PLAYING THE GAME
So much has been happening lately, both on the island and in the family, and also in my creative pursuits, that I feel I have heaps to write about.
However, I must put this aside to fulfil a commitment, and "play tag". Tagging is the latest game in the interactive world of blogging, and involves issuing a challenge to a set number of fellow bloggers, who then in turn pass on ther challenge to other bloggers. It is certainly a good way of getting to explore other blogs, but I suspect that it may become a bit like a chain letter......the mathematics tell me there just aren't enough bloggers out there, at least not enough of a playful frame of mind and similar interests, for the game to continue for very long.
Anyway, I have been tagged by Norma in the U.S., a fellow crazy quilter, and the challenge is to describe five weird things about myself.
Now, putting aside my firm conviction that I am completely normal, and it is only others who are weird, I have thought long and hard about this. I have decided that weird things can come under four main categories...eccentricities, phobias, habits and body tricks. I will dispense with habits, because I have decided long ago that habits that do not contribute to smooth, efficient and stress free functioning of one's existence are just not worth cultivating or sticking with. But I can manage a smattering of the others.
Weird thing 1. I am scared of moths. Over the years I have become more tolerant of the little ones, but I still hate to be in the same room as a really big moth. On the other hand, as a child, I just loved hairy caterpillars, and would pick them up and stroke them. But I have not met a hairy caterpillar for many years, so I do not know what my reaction would be today.
Weird thing2. I can wiggle the little toe on my right foot independent of all the others. I have been able to do this as long as I can remember.
Weird thing 3. I am one of a fairly uncommon group of people who have "synaesthesia". Look it up on Google. For decades I used to wonder why I got weird looks when I spoke about Monday being a creamy yellow colour, about the letter C being bright green, and about the numbers going vertically upwards up to number 10, going horizontal until 20, then going back up to 100 before reverting to a horizontal but retreating pattern. Then I found an article in a Time magazine about this condition where, when one sense is stimulated, another one responds, and I did not feel so lonely any more.
Weird Thing 4. I do not like telephones. I can cope with answering them nowadays, but would rather make a long journey to ask someone something face to face than to ring them up. I have other phobias, to, like vacuum cleaners, but will not go into that.
Weird Thing 5. I would sooner shop in an Opportunity Shop than any other. You could put me in a city full of wonderful stores, and even give me unlimited funds to spend, but I would still head first of all for the Op shops and markets and second hand places, knowing they would yield me more treasures and exciting stuff than all the others put together. I know all you other creative folk - crazy patchworkers, mixed media and textile artists, collectors etc -will relate to this, and not regard it as weird at all. It is not just a thrift thing or a bargain-hunting mentality. It is the love of gathering together a random collection of pre-loved trinkets and textures, with the prospect of combining them into something new and wonderful, or simply giving them a loving and appreciative home!

Now, does anyone else want to play?