7 Things

I got sucked into an internet chain mail by Jay Brooks and, because it’s just a bit of fun, I can’t resist it. The idea is to post 7 Things that you might not know about me and then ask 15 more people to do it themselves and then they pass it on... I won’t ask 15, I’ll just invite anyone who blogs and reads this to carry it on in their blogs.

Piercings. I’ve had almost everything pierced (except for my nose and belly button)... I went through a phase for a few years. I had 14 piercings altogether. I’ve now taken them all out. My earlobes once featured 8mm holes and I had a dodgy one in my ear cartilage which put me on an intravenous drip for a few days. The last piercing I took out was called a smiley. I’ve also got some tattoos, including a white heart on my wrist. I want more tattoos but I keep spending money on beer instead of saving it.

Red hair. I dyed my hair bright red once. To get it as red as possible I bleached it first. It was really red. I spent a whole Christmas like that once. What was I thinking?! I had to dye it to get rid of the colour when I had to go back to school but I chose to bleach it which left me with pink hair and white roots. I had to then dye it brown to cover it all up. I’ve had many crazy hairstyles and spent about four years of my late teens using hair dye in creative ways...

Cricket. I played cricket throughout school and university, being captain of the 2^nd XI in my final year of university cricket. I bowled leg spin, batted in the top order and hid myself somewhere quiet in the field. I was never really any good at cricket. In front of a mirror I had a near-perfect technique. In the nets I wasn’t bad either. Put me out on the square and I couldn’t score runs, which isn’t ideal for a batsman. I once got out for a duck in the 9th or 10th over – I opened the batting. I’ve played one game since uni but I do still miss attempting to hit the ball though the covers or ripping down a vicious leg spinner.

Sports Calendar. I once posed topless in a calendar at my university. It was for the Student Union sports teams and raised money for charity. Wearing some of my cricket whites you can see the strength of my back foot defensive shot.

Laser eyes. I’ve had laser eye surgery. I had bad eyes and so decided to spend lots of money which I didn’t have to get them fixed. I’m very glad I did it!

Fat. I used to be really fat. Until I realised girls existed (which, because I went to a boy’s grammar school, was when I was about 15) I would wobble around. Fat Dredge they called me. I soon discovered that if I swapped fizzy drinks for water and chocolate bars for fruit that I could lose weight. I also used to wear big, round glasses and have braces. I may have realised that girls existed but it took a little longer until they noticed me!

I’ve written a novel. I did it in a few months just after I started this blog. Since then it’s been printed out and sitting in a shoe box waiting for me to do something with it. Last summer I took it on holiday with me and did a thorough paper edit which made me realise how much work is needed to pull it into shape. This year I’ve promised myself that I will at least try and do that edit to see how it comes together. I also wrote another 35,000 words of a different story but it wasn’t working as I’d hoped. That story is about a brewer so I might go back to it sometime.

That’s my 7 things, now over to you!

I'm assuming that having mentioned the calendar shot that you'd all want to see my back foot defensive!