I've Been Tagged!

For my very first Meme, thanks to Katie at Other People's Food.


“I have been tagged to post 8 random facts. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts: Each participant posts eight random facts about themselves. Tagees should write a blogpost of eight random facts about themselves. At the end of the post, eight more bloggers are tagged. Go to their blog and leave a comment telling them they're tagged."



I’m not sure I have 8 interesting facts about my life, but I shall try to come up with something worth reading!!


1. I used to do competitive ballroom dancing (a little like “strictly ballroom”, for those who have seen the film). In fact, I have danced for most of my life, up until about 5 or 6 years ago. I started out doing ballet when I was 4 and then went on to do tap and jazz as well. But my heart was stolen by ballroom when I was about 14 and I went on to do it competitively until I was 25. I just loved it!! I loved everything about it, the dancing, the costumes, and the music. It was a very hard thing for me to give it away and I still miss it all the time.

2. Which brings me to I guess the second point about myself. I am a scientist and completed my PhD in 2002. That’s also how I ended up in the USA, as I moved here to do my postdoctoral studies. However, having said that, I don’t particularly like my job and would love to do something else…either related to cooking, travel or something to help the environment….. or even forensics (keep reading)

3. This one is a little weird to admit, and I hope it doesn’t turn anyone off reading my blog, but my dream job was to be a forensic pathologist…you now, like the guys who perform autopsies. Yes, I get that some people find this creepy, but to me it was always fascinating. I wanted to be like Kay Scarpetta in all those Patricia Cornwall novels. Without doing a medical degree, this is never going to happen, but I am still hopeful that one day I could perhaps be an assistant to the medical examiner…I can still dream at least.

4. As a kid I moved around a lot. My Dad was in the army, so we were never in one place more than about 2 years. So because of that, I have lived all over the east coast of Australia. It wasn’t particularly conducive to making friends at school, but in hindsight I am happy to have experienced living in so many different places. It sure makes for some interesting stories at least….like the time we had a python on our back porch…….

5. I love love love to travel! It is one of my favorite things to do and if I were independently wealthy, I would spend all my time traveling around the world. I have been fortunate enough to do my fair share of traveling and have been to some wonderful places, such as Italy, France, England, The Netherlands, USA and one of my favorites, French Polynesia. But I still have a huge list of must see places before I die, with some at the top of my list being Machu Picchu, Bhutan, Morocco, India, Nepal, Africa, Spain……and the list goes on and on and on.

6. I met my husband, who is American, in Europe when we were both on the same bus tour (Contiki for those who know of it). We didn’t hook up straight away, but remained friends for a couple of years. However when I moved to the USA for my postdoctoral work, we finally got together and a couple of years later were married on the beautiful island of Maui. The reason for the location….it was halfway between his family home of New Jersey and my family home of Australia. Couldn’t have asked for a more perfect place though, as we both love the hot weather and the beach. We were lucky enough to honeymoon in French Polynesia, our second trip to those beautiful islands. And we will definitely go back again when time and funds permit!!

7. My mother does not like to cook. I read a lot about people’s mothers on their blogs and about how they got their love of cooking from their mum’s. But that is definitely not the case for me. My mum hates cooking and only does so, so that we don’t starve. In fact, I recall her saying when I was younger, that if money were no object, she would eat out every night. And baking…forget it! I have no fond memories of baking cookies or cakes with my mum, as she never got near a baking pan. I never really cooked all that much either. But when I moved away from home and started cooking for my hubby, I found that I really loved it and have never looked back. Sometimes things are a bit of a learning curve for me, and my baking doesn’t always turn out so great, but I certainly have taken a liking to it and now when my mum comes to visit, she is happy to have me wait on her….and I of course, also have no objections.

8. Last but not least….I have taken a very keen interest in growing my own food. My dad used to have the greatest veggie patch, which would yield some fabulous tasting food for our table. And I never really thought about doing it for myself until this past year. I have a lovely patch of herbs growing in our small garden that have been great for a lot of the dishes I have cooked. But I really want to expand my repertoire and hope one day to have a big enough garden to be able to comfortably feed our small family. For now, in our small townhouse, I can only squeeze in a few things. It’s enough to get me started though and to see if I am at all competent in small-scale farming. This past weekend I planted some seeds for beets, chard, zucchini and snow peas….all great late summer and fall crops. I will be reporting on their progress later in the year, but for now I just hope that they germinate, so I will wait with baited breath for 2 weeks, to see if their little heads push up through the dirt and flourish in the sunshine. Wish me luck!!!



Thanks Katie for wanting to know more about me :) Now I am hoping to get to know more about the following blogs.....tag, your it!!

Little Paths
Straight From The Farm
Vicious Ange
Tummy Rumbles
Should You Eat That
Ms. Adventures In Italy
Green Gourmet Giraffe
A Taste Of Tina