Six things about me

I was tagged last week by Frances over at France and the Unknown, so here, a bit late, are the results! I don't usually tag people but if anyone wants to pick this up on their own blog, and reveal six things about themselves, feel free.

1. I was a runner up in the Daily Mail (actually it could have been Daily Mirror but I can't find my copy of the book in which the results where published to check) children's poetry competition when I was 11. I wrote a poem about my grandmother, who was torn between being miffed at my not very flattering portrait of her, and pride at my brief national celebrity.

2. I last fell off a horse into a ploughed field. The horse was standing still at the time. Dear Tess, alas now PTS, and I careered across a ploughed field, and I had one of those moments when I lose all physical co-ordination, and just sat there thinking "OOH I am NOT in control here." Anyway, Tess stopped of her own accord, and I sat there for a few seconds and then slowly toppled off into the plough, while Tess turned to look at me and sighed deeply.

3. The first ever animals I remember were our boxer dog Coco, and our big ginger and white cat Claude. Coco once frazzled her nose, as she used to sleep with her nose on the boiler. Alas, the boiler blew up and poor Coco ended up with a skinned nose. It recovered very quickly, I'm glad to say.

4. There was a riding school at the bottom of my garden. At least, there was in our first house, which was in Ickwell, Bedfordshire, and where we lived until I was 4. I used to spend a lot of my time hanging on the fence talking to the horses. I kept this up even after one evil piebald bit me several times on the arm. There was obviously no hope for me even then.

5. I can't dance. I love, love, love Strictly Come Dancing, and when daughter's dance school started a jazz class for ballet mamas, I joined, all excited. Alas I can't keep more than 10 steps of a routine in my head at the same time. No sooner did I cram more in, than the first few would shuffle out.

6. I used to wear a razor blade round my neck in the 1970s. Yes I did. It was punk, after all, and I was Kettering High School's sole representative, albeit a tad undercover. I subscribed to the NME, which was then in its young, hip, gunslinging days, and I loved the Stranglers, and Ian Dury, and lots of obscure American stuff like Television and Jonathan Richman and Mink de Ville .... Still do, as a matter of fact. And that reminds me of this:



which I also love. I first heard it when I was out pony book hunting in Leicestershire, having resorted to Radio 1 as I couldn't get Radio 4. I was completely blown away by it, and had to put off book hunting until I'd heard the end. It took me a while to work out the end, but I think I've got there now. And that's sort of 7 things, but never mind.

Comments

Juxtabook said…
Though we are colleagues and talk a lot online never having met you I have no mental image of you. As you are our revered and hardworking ibooknet chairman, dedicated wife and mother, and successful pony book business woman I had formed some suitable ideas - but none of them involved razor blades!
Unknown said…
It must be hard for punk kids nowadays to get hold of razor blades. Hanging a Phillishave around your neck isn't the same, somehow...
Jane Badger said…
Juxtabook - no, I don't suppose it would! Gillian - they used to come in little cardboard/paper packs, as I remember but it hadn't occurred to me what you'd do now. A friend actually bought me a much safer specially plated one which I took to wearing as it was rather less lethal than the original.
Val said…
How fascinating ..I was more a New Romantic myself..Dad's collerless shirt with added ruffles,asymmetric hair cut half pink...meant to be purple but the dye didn't oblige..the crazyness of growing up!!!but I do remmeber pogo-ing to the Stranglers and loved Golden Brown.
btw Many Thanks for the introduction to Ruby Ferguson "Jill" books..missed these in my childhood. Just started as a read aloud to Pony enthralled offspring..the eldest is well smitten (and I'm finding them great fun too and have to stop myself reading ahead lol )Val
Jane Badger said…
Val -oooh, New Romantic. I wish I'd been braver about that myself. I did have a cavalier shirt, dripping with lace and ruffles, which I adored. I wasn't so very keen on the music, but I did like the clothes.

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