tagged by a penguin

I arrived home last night after an evening of theatre, dinner n drinks with friends to discover I'd been tagged by Sam over at Adventures of Queerpenguin. At first I really did gasp out loud, but then I warmed to the idea of being coerced into posting. So, here goes:

1. I love the number 8. I was born at home and 8 was the street number of our house. All I really know about my birth is that I was 2 weeks overdue, the umbilical cord was around my neck and the midwife was eager for a cup of tea. If I knew what time I was born I'd get my personal astrology chart done, but my parents can't remember. My Mum can only tell me that it was early in the morning. Some years ago I was pleased to learn the number 8 is also the symbol for infinity

2. As a kid I was sent along to ballroom dancing lessons. I was 10 or 11 at the time and I excelled in competition dancing; I received medals, trophies and ribbons in various categories and was also awarded something like "most promising newcomer", but I was too embarrassed to continue once I got to High School so I dropped out. Now I watch 'Dancing with the Stars' and can only wonder...

3. I watched lots n lots of television when I was a kid. I also bought TV Week magazine and kept scrapbooks. One of my favourite shows was (and still is) 'Prisoner'. When actress Fiona Spence announced she was leaving the series I wrote a letter to TV Week saying how much I would miss her as the hard-line screw Vera 'Vinegar Tits' Bennett. The letter was published (under the pen name 'Prisoner Fan'), but for some reason I never kept a copy. I've written other letters since then to various publications, but this was the first. Some years later my first ever boyfriend collected some of his old scrapbooks from his Mum's house and in one of them was a copy of my letter. Neither of us knew each other at the time the letter was written

4. During the 1980s I had an agent. In between being a Uni student or dole bludger I worked as an extra in many films, television series and mini-series. I did lots of episodes of 'Neighbours' including when it first aired on the 7 Network. When the show moved over to TEN I was seen hanging around the background in the daze of Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Guy Pearce and Craig McLachlan et al. I still have some old video tapes around here somewhere

5. I'm a hoarder. I went to a '70s retro themed housewarming party once and wore my old platform school shoes. They barely fitted, but I squeezed into them in the name of authenticity. I drank too much and danced too much and the next day the toenails on my two big toes were black. Eventually both toenails fell off and although they grew back they've been fucked ever since - kinda like my Mum's (though hers are naturally like that)

6. I have an older brother and a younger sister. When we were growing up they both had white blond(e) hair and blue eyes whereas I've always had black hair and dark brown eyes. People would often comment about the striking difference between me and my siblings and suggest my father was really the milkman. These daze my brother is balding, my sister dyes her hair to keep it blonde and I get told I look like Antonio Banderas, Michael Hutchence or (ahem) Mr Bean

7. I've lost count of the number of jobs I've had. Unlike my brother and sister who've had the same jobs for years n years I've done lots of different things to earn a crust. One job I had a couple of years ago was a stint at Bodyline (a gay sex on premises venue here in Sinny). The pay was lousy and the hours weren't much better and sometimes I would've rather been serving a sexy customer horizontally than over the counter. I haven't told my parents about that position job (yet)

8. I thought I'd have kids. And I do, but other people made them. I have four god children living in Melbourne and a sponsor child living in Africa. I've known the mother of my two godsons (brothers aged 9 & 7) since my first year at High School and the mother of my goddaughters (twins aged 2) since my final year at High School. The boy I sponsor is about to turn 17 and has been in my life since he was 12. One of the things I love about him is that he loves dancing. He lives in Malawi and all I can say is it's a good thing Madonna never tried to get her hands on him...

Now I have to follow the rules and tag 8 other people, so... Campbell, Denys, Ian, Marc, Miss Litzi, Nico, Sheila and (The Other) Andrew consider yourselves tagged!