Memory Meme

BadAunt has tagged me for this long and complicated meme – so it’s her fault! Its even her fault that I have to tag five more people at the end of it. Any problems, you know who to visit!

What I was doing ten years ago:
July 1995 I was sleeping in the front room of a two bedroom flat, because I had my two older kids, plus their larger, resentful step brother (his mum had done a runner to Newcastle, taken his baby sister and left him behind), plus Gary, plus Lewis who was then eight months old. We had to give up the goldfish to make room for the cot because they had a six foot tank. Carried them to the pet shop in a bucket, the oldest being a six incher called Sodom, whom Gary had owned for years. I wasn’t working but was Secretary of the Tenants Association.

5 years ago:
July 2001 I was one month off becoming a grandmother, tossing up whether to report my daughter’s boyfriend to the police because she only turned 16 that April, and whether to sue the Health Authority because they treated her like a fussy hypochondriac and told her it was irritable bowel syndrome until she was gone 20 weeks. I was PA to the Town Clerk and also Mayor’s Secretary, and would have been organising the stalls for the annual town ‘Fun Day’ and the brass band etc for the Clean Beach Award.

1 year ago:
Working from home for a company that went belly up because one of the Directors went bankrupt, then shadow directed allegedly just long enough to put the bills and paperwork in a.n.other’s name whilst simultaneously stopping the payments, then buggered off to Spain leaving the piggy bank empty. I think it was around this time I was volunteering all my paperwork to the DTI. I keep ALL my paperwork – emails, msn messages, the lot. I was also fighting to have Lewis statemented as he had just been diagnosed with Aspergers, and taking Imogen to hospital because her hamstrings are worryingly short.

Yesterday:
Monday 11 July – Packing for Gary to go away, attending my youngest’s school sports day in the sort of intensely humid heat only this green, pleasant and generally wet land can give off when the sun shines. Blogging, dossing about. I didn’t do much at all.

5 snacks I enjoy:
Apple
Banana
Dark Chocolate
Crystallised ginger
Cheese & onion crisps

5 songs I know all the words to:
Don’t Come The Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim – Kirsty Maccoll
Paradise By The Dashboard Light - Meat Loaf
The Christopher Robin song – Cheryl Hall
Big Yellow Taxi – Amy Grant
Everything from Grease, Carousel, Wizard of Oz, South Pacific, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory etc etc etc

5 Things I would do with $100 million:
Panic – that’s 100 million chances to make a mistake
Buy a house
Have a holiday
Pay for education
Give a lot away – not because I’m nice, just because I’m not trained for that responsibility and I don’t think I could sleep.

5 locations I would like to run away to:
Nope. Blossom where you’re planted. Visits sure, no running away.

5 bad habits I have:
Procrastination
Smoking
Spending too much time on the internet!
Stating the obvious
Being blunt

5 things I like doing:
Reading(blogs included)
Writing (ditto)
Playing with my kids
Arguing a point
Laughing

5 things I would never wear:
Crimplene
Nylon
Track suits
Hairspray
Hoop earrings

5 TV shows I like:
Star Trek
Little Britain
Dead Like Me
Doctor Who
Never Mind The Buzzcocks
(Did anyone say they have to be showing at the moment?)

5 Biggest joys of the moment:
Family
Pets
Friends (bloggers included)
The sea
The hills

5 Favorite toys:
Computer.That’s it. I’m not a gadget addict, so pick from joys/likes


I tag...

Ella
Steve
Jane
Ally
Doris
(Plus Fiona if she's ready - welcome back, Fiona!)