meish dot org: life, unfolding

Right then. Having been tagged with this meme by my adorable sister, I am apparently obliged to share an arbitrary number of factoids that most peope don’t know about me.

We have a problem, then. I’ve been online and social for such a long time that I think I must have already shared much of what there is to know. Plus there are obviously some things that most people don’t know that I don’t actually want to be known by the general populus.

But I’ll try and think of something other things.

1. I’ve got a marine radio operator license (which came in handy when acting as an auxiliary Coastguard in Canada)
   It’s true – it’s something I did as a voluntary service at my college near Victoria, BC. We took shifts monitoring the radio frequencies, relaying mayday and panpan calls, as well as traffic about whale spottings in the Juan de Fuca Strait between the US and Canasa, as well as doing shifts as a shoremaster, responsible for the seagoing activities of all college students. I loved it – but then, I used to spend a lot of time on the water, too: kayaking and so on.
2. I’m allergic to mushrooms (and all fungus, actually)
   It’s something to do with having a mild allergy and a deviated septum – fungus spores get right up my nose and I get headaches and painful sinuses. It’s especially bad in autumn, because of all the rotting leaves – which is a shame, because I love autumn. Think hayfever but at the wrong time of year, but Iu can’t eat them either.
3. I collect maps
   Old, new, digital, paper, local, global, topographic….pretty much anything, really. I’m especially fond of Bartholomew’s Half and Quarter-Inch Maps, of which I have several dozen, and am always on the lookout for more. There’s something so lickable about the colours and typography. Whenever we travel to somewhere in the UK, I always end up bringing a selection of maps of various scales and styles and ages – I like seeing how the landscape has changed, and been recorded.
4. I can blow air out of one of my tear ducts
   When I blow my nose, my right tear-duct gets breezy. I’m a freak.
5. I’ve performed on stage, solo, at the Royal Albert Hall. Twice.
   It was the late eighties, I was in my mid-teens and I was playing the guitar and singing a song I’d co-written called “Empty Sky” for two performances of a show put on for members of a national association of youth clubs. I don’t remember how I got involved, but I do recall that I was so nervous my knees were trembling.

I’m supposed to pass this on to five other people, so without further ado…Simon, Gordon, Mike, Sasha and Wendy: over to you.