Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Tea, tee, t...

Photo by a clever person here.

A cheery hi-dee-ho to Squib who tagged me with a meme and the letter T. So here are ten T-based things about me:

1. Taffeta. I've never had enough taffeta in my life; I've never had any taffeta in my life. This has been a source of sadness for me since I stopped ballet after two weeks when I was five. While one of my proudest childhood moments was being told I was as sure-footed as a mountain goat I now think my single-digit years would have been all the better for a few metres of taffeta.

2. Tomatoes. I'm allergic and that sucks. It's one of the universe's crueller allergies, and completely pointless as far as I can see. No-one wins, especially not me.

3. Tchaikovsky. I have always been obsessed with the spelling of this word. Instead of humming tunes with my internal voice I spell out this word, as well as 'Nietzsche' and 'triptych'. I do an odd thing with numbers too, but I got 'T' for 'Tchaikovsky' not 'O' for 'odd thing with numbers'.

4. Timetables. I find them very satisfying. I like ticking things off.

5. Tents. I love camping but have always run into trouble with tents. One tent was so short I had to sleep diagonally, another let the rain in. I would like to be friends with tents.

6. Travel. Tied up with my love of timetables and my masochistic thing with tents. I have a savings account to go to Antarctica with $16 in it.

7. Tin whistle. I love the tin whistle. I played as a child. I even went to a summer tin whistle camp. I also love wooden recorders but they're even less suitable for joining any variety of rock band than the clarinet.

8. Telemachus. I started reading The Odyssey to my son when he was born. He's now almost three and I'm up to page 316 (he lost interest on page five). Odysseus of the nimble wits has returned to Ithaca and is about to exact his revenge on all and sundry, with his good son, the thoughtful Telemachus, by his side. Telemachus doesn't know that Odysseus is Odysseus. This is a very good story.

9. Telephone. My relationship with the telephone is inverse to my age: the older I get the less highly it rates on my 'awesome way to spend an hour' list.

10. Truth. I once told someone that I was endeavouring to pin down postmodern truth. It was my most embarassing moment ever in the whole, wide world.

Toodaloo.

10 comments:

squib said...

Tomatoes? I've never heard of that. What happens if you eat one?

I think Antartica would be lovely! Failing that, the Harbin ice and snow world in China would be nice although the safety conscious part of my brain wonders if ice stairs are a good idea

I'm right there with you on number 9 Kettle :)

http://poetsquib.com/2008/05/08/10-types-of-phone-users-i-depise/

Strange, I was sure you'd have tea on this list

Mad Cat Lady said...

I had a tartan taffeta handmedown skirt as a child. I used to swan about home in it because it was so great and made swishing noises.

Catastrophe Waitress said...

i absolutely adore your list.

back in my childishly romantic days, when i was about 12 - i went through a love/hate relationship with Barbara Cartland.

i did love a good bit of bodice ripping fiction. that's when my love of taffeta was born.

all of the leading ladies in those novels wore taffeta at some point. it was years later when i saw that taffeta is actually a horrible starchy netty fabric that my love died. i no longer suffer from taffeta fantasies. thankfully.


how old are you, might i ask?
because really, $16 in savings for a trip to Antarctica isn't too bad if you're only 16 years old.

Kettle said...

Oh Squib, I'm sad to say tomatoes lead to the world's worst headaches, headaches that even pain relievers can't reach :(

I'd love to see the Harbin ice world; it looks spectactular, and, as a friend of mine commented who has been to see it, a lawyer's dream.

I was drinking a cup of tea while I wrote my list, which I hope counts :)

I have always wanted to go to Antarctica, it's so other-worldly. I also have a little bank account for the great barrier reef, which is probably a more achievable goal than the icy south.

Hi Projectivist, I loved your list too! I am 33 so should have at least $33 in my Antarctica account, but for shame not yet. I currently have six accounts open for major life plans, all with small to middling balances. Perhaps I should pool my resources into one dream? Ah, but how do you choose the one? :)

Maddy and Projectivist, I'm delighted you've had such busy taffeta lives so far! Even if you've now abandoned the scratchy stuff, it sounds like an essential part of childhood and I will be inflicting upon all existant and future children of mine :)

Squib, thanks for the tag and for tagging others: I've thoroughly enjoyed the whole process.

Catastrophe Waitress said...

you could write a post listing all the current life plan options, maybe a couple of pros and cons, and we could all vote for which one we like best. then you could switch the funds to that one plan!

are pole-dancing classes one of the plans? if so, i've already got my vote.

Kettle said...

You know, Project, I hadn't thought of pole-dancing classes. Right! That's got to be account number seven...

Mad Cat Lady said...

you have accounts for life plans? I am 38 this year and my main goal is to get through a rental inspection without any ticks in the reminder tickboxes.

I am going to go open an life plan account first thing Monday. I am not sure for what yet, but I figure I'll have nutted something out by then.

Kettle said...

Ah Maddy, I hadn't even thought to focus on rental inspections but now I've got a new life plan. It could lead to account number eight: I could save up for a. beer to overcome the anxiety that always comes with inspections (which are truly inhumane), and b. a dart board to pin my real estate agent's photo too. All I need is about 30 bucks and this life goal will be met!

You'll have to let me know what you end up opening your account for on Monday ;)

Anonymous said...

I sympathise with the telephone thing - in my case I think it may be genetic as my mum is very snippy on the phone in her efforts to get off it, although she is generally the least snippy person I know. Loved your T list. Wish I could take on your tomato allergy for you - I hate them.

PS - word verif is 'ingents'. hee hee.

Kettle said...

Lill, good to know I'm not the only one who doesn't do the phone! There must be some kind of Jekyll and Hyde gene that turns the nicest people into monsters when the phone rings... I'm sure there are support groups in every capital city :)

I like to think there are roomfuls of poets dotted around the globe writing word verifications.

PS, loved your list too.