Dragon has broken a habit and tagged me for some terrifying soul-baring kind of meme. A [more] link follows, to protect the guilty.

I don't know if any of these are of interest to you, but here goes.
  1. Once upon a time, I was one of those annoying little choir boys: in a school concert I ended up with the traditional solo first-verse solo of Once in Royal David's City. Throughout rehearsals I could never get the first three notes right, using the 1-3-3 progression from Hark the Herald Angels Sing rather than the smooth 1-2-3 I was meant to use. I don't remember, but I suspect I did the same for the performance.

  2. I was very briefly suspended from that school. I forget what it was I did that time: I generally used to be a pointlessly violent and objectionable child. In hindsight it's amazing I ever thought that I would be able to get out of being sent to the Headmistress just by going back to the teacher who sent me and lying about having seen her. Some of the blame rests on the older boy I was sent with, but I don't think it occurred to either of us that teachers might talk to one another...

  3. At university I walked on hot coals (wood embers, strictly speaking: I'm not sure anyone encourages members of the public to walk on actual coals, which are quite a bit hotter) for charity. The plan is that you don't make contact for too long, which is fine until a little flake of smouldering wood decides to stick to your sole (don't worry, no harm done).

  4. My shortest stay in a job was for eight days. It was a Christmas job in Dixons, and it was pretty clear to everyone that I was there until a real job arrived, but I think maybe the manager had expected me to last until New Year, at least. Incidentally, my longest job is this one, at three years and counting.

  5. I'm not an atheist. That may or may not be something you didn't know, but it's what people generally assume, so worth dispelling.


The usual suspects seem to have had it already, so I won't tag this time.