The 100 things project: 51-101

51. I make a point of ordering the local beer when dining out at foreign food restaurants.
52. I play indoor netball. Sometimes well, sometimes not. I suspect I am either not as good, or better a player than I think I am. I compare myself to other players too often, usually in a negative light. I also argue with umpires too much.
53. I was fairly physically uncoordinated as a teenager.
54. I enjoy playing pool, to a reasonable level of skill I believe.
55. I am very competitive if I think I can win.
56. I swear a lot, but can clean up my speech and talk proper as required.
57. In spite of fact 39, I am fairly confident at public speaking, provided I know what I am talking about. This surprises people, most notably on my wedding day where I have been told people were surprised to hear me speaking so confidently, and also that it was the most people had heard me say at once.
58. Again in spite of fact 39, I will happily do Karaoke if I am in the right mood, like the song and know all the words. I include REM’s ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it’ in my repertoire. This impresses people for some reason.
59. I am a legendarily fussy eater.
60. I would like to play guitar, but my fingers are too big. I can play single notes on a harmonica.
61. I hate horror movies. There’s enough real horror in the world without having to invent any more.
62. I love my friends even if they annoy me sometimes. I don’t express that enough.
63. I love to travel. I don’t do enough of it.
64. A couple of kilometres in Northland and Canterbury aside, I have driven the entire length of State Highway one. I have travelled all of it.
65. I love driving twisty turny roads in my roadster. I am not a hoon, and do not take risks when driving. I will drive quickly but not dangerously. I find it clears the mind wonderfully.
66. I am a poor passenger. I have refused to travel in peoples cars because of their driving ability. This and fact 65 are inextricably linked to fact 14.
67. I spent 12 days at sea on a ‘Spirit of Adventure’ training ship voyage when I was 16 and loved it. My most favourite memory of that is the ship sailing on a lean, with me on the yard folding a sail 10 metres above the deck, with one end of the yard pointing at the sea and the other at the sky.
68. I love in-jokes.
69. I hate toilet humour
70. I have in the past fallen in love with someone I shouldn’t have fallen in love with, like the Buzzcocks song goes.
71. There are 20 assorted trophies in our house from many years of indoor netball and soccer. They gave them out like lollies a few years back.
72. I worry too much. I try to prepare myself for the worst that can happen, but that backfires and I start thinking only of the worst that can happen.
73. I sleep on the left hand side of the bed. My wife and I used to swap at different houses depending on where the door was. She has a thing about earthquakes.
74. I love that picture of Wellington Harbour with the high rise buildings reflecting in the sea.
75. I occasionally play Indoor soccer. I used to play real soccer when I was at school. I’m not very good at the indoor game and prefer to play goalie full time where fact 52 helps out.
76. There is a significant amount of military in my family. My father served in the Air Force. My wife’s brother in law is in the Air Force. My wife’s parents are both ex-Army. My wife and her sister used to be army cadets. My father’s brother fought in the British army in the Korean War. My father in law fought in the Malayan conflict in the fifties. I have two cousins on my mother's side buried in France from the First World War. My plan was to follow my father, but fact 49 got in the way.
77. I have no famous relatives. My most famous ancestor is a Constable Kiely, who was in the first group to enter the Tarawera area after the volcanic eruption of 1886.
78. The most famous person I have met is Keith Quinn.
79. I often have internal dialogues.
80. I can get quite drunk without outwardly appearing to be so. This worked against me on my stag night. This occasion is the only time I have seen double as a result of drinking. I thought it was a myth until I experienced it first hand.
81. No matter how drunk I get, I don’t appear to suffer from memory loss. I can remember all the drinks consumed on my stag night. 5 beers, 3 sakes, 1 southern comfort, 1 Jaegermeister, 1 chilli vodka, 2 tequilas, 1 Kahlua, 1 depth charge (Drambuie in Guinness).
82. This sometimes means I can remember things I’d rather forget. Like pouring my drink on the floor when the girl I’d been spading for an hour asked me the time.
83. When I sing along to songs, I often sing along to the backing vocals rather than the lead. I also hum basslines or drumbeats.
84. I have seen the image on a cinema screen bubble and burn up like in the movies when the film gets stick in the projector. I thought this was also a myth until I saw it. The movie was ‘Beyond the Valley of the Dolls’, for the record.
85. I often drink coffee when out, but never at home.
86. I have a signed photo of a famous Soviet Cosmonaut.
87. The first tape I bought was ‘Diesel and Dust’ by Midnight Oil.
88. The first CD I bought was the single of ‘Prayer for the dying’ by Seal. I bought it for the acoustic version of ‘Crazy’ that was the B-side. The first album length CD I bought was Cold Chisel’s greatest hits collection ‘Chisel’.
89. I am only a happy dancer when dancing to fast electronic music. At all other times I feel awkward and clumsy.
90. I can grow a beard faster than anyone I know.
91. While my hair is dark brown, my beard is red. It is either Irish from my mother’s side, or north east English Viking from my father’s side.
92. I hate shaving. Beards have their irritations as well. It is a fine balance.
93. I have very pale skin. I don’t tan, I burn.
94. I love a good music video.
95. I don’t gamble.
96. I am not overtly religious. I was raised Catholic, and retain a belief of sorts in a supreme being, but find the trappings of organised religion stifling. I still go to church occasionally but it doesn’t do anything for me. I live by a set of morals which are basically Christian. I try to do the right thing where possible. I love the diversity of religion worldwide, but it frustrates me that it is the source of most of the world’s conflicts.
97. I think it is more likely than not that alien life exists elsewhere in the universe. Unless we or they develop faster than light travel however, we are unlikely to encounter it. Space is too big.
98. I am open minded to the possibility of conspiracy theories. This does not mean I believe in them. There has definitely been a cover up of sorts over UFO’s. I don’t believe the moon landings were faked.
99. I find creating ‘favourites’ lists difficult. I find it hard to choose.
100. I don’t have a fear of heights. I have a well developed fear of falling however.
101. I have never been very good at maths. I did sixth form maths twice, and even then could only improve from a 6 to a 5. Luckily I married a maths teacher.