t even remember who tagged me in this meme, and that’s after trawling through my @ feed in twitter. The list of things I’ve forgotten about or got wrong are legion: I’ve turned up to book group a week early (and had a pint on my own by mistake) as well as completely forgetting about it as well. I’ve had emails. telephone calls and tweets asking me where I am and I’ve also had entire conversations for longer than you’d think possible with people who obviously know me but who I have no idea who they are.
2. I don’t work in IT. To anyone who works in IT this will be abundantly obvious. I can do a few things on a command line, I’ve two netbooks with a linux distro on them but I’m an enthusiastic dabbler more than anything. The number of bloggers/tweeters I’ve met in the flesh who’ve expressed surprise I’m an accountant rather than something in IT is mind boggling.
3. I’ve had this blog for over two years now but the first website I created was called “”Swing your Pants”. I was at uni up in Lancaster and we did a 2nd year project which included designing a website. I did it on a Mac using a programme called Webweaver in…………1994 and yes, I did use the blink tag.
4. Like many people I’ve written a book. Well most of one, I wrote 70,000 words of a surreal comedy and then got stuck. You can read some extracts from it at my writing blog.
5. Several years BC (before children) I qualified as a BSAC diver. That’s scuba to you. And scuba (good  pub quiz fact people) stands for self contained underwater breathing apparatus. I’ve mostly dived in the UK but did have a jolly pleasant holiday to one of the smaller islands off the coast of Tenerife a few years back. When you’re 30m underwater with another 30m of water below you, the feeling of aloneness and quiet is awesome.
6. Until I hit university I was musically naive, my record collection consisted of some chart rubbish, a Dr Who themes CD and some Def Leppard. I got a proper musical education whilst at university and now love music. I’m a big Pink Floyd fan but also love the Who, Led Zepplin and a shed load of other stuff. Currently I’m listening to some Zero 7.
7. My car is a bright yellow W reg Seat Ibiza. I’ve had it since new and it was really bought as an antidote to having owned two red cars and standing in car parks attempting to unlock entirely the wrong car. People laugh at it and the wife is ashamed to be seen in it but it does the trick. I do so little mileage nowadays it’s not worth selling, especially as it needs about twice it’s value in work done to it to make it saleable.
8. Before wifey and I bought our first house together I’d never even wielded a screwdriver. Now I’ve wired up satellite dishes, built sheds, hung wallpaper, wall mounted televisions and more. I’m cacked handed and never tend to get my levels right but I’m enthusiastic :)
9. I once spent the evening eating cat biscuits in the mistaken belief they were German snacks. It was a Eurovision Song Contest party and I didn’t notice everyone else was steering clear of them. They weren’t too bad if you really must know.
10. I got dysentery on holiday in Morroco once. Poor old wifey had to endure it all first hand as we had a en-suite that was so small I couldn’t actually shut the door to the bathroom. We were abandoned by our tour group and left to find our way back to the UK. How I managed to get on a flight without filling my pants will forever be a mystery and our doctor was suitably impressed when we returned.