1) Why Kiwifruit? Well, it’s because this blog is
the “fruit” of a kiwi. It may also be fuzzy, fruity and a tiny bit
seedy in parts.
2) I’ve been white water rafting five times.
3) I’m a born and bred New Zealander but I’ve also lived in Sydney for a year and in London for six years.
4) When I was eight years old I was obsessed with horses. In fact, I thought I was one.
5) I proposed to my husband on a tube station platform seven months after meeting him.
6) I wear a Russian wedding ring made out of white, rose and yellow gold bought in Hatton Gardens, London
7) …and a silver teardrop necklace, a bridesmaid gift given to me by my lovely Irish friend Sandra in November 2000.
8) I’m a cheese fiend. Gimme a cheese scone, a cheese muffin or just a piece of cheese full stop. Just gimme cheese.
9) My first ever job was as a data entry clerk for a water heater manufacturer. I was paid $9,000 p/a.
10) Six months later I left to work for the paint
manufacturers next door who paid me half as much again for doing the
same job. I was very pleased with myself.
11) With the earnings from that job I bought my first
car; a 1965 Ford Cortina. In the following eight years I went on to buy
seven cars, all of them Fords.
12) Despite being hopeless at maths at school I worked in various accounts departments for 17 years.
13) I can roller-skate, ice-skate, ride a horse and abseil.
14) My favourite wine is Nautilus Marlborough
Sauvignon Blanc, but I have a big soft spot for a nice cold bottle of
Lindauer which is half the price – ooh, and a nice cold glass of cider on a hot summer afternoon.
15) I have one sister, 21 months younger than me. When
we were kids we used to scrap like cats and dogs, but we get along much
better now.
16) I have seen “Four Wedding and a Funeral” too many times to count.
17) I have visited 27 different countries.
18) But I still would like to see more, especially India and South America.
19) My best friend Joy and I have known each other since we were 13 years old. I don’t know what I’d do without her.
20) I was Matron of Honour for her wedding to her partner Lloyd on a beach in Rarotonga in 2006 – it was the best wedding I’ve ever been to.
21) My favourite book is The Future Homemakers of America by Laurie Graham.
22) I am quite a reserved person until you get to know me. Once I know you, I am quite outgoing.
23) The first album I bought was “Thriller” by Michael Jackson, on tape. Hey, it was 1984!
24) We have wonderful friends in the UK and the USA
and I wish it was much, much cheaper, easier and quicker for them to
visit us and for us to visit them.
25) Our daughter has changed my life but I would never go back to how it was before.
26) Apparently she looks exactly like me.
27) We had plans for a brother or sister for her but they didn’t quite go as expected.
28) I am still to make up my mind whether or not to let medicine take a helping hand with this, or whether just to accept that one child is all we will ever have.
29) <strike>One day I would love to move out of the city and live in the country with no neighbours for miles.</strike> I did it!
30) When I was 16 I represented my high school in the 400 metres at the Regional High School Athletics competition.
31) I was second to last in my heat.
32) It was the last time I competed in sprinting.
33) I love lying in bed on Sunday mornings with a cup of tea and the latest edition of my favourite magazine.
34) Despite growing up on a small island I cannot swim properly. I can float though.
35) I dislike all shellfish with the exception of scallops, which I love.
36) I used to get extremely carsick on long journeys
as a child and occasionally I still do, so I prefer to drive instead of
being a passenger.
37) My favourite city in England is York.
39) The Other Harf and I got married in the York Registry Office in front of five friends, my mother and the Other Harf’s parents.
38) The most unusual place I’ve visited is St
Petersburg in the middle of summer. It was still light at midnight and
the sun rose at 4am. It’s a wonderful, magical place.
39) I enjoy cooking Indian food for a lot of people.
40) I always eat food in the same order; vegetables, rice or potatoes then meat.
41) If I could see any band in concert it would have to be Fleetwood Mac.
42) I can kick ass at PlayStation Singstar but I really, really suck at Darts.
43) I have a large crush on Viggo Mortensen and love
to browse through his online fansites. This makes me feel ever so
slightly guilty but I’m over it.
44) I’d love to try rally driving one day.
45) I am reasonably good at Trivial Pursuit but I can’t stand playing Monopoly.
46) My hair is strawberry-blonde and it has gotten lighter as I’ve got older.
47) I left school at 17 and worked as a data-entry
clerk, then an accounts payable clerk, then an Office Manager, then a
Department Manager.
48) When I was a child I often wondered if my sister
(a strawberry-blonde too) and I were adopted as my father has brown
hair and my mother is dark ash-blonde.
49) When we were children my mother used to dress my sister and I in the same clothes but in different colours.
50) I hated that.
51) My favourite movie of all time is “The Shawshank Redemption.”
52) My grandmother was from Boston. When we visited
Boston in 1999 I found the house she lived in as a child and had my
photograph taken sitting on the front steps.
53) My favourite fragrance is Clarins Eau Tranquility
54) I asked my husband to buy me some new perfume duty
free and he bought me Ralph Lauren’s Romance instead, which he prefers.
I wear it on special occasions
55) I collect fridge magnets. My whole fridge is
covered in them! Sad, I know. But you can’t get a cheaper or more
mobile souvenir than a fridge magnet.
56) I have framed travel advertising posters from the 1900′s to the 1930′s hanging all around my house.
57) My favourite one is a 1900′s poster persuading
tourists to visit the delightful attractions of the seaside town of
Ostend in Belgium.
58) I had to have it as my parents used to live in Ostend, Waiheke Island.
59) I’ve been to Ostend in Belgium twice and the
second time round I bought the same poster as a gift for my sister and
some great frites and macaroons for myself.
60) I was christened in a Methodist church, but I don’t believe in God or Jesus.
61) In fact the only time I go to church is for christenings, weddings and funerals.
62) When I was 16 I used to eat a king size box of
Pebbles a day. Pebbles were the New Zealand version of Smarties or M
& Ms and sadly are no longer available. I am a much calmer person
for it.
63) I can do the alphabet in sign language. My second cousin Sheree taught me when I was nine.
64) When I was 18 I lost my driver’s licence for six months for speeding. That and the $500 fine did slow me down.
65) After six years of having my books in cartons in the wardrobe, every single one is now on the shelves in the office/study.
66) I played softball for ten years and for two years in a row I was my team’s top batter.
67) I can draw horses and I love taking photographs.
68) I love sitting in a quiet café by myself, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper or house and garden magazines.
69) I am currently an unemployed accountant wishing she could get paid the same money to do something she actually loved.
70) I am three quarters of the way through a Bachelor of English degree (extramurally) but I’d really love to finish it one day.
71) I prefer my favourite dessert apple crumble with crème fraiche not cream.
72) English men are my favourite type of men.
73) So I married one.
74) I’d like to go back and time and follow my great,
great grandparents’ journeys to New Zealand from England, Ireland and
Scotland and find out what made them leave their home countries.
75) I love playing music late at night and dancing till the early hours of the following morning.
76) My favourite dancing partner died in a tragic accident in July 2002. I really, really miss him.
77) I wish they would repeat “The Muppets” on TV again.
78) And “The Goodies”.
79) My handwriting tends to be on the scrawly side and is often illegible, even by me.
80) I hate wetas. They like to camp out in our letterbox and hide in the folds of newspapers or advertising flyers. Not pleasant.
81) I’ve read all of Jane Austen’s books. My favourite is “Pride and Prejudice”.
82) I love making homemade pizza with blue vein cheese, smoked chicken and red onion.
It makes me drool just writing about it…
83) My brother-in-law and I have fights over the CD
player when we visit each other’s houses. I have much better taste than
him. He should just accept it.
84) I have always wanted a convertible car, preferably
a Mustang or a Thunderbird, but I’d certainly settle for a brand new
Mini Cooper if somebody offered.
85) I’ll just have to settle for a car with a sunroof for now.
86) I’m terrible at telling my husband things.
Sometimes I think I’ve told him something and I haven’t. It could be
old age or it may be because he just doesn’t have the psychic abilities
that I do.
87) I have 159 CDs in my collection and at the moment
they are in alphabetical order. This seldom lasts very long, usually
because my brother-in-law purposefully resorts them out of order when
he visits just to wind me up.
88) In my opinion there is little point in buying low fat chocolate or non-alcoholic wine.
89) The best day I spent by myself ever was the day I
visited the National Portrait Gallery in London two weeks before we
returned home in March 2003. I had to see it before going back to New
Zealand.
90) I love raw fish. That is fish marinated in lemon juice, salt, coconut cream, not actual raw fish. Divine.
91) Boysenberry Ripple is my favourite icecream flavour.
92) I wish I could afford to buy really expensive shampoo and conditioner like the brand they use at my hairdresser’s.
93) I hate taking things back to shops. I have a collection of things in bags under my bed waiting to be taken back.
94) I would like to try windsurfing, water skiing and jet skiing one day.
95) I wish I’d learnt another language at school for longer than one term.
96) I can count to ten in Maori, French, German, Spanish and Russian.
97) I started getting spots at the age of 10 and I still get them. This is grossly unfair, seeing as I’m also starting to get wrinkles now.
98) My family and friends mean everything to me. They make me happy and very content.
99) I cannot keep away from the internet. I think I may be addicted.
100) I can’t think of anything else about me that you need to know.