Ten things meme

Ten things meme from dorky dad


I am not going to name anyone this time because I have already passed two memes on fairly recently...but your supposed to write ten things about yourself and then name ten bloggers to tag. They are supposed to be true, and that is what I am doing, but DD mixed up truth and lies...so DD is number 2 really true?

1. I was nearly killed in Denver Colorado. It was night. I got on the wrong bus. I got off it when the knife fight started. I was only a few blocks out from my usual route, and a large group of *ahem* young gentlemen started up the street towards me, shouting *um* compliments at me, and carrying unidentifiable objects. I stepped into the street in front of an oncoming car, the only oncoming car. Indeed the only car in sight. I put my hand up in good cop stop-now fashion and got in, hoping that this was not the fire that I was jumping into from the pan. An off duty cab...he turned to me and said incredulously, "What are YOU doing HERE? He drove me to my bike -what a nerd I am, eh?- and then followed me all the way home. My angel. He got a lot of Karma points that night. The next day when I told friends from Denver what had happened, they said that people got killed ON that bus, let alone off it....

2. I travelled around the world by myself, largely by land, flying over the wet bits....and had no problems like above. Except a, hmmmm, overly enthusiastic on-leave US military serviceman in Fiji. I bought myself a wedding ring the next day.

3. I think I have been to 33 countries. Not sure though.

4. I get seasick. A lot.

5. I love to eat cream cheese and salami sandwiches on baguette. Not when I am sea-sick. My kids like to talk about food like that with me when I am sea sick though. Whoever said kids are nice?

6. I stepped on the toe of the Queen of Holland, I think, though it could have been Sweden's Queen, or maybe Norway's. Wasn't Elizabeth, I'd a recognized her. Northern Europe though...she was short and very kind about it....I came through a door too fast...ooops.

7. I want to sail a dhow some day.

8. The first time I read Dracula I was working passage on a freighter on the Gold Coast of Australia going from Cairns up to the Thursday Islands and back. On board was a fellow who did the Times crossword in order, across only. He never needed the down clues, one word after the other with barely a pause, like he was writing a grocery list. He worked there a while as a deck hand then went walk-about a while. Sometimes life is amazing. The cook thought I wanted her job...not. The Captain got me up at night whenever the phosphorescence was good, and I saw a shark's feeding frenzy. Blessedly from on the ship.

9. I spent a week with just me and the kids in inland rural Florida sitting on the porch swapping lies with a a bunch of Southern men. One was from Utah and thought that the problems of the world were because too many women married too late and had too few children. As I was in my mid-thirties at the time with a mere two children both under 8, that conversation took a bit of a gulp for me. Oh, and then there is a certain global overpopulation issue. I did not accept his lift into town. I was a little rude too. Another fellow was a man who had been in the US Marines for 22 years, and had some scary and surprising stories to tell, and used WAY too much water everyday when he was afloat. He made me feel safe at night in the yard with the guy from Utah there. I figured I had the Marines on my side. Again, you never know who your going to meet.

10. One of the greatest things about going cruising is discovering how kind and trusting almost everyone is...for example I cannot count the number of people who gave us the key to their car minutes after meeting us. One time we met up with some Bahamian Sponge fishermen in Nassau who we had gotten to know earlier while we were taking turns having struggles anchoring and dealing with engines, and they had given us a pretty good scare at one point. Two of the guys came by at 7am, with their breakfast...as in they both had a Guinness, one guy was driving the outboard, and the other was standing on the bow holding onto the painter like a cowboy. The just came over to say Hi, but when they found out that it was one kid's birthday, and the other's had been a few days ago, they came back with sponges bigger that the kids heads...beautiful. And they had cleaned them too!

So there you go, 10 things.

If you like the idea of the meme, or just want to talk about ten unrelated things about yourself...let it rip....not tagging anyone this time though...