TMI! Five things you probably don’t need to know about me!

Last Updated on February 18, 2023

I have been running this blog and writing in zines for nearly a third of my life and very little about me has remained a secret, yet it occurs to me that there’s probably still a lot of useless information I can dredge up from the depths for purposes of bewilderment fuelled entertainment.  So in the interests of ‘what the hell’ and ‘gawd knows why mister’ here are five facts about me written in a style that straddles itself awkwardly between self-effacing and apologetically self promotional.

Too much information!

1. I am fluent in sign language.  Sort of…

   For a few years I had a job in residential care providing support for adults with learning disabilities.  Somehow I ended up working with folk with ‘challenging’ behaviour, including a deaf autistic chap, and  that’s why one my colleagues was a very lovely deaf middle-aged chap called Robin.  Robin refused to admit that he could lip-read and wouldn’t talk to me unless I signed to him, so I had no choice but to learn British sign language very quickly indeed.  I say I am ‘sort of’ fluent because I haven’t had to use sign for quite a while, but after a few minutes of chatty signing it usually comes flooding back to me.

2. I was a pre-teen gymlast

   My memory is a bit hazy on this one, but I do know that it happened because I still have my merit badges.  I also remember that one day I suddenly noticed that I was the only boy attending the training sessions.

3. I was nearly a nurse

   When I was fifteen I knew beyond all doubt that I was going to make my living either as a musician or a writer, so when the school career’s advisor asked me what career I was aiming for I told her music (because somehow that seemed less cocky than declaring I would be a writer).  The career’s advisor said something along the lines of ‘no, what do you really want to do?’, I reassured her that I would be playing my bass guitar in exchange for vittles, she disagreed and that’s how I ended up doing a BTEC ND in science (Health Studies), which is the fast-track to becoming a nurse.  But it wasn’t all bad news – I was the only male on a fifty strong course…

4. Some of the people I refer to as family members are not family members.

   Because, well, some folk are so much more than friends aren’t they?  Case in point is Graham (a.k.a @GrumBirky), who was born on the same day as me, was my best man and has lived in the same house (or just a few doors away) for the whole of the fifteen years that I’ve known him.  My mum hated the idea that Graham’s own mum lived many miles away so she ‘adopted’ him properly into our family; he IS my brother!

5. I’m not as tall as I thought I was.

   Until yesterday I thought I was 6′ 2″ tall, but it turns out that I’m only 6′.  Maybe I’m shrinking?

P.S This post was inspired by one I read over here – https://generationwhynot-stupidgirl.blogspot.com/