10 pieces of Trivia

This is a really tricky prompt, because I feel like I have been very open on this blog about most aspects of my life and personality. It’s one of the things I think gives my blog an authenticity. So, I suppose I am left with ‘trivia’ for want of a better word.

So here goes – read on at your own risk!

If I had been a girl my parents had chosen the name Jane.

My earliest memory turns out to be at about 6 months old when I somehow fell out of a moving car! I mentioned it to my parents one time and they couldn’t believe I could remember it. Still, it’s probably something that would cut through the early missing memories and embed itself in your brain.

I had my first birthday in India, my second in Pakistan and my third, fourth and fifth in Singapore. It was my sixth birthday before I celebrated in the country of my birth. My youngest daughter has me beaten on that though with her first birthday in the UK, her second in Hong Kong, her third in New Zealand, her fourth in Australia and her fifth back in the UK!

The first single I bought was King of the Cops by Billy Howard. Listening to it now, it’s awful but I loved it as an 8 year old!

I had a squint corrected at the age of 8 or 9. It was only spotted because I had to hold the book I was reading at arm’s length to stop me seeing double.

I never started smoking because in my teens I got a very bad throat infection that kept me off school for three weeks and recurred every winter for years. My GP asked me if I smoked, I said no and he replied that it was just as well as the combination of that and the infection could have killed me!

I did not receive any award or certificate in the whole of my school life. The first certificate I received was at work at the age of 58! I didn’t really value it on the basis that it was too little too late. I suppose I should have done.

I was 22 before I had my first proper girlfriend and we got married three years later. We celebrated our 35th anniversary in September.

I applied for Higher education in 1988 to take Business Studies and was turned down by everyone. Then, I got a call from Staffordshire Polytechnic offering me a place to study Economics at 5 days notice!

When my daughter was 9 she won a competition to toss the coin at the Ladies Singles Final at Wimbledon, so I had the chance to walk on Centre Court before the start of play.