I know you didn’t ask, but I am offering 100 things you probably don’t need to know nor want to know about me. This list is current as at 21st March 2008. Updates will be noted no doubt! Look away now if you want some mystery about me to remain…

1. I am a total night owl. I get my second wind around 10pm and if I am not in bed by then I am usually up past midnight. I have started this at 11.50pm.
2. I am actually a fairly accomplished violinist. I did 7th grade AMEB in year 11 and then year 12 Music A (prac). I never did well in exams because I hated practicing technical studies- comments usually focussed on how good my pieces were despite my poor scales/technical work.
3. When I left school I went to Melbourne Uni to study Music Education. I got in through an audition. I hated the course and dropped the music after the first year and totally out of the course after the second year.
4. Whilst at Melbourne Uni, I resided at Trinity College where I was a choral scholar. Didn’t get paid a lot, but had an absolute ball and adored singing and the camaraderie of the choir. The two choir directors in my time were Peter Godfrey and Christopher Dearnley. Christopher had played the organ at St Paul’s Cathedral in London for Chuck and Di’s wedding.
5. When I was in year 12 I was school music captain. Well one of three of them! My name is on an honour board.
6. Two of the three music captains won the Music Award at Speech Night in year 12. I still feel for Kate who missed out.
7. I hated my school principal. Well actually in the end she hated me! I was hauled into her office in year 12 and accused of racism and told I would probably be sitting my year 12 exams elsewhere. It was only when other teachers came and stood up for me that she backed down. I was actually bullied by the girl who made the racism allegations.
8. Year 12 was very eventful. On Easter Saturday my father drowned in a SCUBA diving mishap. Just before my exams was the inquest into his death. They say he wasn’t familiar with his equipment, but that has never made sense to me. I would rather think something else happened.
9. I made my debut the year before Dad died. The guy who was meant to be my partner got a part time job and couldn’t attend rehearsals. So the school Chaplain found me a partner. He was 5 inches shorter than me and had a moustache. I regret being so nasty to him, because I suspect he was a nice guy. The original guy who was to be my partner and I didn’t speak for 4 years. He is now married with 4 kids!
10. This deb partner was also the guy who I saw Lethal Weapon 2 or 3 with and he spent the whole movie groping my breast. I never did anything about it though! And he never made another move. He was also a few inches shorter than me.
11. As a child, for about 7 years running we drove from Melbourne to Morpeth, near Newcastle for 2 weeks straight after Christmas. We stayed at the theological college there. There were hardly ever any other families there. I spent the time swimming.
12. I had very few friends at school. I remember in year 4 one girl telling me she was only friends with me because no one else wanted to be. It took me many years to realise that no one wanted to be friends with her either.
13. In Junior School, the music teacher wrote a musical each year. In year 5 I was one of the lead characters- Luigi Lasagne the Strong Man. It was about a circus. Looking back it epitomised several stereotypes and I doubt it would be performed today.
14. I can remember random things about all of my primary school teachers and a lot of my high school teachers. Mrs T in Prep wore Bonds Cottontails and we lay on the floor as she walked around with us looking up her skirt; Miss T in Year 1 had a thing going with the audiovisual guy; Mrs H in year 2 did mime every Tuesday and Drama every Friday; Mrs Mc in year 4 spent the whole year doing history stuff; Mrs V in year 5 had a computer and was really strict; Mrs B in year 5 was married to a dentist and we studied teeth; Mrs M in year 6 had me as the teachers pet!
15. I have quite a few regrets about my subject choices at school. I should never have done English Lit in year 12 and I should have persevered with Maths and Chemistry in year 11.
16. I never really had a strong career path planned in high school. I did work experience as a physiotherapist as I thought that sounded cool and with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
17. My mother never let me have long hair. I kinda had a mullet in junior high school. I think i rebel now by keeping it long!
18. My parents were very big in Liberal Party politics. I can remember sitting on my father’s shoulders at an anti-Whitlam protest and after the dismissal he declared that if Malcolm Fraser did not get elected we would emigrate. My mother still works tirelessly for the party. My political allegiances are elsewhere!
19. My father was born in Lahore when it was still part of India. His father was in the Royal Army. I never found out until quite recently that my grandmother was pregnant when they got married. My father had very traditional views about sex before marriage and discovering this made me smile.
20. When my grandparents returned from India they settled in Jersey in the Channel Islands. It is where my Aunt and Uncle still live.
21. I have no cousins. My mother was an only child and my Aunt has never been able to have children. My Aunt and Uncle are a very devoted couple. I have only met them a few times, but I love them dearly.
22. My paternal grandparents were also very devoted. My grandfather died 3 weeks after my grandmother, literally of a broken heart. I never met my paternal grandparents.
23. Mrs Vaughn, my year 4 teacher, had a computer in the classroom. It sat in the corner. We were never allowed to touch it and I don’t think she knew how to use it. It was from her husband’s work. It was the first computer I ever came into contact with and I thought it was way cool.
24. In year 9 I was part of a select group to trial the new VCE computer studies syllabus. Again I regret not continuing with computer studies because I was good at it!
25. I have a younger brother and we are like chalk and cheese. Nuff said. He is very generous Uncle to his niece and nephew however.
26. My first car was a 1978 Canary Yellow Toyota Corolla. It had been my dads. It had a St Christopher medallion he had glued onto the dashboard.
27. Between 19 and 23 I was in 4 car accidents, 3 of which were my fault! Once I spun out on a dirt road and landed slap bang between two huge trees. Some people thought it was miraculous. I just blame luck- good or bad as you may see fit!
28. I have not had an accident in over 12 years. Touch wood!
29. I grew up in a very religious household. We went to church every Sunday, even on holidays. My mum and brother still do.
30. I married the curate. Well kinda. I married a Deacon who was to be ordained a Priest. His ordination was deferred by 12 months because he married me. We met at Trinity College and had a huge wedding there. Students hung out of buildings to get a glimpse of the bride! The reception was in the Dining Hall.
31. I have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). This means that I don’t ovulate regularly because my hormones are out of whack, am Insulin Resistant and am technically infertile. I prefer to see it as subfertile as I did manage to conceive two gorgeous children after a lot of fertility treatment.
32. I never had IVF, but ovulation induction where I would inject myself with vast quantities of hormones and then be told by doctors when to have sex. It was not very romantic at all. The hormones were made from the urine of menopausal nuns.
33. My kid’s birthdays are usually 4 days apart, 5 in a leap year. Even though I am subfertile, obviously the Queen’s Birthday holiday weekend had something to do with their conception. I now keep my legs closed in June!
34. I get pedantic about spelling, grammar and punctuation, but I still get things wrong! It really pisses me off when I find out too!
35. I have been a member of Amnesty International for over 20 years. I am not as active as I used to be and want to get back into the letter writing campaigns. I am passionate about human rights and absolutely loathe injustice.
36. I am passionate about breastfeeding and am a trained Community Educator with the Australian Breastfeeding Association. I believe strongly in babies receiving their mother’s milk for the first 6 months exclusively.
37. I had real problems breastfeeding Imogen, but Jasper was a breeze and didn’t end up weaning until he was over 3 years old. Lots of people thought this was weird. We didn’t
38. I adore cooking. Some people even say I am a good cook! I love baking and cooking desserts, but hardly do because I only end up eating what I have made! Now I am getting into yeast and am experimenting with different breads.
39. I love food. It is hard to say what my Desert Island Meal would be because I have so many favourites, but I think a medium rare rib steak on the bone with garlic mushrooms would come close.
40. Chocolate is definitely a food group. But it has to be good chocolate! My favourite is Maya Gold Green & Blacks organic. They have just started stocking it at work. This could be fatal! I also love Lindt dark and believe it or not Cadbury Dairy Milk.
41. Beethoven has always been a hero of mine. He fought the status quo with regards to patronage and won. He also composed some damn fine music, even when he was deaf.
42. Too much music theory/appreciation at school turned me off Mozart. I cannot listen to his symphonies without dissecting the structure and identifying recapitulations! My music teacher warned me of this at school.
43. I have totally eclectic taste in music. My iPod contains Gregorian Chant, Hildegard of Bingen, plenty of choral music, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Elgar, Arvo Part to lots of contemporary stuff too (NIN, John Butler Trio, Augie March, Regina Spektor, Ben Folds, Eskimo Joe etc.) Jazz (Coltrane…) Oh and Abba.
44. When I was 19 and traveling around England for 6 weeks I went to the Opera at the ENO in London and sat next to Terry Waite who had just been released. I didn’t know what to say, so left him alone. I got the ticket through a friend of a friend.
45. I love going to the opera, but I suspect part of it is the dressing up and having a champagne at interval that excites me!
46. As much as I love music, I cannot study to it. It puts me off and I start either singing along or analysing it. I suppose in some ways music plays too much of a part in my life for me to be able to put it in the background.
47. I never visited a nightclub until I was in my 30s. Used to spend time in pubs when I was at uni first time round!
48. I went to the same school from prep to year 12. A Private girls one. I didn’t much like it and I will not send my kids to same sex schools. Well not at the moment anyway!
49. With the money I made playing in the orchestra for a Greek Song Contest on SBS I bought a guitar and tried to teach myself. Got better when I took classes at UniSA as part of my primary teaching degree. I regret losing contact with that lecturer as his classes were brilliant and I learnt more about music there than I had learnt at school or at Melbourne Uni. And he introduced me to John Coltrane!
50. I cannot listen to commercial radio. I hate radio ads. My radio alternates between Triple J, ABC Classic FM and ABC Local Radio. I used to listen to ABC Local in Adelaide and laugh at the talkback callers. Now I mainly tune in for sport.
51. I still can’t believe my beloved Geelong Cats won the AFL premiership last year!
52. My grandfather’s cousin won the first Brownlow Medal. He played for Geelong. The family has always barracked for them!
53. I collect cookbooks. I have over 200 but don’t cook from all but a few of them. I keep saying I will choose a book of the week and cook something from it, but I never do.
54. I am the world’s greatest procrastinator.
55. I hate housework and would almost do anything above it, but I do like having a clean and tidy house. It just doesn’t seem to happen that much!
56. Until about 3 years ago I hated being called ‘Fi.’ Now I introduce myself as Fi all the time.
57. I detest having to report my income and hours worked to Centrelink each fortnight, but it is more about hating being identified as a ‘pensioner’ as anything else.
58. I once told the academic advisor at school I wanted to go on the dole until I was old enough to get a pension. She took me seriously and made me study the posters that had your competencies and what jobs were suited to them- colourful ones with concentric circles… Did you have them?
59. I think the whole welfare system needs a revamp. See workers who receive welfare have tax breaks and the like rather than paying out and getting back. Even though I pay less tax than receive welfare.
60. When I was about 8 my dad was diagnosed with a malignant tumour. It was never mentioned as cancer. It changed him and every slight twinge he thought he had secondaries.
61. Dad was a volunteer fire fighter with the CFA. He fought in the Ash Wednesday fires and for days no one knew where his unit was. I don’t think I have ever seen Mum so worked up.
62. For my 8th birthday a fire truck came for the kids to climb on. I was embarrassed, but people thought it was cool.
63. At one stage a few years back I had very bad anxiety problems with full on panic attacks. Tried anti-depressants but they didn’t work for me. Now I carry around Valium, but hardly ever use it. I still have blue times, but never black.
64. On 19th March, 2002, my very good friend died suddenly leaving a husband and 13 month old. We went through pregnancy together, sang together and laughed together. I still miss Anne a lot. She taught me so much about lots of things, especially feminism.
65. Most of my good friends now I met online. A group of us met through an infertility group and now call ourselves the ‘Supermums.’ The 11 of us met up from all over Australia in 2002 in Coogee for a brilliant weekend! Would love to get together again.
66. Most of the time I feel a lot more comfortable sitting in front of a computer communicating than sitting with someone.
67. I am a real worrier! If there is something to worry about, I will worry.
68. I have massive self doubt a lot of the time and this can be quite debilitating. Deep down I know I am capable, but self doubt manages to get in the way.
69. I can be very emotional at times. I tear up watching TV drama and still cannot read some stories to the kids without crying (The Happy Prince, Koala Lou and Charlotte’s Web for example.)
70. I love flowers. I am particularly partial to roses, gerberas and lilies. Not that fond of carnations though. In an ideal world I would have fresh flowers in the house every week.
71. I dream a lot when I sleep. Usually these are not bad dreams, but can be very very weird. It is the weirdness that freaks me because I dwell on them the following day.
72. I had size 8.5 feet until I had Imogen when they lengthened to a size 10-11.
73. I had compacted Wisdom Teeth removed when I was 16. All 5 of them. This was my first anaesthetic and I vomited a lot afterwards. Not nice through a mouth clamped shut.
74. My other anaesthetic was for a laparoscopy to investigate my insides. Again I was sick afterwards, although this may have had more to do with the revolting cheese and cucumber sandwiches they made me eat before they let me go home.
75. I am having my tonsils out on April Fool’s Day. I am not looking forward to it, but looking forward to having my throat back.
76. I have really bad handwriting. The only way it can look even remotely decent is by using a really fine pen. Or do Qld cursive script with a calligraphy pen.
77. I can type relatively quickly and don’t need to look at the keys. I use mainly my pointer finger on my right hand, occasionally using my middle finger and my ring, middle and pointer on my left hand. I press the space bar with my pointer finger from my right hand 99% of the time!
78. Oh and I always rest my left hand fingers on the right keys. We all did a term of typing in year 9, but I got in trouble for not typing the right words.
79. I love writing. I would love to write a novel, but it sounds like too much hard work at the moment. Perhaps after I have finished my thesis…
80. I also want to write a book about ‘losing my religion’ and the experiences I had at the hands of the church. Will start with a few blog posts.
81. I love journaling, but not the handwriting, so blogging is good for me. Go digital!
82. I keep another anonymous blog that started as me living with someone with a chronic mental illness and has gone through my separation and soon to be divorce. Only a few friends know it is me. Sometimes I find it too painful to journal even there so I just bottle it up.
83. I lived in the same house my entire childhood. My mother and brother still live there.
84. When I married and left college I lived in East Melbourne for a week, then Mt Gambier, Meningie, Adelaide and now Cairns.
85. I was worried about the climate of Cairns when we moved here, but I now love it. I do miss seasonality though, especially Autumn, Spring and Winter. I try and get a bit of Winter each year. Well some cold!
86. I have traveled a bit, but so want to do more. I have been to every state and territory capital in Australia, through the South Pacific, Tahiti, Hawaii, bits of France, bits of Scotland, Jersey in the Chanel Islands and heaps of England.
87. I would love to have done an exchange year in another country and really learnt the language and culture.
88. I studied French throughout high school and visited France and Tahiti on school trips. During the France trip I lived with a French family for 2 weeks. Mme Ducroix was an English teacher who refused to speak English to me. I hated it at the time, but thank her now.
89. I won an Alliance Français award at school for French speaking. I can still remember the poem or parts of it. It was about coffee!
90. I actually had a dream in French the other week. That was weird! I didn’t understand a lot of it either which was weirder.
91. A couple of years ago we went on a cruise of the South Pacific including Noumea. My kids were amazed I could order them lunch and know what they were getting! I was given a discount for speaking in French! LOL!
92. I am really glad to have found twitter and have met some amazing people through there.
93. I have real problems saying no to people. If someone asks me to do something I will try and do it, even if I put other more important things to the back.
94. When I married I never thought I was going to work in paid work. I know, young and delusional! I did have some part time jobs though including merchandising paint brushes and selling curtains and blinds.
95. I hate doing tax returns and usually end up doing 2-3 years at a time. Need to do 2 years at the moment and am putting off ringing the accountant.
96. I have 3 favourite creatures- elephants, frogs and butterflies.
97. I would love to get a tattoo of an elephant with a flower in its trunk and a butterfly near the flower, but don’t know where to get it on my body and am a little scared of the pain involved!
98. I am a bit of a greenie. I recycle everything and have been doing so for years.
99. My aim is to put in a frog pond in the yard here somewhere, but I am not sure where yet.
100. I need to learn to focus on me and to set and achieve some goals that I need to set…

This has taken a few days to complete and will no doubt be edited at some stage… Or perhaps added to… the again, maybe not!