Take on me, take me on

[venta]

valkyriekaren challenged me to say 10 things about myself beginning with the letter T.

1. Tea
I like tea. I like delicately-flavoured teas, and Earl Grey with lemon, and green teas and white teas. However, standard English tea-with-milk (in a mug) is a mythical substance with magical properties. You can never totally trust someone who doesn't like tea.

If you show up and tell me that your house has burned down, you've developed a crippling medical condition and your girlfriend has eloped with your pet guinea pig, I'll make you a cup of tea. (OK, I will subsequently try and provide practical assistance, but we'll do the tea first.)

Disappointingly, I can't drink much tea these days - the caffeine does bad things to my stomach. I actually tried de-caf tea for the first time recently, and it wasn't as horrible as I expected. It tasted like fairly poor tea - but I don't think I'd have been able to identify what was up with it.

2. Tall
I always wanted to be tall. I am not. I have achieved happiness by, it seems, believing I am tall in the face of all evidence. If you stand me next to someone who is my height, I will think I am slightly taller than they are.

Some friends have told me that they always think I'm much taller than I actually am (which delights me). Others have told me that I always appear to be rather shorter than I turn out to be (which does not).

For people who like their data more objective, I'm a little under 5'6".

3. Techie
A friend of mine never tells anyone what he does for a living - not (as far as I'm aware) because he's a spy, but because he doesn't think it's interesting. What he does in his spare time is what he is, and his job is merely a tedious necessity to pay bills.

I do actually identify very strongly with my job, being a programmer is a big part of who I am. At the (small) company I work for I'm also responsible for technical documentation, but I'm a lot less likely to mention that because although I'm probably better at it I don't care about it so much.

I'm not sure why. Partly it's just a delight in being unexpected (there aren't many female programmers); it amuses me greatly when people apologise for talking about geeky computer stuff in front of me because they assume I won't understand. Partly I just enjoy it.

4. Television
Me and the pictorial wireless do not really get on.

I don't dislike television, I just rarely even remember its existence. If prodded into watching stuff, I usually enjoy it. But if asked whether I want to, I can usually think of n things I'd rather do.

We didn't have a telly in the house when I was a kid. It never bothered me, I didn't really miss it, and I just never got into the habit of watching it.

I can only barely operate the telly and peripherals which ChrisC has parked in the corner of the living room. It's not really that complicated, I've just not really summoned enough interest to find out.

5. Trains
Despite trains being the transport we all love to hate, they're still a bloody good way of getting round the country. I travel to work on the train every day - it's about break-even, pricewise, with driving and slightly more time-consuming. However, flobbing out on a train with a book, a laptop, or indeed staring vacantly into space beats watching my life ebb away on the M4 every day.

I also love the romance and glamour which seems attached to historic train travel (possibly erroneously). I want to be the person wearing fabulous clothes and dining in the Pullman carriage, retiring to a beautifully appointed cabin as my train steams into the night. I want tearful farewells or ecstatic reunions at the beautifully re-done St Pancras. I'd love to go on the Orient Express, were it not so eye-wateringly expensive.

I also have trainspotter genes inherited from both parents and can be reasonably sensible on the subject of steam locos (even though I was easily outgeeked yesterday).

6. Territorial
I like Oxford, where I lived for more than a decade, and I love living in London. However, neither of them have ever felt like my places.

My place is the north of England, even though I've (largely) lost the accent and don't live there any more. London is fantastic and fascinating and awesome, but I don't think I'll ever regard it with the same affection I have for York, Newcastle, Leeds or Sheffield.

I have claimed, in the past, that I'd be able to tell which end of the country I was in just by atmostphere. This is probably bollocks, but is logistically rather difficult to test.

Also, the scenery down here is rubbish.

(Yes, I know this isn't really what "territorial" means. I'm struggling here. Is there a word (preferably beginning with 'T') meaning "people who are bad at thinking of things which begin with T"?)

7. Trying
I like to think that I'm always willing to try stuff. I like new things, I like new experiences. Fortunately, I have a few friends who will sporadically say "hey, let's do this!", which is great.

I'm also, in general, always trying to do stuff well. Not necessarily in a particularly effective or super-human way, but just in trying to do whatever it is I'm doing to the best of my ability. What I'm doing might be reading a book (am I properly paying attention and thinking about what I'm reading?) or listening to someone else (ditto paying attention and thinking), or lazing on the sofa (am I actually lazing, instead of half-worrying about this other thing I ought to be doing). Whatever it is, I want to do it whole-heartedly.

I suspect I'm also quite trying company at times.

8. Trousers
Honestly, I do own skirts and I do even wear them on occasion, but it does have to be quite an occasion. I've never really grasped how some people manage to wear skirts for just normal every day stuff, like it's a normal thing to do... I mean, they usually don't even have pockets!

Of late, I've had to do occasional smart-looking for work, and it simply never occurred to me to wear a skirt. Not least because I'm often doing tech-demos, and that will invariably involve crawling under a table to find a socket or something. Skirts just seem so hopelessly impractical and frivolous.

(Today, very worn, faded and slightly holey black jeans, if you're curious.)

9. Talking
I talk. A lot. (You'd never guess, would you, from the rate I go on on here...) Sometimes I talk to other people, sometimes to myself. Sometimes to others, but when they're not there.

However, talking is best done with others, and combined with listening. And with tea (or beer, which disappointingly doesn't begin with T).

In conversation, I'm always terrified of appearing to pry into others' affairs so rarely ask questions. I fear this sometimes makes me come across as self-obsessed and only willing to talk about myself :(

10. Tolerant
The world is full of people, many of whom are perfectly nice but believe, like, or cause things which are wholly alien to me. If these people are running the world then I am happy to fight with them, but at the same time their opinions are as valid as mine.

As Voltaire's biographer wrote: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.


Comment if you'd like me to choose you a letter!

Comments

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Oh go on then, except that you might feel like making it into a V sign when it takes me ages to respond.

I'm wearing a skirt today (which won't be visible when my potential new client skypes to intereview me) and a remembrance poppy (which will be visible if I take off this warm fleece). Like you I often wear trousers, but skirts can be comfortable too.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Venta hands you a plate, which holds a large Victoria sponge. The icing is a bit wonky, but it looks like she's cut it into the shape of a letter N.

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Ok I'm resisting the urge to shout NO! will think of something NICE to say instead.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Saying NO to cake? That's nearly as bad as not liking tea! Panic!

(Unless cake is something which messes with your digestion, in which case I'll just about accept it so long as it's clear you're shouting NO a little reluctantly.)

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Oops I was hysterical after having been hired so I didn't visualise the cake properly. Of course I'm not saying NO to cake! Just a small portion for me please. Or you could substitute something like ice cream or a custard slice. Thanking you kindly.

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Dunnit!

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to accept that skirts are comfortable for others :) The main trouble is not the actual skirt, it's legs... bare legs means your legs stick together. Tights are always uncomfortable on me around the waist - they're too tight, and if I buy a larger size the waist is fine but they're weird elsewhere. Hold ups are badly named. My preference for wearing with skirts is stockings, but they are quite a lot of effort and really, oh, look, here's a pair of jeans :)

Skirts that you can wear with leggings are just about ok, but by then they might be largely decorative and it'd probably be more comfy just to wear the leggings.

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Last time leggings were in fashion, I wore them for years after the shops stopped selling them. Eventually all my multiply-mended leggings went to the great 80s festival in the sky. Then a couple of years ago, they're back! Along with the other fashions of my youth.

So yes I'm with you on the skirt+leggings combo. Go without the skirt if you wish - I did, 20-30 years ago - the current generation of students does it too - but if you're middle-aged like me, you may want to take an honest look at your reflection. From all angles.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am under no illusions about the acceptability of presenting my bum to the world in leggings. Long jumpers :)

Also: today's leggings seem to be markedly less opaque than 80s leggings. Given that I walk up crowded flights of stairs in Reading station every day, I am remarkably well informed about pant-choices made by the wearers of today's leggings!

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you get Too Much Information!