101 Things

O.K, I’m not sure there are 101 things to say about me, but hey, here we go:

1. My full name is Katherine, but you can call me Kathie, otherwise I might think I’m in trouble

2. My date of birth is 18.09.1980

3. I live in Munich, Germany

4. I was born in Yeovil, England

5. I lived the majority of my life in Clitheroe, Lancs, England

6. Clitheroe is most definitely my home town

7. I have 2 brothers, Daniel and James, and 1 sister, Emily

8. I am the oldest of the lot

9. I hated being the oldest as a child, because I always “should have known better”

10. Nowadays I don’t really mind, as we’re all pretty much adults anyway

11. I am married to Marc, a wondeful german guy. He is, to date, the best thing that ever happened to me. This does not mean that I do not want to wring his neck sometimes.

12. I got married twice – once in a civil ceremony that is obligatory in Germany on August 18th 2005, and once in a church ceremony in Clitheroe on 26th October 2005

13. 26th October is our wedding anniversary

14. I speak fluent german

15. I will read anything I can get my hands on

16. If I have started a book, I have to finish it, even if I hate every second

17. My fake celebrity boyfriend is Jonathan Creek. I’m so lame, he’s not even real

18. I love crappy television, particularly reality tv

19. A tv programme that has me shouting at the television screen and abusing the people on it makes me very happy. My husband does not understand this at all

20. I have a degree in a subject that doesn’t exist in english.

21. I work at the army university and am surrounded by men in uniform all day

22. Sadly, uniforms do nothing for me

23. Although I do quite like looking at the soldiers in the gym after work

24. Despite excellent table manners and very careful eating, if there is anything on my plate I can drip down my front, I most likely will

25. In fact, at this very moment, the front of my blouse is wet as I just washed the oil from my sun dried tomatoes at lunch off it

26. This is my fourth blog. I am very bad at sticking to blogs, although I’d really like to have a great one. You have been warned

27. I started running regularly about 6 weeks ago

28. I am actually quite enjoying it, which surprises me greatly

29. I wear pyjamas to bed

30. I never wake up and think “OK, I have slept long enough now.” I always wish I’d just had half an hour more

31. I really hate my arse

32. Yes, I’m british, I say “Arse”

33. I swear an awful lot in german, and hardly at all in english

34. My husband is clearly a bad influence on me

35. I have 2 budgies. Their names are Jack and Lilly. My mum tried to tell me those weren’t budgie names. Our budgie when I was a child was called Fred – I’m not sure whether she is in a position to judge

36. I love dairy products. Cheese, yoghurt, milk, ice cream… what I would do if I suddenly discovered I was lactose intolerant, I don’t know

37. I also love me some red wine

38. I do however really hate being drunk – I mean properly drunk, not just a bit tipsy. That, I quite like

39. I also really don’t like really drunk people. I have very little patience with them

40. I also hate to sound mean, but don’t like ill adults. O.K, let me rephrase that – you’re ill, you can’t help it. But I can’t stand it when people whinge about being ill

41. I met my husband when I worked for a summer in Italy. Technically, I cheated on my boyfriend back home with him. The real story is obviously much longer and more complex, and possibly worth blogging about some day

42. I spent a year in Cologne, Germany, when I was 18 as an au pair. This was before I met my husband

43. Somebody seriously suggested I only got together with my husband because I wanted to live in Germany again. I don’t think they grasped the whole EU freedom of movement thing

44. My favourite colour is blue.

45. I am very unadventurous when it comes to fashion, and until a few years ago, I would only ever wear blue. I am trying to become better at that

46. I hate having dry hands (as in skin wise). I carry around about 3 tubes of handcream with me at all times

47. Despite living practically next door to the Alps, I can’t ski

48. I tried it a couple of times, but somehow always ended up going too fast, forgetting how to stop and throwing myself into a nearby snowdrift in a panic

49. I have bitten my nails all my life. I keep stopping, and then they start breaking off, so I start again. My husband has a thing for long manicured painted nails though, so I’m really working on stopping

50. I am not even half way through this yet and am seriously struggling

51. My best friend is still my best friend from playschool. I shoved one of the big boys off a bike for her and we have been inseperable ever since

52. We couldn’t look more different – I am tall, lanky and blonde, she is small, petite and dark haired

53. I have really bad posture. This is because I have always been tall, and as an adolescent was taller than the boys for a long time. I hated it, and so slouched

54. I am obsessed with e-mail and the internet. I check my mails about every 10 minutes

55. If you write me an e-mail however, it will probably take me at least a week to reply, particularly if you haven’t asked a specific question

56. I’m a fairly untidy person. My husband is the world’s most anally tidy person. As you can probably imagine, this sin’t always a good combination

57. Harry Potter. Need I say more?

58. Actually yes, I find myself attracted to Daniel Ratcliffe in quite a scary way. At least he’s over the age of consent in the UK now, so I guess he’s fair game ;o) No, I’m kidding, he’s the same age as my baby brother. I will just drool from afar

59. I had my appendix out in May 2006. This was the first time I had ever stayed in hospital

60. I think it might also have been the first time my husband bought me flowers

61. I had a pierced belly button until the aforementioned operation. I had keyhole surgery, and so had a cut in my belly button, and so couldn’t put the piercing back in, until the stitches came out 2 weeks after surgery, by which time the piercing had healed over.

62. I am generally a very good healer (see above.) The scar from my piercing is more prominent than any of the three from my appendioctomy.

63. I love taking photos. I am, unfortunately, crap at it.

64. I have really big feet. This isn’t terribly noticeable, because I’m tall, and I guess they’re proportional to my height.

65. It does, however, really annoy me when I’m buying trainers, ask for a trainer in my size and the salesperson says “No, I’m sorry, that’s a ladies’ model”. Hello? What do you think I am?

66. I am currently working on growing tomatoes on my balcony.

67. Reminder: I am british, so I am most definitely growing tomARtoes

68. I still go for the student look as far as clothes are concerned – you really rarely see me in anything but jeans, a t-shirt or hoody and trainers. Another thing I am currently trying to change – I would love to be more stylish.

69. 69!! Hee hee…. (yes, I have a very immature sense of humour).

70. My husband talks on the telephone more than I do.

71. I am seriously struggling for things to say now…

72. I can’t click my fingers, but have learned to compensate by rubbing my thumb and index finger against each other so hard that it makes a similar noise.

73. The first concert I ever went to was MC Hammer! I was…erm… maybe 10? I won the tickets in a nationwide pruze draw. The next door neighbour’s daughter had to go with me, as my parents refused.

74. As a kid, I wanted to be a doctor. It didn’t work out because I was absolutely rubbish at biology in school.

75. My favourite flowers are tulips.

76. Perhaps TMI, but I only poo about once a week. I have no problems with that.

77. I once got beaten up by a 16 year old drunk girl on a village green in broad daylight.

78. I am allergic to penicillin.

79. I never really liked my first name. I changed my mind about what I wanted to be called (and how to spell it) at least 5 times during adolescence. We settled on Kathie when I was about 16 I think.

80. I was once on one of those “amusing” home video shows. I played in my primary school band and during the school year, our music teacher went on maternity leave. So the tone deaf headmaster decided he was going to do practice with us for the end of term concert. We were supposed to be playing “Rule Britannia”. I only discovered when I saw it on the television, after somebody’s parent sent the home video into the show, that the song had been completely unrecognisable.

81. I also got a makeover from Just 17 magazine when I was 16. It was quite good, although the Before picture was made deliberately awful, in that I had been up since 4am to get to London in time, wasn’t allowed to wear any make up and they even messed up my hair. That way, the transformation (sure, the make up looked really nice) looked even more dramatic.

82. I always think of loads of things to add to this list and post on this blog when I am out and about. As soon as I am sitting in front of this page, my mind goes blank. I should really start taking notes already.

83. Oooh, I am allergic to penicillin – I don’t think we had that one yet.

84. Whistling drives me positively insane.

85. I hate feet. I particularly hate watching people touch their naked feet. Get your hands off your feet. Now. Thank you.

86. Bollocks, I just realised Number 78 was already the penicillin thing. Gutted.

87. I am quite possibly the least photogenic person I know, particularly if somebody asks me to look at a camera and smile. You know how little kids pull the most stupid grimaces ever when asked to smile for photos? Yeah, I never got over that.

88. I know absolutely nothing about this WordPress lark. Please don’t expect any spectacular functions on this blog. Unless of course I can implement them by checking a box or something. In which case, I’m likely to have them all.

89. I am very easily overwhelmed when shopping. I go into shops, see a number of things I like, get overwhelmed by the decision making and leave with nothing. This most recently happened to me in Sephora in France last week. I am gutted because we don’t have Sephora in Germany and I now wish I’d just pulled myself together and bought stuff.

90. Perhaps TMI again, but I have a really small bladder. I have to pee really often, and when I have to pee, I have to pee now. This means I have peed in a number of pretty bizarre places in my time, including on a set of stairs up to a beach, on the kerb on my street in the middle of the night and even on a building site I broke into specifically for that purpose.

91. I’m a pretty bad procrastinator. Hence the reason it’s taken me two weeks to finish this list.

92. I really want a mini pig. I would keep it like a dog, but with endorsed digging in the garden. Marc says i can have one when we get a house with a yard, but is currently still insisting that we will have to eat it at some point – will have to work some more on that.

93. As of 10 days from now, I will having stopped trying to not have a baby. I deliberately put it like that because, for now, we will not be doing anything special to try and conceive. I just really don’t like the idea of taking my temperature, working out ovulation and all that jazz. If you want to, go for it, and of course, should we find out that going for it “au naturelle” isn’t working, hand me the thermometer. But for now, we’re planning on using the old fashioned method. I am expecting our first child in April 2008
94. I like to kid myself that I am prepared for this whole getting pregnant being a mum thing to take a while.

95. I fully expect myself not to be.

96. I am very concerned about what other people think of me. This blog is an attempt to get around that.

97. It wouldn’t appear to be working, as I have deleted at least 4 facts from this list, for fear they might make me sound like a freak.

98. My husbabd rides a motorbike. I love riding it with him, but have no desire to do my own license.

99. I am a sun worshiper. I don’t mean that in a religious sense, but more in the whole “The sun is shining, let me outside right now, wearing as little as possible”. For that reason, I am almost always covered in high factor suncream (although I will admit to liking being a little bit brown, at least.)

100. I absolutely love the sea. A holiday doesn’t feel like a holiday to me unless I’ve been in the sea at least once!

101. I have finished a list of 101 things about me! Hooray!!!