Me! Me ! Meme!

As per request of Zoe at the funky Rivetkitty , the community-minded powerhouse Daisy at Daisy patch and Jillian at the sly and sideways Flyleaf :

The rules:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning

2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.

3. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people and posts their name, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

What was I doing 10 years ago?

Mid-twenties, not a good time. Al and I were living in a sad and bad share house full of passive aggression and side taking. We spent a lot of evenings walking around New Farm to get out of it all. The house is still there: a big old rendered place with a terrace on top of the garage, owned by an Italian family (it's in Hastings St, New Farm). Still, it is the only garden in which I've grown excellent peas, and I first discovered Spanish and lemon thyme, which remain two of my favourite scents. I also had some seriously gorgeous parsley.

What else? I was starting my PhD but without a lot of direction. I went to the gym. I saw movies but didn't read very much. I cooked for the house on Monday nights. I had just returned from a holiday in Thailand and Vietnam. I was kind of rudderless, which was my state of being throughout my twenties. I'm very glad to have moved on.

Five snacks I enjoy in a perfect, non weight-gaining world (and in this world as well):

Only five? Brie on oat biscuits, mars bar slice, chocolate eclairs, honey joys, Schulte's wurst, from up past Gatton.

Five snacks I enjoy in the real world:

Olives, hommous + carrot sticks, rice crackers with peanut butter or avocado, lemon and s+p, boiled peanuts (but I haven't had them for years - do people still make them?), BBQ flavoured chips (because no-one makes Atomic tomato anymore).


Five things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Tithe, travel, buy up all the wild spaces in and around my town, look after my family, establish a Montessori school in my suburb.

Five jobs that I have had:

Tutor for NESB primary school kids, waitress, tutor for ATSI tertiary students, phone survey gal, university lecturer.


Three of my habits:

I bite my nails, can never push a drawer completely closed, pull out weeds in other people's gardens.

Five places I have lived:

Hobart, Launceston, Brisbane, Melbourne, Hamilton (in Western Victoria). I regret never having had the guts to go live overseas.

Five things to do today:

Plant scavenged violets under the apple trees, buy some cream, crunch numbers, pick up Lu from kindergarten, keep the fire going. So far, so good.


Five people I want to get to know more about:


Well, in the spirit of Jillian, I dream of finding out about the following:

This guy, who used to manage my favourite cafe, Fresh, and then disappeared, replaced by the current team, under obviously angry circumstances. I didn't see him for four or five years and then three weeks ago I saw him driving an old black ute, pulling out of a driveway two streets away. And then on Saturday I saw him dragging a bag of concrete into the old house I dreamed of buying, up near the land slip areas with an orchard out the back and a copse of old pine trees sighing like the sea. All this time I've wondered, for no good reason, who is he?

Cate Blanchett, whom I saw at the airport last Tuesday, babe in arms and sons circling about, her husband rushing up ahead looking harried and just as rumpled as he appears in all the women's mags. She is so skinny and so white and I want to know, is it hard to be that skinny and that white? Are you always hungry? And where did you get that really great skirt?

The guy down the road from me, who is doing up his house with scavenged materials. He has a neat little veggie patch with lovely citrus trees and a prolific passionfruit vine. He used to own a goat called Jeremy, who loved him and brayed for his return of an evening. I've never seen anyone with the man and I want to ask, are you lonely?

The women in a house across the road from me, who never shuts up her vicious dog that goes for anyone who walks by and will start to bark when he sees someone from the top of the street. I want to know, why won't you shut up your damn dog?

The outdoors adventure couple who live at the corner and who are slowly creating a really lovely garden with a pond and pots of good things to eat. They have the tiniest house in Launceston and I want to know, how do you fit all your stuff in there? And where's the bathroom?

But I don't know if these people have blogs and so I'll ask the following mysterious types to share:

Janine at Lost in reverie (a friend for nine or so years - but what was she doing the year before we met?)
My parents at Grace Hill
Kate at Inner city garden (what do inner city folk have on a to do list on a Wednesday?)
Rach of Grandy and Baa (from Tassie to Sydney - what's the story?)
Ingrid from If .... (she's on a break but what does one snack on in a small Austrian village?)

Writing 8 things about me instead of 8 things about any number of work related issues

The strong and thoughtful Em has tagged me to do this 8 things meme. Really, I should be finishing a report. editing papers, writing presentations, blah, blah, blah but I'm going to give myself a break and do this. I'm at the computer so its practically like work isn't it? This is how it goes:

A. Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves.

B. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.

C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Here goes:

1. I do a lot of writing for my work and I don't enjoy it. I have to fit templates, use institutional language and second guess reviewers and others who say 'yes' or 'no' to what I think and write. People often comment I am overly wordy and meandering, which I consider to be strengths, but apparently are not.

2. My middle name is Agnes, after my paternal grandmother and maternal great grandmother. I was teased mercilessly about this name when I was in primary school - indeed, the teasing was lead by my fourth grade teacher, Mr Groves - and I hated it. Now I'm proud to have such a link with two strong women, and have handed it down to my first daughter as her middle name.

3. I really wish I had never gone out with my high school boyfriend. I adored him at the time, I guess, but it was a very dodgy relationship, very much in the soapie young love mold, and now, as my Grammy says, I wouldn't pee on him if he were on fire.

4. I like to wear matching bra and panties. I feel slightly scrappy if I don't.

5. My favourite garden was built on the balcony of my friend Tambo's house in Elizabeth St in Toowong, in Brisbane. Everything was in pots; it was lush and beautiful and fruitful. I have a much, much, much larger garden but I still strive for that feeling of generosity and elegance Tambo creates wherever she goes.

6. I hate asking people for any kind of a favour: lifts home, babysitting, feeding the chooks, borrowing a pen, anything big or small. I quail a little inside when I have to rely on someone else.

7. None of my very dear friends live in the same town as me. I really miss being part of their daily lives: seeing their children, eating meals together, sitting around drinking and talk, talk, talking.

8. One of my dearest and staunchest friends gave me Candide during a very bad time in my life. In the front he wrote: 'May you find peace in your garden'. I always do, and each time I stand there, feeling happy and blessed, I think of him. It's a really nice way to keep someone in my mind.

I'm working at home on my Mac, which doesn't obviously let me create weblinks in the text, so I'll list the people I want to tag and link into them tomorrow when I'm back at the office PC. So, keeping in mind point 6, I tag six people who always have something interesting to say about life and themselves: Victoriae, Tamsin, Kate, Janet, Nutmeg, Jenny Wren. Not eight, thereby breaking the rules (oh dear) but I really feel a bit uncomfortable asking people to tell me about themselves when I only lurk about their sites (again, point 6!).

Back to the short word, short sentence and the point: blah, blah,blah.