24 facts about me!

Posted on by Julie

Today’s blog is not about travel or adventures. It’s about me, because I know you want to learn twenty-four random facts about me!

  1. In real life, I’m a business development administrator two days a week and a statistical researcher two other days. This means I know things like how many boats there are in the different provinces of Sierra Leone and I sent a lot of customised mailshots to try to persuade people to buy sugar/corned beef/coloured pencils/eucalyptus oil etc.
  2. I vary in UK shoe sizes between a 4 and an 8, depending on the shop and the style of shoe. However, I’m pretty consistently a European size 39.
  3. My first ever trip abroad was to Corfu, aged getting on for two, where I horrified “the Londoners” by leaping unsupervised into the pool.
  4. I got my first very own passport at fourteen (I was a mere note on my mother’s passport until then).
  5. I have a double A* in GCSE Science.
  6. I loathe and detest tuna in all shapes and forms beyond anything else in the universe. I really don’t like elastic bands, umbrellas, Ben Stiller, Simon Cowell or being told what I have to like.
  7. Although I love cheese, I’m lactose intolerant and can’t eat much of it.
  8. I have never had my hair cut in my life. It’s been the same length since I was about four but as I’ve got taller, it looks shorter. I think it’s not quite waist-length and it’s starting to feel quite short.
  9. s a kid and a teen, I played the clarinet. I have no talent for the clarinet but I’m genuinely pretty good at the treble recorder.
  10. Aged 12, I opened for an English Touring Opera production of Carmen, dancing flamenco to Bizet’s Bohemian Dance wearing two hats and three skirts.
  11. I have heterochromia iridis – different coloured eyes! However, as one is hazel-green and the other is hazel-blue, you have to be nose-to-nose with me and looking for it before you notice it.
  12. I’m currently dipping in and out of a Norwegian translation of the first Harry Potter book for fun and just about keeping up with what’s going on.
  13. My two greatest regrets are dropping Physics instead of Chemistry at A Level, and not carrying on with DofE after Bronze.
  14. In my pre-internet days, I used to wake up obscenely early and read an actual paper-and-ink encyclopedia that weighed almost as much as I did in bed.
  15. I am only on my fourth mobile phone in my entire life – two Nokia blocks and two smartphones in sixteen or seventeen years.
  16. After years of believing I was 5’2″, it turns out I’m 5’5″. I can never remember whether ‘ and ” are for feet or inches.
  17. I can never remember whether it’s an a or an e in “dual carriageway”. This is the only word I have major and consistent difficulty spelling.
  18. I am a dog person (especially large dogs, especially fluffy dogs and I have a ridiculous soft spot for a soppy Rottie).
  19. My great great grand aunt Rhoda was the only woman to be rescued from the water after the Titanic sank (the relationship is according to this chart and me taking a guess at the gap between my grandad and Joseph Hunt because I’ve misplaced the family tree).
  20. I am the resident spider-catcher in whatever building I’m in. I try not to ever squish them or drown them.
  21. My car is bright orange and my driving licence is now more than fourteen years old.
  22. My favourite cereal is an obscure Kelloggs one called Start. Usually I have toast and Marmite for brekfast.
  23. Although I’m right-handed, I wear my watch on my right wrist. I keep an eye out for other members of “my tribe” who also do this.
  24. I’m not face-blind, exactly, but I have trouble recognising people I don’t know well, especially if they’ve changed clothes. I spent an entire day in a pool under the watch of a lifeguard only to not recognise him at all in the evening out of uniform, for example.