Meme of Four

In order to get my daily dose of narcissism (and to make the blog look a little bit loved), I thought I'd do the Meme of Four here, as seen at New Kid on the Hallway, even though (obviously) no one tagged me. I hope that isn't breaking some sort of blogging etiquette. (Also I can't get the damn profile thing to work how I want it to).


Four jobs I've had:

(1) Writing short stories for an eccentric millionaire. He paid me random amounts of money for each story, but never less than $200 and sometimes up to $500. I ended up quitting after getting really freaked out about the whole thing because I couldn't see why they were worth that much to him (ostensibly he wanted them as reading exercises for a teach-yourself-English CD Rom he was producing).

(2) Working at KFC in the middle of nowhere. They never had more than two of us working at a time, which really sucked on the odd days that we actually had a dinner rush. Try taking orders on a headset (drive-through) while serving a different customer at the front desk, making hamburgers for other orders and keeping an eye on the deep fryer. Also it paid minimum wage, which meant I often made negative amounts of money on short night shifts when I had to take a taxi home.

(3) Temping at NZQA (the central administrating body for high school exams in New Zealand). Highlights: finding out former teachers' own high school results (the records there went back to 1900), seeing bizarre qualifications earned by students at agricultural schools (Sheep-Dagging 101, anyone?), and looking up weird and amusing names in the database (my favourite ever: Lovely Sunny Metric Smith). (Actually I made up Smith, cos her last name was unmemorable).

(4) Penguining! I was a giant penguin at the Antartic Centre in Christchurch. Got to wear a big stuffed penguin suit and run around frightening tourists and small children. The only downside was that the suit was so huge and nearly spherical that if I got pushed over by hordes of kiddies (which happened more often than you might think) I couldn't get up again without assistance and was doomed to roll on the floor forever.


Four movies I could watch over and over:

(1) The Princess Bride (and I have)

(2) Chocolat

(3) Pretty much any Monty Python movie

(4) The English Patient


Four places I've lived:

(1) New Zealand (from birth to age 20, with brief periods in Germany)

(2) Germany (2000--2003)

(3) Denmark (2003--2004)

(4) Australia (2004--present)


Four TV shows I love to watch:

I don't really watch TV (we don't have a real TV, just a TV card in the computer). But I do watch a few series on DVD and occasionally on TV when I remember that they are showing.

(1) Angel -- a few years ago I would have said Buffy, but what can I say, I've matured :)
(2) Firefly (detecting a theme here?)
(3) Farscape (took me a while to get into it, but now I'm addicted)
(4) Dr. Who (the new one)


Four places I've been on vacation:

(1) Rarotonga (for the honeymoon, courtesy of a very good friend who had too many frequent flier miles for her own good).
(2) Tokoroa (unlikely, I know, but Geekman's parents live there).
(3) Paris
(4) Amsterdam

Those last two were hard to choose out of all the weekend trips we did while living in Germany. But I think they were my favourite, although Zurich came a close third, London had a cooler backstory (spur of the moment surprise birthday trip to visit friends), and Tuscany counted as classiest mode of travel, since we did it as a roadtrip (from Switzerland) in a friend's new red convertible. Although I should probably mention for the sake of accuracy that it was only early spring and since we insisted on travelling with the top down, we were forced to bundle up like Eskimos and wear very uncool knitted hats.


Four blogs I've been reading longest:

(1) Quailplugs (a private blog run by my circle of friends, which is why I'm not linking to it)
(2) Random Acts of Reality
(3) Bitch PhD
(4) Dooce


Four of my favourite foods:

(1) Lemon meringue pie
(2) Trifle
(3) Caramel slice
(4) Actually, caramel anything.

Geekman thinks I have a sugar problem. Bah, he doesn't know what he's talking about :)


Four places I'd rather be:

See above, under four places I've been on vacation.


Four albums I can't live without lately:

I don't play favourites when it comes to music. I just don't feel that way about albums.


Four vehicles I've owned:

(1) World's most obviously second-hand bicycle. In NZ. The lock-up all the student bicycles were kept in was broken into one night and all the bicycles were stolen -- except mine which was carefully wheeled to one side and left. 'nuff said.

(2) World's oldest and funkiest bicycle. In Germany. Bought for $5 at a flea market. A friend who knew about bicycles said the company mine was made by had gone out of business in the 1940s. It was also the most comfortable bicycle I've ever sat on. Pity it never really worked.

(3) My car. 1989 Hyundai. Very pre-loved and battered even for its age. I've had it a year and it has needed repairs of $500 and upwards four times. Can't sell it and can't bring myself to dump it.

(4) Um... my feet? I haven't owned any other vehicles.


Four peple to tag:

I know no one.