I was tagged ages ago by the lovely Ana over on fab, fab, fab design blog OhMyGooshness and I’ve finally got round to answering. Apparently I’ve got to reveal six weird things about myself. I must confess to finding this very difficult. Surely I’m utterly normal? And it’s everyone else who is weird? I was also tagged by Helen to reveal 5 secrets about myself. I think these will have to do.
– I am totally addicted to email. I get seriously agitated if I hear the little email noise and can’t get to my computer. Running a business online is a bit like playing a big computer game and email lets me know my ‘score’ in the form of orders. Or, more likely, spam.
– I ‘see’ words as colours in my mind’s eye. For example the word ‘banana’ is sky blue and ‘orange’ a rich rust brown. I chose my baby’s name partly on the basis of its colour (for the record it’s a lovely French navy). I used to think I was totally bananas but a few years ago I found out it’s a condition called synesthesia. My sister has the same condition and I’ve met one other person who has it – but they both get their colours all wrong, which is seriously weird.
– I am terrified of pigeons. ABSOLUTELY shit scared. I once had to do a runner from a cafe in Piazza Navona in Rome because the pigeons wandering about under my chair were freaking me out so much. In fact my skin is crawling just writing about it now.
– Whenever I’m in the South of France – especially Provence – I have a strange sensation of being at ‘home’. I don’t feel it in other parts of France, or in Italy which is where my mother came from and where I have family, or even in London.
– It’s not that weird, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, so it probably counts as a secret. In 2002 I won the Evening Standard’s ‘Gourmet of the Year’ competition. Yep, I have actually won a prize for competitive eating but I don’t like to tell people because then they never invite me for dinner.
See, I’m not weird AT ALL.
Abigail, Leela, Kate and Michelle – you’re tagged (if you can be bothered/haven’t done it already).
Ok, I had a little think about my 6 things. Hope I am not too weird… 🙂 Loved yours – especially pigeons.
Oh I am SO jealous, as soon as I heard about it I wanted to have synesthesia. Ok, now who’s weird! But seriously, what a great weirdness o have. And everything in the world will be so much richer to you.
And WOAH, screeeeech to a halt. Your telling me that the tablet I ate last year was made by an award winning Gourmet?! How cool is that. And for the record, it was DAMN fine tablet. I still think about it.
ooh good weirdnesses, the pigeon thing’s gotta be from a past life, non?
The synesthesia thing IS cool, now that I know I’m not insane. You should have seen people’s faces when I used to describe it to them, I was so relieved when I found out it was a recognised ‘condition’. I would really miss it if it went away and can’t wait to find out if the Minx has inherited it.
The pigeon thing is from being attacked by loads of pigeons trying to get at my bar of chocolate in Trafalgar Square when I was about four years old. I only have the vaguest conscious memory of the whole thing – of being surrounded by lots of beating wings – but my aunt has a photo proudly taken by my mother of me as a tiny girl absolutely smothered in horrible birds. She must have thought it was cute or something. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the photo.
PS. My Gourmet award is for eating not cooking. I am a very talented eater, as my figure will testify.
I am also scared of pigeons: one got on the tube the other day and I had to get off…enclosed space…garggh!!
Also, my mum too has synesthesia, I love asking her what colours things are.
Oh, the pigeon on the Tube is my NIGHTMARE scenario… You wouldn’t have seen me for dust. At I used to live in terror of pigeons somehow getting into my flat. Fortunately Seattle’s pigeon population is small (seagulls are another story).