All about me

Lady Jennie has this meme, so here goes - the questions are hers, the answers are mine.

1. What’s your guilty pleasure? You know what I mean? What do you do that you know is probably not the wisest thing for you but you can’t seem to help yourself?

A  large glass of Alsace Pinot Blanc on weekday evenings 

 as the opening credits roll for Plus Belle La Vie (a soap)

2. Have you ever been able to overcome a bad habit? If so, how?

I stopped smoking in September 2003.  I did it by moving the furniture around so that I was never in the same position as I had previously been, so it kind of broke the habit.  What got me through it was knowing that I only had to do things without a cigarette for the first time once - then it gets easier.  It does, but I still miss it, and I am told that the first 20 years are the worst.

3. What’s your first memory?

Being in a a twin pram with my brother.  I was two, and he six months. He was asleep with his mouth wide open, and I could see down his throat.  I remember wishing I was at the end of the pram that he was, so I could see our mother's face.

4. Have you ever had an experience with a ghost?

Kind of, though I have never seen one.  Where we lived when I was about ten there were stairs to the attic room, which was my bedroom.  The dog would not go up those stairs, and both my sister and my cousin were frightened of them - they said a little old man was sitting there and they didn't want to go past him.

5. Have you ever had a significant dream? One that came true, or one that meant something to you?

We planned a trip to Australia, my first, in 2001.  In the weeks before it I had a recurring dream in which there were flames, and ash, and planes falling out of the sky.  I begged for the trip to be cancelled, because I had such a bad feeling.  Significant other told me not to be so silly.  We flew on 9/11.

6. What’s your most embarrassingly funny memory, and if you dare, your embarrassingly embarrassing memory?

Embarrassingly funny: I spent at least half an hour at a dinner party in 1979 telling the person next to me about someone we had both met, her history, how interesting she was, blah blah, people around us began sniggering - then it came to me that not only had he known her for longer than I had, but that he had actually introduced us, and I had forgotten he had.  Embarrassingly embarrassing: the formal dinner at my university graduation in 1975.  I asked the people near me to pass the wine.  They looked at me hard, but they passed the wine. Only later did I realise that wine was not provided with the dinner.

7. Alright moving on to more distinguished topics. Favorite book. Why is it your favorite?

Two favourites: Howard's End by E.M. Forster and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.  The first because it is complicated, and sad, and joyful, and is about a house.  The second because it is complicated, and sad, and joyful, and is about a house. They are both about England.  All the characters in both these books are quite horrible. For some reason that makes me love the books.

8. Last question – most romantic. At what precise moment did you know your spouse/partner was “the one?”

No difficulty.  In 1993, well before we got together, when he told me he was a Leonard Cohen fan.  At that time Lenny was deeply unfashionable, unlike today.