As I was tidying up my website and fiddling with my “About” page, I kept coming up with stuff that was neither quite crochet- or designing- related. So it occurred to me to put it all (and then some) in a separate post and share it with you here, along with an announcement of my birthday sale on Ravelry.
Here are 25 random facts about me which did not make it to my about page. Some are cute, some are downright weird. But I guess they are what makes me me. (The coupon is at the bottom of this post in case you don’t make it through all 25!)
1. As of today, I am 41 years old.
2. I am a crochet designer. It is only recently that I stopped feeling like an impostor when saying it out loud.
3. I don’t own much of yarn stash. I can finger-count the number of complete skeins I have and most of them were gifted to me. The rest are pretty much left-overs from other projects.
4. London is my most favourite city. I live in what’s considered a “disadvantaged” area, but I love it nonetheless.
5. I still have a fairly strong Russian accent despite having lived in the UK for the past 12 years.
6. I was born and grew up in Kazakhstan, the ninth largest country in the world.
7. I am married to a Catalan and have a daughter who considers herself to be English.
8. I suffer from social anxiety and my favourite way of connecting with people is online rather than in person. In social situations, I try hard to appear outgoing which is probably why I tend to talk way too much.
9. I have a Master of Business Administration degree which I got in a third oldest UK university. I also have a chartered certified accountancy qualification. I never got a chance to make much use of either of the two.
10. My favourite meal right now is South Indian breakfast in which I indulge at least once a month (as a takeaway). The variety of cuisine is one of my most favourite things about London.
11. I was a very fussy eater when I was a kid. I remember my concerned mum trying to spoon-feed me at the age of 7-8 in order to get some food into me. As she proceeded with her mission, she would make a poem and create a new line for every spoon I accepted (the spoiled brat, I know!). I now LOVE trying new food and eating in general. Probably a bit too much. Which, I suppose, is another problem.
12. I had seven years of piano training, but once I graduated, I never touched the instrument again. During the 7 years of training, my parents were always open to the idea of me dropping out. I just did not want to.
13. Before I started school I understood Darwinism quite literally and was convinced that every person used to be a monkey before turning into a human. I could imagine myself sitting on a tree with a banana in my hand.
14. When a kid, I used to have a pet dog called Tyoma, and my dad transferred the name to me as a nickname. This pet-nicknaming habit turned out to be hereditary and I tend to call my daughter an array of names which once belonged to my pets. On the rare occasions I call her by her full first name, she thinks I am about to tell her off.
15. My most embarrassing pregnancy experience was sobbing my heart out watching the latest King Kong film in the cinema. I remember the puzzled looks on the faces of the staff as I was walking out with my eyes swollen from crying.
16. I learned to swim at the age of 38 and got fairly good at it and now go swimming every week if nothing gets in the way. The easiest way to alienate me is to get in the way on my swimming day.
17. I can do splits and can touch my nose with my toes, although I have never done any sports.
18. I cannot ride a bicycle and never really tried to learn. Neither do I drive. I do consider setting one or the other as a new year resolution (one of these years).
19. I could happily survive without TV and the only reason I watch it is because my husband cannot imagine his existence without it (although he insists that I exaggerate the degree of his addiction).
20. I love cats. Not that I dislike other animals, but if I were to choose a soul animal, it would be the cat. (My husband agrees on this one.)
21. My favourite drink is very strong tea with a LOT of milk in it. So technically, it is milk with tea.
22. I have plenty of favourite songs, but I never remember any lyrics. The only song I can sing by heart and remember nearly all of the lyrics is Hotel California (by Eagles).
23. I think and overthink nearly everything. I enjoy thinking things. Most of them are hardly important.
24. I have a lot of repetitive dreams, most extremely vivid and colourful. My favourite one involves figure skating, although I haven’t worn skates in the last 25 years.
25. I smile a lot and I don’t care if this habit keeps adding wrinkles around my eyes.
♥♥♥
Feel free to tell me any peculiar facts about you in the comments. And if you share any of mine, I would love to know I am not alone!
Have a happy day and, as promised, here is the coupon from me, which will be applicable to all individual patterns in my Ravelry shop for the next 24 hours (until 21 July 2016, 14:00 GMT).
You sound like an absolutely charming person, and you have the most beautiful smile ever!
Thank you so much for this sweet comment!
We share this in common: a degree in chartered accountancy. The only difference is that this is my day job which I love. Yes, I am an accountant who loves being an accountant. I used to play accounting type games as a child and my favourite “toys” were my adding machine with tape and my pads of invoices. I dreamed of having a real life cash register but never asked because my mom could never have afforded one! Yes, that officially labels me as a numbers loving nerd but I’m ok with that, I still think I have lots of personality, lol! 🙂 Happy Birthday!
Hello, fellow accountant! 🙂 So glad to see you here, Nadia! You definitely have a lot of most wonderful personality! Thank you!
P.S. I like the pullover you are wearing in the photo (which is a great photo and by the way, no one ever smiles too much!). Did you make it yourself?
It’s in the works! 😉
Happy Birthday! Loved learning more about you! Loved #13! Are you partially to liking bananas? Lol! Happy 41st! I loved my forties, hope you enjoy them too!
Cheers to you!
Barb
Thanks, Barb! Lovely to see you here!
LOL! I don’t think I tried bananas until I was older, which is probably why I liked imagining them! 🙂
Happy Birthday – I hope you have a wonderful day. The haircut looks fantastic. I am with you on how you like your tea – mine too is more like milk with tea.
Thank you, Veronika! I am glad I am not the only one fond of “tea soup”! 🙂
wishing you a very very happy birthday, Yuliya!!!!
Thank you, Vims! Lovely to see you!
Thank you for sharing these facts… some of them I already knew, others, I didn’t. 🙂 13 & 15 particularly made me smile. 🙂 Here are a couple of my own: until about 10 years ago, I couldn’t sleep with my feet hanging over the edge of the bed (because of the crocodiles, of course!); every time I start a new crochet projet, I think about Mamie, my maternal grandmother, who taught me all things manual; one of my pet hates is mismatched socks (wooops! Feet again!); I have recently reconnected with my guitar (which I’m learning on my own, as I, like you, used to take piano lessons as a kid), and I can play Blackbird by the Beatles :-).
because of the crocodiles
Of course! Letting the feet over the edge is way too dangerous!
Love your facts! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
🙂
Happy Belated Birthday! I just discovered your patterns and bought two. Some random things. We are the same age but you are six days older than me. If your birthday is July 20th then you have same birthday as my son. I also love cats but I only have one because of allergies others in my family have. Because of this I have collected other animals such as two dogs, a ferret, and eight (!) sugar gliders. I also talk too much due to social anxiety which gives people the impression I’m really friendly yet I refuse to go do things to socialize. Lastly, I taught myself to crochet at eight years old because I was a bored only (lonely) child. Nice to meet you!
Hi Nicole! My birthday is indeed the 20th! Thank you for sharing your random facts, I loved reading them! Looks like we have a few things in common – I am an only child too. So nice to meet you! 🙂