99 Things

or Shameless Pilferage from the Blogs of Others. Your choice of title entirely:)

Simple enough concept, just a list of 99 things and I've highlighted the ones I've done so far:)

1. Started your own blog



2. Slept under the stars



3. Played in a band



4. Visited Hawaii



5. Watched a meteor shower



6. Given more than you can afford to charity



7. Been to DisneyWorld



8. Climbed a mountain (the Mourne Mountains count)

9. Held a praying mantis 



10. Sang a solo

 (singing in the shower probably doesn't)

11. Bungee jumped

 (Laganside for Cancer Research UK roughly two and a bit years ago and it was blowing a gale and I almost bottled out, but glad I didn't)

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm



14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (baking, sewing, knitting, jewellery)

15. Adopted a child



16. Had food poisoning



17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables



19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France



20. Slept on an overnight train



21. Had a pillow fight



22. Hitch hiked



23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill


24. Built a snow fort (a wall to hide behind like a big girl's blouse counts)

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

 (pre-baby)

27. Run a Marathon

 (half marathon, half walked, half jogged, half dead on completion)

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice (the Venetian doesn't count)

29. Seen a total eclipse



30. Watched a sunrise or sunset



31. Hit a home run



32. Been on a cruise
 (only for a day though, I don't do the captive audience thing for too long)

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person



34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (I might have done, couldn't honestly tell you)

35. Seen an Amish community



36. Taught yourself a new language

 (do you think garbled baby nonsense counts)

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person


40. Seen Michelangelo’s David


41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt



43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

 (does it count that it was a chippy and I found him looking in the bin for food outside)

44. Visited Africa



45. Walked on a beach by moonlight



46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing



50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris



51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling



52. Kissed in the rain



53. Played in the mud


54. Gone to a drive-in theatre

55. Been in a movie


56. Visited the Great Wall of China



57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

 (once with my brother when we were kids, I called him Ginga Ninja and told him he could kill a man with his bare feet just by waving them under his nose. We both fell about laughing, me more so than him, and it was probably best that we never went back again)

59. Visited Russia



60. Served at a soup kitchen



61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies



62. Gone whale watching


63. Got flowers for no reason
 (only the once, don't kill flowers that are perfectly content in the ground for no reason, the hubs learns fast)

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma


65. Gone sky diving



66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp



67. Bounced a cheque 



68. Flown in a helicopter

 (three times, but I prefer Cessna planes)

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy


70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial



71. Eaten caviar

 (definitely an acquired taste and I can't afford to acquire it)

72. Pieced a quilt

 (neeeearly)

73. Stood in Times Square



74. Toured the Everglades



75. Been fired from a job



76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London



77. Broken a bone



78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle



79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person



80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican


82. Bought a brand new car

 (why would you)

83. Walked in Jerusalem



84. Had your picture in the newspaper


85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve



86. Visited the White House



87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating



88. Had chickenpox



89. Saved someone’s life

 (no but somebody saved mine, very grateful I am too)

90. Sat on a jury

 (I was exempt for years, but now I'm not and Ta for bringing it up within earshot of Murphy)

91. Met someone famous



92. Joined a book club



93. Got a tattoo
 (two)

94. Had a baby

 (one, a tad more painful than tattoos)

95. Seen the Alamo in person



96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake



97. Been involved in a law suit


98. Owned a cell phone

 (that's like a mobile phone, right?)

99. Been stung by a bee (nope, just a hornet)

Feel free to pilfer this yourself.

Random things come in threes too

The theme for this week's McLinky Blog Hop is Three things you didn't know about me. Now I've already done the "100 things about me" meme which means now I have to come up with three more.

Hmmm

Alrighty then, three it is;

1. I hate other people's "stuff". I can happily deal with my own things lying around the house and in fact I barely even notice them, but OPS will drive me slowly to the nut house.
   
   
2. However, I do suffer from OPT. I refer of course to Other People's Toast. It's physically impossible for me to see someone eating toast, or worse still cheese on toast, without immediately having to eat it on them. Now just so we're completely clear, going and making my own toast would not satisfy the craving, because something about the other person's toast makes it so much nicer than anything I could make myself.
   
   
3. And because I can't actually remember every one of the 100 things I've already told you, I'm just going to go ahead and throw out another three off the top of my head. One of them is bound to be new, right?
   
   
   • I skipped the first month of fourth year in secondary school. I even got brave and went to the cafeteria on the school grounds once or twice for lunch.
     
     
   • Even though I bake as much of my own bread as possible I really, really love the plastic white shop bought bread. Especially when it is very soft and I use it to make jam sandwiches and it sticks to the roof of my mouth.
     
     
   • When I went to Makro at the weekend apart from the bits and pieces I already blogged about I also bought a 3kg sweet shop jar of toffee crumble. Its this weird looking combination of chocolate, caramel and biscuit all smooshed together into little nuggets. These three ingredients sound absolutely fine until you bear in mind that they're usually used in toffee crumble to recycle factory leftovers so the end product rarely tastes the same. For instance this time the little nuggets are speckled with a rainbow of colours meaning that they contain the crushed of remains of what I assume was either smarties or m&ms shells. The worst part about all of this is that everyone else in the house can't stand the stuff so I fully intend to eat the entire jar myself.
     

Keep 'er lit

She stepped up and looked me square in the eye. The sun was already high in the sky and I could feel the beads of sweat start their journey down the back of my neck.

The glint in her eye told me she meant business, "Go on then, interview me". Frick.

Bugger, now I have to ask MTM of Multi Tasking Mommy and Circle of Life Blog five questions and hopefully at the end of the day she'll still speak to me.

I can be a bit a div at times. The sort of person that will outright ask you what age you are or whether your hair colour is natural when I bump into you and your out on a first date. That lovely girl that will discreetly scream at the top of her lungs over the music in a club to let a friend know her skirt's tucked into her knickers just as the music stops.

Yep, that's me.

Deep breath now...

1. Thinking about holidays and vacations which comes to mind first, your best or worst experience and why?

2. What is your worst habit?

3. If you could be a super hero for a day what would your power be?

4. You have to give away all of your material possessions, not including the roof over your head, but you can keep three things. What are they?

5. Disco or die?

There you go, nice and easy. All you have to do is answer the questions, add the following instructions and come back here to leave a comment so I can come over and read your answers.

Instructions

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will get to ask them five questions.

For all the things you desperately wanted to know but were too afraid to ask

Oh lummy I've been interviewed by Jason of The Jason Show. I asked for it so I'm completely the author of my own misfortune.

Ok the rules are as instructions to play along are as follows;

Want to be part of the interview fun?

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will get to ask them five questions.

Alright then, here goes;

1. How do you feel after an episode of The Jason Show?

That depends on the post. The Jason Show covers all my bases. I've laughed, often to the point of hurting myself. I've cried, more than once. I've sometimes felt angry. Although more often than not, I feel very uplifted after an episode.

2. When making a sandwich, do you butter the bread or not?

Always, even if I'm having mayo. I guess I'm just a bit greedy.

3. When your nose is running, and you don't have any tissues, what are you inclined to do?

I sniff. I'm a sniffer and it bugs the husband, he's a total hanky man. I don't cover one nostril and blow a stream of snot onto the ground like a footballer if thats what you're getting at, because thats just disgusting.

4. Which three blogs do you enjoy the most ? (besides The Jason Show, of course)

Only three? Sure make it difficult why don't you.

I suppose the three I enjoy the most, and by that I mean I'll go nosying before the reader has had a chance to update and I miss reading when they haven't posted that day are:

Welcome to my World JanMary.

Tales from the Dad Side

Circle of Life/Multitasking Mommy. I know technically thats two, but shh.

There are dozens more I love, but these are the three I enjoy the most (and The Jason Show, obviously).

5. Describe the most disgusting thing you've ever eaten.

Easy. Tripe. When we were kids, my mum's best friend loved the stuff and was determined we would all love it to. It never caught on. Everything about it is revolting, the smell (especially when its cooking), the taste, the texture. It's just nasty.

Oh and once I was playing with Toots and she put her fingers in my mouth, straight after picking her nose. The husband told me, through tears since he'd almost wet himself laughing.

She's always doing things like that. The husband has a video of Toots and I sitting watching TV, except the entire time she's picking her nose and wiping it on the leg of my trousers. I good 3 or 4 minutes goes past without me noticing.

That wasn't too bad actually, I was expecting worse. Some people take advantage of these things but it turns out Jason's lovely.

Go on then, play along. If your interested in being interviewed by yours truly leave a comment after the beep.

And if you have any suggestions for questions drop them in there as well.

BEEP

Labour Day Meme

Ok, so Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer has posted a meme in honour of Labour Day, about.......Labour. Oh the horrors.

I only have the one, so this'll be nice and simple (unlike the labour).

How long were your labours?

17.5 hours. And yes that half hour matters.

How did you know you were in labor?

My water broke at about half past dark o'clock (4.30am) one particular drizzly, dull looking morning.

Where did you deliver?

In hospital. I am nowhere near brave enough to consider a home birth.

Drugs?

Yes, I paid a visit to the buffet line thank you.

Pethidine (which makes you sick)
The one they give you to counteract the sickness (thank you pethidine)
Gas and air (this stuff should be sold over the counter)
A tens machine (airy fairy pain relief, completely useless)
An epidural (which didn't take)
A top up for the epidural (which still didn't take)
A spinal tap (that one took, woohoo did it take)

C-section?

Yep, although toots was in the "head down" position. Every nurse, midwife and consultant to give me an internal (ick) in the first 15 hours failed to realise she was facing forward instead of backwards (apparently a problem). They tried suction first, because apparently hospitals in Northern Ireland can't authorise a c-section without having exhausted all other avenues first, because of the expense.

Who delivered?

One of two surgeons. I was taken into theatre during a split shift, so they were supposed to swap over mid section and both wound up staying for the full event.

But I can't thank every one the room enough. It was one of those moments in your life when although your entire world is caving in around you, you feel really taken care of and as though everyone in the room is completely focused on you and your child.

I've heard people say before that during their labour they basically felt like a piece of meat and I have to say that my experience was the complete opposite, everyone in that room was right there for me and my baby.

And there were a lot of people;

Two surgeons, a baby crash team of two, three consultants (who came in and out), four on duty midwives and two midwives who had stayed long past the end of their shift to make sure I was ok and were basically just there for moral support at the time of the actual birth. They were called Karen and Mary and I can't thank them enough, I would have been completely lost without them.

The husband wasn't doing too well by this stage and I needed them more than anything. I had told him to come in with me and that they would put up a screen so that he wouldn't have to see anything. There ended up not being enough time to put up a screen of any description let alone one that would block out his view and he had to witness the whole thing.

If you would like to participate in this meme, just cut and paste the questions to your own blog and link to the original post at Rocks in my Dryer.

Omnivore's Hundred

This is a game for omnivore’s which I found on Real Life Living. It’s called the Omnivore’s Hundred, and it is a list of 100 items that one may or may not have eaten.

The rules are simple:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at Very Good Taste linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (are there any other kind)
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (not in the bowl)
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (not at the same time, smoking ban and all that)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtai
l41. Curried goat (I've had goat but it wasn't curried)
42. Whole insects (chocolate covered ants)
43. Phaal (I've tasted it, but I didn't eat a plate of the stuff)
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel (Jellied... Ick)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone (in soup, it wasn't whole)
54. Paneer (saag paneer)
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads (in a stew)
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
t65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe (I'm not sure if Louche is a brand, but I've had absinthe a few times)
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (I wish)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse (possibly)
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta (and the burns that go with making the stuff)
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

The ants were barely worth the bother if I'm honest, cheap chocolate with a gritty bit in the middle. Ditto with the Lobster Thermidor. I'm convinced all that gussying up is just to hide the fact that the lobster maybe wasn't that fresh to begin with.

My favourite is possibly the Tom Yum only because the weather here is so changeable I normally spend most of the year with the sniffles and this stuff clears them right up. But then Churros and hot chocolate rock too.

Feel free to pilfer everyone, I know I did:)