Me meme!

Before I went on holidays, my mentor, Manuel Estimulo, invited me to join in this meme. I don't usually join in memes because I have a proper blog instead of a Livejournal (that was a joke, please don't kill me). However, who can refuse everyone's favourite fascist?

So, here are eight things you didn't know about me before:

1) I love driving. It's shameful, I know, but I love it. I pray for the day when electric cars, or hydrogen cars, or some non-shameful form of car comes on the market that I can pilot without having to feel like some kind of environmental criminal and curtail my driving. However, like all right-thinking drivers, I only really like driving on good, relatively quiet roads. There are about four of these in any one country, and so my enjoyment of driving is lessened somewhat. I do not listen to Bachman Turner Overdrive while driving.

2) I listen to Farm Week on RTE Radio One almost every week. There is no reason for this, other than the fact that I'm something of a stickler for certain routines. Back when the Big Breakfast was on Channel 4 in the mornings, I couldn't go to work until a certain point in the programme had passed. Now, I have to get up on a Saturday morning to listen to Farm Week.

3) The corollary to 2) is that I have become a morning person as I have grown older. If the weather is fine, I like nothing more than getting up at 6am and going out for a walk, and am one of those tedious coves who will tell you that the early morning is the best part of the day.

4) Although I dislike almost everything about the practice of it, and don't enjoy watching it on television, I actually think golf is a great game. It's sociable, non-combative, age-inclusive, and involves a lot of walking. However, the actual business of golf, with its enclosed lands that could be used as public amenities, wasting of natural resources, and ludicrous motorised carts that remove even the walking aspect of it, really annoy me.

5) People who can walk around the streets in flip flops amaze me. I get a cramp in my foot if I walk in mine for more than two minutes, and I trip over them going both up and down stairs. In fact, other people's footwear in general is a source of amazement to me. The heels are so high! The shoes look so uncomfortable and insubstantial! What is the point?

6) In fact, I'm boringly practical when it comes to buying clothes. I rarely buy handbags or coats that aren't waterproof, just in case, and I won't buy shoes that say on them that they're not supposed to be worn outdoors (what is the POINT?) Although I love fancy hats, I rarely buy them either, because I once saw some skanger rob a hat off a guy's head and throw it in the Liffey, and I live in fear that someone will do that to me and I will look a fool.

7) I look forward to the Autumn, because all my television programmes will start again.

8) I am happier now, both with my lot in life and with my own self, than I have ever been.

I understand that I'm now supposed to nominate someone else to complete this meme. I haven't decided who yet.