100 things

Since this blog primarily serves as a front for my secret pal 10 dealings, I thought I should write somemore about myself (since it is no longer just people I know (hi Erin!) that read this blog) (which is why I did some of those meme things) and so today, I'm going to write 100 things about myself.

1. As a child, I was called by both my given names - Anna Ruth. Nowdays, no one calls me that except a few family members. I'm not really fussed though. Either is fine with me.

2. Ruth was my great grandmothers name. My mum's cousin is also named Ruth.

3. I was born on a Monday. The only reason I was born on a Monday is because the obstetrician didn't want to deliver me over the weekend. After being induced, I had to be delivered by C-section as my mum is 4'11 and I was 10 pounds.

4. Due to my size, before doing an ultrasound, they threatened my parents that I would be twins.

5. Considering my mum's height, I've done pretty well.

6. When I was little, I wanted to be a flight attendant. I think this was because I love flying in aeroplanes.

7. Throughout school I wanted to be a flight attendant, a vet, an accountant, an economist and a senator.

8. However, I now think I have the best job in the world for me (working as an accountant for a Christian organisation).

9. Although my ultimate dream job would be to be in the chorus of a musical (although I suspect it wouldn't be as ideal as I dream it would be).

10. I did Calisthenics (like Physical Culture) for 6 years and Ballet for 9.25 years. I loved it but after my ballet school closed down, it was hard to find another one that fit.

11. I used to be so flexible. I used to be able to do a perfect slip on my right. I could even shuffle my hits around because I'd worked at it. Now, I can barely do anything. I'm so weak too. I should really do pilates.

12. After I quit ballet, I took up hockey.I played for 7 seasons.

13. But I stopped playing too as training clashed with bible study and games clashed with Sunday school.

14. At the moment, my usual weekly exercise consists of cyclying on the weekends in Centennial Park.

15. I would like to go swimming more often, but after work I never feel up to it.

16. I had never been overseas until I was 16.

17. My first trip overseas was to New Zealand (which is hardly overseas). It was for a school music tour.

18. The first things I noticed that were different were the cost of petrol was over a dollar a litre (it wasn't in Australia at the time) and the gold coins were the other way around. (In NZ, the $1 coin is smaller than the $2 coin - makes sense, doesn't it?)

19. The first thing, my friend Therese and I bought was a TV guide because the TV stations showed no resemblance to Australian channels.

20. Since then, I have been to Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. This was all on a cruise in Jan/Feb 2004. I have yet to leave the Southern Hemisphere (and feel no worse off for it).

21. In Australia, I've been to all the Eastern states - Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania - as well as the Austrlian Captial Territory (not a state) and South Australia (not in the east). I haven't made it to Western Australia or the Northern Territory yet, although I would like to go.

22. I don't have a travel bug. I am quite content to stay home. I would much rather have a holiday in a little house up the coast, than a big tourist junket.

23. If I was to go somewhere, I would much prefer to stay there for a while so I could see alot and experience the place.

24. I went to Melbourne for the first time last year and loved it. We were only there for the weekend, but I really appreciated it as I got to see so many things that I had heard about but never seen. This is slightly different to my other travel bugs as Melbourne is not very different to Sydney and so 'experiencing' it wasn't such a big thing.

25. We stayed at this apartment in South Bank and we could see the 'G' from our window. Perfect for praying to 5 times a day =p (The 'G' (the Melbourne Cricket Ground) is considered the Mecca of Australian Rules Football)

26. While we were there, we got to watch my beloved Sydney Swans beat Carlton at the Telstra dome.

27. I am forever, mixing up Telstra Stadium (in Sydney) with the Telstra dome in Melbourne.

28. I became a Sydney swans member in 2006.

29. However, I had been going for the swans since 1996.

30. I didn't really know much about them, before then.

31. There was a joke, though, in my year 4 school year book that said "What has wings but can't climb a ladder?" "The Sydney Swans." I had to get my dad to explain it to me.

32. Up until I was 8 years old, my family didn't own a car. Somehow, this wasn't an issue.

33. The first car we got was a White Ford Laser, after about 7 years we gave her the name Mabel, after a character in An Ideal Husband and also the female lead in the Pirates of Penzance.

34. My parents traded Mabel in 2 years ago. As they were driving to a car auction, 2 foot of tail pipe fell off the back of her.

35. Our new car is a Blue Mitsubishi Magna. Her name is Magna Szubanski (after Magda Szubanski, who plays Sharon in Kath and Kim) or Maggie for short.

36. We had to get her engine replaced 6 months after we got her. This is known in our family as the breaking down 5 kms out of Barraba saga. I learnt that there is no ordinary mobile coverage 5kms out of Barraba. There is no mobile coverage in Barraba. There isn't even mobile coverage in Manilla (pop 2000).

37. I can't stand coffee.

38. I don't really like tea either.

39. I do drink Jasmine green tea every day though.

40. I love Chocolate. I really really love chocolate.

41. Actually I probably love most sweet things.

42. I am a huge hoarder. I find it really hard to through away stuff. I have to really rationalise with myself, to justify throughing something away.

43. I think this is because I'm quite nostalgic and like to hold onto the past.

44. I love musicals (which I think explains 9). I love their style and the singing and the dancing. Basically everything about them.

45. I also love Gilbert and Sullivan. I think the Mikado is my favourite although I have a very soft spot for Pirates of Penzance.

46. I think my love of musicals explains my favourite movie, Singin in the Rain.

47. My favourite musical moments (of live performances) are Ol Man River (from Showboat) performed by Dan Tulip Jnr - he has such a great voice and Masquerade (from Phantom of the Opera) - I was just mesmorised by that sence.

48. I am a founding member of the "Fish is Yucky" club. To be a member of this club, you have to not eat seafood of any kind (with very limited exceptions - I do eat nori). You would be surprised how many people out there could join this club.

49. I have a zero spice tolerance. Even something people say isn't spicy, I can find spicy.

50. I'm not allergic to any foods.

51. I do have a reaction/feel nauseas to particular smells such as soaps and teas. Shops like lush are a big no go for me.

52. I'm quite technologically illiterate. I can do the internet and can use software but questions about hardware or why my computer isn't working are way too compicated for me, as are data projectors and any appliance I don't know how to use.

53. I think that's why I made lots of computing friends at uni. They were very handy when my laptop was mucking up, especially one friend, Chris, who could interperate their techno-bable back into English.

54. Throughout my life, I've had lessons in Cantonese, Mandarin, Italian, Japanese, Auslan and Latin and have tried to teach myself a little French. Unfortunately, I am not fluent in any of these languages and so am forced to speak English (and well 'Australian').

55. I once had the gift, for one day, to be able to speak a foreign language. It was an amazing experience for me. My friend, Therese, and I were in Noumea and speaking English was the foreign language.

56. I am facinated with language. I love thinking about words and idioms. I'm currently reading (very slowly) The Adventure of English: A Biography of a Language by Melvyn Bragg. I wonder if I should have done a degree in linguistics.

57. Two of the things I would love to do as extra-circular activities (but most certainly do not have the time for) are to learn the violin and to learn sign language (Auslan).

58. I think I don't actually want to learn the 'violin' as such. I want to play the fiddle - folk tunes, Irish music, that kind of thing.

59. I think Auslan stems from me being a very kinestic person. I learn by doing and I always have to be doing something with my hands. I think that's why I like knitting.

60. Auslan is also a visual and kinestic type of communication as opposed to speech which is oral/aural. I'm not an audio learner at all.

61. I also don't have great hearing either. I have about 80-90% hearing, with my left ear being slightly worse than my right. I often have to repeat what I've heard over in my head and try to deduce what was said. It's quite funny/scary what I actually hear sometime. But I don't need a hearing aid (yet).

62. I have to wear orthodics. I have bowed calves. Due to my size as a baby and my mum's size, I got a bit squashed. I only discovered there was nothing I could do about my rolling (my feet rolling in during ballet lessons) after I stopped doing ballet. I have other small deformities for being squished too. Nothing to worry about though.

63. I wear reading glasses. I have mild astigmatism. Vertical lines are more blurly than horizontal lines. But I can read perfectly fine without them. It just prevents eye strain mainly. It does make things a bit clearer though. I could make words out before and didn't realise they could be clearer until the optometrist put lenses infront of my eyes. It was amazing.

64. I love my sunglasses. I basically can't walk outside without sunglasses on, even in the middle of winter. Somehow, my eyes can't cope.

65. I love looking at skirts. I think I would love to wear them and am so often tempted to but have stopped myself buying them because I don't wear them very often.

66. I bought my first pair of heals two years ago. I managed to go through all my formals without a pair and I borrowed my friend, Therese's, for my 21st year.

67. I love my ugg boots. I would wear them all day everyday in winter if I could. I would wear them to work if that was allowed. I wear them to church and bible study without any qualms.

68. I have this great pair of blue plastic crocodile print sandles/thongs things. I guess they are a little like birkenstocks. I love them because they are backless shoes that I can still wear my orthordics with.

69. I hate generally shoe shopping because I have to wear orthodics in my shoes.

70. Actually I think I hate shopping in general. I don't mean I don't like owning stuff or getting new stuff, I just hate the process of looking for stuff and trying it on.

71. Somehow, I still went shopping with my friends in high school.

72. My friend, Therese, and I used to go into a big department store and find the most hideous clothes we could find and get the other to try them on.

73. I wouldn't have time for something like that these days.

74. As a child, my favourite book was Matilda by Roald Dahl.

75. I used to read heaps and would like to read more but as it is usually a choice between reading and knitting, I don't get to read alot. I also get motion sickness reading in a car or on the bus.

76. I dislike confrontantion. I really really don't like it. I will usually just keep my mouth shut or try to leave the room to avoid conflict and confrontation.

77. I stopped eating Maccas (McDonalds) in Year 9 (1998) after a friend started working there. Her job made her eat there more and me eat there less.

78. I was quite addicted to Coke but I went cold turkey on 4th December 2006 (the day I started fulltime work).

79. I don't normally wear makeup. I have too much of an association of it with stage makeup (for concerts and competitions) that I don't really enjoy wearing it (although I do wear it for more than just concerts these days). The smell of makeup (particularly foundation) gives me an adrenalin rush though as I associate it with those concerts.

80. I love adrenalin rushes alot of the time.

81. In later primary school and later high school I did debating. My prefered position was 3rd speaker (or even 4th speaker) as you got extra time to prepare. (We did impromptu debating from year 10 onwards, and so you were only given the topic an hour before the debate. As a debate could go for over an hour, this gave you an extra hour to think about the topic.)

82. I am the town mouse (and my cousin is country mouse).

83. That being said, I would love to live on a small property being flat everywehre else except where, perhaps 1km from my house, a mountain rose up from the ground. I would love that.

84. I would like to like winter. I think I like the idea of scarves and coats. However, I can't stand the cold. I freeze at seemingly normal temperatures. I much prefer sweltering 40oC days to winter.

85. My grandmother also has the freezing gene, as does my cousin. However, both my mum and uncle seem to have the boiling gene, forcing my cousin and I to freeze in their extra-high air conditioning.

86. I love my doona. It keeps me so warm. I have learnt now to take it away on camps with me so I sleep better.

87. I was a bit of a camp junkie in university. I would go on about 3 camps every holidays. I don't go on as many now, but I still love them, particularly the relationships built with people you don't know over a week long camp.

88. Post-camp depression is horrible though.

89. I have been on 9 HSC study camps - once as a student and 8 times as a leader.

90. I have completed my Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award (and also my silver and bronze). I didn't get to carry my doona with me on these trips.

91. I was presented with my award by Marie Bashir, Governor of NSW. Ironically, at the Presentation Day at school the year before, I was presented with a certificate from my school congratulating me on completing my gold Duke of Ed. It was presented to me by the guest speaker, who happened to be Marie Bashir.

92. The longest I ever hiked for was 27km in one day (which included walking up a mountain). I did that walk (and hence that day) twice.

93. On the hikes I often didn't want to be there, but enjoyed the evenings and after every walk I wanted to do another one.

94. I got my name up on one of my school honour boards for getting gold Duke of Ed. It was the only board where I didn't have to compete with anyone to get my name up on it. (The other boards were for dux, school captain, captain of boats etc.)

95. I did work experience with Sen Natasha Stott Despoja in Parliament House in Canberra. I really enjoyed it and experienced alot but probably got the least 'work' experience of anyone else in my year.

96. My favourite number is 12. I think that has to do with my birthday.

97. My favourite letter is W. I don't know why. It's Bert's (as in 'and Ernie') favourite letter too. He even has a song about it. I don't really like pidgeons though.

98. My favourite animal is a manatee. They are so graceful and cute. I'm not sure if Endangered Love (from Veggie Tales) actually made me love them less.

99. I don't have pierced ears (or anything else for that matter). My standard jewellery is my watch, the silver bracelet Aunty Shirley gave me for my 21st and the amethyst necklace Janice bought me for my 23rd birthday.

100. I thought it would be easy to write 100 things about myself but it was actually pretty hard to come up with stuff.