Sunday 26 October 2014

Tag, I'm It!

I've been seeing this tag around the blogosphere lately, and it seemed fun, so I decided to tag myself and do it in the spirit of YOLO and all that... ;)

Anyway here are 20 previously unknown facts about me.
  1. I am the oldest and smallest in my family.With 50kg for 161.5cm, it's easy to see how this is possible. I have always been quite small and can in fact remember my mum telling me that my twin siblings were each bigger than me at birth even though they were premature and I was full-term! I used to hate being so tiny, especially while I was in secondary school (end of adolescence and moving to England made me gain a lot of weight) since I felt I was often overlooked because of my stature, bookishness and late physical development. I love myself now though because people never ever believe me when I tell them my age :)
  2. I love writing and hope to get published at least once in my lifetime. 
  3. I am ambidextrous, but not naturally so. My left-handed cousin broke his arm when we were kids and seeing the trouble he had with using his other hand, I got worried about all the potential future accidents, and decided to put my girl guides' motto  into action. I taught myself slowly but surely to use my left hand. You can imagine how frustrating it was for my parents and everyone around to watch me take an excruciatingly long time to do anything (I realise now that I must have been a really weird child). Anyway I stuck to my guns and today my left hand and leg work almost as well as the right ones.
  4. I am a psychiatric nurse who stumbled across the speciality and who ADORES her job. I studied adult nursing in the UK, and there, I'm not allowed to work in psychiatry/paediatry/learning disabilities without further training. However, since I'm registered as a general nurse here in France and can work in every area, I decided to explore my options and luckily fell in love with psychiatry.
  5. I have a love-hate relationship with food. I really enjoy eating, but sometimes I am so unbothered and lazy, that i just go for hours even a few days with really eating. I will also not eat unless I am actually hungry. This is something that drives the boyfriend bonkers, since I will often refuse to eat one minute, only to stop everything and demand sustenance the next. He's all like "you said you weren't hungry 10minutes ago when we went past that restaurant!" The poor boy is getting used to it sha.
  6. I love going to the cinema and the opera (although the cost in Paris has killed that habit for me). Apart from these two things, I like sleeping and me time. I'm such a homebody and I really really really enjoy hanging out with my boyfriend, or being alone in my room :)
  7. I make friends easily, maybe too easily! People seem attracted to me for some reason, and we often become close friends very quickly. To my eternal shame however, I am bad at staying in touch (with both friends and family). It often seems like my life revolves around my current friendships, but then I move away, make new friends and forget the old ones. Luckily, I have the best friends in the world! People (including my siblings) who will write/call/prod me into keeping in touch and force me into remaining in their lives.
  8. I abhor prejudice/discrimination of any kind, and I have been known to end important friendships over racist/sexist/homophobic/religion-ist comments or jokes. However, in spite of my intolerance to intolerance, I realise I am far from perfect and an example of this was when I laughed at a racist joke about Germans on BBC radio 4. The boyfriend was appalled and I was so ashamed of myself :(
  9. I am a nomad. I enjoy travelling and have visited more countries than I can count. I have also lived in 5 countries (Nigeria, England, Sweden, Bangladesh, France) over the last 13 years, and I'm moving to the 6th in 5days.
  10. Going hand in hand with number nine, I enjoy learning languages. I currently speak 4 (English, Yoruba, French, Italian) but would like to get to 10 before die. German is next on my list, then I plan to spend the rest of my life on Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, Hausa and Edo.
  11. Linked to number ten is the fact that my English has really deteriorated recently. I've been known to forget words for things in English, translate literally from French to English, and speak the language using the French sentence structure. My anglophone friends and family sometimes look at me like I'm crazy, but my fellow multi-linguists get me immediately!
  12. I have a strange relationship with money. I love love love saving, and often hyperventilate when it seems like I've been overspending, only for me to check my account and realise I have hardly touched it. I however never mind spending on my siblings, boyfriend or on travelling. 
  13. And as incoherent as it may sound, I also sometimes have inexplicable bouts of spending urges where I buy useful/nice things that I don't particularly need. I just go out, look for 2-3 things and buy them while sticking to a set budget.
  14. I love reading. I read everything I can get my hands on including when I was little, lists, medical books, textbooks and the catholic bible. I haven't had the time to read that many books this year, yet I am currently on my 66th.
  15. While reading said catholic bible as an 8year old, I discovered a previously unknown type of  bible. It was different from what I knew, and I spent a lot of time reading all the stories in the  Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books. Falling in love one with with one of the stories, I decided I'd name my future son after one of the uncommonly named (in Nigeria/England/Anglophone/Francophone world) heroes. I managed to get to adulthood with meeting only one person with that name in Sweden, yet 20years later, within the space of a few weeks my French friend used the name for her newborn, and I met T who has the same name! I was so bitter that I could no longer use it for my darling future son.
  16. I have banned myself from bookshops. I had to take this drastic step after I realised a huge chunk of my monthly budgeted spending money was going on books. Realising that my love for books was impinging on my love for ice-cream and my purchasing power, I made the rule and have more or less stuck to it.
  17. I collect postcards and books by foreign authors, particularly from countries where I have visited.
  18. I went to the circus for the first time in my life this weekend and I loved! I see more of it in my future.
  19. I love close-cropped hair and have had my hair this way for the majority of my life. My poor mum was happy to have a girl to dress up, so imagine her surprise/sadness when I asked to have my hair like daddy and kept it that way most of my childhood. I have also had natural hair more or less all my life. I tried to relax it for a year after moving to England, but I had no clue what to to with it. It was flat and lifeless! I sharply cut the thing and went back to my afro :)
  20. I am moving to Brussels in 5days and you might be able to tell that I'm a tad bit excited!!!!
Phew, that was much harder than I expected! Everyone made it seem so easy, but I really had to think of the things that others might consider interesting about me...

Have a lovely weekend!

9 comments:

  1. Wow, and i thought my life was fun....Bangladesh? Omo, Clara, some stories for rhe grandkids indeed.
    You keep count of all the books you have read? Wow, you are incredible. Ive probably read over a 100 books maybe more lol but nothing as grand as your list.
    For future son names, imagine how upset i was when the name Kiefer didn't sit well with Gorgeousness. His excuse being he doesn't really like its meaning so off to find new options.
    Dont get me wrong, u look amazing with your gorimakpa...heheh but i have plans for my future daughter and will girly her out, her hair being my centre of attention. Hehe
    Your number 8 tho. Just tells you we shouldnt judge others abi. Haha
    The opera, seriously.......
    Lol well hey, you did make the tag seem waaaay more easier.
    I started reading your new posts last night becore bed, then Gorgeousness switched off everything and i nearly chewed his head off but it was bedtime anyways so here i am this morning, completing my visit on here!!!!
    Totally enjoyed reading all the new posts!!

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    Replies
    1. Late reply but better late than never right? My life IS fun, but sometimes a girl just wants to stop moving around jare. Besides I'm sure all our grandkids are going to think we're uncool and all our stories are tales by moonlight haha!

      I just started keeping track this year, I thought I'm reading less, but still how much do I read exactly? And how much is the library saving me?

      I love Kiefer, it's such a strong manly name! Me I've decided to abandon German names and go for Edo ones. I love how they sound, and it'll honour my great grandma who I loved so much...

      I know right? Jesus talked true!

      Well no more for now, too poor. I should take advantage of Vienna though. I mean it's the home of opera/classical music hmmm...

      Haha at chewing G's head off! Abeg no hurt my brother-in-law oh.

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  2. Ignore all my typos....im taking down my mini twists and twisting my neck in odd ways so be rest assured i will type one or two crap words! Lol

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  3. Am newbie, and am loving the blog, am learning me some french cos I lov languages but mehn that shit ain't easy, how did you get on with four? Nice blog babe.
    www.realcilverly.blogspot.com

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    Replies
    1. Hey Chioma,

      Thanks for the compliment. Please come back, I promise to be more consistent!

      In other news, as I told J from ibibiofame, I'm not that gifted with languages oh, just very motivated usually by money, love and/or food. My advice is to find a good incentive ("l'amour" for example ;) ) You'll see that you'll soon find yourself talking Ça va, ça va :)

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  4. mehn!! One thing i know for sure is Damn! you are smart!! I mean kilode?? You have read 66 Books, you are ambidextrous, you know almost 5 languages, only you one has lived in all these many many places.. Mehn your CV must be like 10 pages long, and your hobbies section alone go plenty well.. So i cant remember how i got here yeah, but my I am loving it already.. You are 1 in 10,000, and trust me, i aint exaggerating. Turn Up Turn Up!! Its nice to be here. :)

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    1. Ahn ahn, kilode? All these compliments you're sharing! E bi like say na only me waka come! You say smart, I say weird human being, but still we thank God :)

      Maybe I should sha add your comment to my CV which is really not that long, that way future employers will appreciate me more haha! Seriously though, thanks for the compliments, you've been very kind.

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  5. I've read over 200 books I think and my bff thinks I'm crazy because I used to spend my meagre pocket money on books first before food; in fact if I'm eating without reading the food won't be sweet in my mouth *im weird I know*
    I'm learning hausa too so I can teach you the small I know.
    I've never lived outside Nigeria but someday I want to tour the world!

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  6. A fellow book reader! I am now on my 77th book for 2014, and I'm hoping to get to 80 because I like round figures...so you see I'm weird too :)
    One day one day, dreams do come true. Maybe you'll even travel to whatever country I find myself in the future. Hope so!

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