Seven Things (or: Embarrassing Photos 101)

I've been tagged for Seven Random Things – three more times! – by sugarbee, MrsDragon and TrueMirage.

Since I've been tagged before, I've decided this is Seven Things: The Way-Back-When Edition (complete with embarrassing photos, below) ... just to make it different. Oh and the rules: share seven random facts about yourself, then tag seven people at the end of your post and list their names – let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Here goes:


1. The house I lived in until I was two should've been condemned. It had no ceiling, no plumbing (outdoor toilet, anyone?) and no electricity – Dad hooked up a single bulb to a car battery so he could study for university after dark. It also had many holes in the walls and floor, which the native snakes and spiders found very inviting. I'm still not entirely sure why my mum didn't leave...

2. Until Grade 5 I rarely wore shoes to school. At my primary school, that was alarmingly common.

3. For my 8th birthday I got a very large doll called Wendy Walker, who could walk, and an even larger brand-new brother called Julian, who couldn't. He weighed 10lbs 10oz at birth, and spent the first two years of his life expanding like dough. He was the light of my young life and I carried him everywhere.


4. In my teens I was guilty of big hair. Big, big hair. See photo evidence (above) from my senior formal – the Australian equivalent of prom. And more evidence (below) from a regular big-hair-day. You'd think I was Texan or something.


I was sadly unaware that curly hair could be straightened. Once I figured that out, life got better.

See?



5. I went from my barefoot primary school to an incredibly strict private girls' high school where the uniform was a knee-length tunic with a white collared shirt, a tie, a beret, a blazer, stockings and polished black school shoes – oh, and gloves. Yep, gloves.

And that was just the winter uniform. We also had an equally elaborate summer uniform (with boleros and panama hats), a sports uniform (a green tartan potato-sack with bloomers – I kid you not), a GPS uniform (for intermural sports events, probably so the other schools wouldn't laugh us out of town at the sight of our bloomers) and what we called our "whites" – a fancy uniform for big occasions like Speech Night and choral competitions.

I loved that school.

6. For the first two weeks of my life I didn't have name. Apparently it took my parents a while to settle on Helen – but I had it good. By the time my youngest brother (the fifth kid) was born, their famous procrastination had reached its peak. He remained nameless for three months (for three months we just called him "the-baby") before my parents settled on Daniel. The government fined them for not naming him in time. A great big two-dollar fine.


7. When my second brother was three, I broke his leg. We were trying to play gridiron when things went pear-shaped. This is why Australians should stick with Australian sports.

There. Now I'm tagging Cathy, Sara, Jules, Aaron, Anna, pinkmilk and nutsycoco. I've tried not to tag anyone who's been tagged before or who hates being tagged... but Jules, no free pass for you.

.