Ten Things You Never Knew About Me: Meme

My dear friend Karina at the Gluten Free Goddess has tagged me, so here we go. . . .

1. I once trained to be a classical musician and almost made it, but fell in love and left my budding concert career behind - I have no regrets about that whatsoever. The piano and cello are long gone, but one of these days I shall indeed have another cello. In the meantime, I play the recorder (very badly), and from time to time I have lovely dreams about conducting a symphony orchestra. In my dreams, the music I am conducting is the overture from Fidelio, and the orchestra (of course) is the Berlin Philharmonic.

2. On our first date many years ago, my soulmate and I spent most of the evening talking about art and literature, and somehow or other I landed up reciting almost the whole of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat to him - for the simple reason that he didn't believe I knew it, let alone knew the whole thing. I can still recite it from memory along with vast chunks of Yeats, Rumi, Hafiz, Basho, Rilke, Neruda, David Whyte, Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry.

3. I learned to read before reaching the dizzy age of four and have had my nose firmly planted in a book ever since, could cheerfully part with my whole wardrobe and probably the family silver, but never my library. Owning a book shop would be a dream come true and a truly celestial experience.

4. There is a slight bend in my nose which is not very noticeable because of all the freckles on it. As a teenager, I broke the poor sniffer several times falling out of trees and off horses, and it now lists permanently to port, but nobody seems to notice, and I don't usually volunteer the information.

5. My favorite items of footwear (on the rare occasions when I cop out and wear shoes these days) are my purple lace-up Doc Martens. I feel like Xena in those boots, invincible and as though I can do just about anything, but (sigh) I don’t have a sword or breastplate.

6. I am indifferent to potatoes, but I simply couldn’t live without rice. There is always a large bowl of rice in my refrigerator, and my favorite kitchen gadgets are my wok, rice steamer and Le Creuset skillets. Throw a handful of sauteed greens, tofu, peppers, shitaki mushrooms and teriyaki sauce (or whatever else is available) into the rice, and hey presto, one has the perfect serendipity repast.

7. The comfort food of choice is pumpernickel toast with butter and buckwheat honey, preferably consumed with a good pot of tea - Earl Grey or a fine malty Assam will do nicely. If there is no buckwheat honey about, I substitute my own homemade wild elderberry jam. I just say "no" to white bread whenever I encounter it and can't remember the last time I ate the insipid stuff. Did I mention that I love tea?

8. Up to the present moment, I have been adopted by two clans in the Lanark Highlands, Raven and Wolf and can speak both languages reasonably well, have been known to sing along with the wolves in Lanark at sunset and trade jokes with the ravens on fine summer mornings.

9. There are four places on this earth I should like very much to visit before I shuffle off this mortal coil, the Himalayas, China, Japan and (for some strange reason) Iceland, and I plan to make it to all four places in the next year or two.

10. Having been quiet, introspective, freckled and rather easy going all my life (and about as intimidating as the Easter bunny), I secretly aspire to become a commanding presence in my elder years, someone who is wise, compelling and a little scary.