just another morning here

I haven’t done the last meme thing that I was tagged for and along comes another one. Lucy tagged me a while back on the ‘blogs that make you think‘, and Helen yesterday on the ’8 things about you‘.

To be honest I seem to have stopped thinking too much, it’s obviously a defence mechanism, but hey it works for me. So to be receiving a thinking blogger tag was ironic to say the least, never mind then trying to find blogs that make me think when I’ve taken to avoiding them! I also don’t really read as many blogs as I used to! I did think it would be fun to list some that make me think ‘not reading this drivel!’ and move on – no-one said exactly what we were supposed to think about, did they?!! ahem!
Anyway here are my 5, they’re not really tags, just naming the blogs that make me stop and think, that challenge my thinking in one way or another ….

1. Sometimes it’s Peaceful
2. Green House by the Sea
3. Leaving Munster
4. Sand in the Gears
5. Real Live Preacher

And now to the 8 things – again, tricky. What sort of 8 things?!! Just can’t do these without some sort of guidance!! Okay, amusing myself here. 8 things with the number 8 in them?

1. My middle child is 8 years old.
2. I have been known to be a UK size 8. Not at the moment though . Must work on this.
3. I have been pregnant 8 times.
4. There are 8 drawers in my chest of drawers. (p.s. I hate it when people mis-spell ‘chest of drawers’ as ‘chest of draws’, it must be the most frequent mis-spelling I notice on freecycle)
5. Steve and I have lived in 8 houses since we got married 12 years ago.
6. I drove 8 different cars yesterday (my Vito van, an Escort, 2 Ford C-maxes, a Daewoo Tacuma, a Peugeot 206, a Renault Grand Scenic and a Peugeot 406 estate – the Grand Scenic definitely the nicest of the lot)
7. In 8 years’ time I will be 40!
8. Scraping the bottom of the barrel here and wondering why I even started on this … there are 8 villagers living in my Animal Crossing town!

Tags for this (yes, 8 things with the number 8 in them, please!) go to Neil, Ivonne, Mim, Esther, Ruth, Jo, Chris F at the Beans, and Chris P.

Tagged by Mrs Monsterteeny (thanks a bunch!)

Six weird things about me.
THE RULES
Each player of this game starts with the ‘six weird things about you’ blog post. People who get tagged need to write their own six weird things post and state the rules clearly. At the end of the post tag six more people and don’t forget to leave a comment on their blog to tell them they have been tagged and tell them to read your blog.

• (1) I like to eat pickled red cabbage with Shepherd’s Pie. I didn’t realise how weird this was until I moved out of home (where it was normal) and haven’t yet met any other people apart from my immediate family who do. I have tried converting a few people to the practice, but most of them think it is just plain weird.
• (2) I have a slight obsessive compulsive side to my character – this has led to me doing weird things such as counting hama bead colour frequencies and graphing them (for fun), going through my entire blog to categorise it (I’m in the middle of tagging it all at the moment as well), not to mention my flickr photos which I recently re-tagged – and that’s probably just the tip of the iceberg! I suspect it is this which has led to (3)
• (3) I have an alternate life in a computer game. Which I have played for over a year now, and I am still playing because I *have* to complete the catalogue I keep records of all sorts of things in the game and have so much data for turnip prices that I should be at the point of coming up with a formula for price spikes soon … or maybe it’s just random!
• (4) I really hate not wearing shoes. Just don’t feel properly dressed without them – and you never know what you might step on
• (5) I like country music – and I’m proud of it
• (6) I will not go to sleep if the wardrobe is open. Once I had a nightmare about the clothes in the wardrobe coming to life and chasing me around a house, wanting to stab me with knives, and ever since then it’s been another of those little things that has to be right before I can relax!

Tagging: Jo (to get my own back), Miriam (she still hasn’t done the last one), Esther, Mark & Heidi, Russ (he has plenty of time at work, and blogging’s part of his job description ) and Chorna

nb: I HATE these things usually, but I’m giving in as (a) it was Jo who tagged me and I like her , and (b) I haven’t blogged much over Christmas!

Name three things:

that you had hanging on your tree:
• baubles – red, gold and silver only!
• hama decorations made by the kids & I a couple of years ago
• salt dough decorations that Abbie made at school this year

that you’ve eaten / drunk lots of:
• Bristol Cream sherry! But which bottle bank do you put blue bottles into?
• chocolate
• um … cranberry sauce? No-one else liked my home-made one! Haven’t really been too excessive with anything this year!

that you didn’t do this year but hope to do next year:
• break with tradition somehow
• have a real Christmas tree – or at least a new fake one!
• something thoughtful for Steve

favourite presents this year:
• New Madeleine Peyroux CD
• New Covent Garden Soup Recipe Books – 2 different ones from 2 different people – do I talk about soup too much or something?! Made the first one the other day – Beetroot and Rhubarb – it was yummy
• Apple Chilli Jelly from Joe
• this list is obviously excluding anything already blogged about, or anything that was a joint present with anyone else – our Wii has been a pretty cool family pressy even though I haven’t really had a look-in!

that you’re glad you didn’t get for Christmas:
• books I’d already read
• books I didn’t want to read
• too much stuff generally

Name 3 people to tag:
• Alison – because she hasn’t blogged about Christmas either and I know she hates these things too …
• Neil – because I’m tired of his other lists
• Miriam – because it’s been too long since her last post!

While I’m here I’ll post a few of my favourite photos from Christmas this year, and then I must go, as we have a New Year’s Eve / Anna & Abbie’s joint birthday party going on tonight (whose daft idea was that?!) and I need to get back to organising the chaos!