Amazing and Weird
Well, goodness, thank you, Florence, for nominating me as amazing, but also weird. I like the combination, and will now attempt to come up with the required 7 suitably odd things…
- I am also terrified of driving like Florence. See no 2 for explanation of why it took me until I was 32 to learn and pass my test. Every Wednesday when my instructor was due I’d sit in the house and feel sick, but I forced myself out there because it felt like something I had to do to be a real grown up. I was elated when I passed, but since getting a car and doing some long road trips I realise I don’t want to drive that much. At all. If I know I have to drive out of London I spend weeks agonising about it, and the only bit of motorway I like is the M6 toll road, because it’s so empty. I hate my car but I can’t bear the stress of having to sell it.
- I got hit by cars three times as a child. Not very bright at crossing roads.
- I have forgotten great chunks of my life (and not because I was wasted). I used to wonder at my mother’s appalling memory when I was a child, but now it’s mine. I have no idea why things don’t stick.
- I like filing. And organising.
- As an adjunct to that, I will often fixate on one thing that I think is wrong and needs ‘mending’: the contents of a drawer to be sorted, a room to be rearranged, six years worth of paperwork to be stored in colour-coded filing boxes. Whatever it is I have to do it as soon as humanly possible because I become convinced that life can’t move forward until it’s done. Naturally, there’s always something else around the corner and when that’s done life will be neater, happier, more fulfilling. Currently, it’s new wardrobes. Some wardrobes, since we don’t have any. If we did get some we’d become the kind of people who neatly fold their clothes and put them away instead of slovens who pile them up on that nice chair we got in Greenwich market for that very purpose. Seriously, we would – the very next day.
- I can’t click my fingers. I’m so uncool.
- I really like being at home and not seeing people during the day. Is that weird or just misanthropic? I mean, I like people, but not all the time. Some people think that’s really weird, but I feel saner for less human small talk.

At least I’m not as weird as this though, eh?
And now to hand over the baton to the following nice folks, should they choose to pick it up: Lisa from U-handbag, Ruth from Two Hippos, Ali from Domesticali and Monkee Maker from, well, Monkee Maker.
Well you hate driving outside of London, and I’d be absolutely terrified of going even near the outskirts! I have admiration for you, for the chippiness of London drivers terrifies me. I got as far in as Ilford once with a driving instructor, but then stalled in front of an ambulance and even he realised that city driving was beyond my capabilities. Poor you with the cars when you were small though – no wonder you feel anxious now!
I have that weird memory things too – and not just about small things, but great meaningful events that I have absolutely no recollection of, but my mother, who wasn’t even there, can tell me all about them. Very odd.
Anyway, a question for you: we know that you don’t have one of those weirdy knitted masks now, but how ever did you happen upon them if not by doing weird google searches because you’d at least thought you might like one????!!!! Mmmmm!
From: Florence on 22 January 2008, 18:43 #Hi Jo,
I really enjoyed reading your 7 random things and could relate to a few of them …. I’m horrified by how little I can recall from my earlier years (my sis-in-law was in the same class as me and can remember loads!) and I’m a recluse-in-training. :)
Thanks for passing on the chalice, as it were … but I’m pants at these things. The last time I was asked for 8 random facts about me I gave up at four (really couldn’t think of anything else!) and hoped that no-one noticed. They didn’t.
:)
From: Monkee Maker on 22 January 2008, 22:38 #Hello Lovey,
Where the hell did you find that pic!!?? It’s enough to make you hand over your cash, ipod, and wedding ring (“here have it all, just please don’t hurt me!”)
Yep, I’m with you on numbers 5 (I’d forgotten we had a chair in our bedroom), 6, and 7.
OX
From: Lisa Lam on 24 January 2008, 09:53 #Your list is both funny and familiar. I don’t like to drive, but I learned much younger than you- my uncle let me drive his truck when I was 12. I also fixate on things dropping everything else. I may not have cleaned out a closet in 3 years, but when the urge hits, nothing else is getting done until that closet is completely organized and I’d rather clean out the closet than socialize most days- another recluse-in-training.
From: Autum on 5 February 2008, 20:16 #
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Wow! I could have written this (well, nearly). I hate people too – mostly. And driving. I love organising. I just can’t seem to stay organised, though.
From: Anna on 22 January 2008, 16:58 #