twenty facts
There's a 20 Facts About Me meme going around the Internet and here's my take on it:
1. I have a full set of teeth (i.e. thirty-two), and have never had a tooth extracted by a dentist in my life. Comparatively, J has only twenty-four teeth, just four more (!) than The Bun. He had to have some removed when he got braces a few years ago.
2. I am left-handed, but right-footed.
3. I am very bad with numbers and figures. My sister is the same way. My mother, who used to be an accountant, cannot understand this.
4. I do not understand football (soccer) and have never been able to watch more than fifteen minutes of a match. Tennis matches that stretch till four hours, yes. A dozen men running after a ball, sadly no.
5. I can wriggle both ears independently of each other.
6. I drink at least two cups of tea a day. I prefer black teas with sugar and milk. No green tea (not even at Japanese restaurants!) or herbal tea for me.
7. It enrages me when I read bad copy in magazines or newspapers. No prizes for guessing which national daily I have not read for years. I get my news off news websites instead.
8. When I was eight I planned an elaborate scheme to run away from home. My plans involved hiding food in secret spots, packing a backpack of essentials (underwear, books, torchlight), and working out how to open the front gate in the middle of the night without getting caught by my parents. There was nothing wrong with my home life; I just had an overactive imagination.
9. I will be thirty-eight in a couple of years and three decades on, I still mentally craft elaborate schemes to run away from home. Switzerland is in the heart of Europe and it would be so easy to just jump into the car and drive on and on and on across the borders...
10. I am terrible at things like origami. I have never been able to fold a paper crane in my life although people have tried teaching me. A (lousy) paper plane is all I can muster.
11. Things I am better at doing: multi-tasking, remembering things from years and years ago, and anything to do with reading and writing.
12. I always tell my mother I am very cheap to feed. I don't like eating things like ginseng or bird's nest or sometimes even meat and fish. I am happy enough with a bowl of rice with things like an egg (done any way), tempeh, tofu, and petai beans with sambal.
13. I have a very good visual memory and am definitely a visual learner. If I had to sit in a lecture without anything to read, write, or doodle with, I would probably only absorb 10% of what was being said.
14. After marrying J, I did not take his surname and I never will. My mother never did either so it never occurred to me to do so, until my peers began getting married and changing their names. However, here in Geneva I use his surname when making reservations over the phone because it is much easier to spell and pronounce in French .
15. My mother named me after a writer, but many children couldn't pronounce it when I was in primary school so I used my hanyu pinyin Chinese name for many years, all the way till Secondary Three I think. Now the only people who use my Chinese name are my in-laws.
16. I cannot sew to save my life. I can just about reattach a button on a shirt and even then I wouldn't do a good job. Back in the days when Home Economics was still a school subject, my mother had to do my sewing homework for me.
17. Before meeting J, I had dated a bit (with what the now-adult me would view as slightly unsavoury, too mature men) and had a couple of short-term relationships. In a sense J was my first real boyfriend, and look where we are now.
18. I tried exploring my homosexual side in the early years at university but just couldn't find the sexy bits... well, sexy.
19. Even though I can turn on the sociability switch when I want to, I am mostly introverted. I am happiest in my own company, even at home.
20. If I'm having trouble falling asleep, I usually pretend to be an out-of-body observer, watching myself asleep. It is strange but it works for me!
1. I have a full set of teeth (i.e. thirty-two), and have never had a tooth extracted by a dentist in my life. Comparatively, J has only twenty-four teeth, just four more (!) than The Bun. He had to have some removed when he got braces a few years ago.
2. I am left-handed, but right-footed.
3. I am very bad with numbers and figures. My sister is the same way. My mother, who used to be an accountant, cannot understand this.
4. I do not understand football (soccer) and have never been able to watch more than fifteen minutes of a match. Tennis matches that stretch till four hours, yes. A dozen men running after a ball, sadly no.
5. I can wriggle both ears independently of each other.
6. I drink at least two cups of tea a day. I prefer black teas with sugar and milk. No green tea (not even at Japanese restaurants!) or herbal tea for me.
7. It enrages me when I read bad copy in magazines or newspapers. No prizes for guessing which national daily I have not read for years. I get my news off news websites instead.
8. When I was eight I planned an elaborate scheme to run away from home. My plans involved hiding food in secret spots, packing a backpack of essentials (underwear, books, torchlight), and working out how to open the front gate in the middle of the night without getting caught by my parents. There was nothing wrong with my home life; I just had an overactive imagination.
9. I will be thirty-eight in a couple of years and three decades on, I still mentally craft elaborate schemes to run away from home. Switzerland is in the heart of Europe and it would be so easy to just jump into the car and drive on and on and on across the borders...
10. I am terrible at things like origami. I have never been able to fold a paper crane in my life although people have tried teaching me. A (lousy) paper plane is all I can muster.
11. Things I am better at doing: multi-tasking, remembering things from years and years ago, and anything to do with reading and writing.
12. I always tell my mother I am very cheap to feed. I don't like eating things like ginseng or bird's nest or sometimes even meat and fish. I am happy enough with a bowl of rice with things like an egg (done any way), tempeh, tofu, and petai beans with sambal.
13. I have a very good visual memory and am definitely a visual learner. If I had to sit in a lecture without anything to read, write, or doodle with, I would probably only absorb 10% of what was being said.
14. After marrying J, I did not take his surname and I never will. My mother never did either so it never occurred to me to do so, until my peers began getting married and changing their names. However, here in Geneva I use his surname when making reservations over the phone because it is much easier to spell and pronounce in French .
15. My mother named me after a writer, but many children couldn't pronounce it when I was in primary school so I used my hanyu pinyin Chinese name for many years, all the way till Secondary Three I think. Now the only people who use my Chinese name are my in-laws.
16. I cannot sew to save my life. I can just about reattach a button on a shirt and even then I wouldn't do a good job. Back in the days when Home Economics was still a school subject, my mother had to do my sewing homework for me.
17. Before meeting J, I had dated a bit (with what the now-adult me would view as slightly unsavoury, too mature men) and had a couple of short-term relationships. In a sense J was my first real boyfriend, and look where we are now.
18. I tried exploring my homosexual side in the early years at university but just couldn't find the sexy bits... well, sexy.
19. Even though I can turn on the sociability switch when I want to, I am mostly introverted. I am happiest in my own company, even at home.
20. If I'm having trouble falling asleep, I usually pretend to be an out-of-body observer, watching myself asleep. It is strange but it works for me!