Me Me Me

Gemma tagged me last week (or was it longer than that, sorry Gemma, I’ve lost track of time) for this fun meme.

Rules:
The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
Each player answers the questions about himself or herself.
At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
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Here we go……

What were you doing ten years ago today?

Ah, that would be May 1998. I remember it distinctly. My son was almost two and we were talking about trying for another child. But I was admitted to hospital with severe bleeding and had to have what they call an endometrial ablation. The doctors wanted to perform a full hysterectomy but I was terrified of the side-effects and of dying on the operating table(one of my greatest fears/phobias) so I refused. I was told at that point that I would never be able to have any more children which devastated me at the time because I had been dreaming of having a little golden-haired daughter. Real dreams, almost every night. It took me a few years to come to terms with it because the dream had been so vivid. Then a really odd thing happened. My sister, Shelley had a baby girl who looked just like the little girl in my dream. I don’t know why, but I was finally able to put my disappointment at not bringing another child into the world to rest. That little girl in my dream had come into this world another way. When I met my niece for the first time she looked at me as if to say: ‘I know you.’ It was uncanny.

5 things on today’s ‘to do’ list –

Finish the next chapter of my book about the homeless girl

Get through a day of work without plotting to make a pair of cement shoes for my boss

Visit all the blogs I love to read

Make chocolate banana bread as a little end of the week treat

Spend the evening watching the DVD of Atonement I got for my birthday. Can it possibly be as good as the book? I mean, in my eyes Ian McEwan is a god!

5 Things I’d Do If I Was A Billionaire –

Buy a house

Leave a little aside for a rainy day

Set up my own publishing/film production company and give deals to all the great writers I know who are constantly rejected by the mainstream publishers

Give at least ten million to all my favourite charities

Distribute the rest of the money among my family and friends. No point in keeping it all to yourself, is there? So I probably wouldn’t be a billionaire for long. Then I’d get a T-shirt made that said : ‘I used to be a billionaire but now I’m happy.’

5 bad habits –

what, only five?

Leaving books all over the place (I read a few things at once)

Not always being able to say NO straight away even if I really want to

Letting depression de-motivate me

Fearing success (I think that’s why I have so many unfinished writing projects. I don’t fear rejection, I fear success. Sounds odd, I know, but I am used to being rejected. Success would mean looking differently at the way I view myself)

Jumping to conclusions and overreacting

5 places I’ve lived –

Glasgow, Scotland

Donegal, Ireland

Italy (for a year as a backpacker)

Sydney, Australia

In my head on Introspection Street (yeah, I used to be a Goth)

5 jobs I’ve had –

Teacher

Editor

Waitress

Gardener

Fiction buyer in a bookshop

So, that’s it. Thanks, Gemma, that was fun.

I’m not going to tag anyone but if you feel so inclined, please feel free to indulge.

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Please spare a thought or a prayer over the next few days and weeks for the people of Parkersburg, Iowa, who have been badly affected by a tornado. Dear blogging friends of mine – Britt and her Mum – are in the midst of the devastation right now.

I am so sorry, dear ones. What an awful thing to go through. I am thinking of you and praying for you every day.