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Friday 10 June 2011

10 things on the 10th

This fab idea has been bought to you courtesy of the wonderful Shimelle. You can see the original post and follow the link to all the other posts here.

For my first incursion into this endeavour I thought I’d post 10 random things about me so, in no particular order, here goes:

1) I’ve had had the pleasure of driving my own car for 31 years, now that make me feel so old. When younger, the very fact that I had this complete independence always made me feel grateful and liberated. I guess it was because my Mum never learnt to drive but thankfully, most of my generation did. Now its taken for granted, and is commonplace, for our children to drive – once they get to the legal age of course.

Dapple John

Meet my very first car - Dapple John, I was 17 at the time and my Dad leant me the money (£500) to buy it.. Dapple because I started to rub down the rust, then I primed it, but then I just didn’t get around to painting it. John because the registration was JOH207N.  Can you remember all your car registrations, I think I can? It did later morph into Cost a Bomb John when I had a professional re-spray done for £300. He eventually bit the dust when he was costing me more in oil than he was in petrol!.

I still enjoy driving now and I especially enjoy driving across Europe but that’s a whole story in itself for another day I think.

2) I love Peonies.

3) I’m an ex rock climber. Ok, that may be over egging it slightly as I only actually started climbing around the age of 39 and I haven’t climbed since 2004 so my ‘career’ lasted a grand total of 3 years (ish), but I loved it. It could scare me silly when I was ‘stuck’ on the side of a rock face, hundreds of feet above the ground with a sudden inability to move my limbs lol. But oh, the feeling of achievement at the top when you looked down to where you began the climb was unbelievable.

x 006

Me, at the start of a multi pitch climb.

It’s also an excellent way of keeping fit and trim so I am tempted to find someone to climb with at an indoor wall. Much less kit is needed for indoor climbing and what is needed can usually be hired. You do need a climbing partner but I suspect there are clubs that allow ‘singles’ to meet up and climb together. Interested? Take a look at The BMC and UK Climbing sites to see if there’s a wall near you.

4) I love having a good read in a really hot bath and have been know to almost faint because it was just too hot.

5) I first left home at the tender age of 4. The reason why has been lost in the mists of time but it is well known that I left with my dressing gown folded neatly over my arm. My destination – Aunt Dinah’s. Now this is passing strange because, bless her, my Aunt Dinah’s just doesn’t figure as first choice for my new home. I guess I was just being practical as it’s likely it was  the only place I knew how to walk to, and that was probably debateable anyway.

Little Me too

Look at that little cherub face lol

6) I spend for too much time on the internet, but I guess you already knew that didn’t you lol?

7) At one time I had a thing about collecting teddy bears. I have now got over this phase and don’t buy them anymore. Erm except that is for the one I bought last year because I didn’t have one with T’hubby’s name, I’ll explain shall I?

IMG_6532

Meet Black Adam, he a Robin Rive bear

It started with a couple of Steiff bears, I think I have three of them in total but they just have generic names. Then I discovered Robin Rive Bears. These were made in New Zealand but were readily available over here and they all have their own names. Sometimes they are limited editions of 50 or 200 and sometimes there are 800 of the same bear available. As well as some odd little ones (you may have seen Little Ted, not his real name of course, the other week starring in his own video right here) I also have bears bearing (get it) the names of my daughters, my son, myself (courtesy of T’hubby) and of course, my husband. Hmm, I think I should move on quickly!!

8) I have a small mountain of stash that sort of explodes out of the office at every opportunity, but I am not scrapping right now nor have I done any for months. I am currently considering whether I ought to sell some, or indeed most, of it.

Pastel petals

9) I support re-cycling and re-using, I think its fantastic. It can be great fun,  creative and, ultimately, necessary.  Two approaches, firstly we’ve used the Freecycle and Freegle networks extensively when we’ve had items we no longer want. With one single exception, everything we’ve posted has been wanted by someone who has duly turned up to collect said item. The one exception was sadly a piano, in the end I had to pay someone to take it away, I couldn’t believe it. It can be lovely to see your stuff go to a new home though like the two little girls who arrived with their Dad to collect the child’s wicker garden furniture and had great fun testing it out before they left.  Or the family of 4 boys who happily took away our old (very large) multi swing set begging their Dad to set it up that very night lol

pallet shelf

The second approach includes re-using or remaking items into something new. On my current list of wants are a large wardrobe that I can cut out panels in the door and replace with chicken wire to make into a linen cupboard for the hovel, and, pallets. Have you seen just how much can be done with them? We were already after some to make into compost bins for The Hovel but after seeing the photo above on Pinterest and following links through to this page I now have umpteen ideas floating around of ways to use them.

 10) I do quite like lists, aren’t they a wonderful way of capturing what’s important, or what’s going on right now. Trouble is I have lots of lists that start with ‘To Do’ right at the very top lol

Well, thank you for joining me on this little excursion, I hope I haven’t bored you too much, the post certainly ended up being longer than I initially envisaged. Take a look at the other posts won’t you and thank you for dropping by. Please feel free to leave me a comment, it’s always lovely to hear from you.

Wendy xx

18 comments:

scrappyjacky said...

I can see I like a lot of the things you do...though rock climbing is not among them!!

Sheena said...

Great to get to know you better Wendy x
Reuse & recycle is big in this household too

helena said...

great list - I love the creativity of re-use and thinking of ways to make what I want from things I can reuse rther than buying new

Tracy said...

I also love to reuse, mainly because I cant bear to get rid of anything. I would however, love if we have freecycle here.

Ruth said...

Interesting list, although I may pass on the rock-climbing!

Ginger said...

Oh Wendy I have enjoyed reading your list!! I did buy a peony bush for the garden as they are one of my favourite flowers :) Rock climbing?!! Really? Yikes (that is a fab photo of you in action :)

Beverly said...

I always love posts that give us a glimpse into who a person really is. A rock climber?! then you are a rock star, there is no way I would ever do that!

Melissa said...

What a great list and info about you. I enjoyed reading through this morning. Thanks for sharing.

Kirsty.A said...

A very personal and intersting post

Connie Mercer said...

I feel like I know you better~great list!

Denise said...

Great post today Wendy, I love the first picture of you and your first car - reminds me of my first mini (30 -ish years ago) !

Rebekah said...

Love the recycled work of art on your wall, what an awesome shelf for photos. TFS your 10 things!

Shunrai said...

Great list. I enjoy it !
Some great inspiration there.

furrypig said...

an interesting insight into your life thank you for sharing with us

Miriam said...

What a great list!! and some wonderful photo's.

Jimjams said...

Very interesting "getting to know you" list with great photos. TFS xx

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed learning more about you. Great choice for this post!

Alysse said...

I love your number 5. I too packed a bag when I was younger and left home ... for grandma's!