Several days late (I do apologise), I've noticed that I've been tagged by =Dolphinryder to do the shiny thingywhatsit that follows. It's meant to be 8, but I went and changed it to 7 cos it's a more magical number Anyway, here goes...


1. Post these rules
2. Each person tagged must post 7 random facts about themselves
3. Tags should write a journal / blog of these facts
4. At the end of the post 7 more persons are tagged and named
5. Go to their page and leave a comment telling them they're tagged


I've done my best to scrape my mind for obscure facts that come out as surprising and random even to me; no "I had chips for dinner" or "I own 700 DVDs" here, nosiree! (Not that I'm criticising anyone who does that, no no. I like to know what people ate, or (especially) how many DVDs they own. No, really, I do.)


Random Facts

1. I didn't think I could spell the word "Beautiful" even slightly... til I won a spelling contest with it (I should point out, this wasn't like those great big Spelling Bee things they have in America, as seen in the rather lovely film Spellbound, but just a random thing in class when I was 11).

2. My earliest memory is of receiving a Thundercats toy for my 4th birthday. Clearly I've always liked being given things for free!

3. Also on a toy note, I own four different 5" 10th Doctor action figures, and have a duplicate of one of those. (For anyone curious, there's the regenerated Doctor (in the 9th Doctor's outfit), the Doctor in his suit, the Doctor in his suit with 3D glasses (from Army of Ghosts), and the Doctor in his overcoat, of which I now have two.) I also own three Rose Tylers, two Captain Jack Harknesses, two Mickey Smiths, two K9s, three Dalek Secs, three Dalek Thays, two Genesis Arks, five Cybermen, two Slitheen, two Clockwork Droids, and five little spider droid things. (I only have one of any other Doctor Who figures I own. But I do also own three Sonic Screwdrivers (the toy (first edition; there are now seven variants), the torch, and the DWA water squirter one).)

4. I once had to 'dance' in an aerobics thingy for a school show, with a bunch of other kids who were all at least a school year older than me. Clearly I was some kind of aerboics wunderkind. (This was in Saudi Arabia, by-the-by, when I was about 6. Clearly they do odd things over there. I mean, I've never seen aerobics be part of a school show anywhere else...)

5. Talking of Saudi Arabia, I came back from there with an American accent! (It's since gone again, lost amongst other influences. I suspect it helped stop me developing a strong Wiltshire one though.) It came from being taught in a general ex-pat school, where the teachers and many fellow students were American. To this day (and to the annoyance of many British people) I struggle to say "Zed" instead of "Zee" when doing the alphabet.

6. I received high praise in the marks of a fairly recent exam essay for my analysis of a film which I've never even seen, and we didn't discuss in any classes, and which I can't say I read up on online either. It must be some kind of academic miracle.

7. I have a model of Serenity (from the TV show Firefly and Major Motion Picture Serenity) right next to me on my desk. This doesn't really fall into the memory-scraping thing, but it was a lovely present, it's a great statue, and I want to boast!


And now... I tag...