5 things you probably don’t know about me

I share a lot of my life on this blog but there are some things about me that just never come up! Today I am sharing 5 things about me that you probably didn’t know because I rarely discuss them in the hopes that it will help you get to know me a bit better!

I have 7 tattoos

When I was younger I really, REALLY, wanted a tattoo and I spent a lot of time looking for just the right design because I wanted it to really mean something. After my mother basically told me that it was my body and it was up to me what I did with it I settled upon an intricate black cat design (I believe that the black cat is my spirit animal, I have always had a connection to black cats) it turned into my first tattoo when I was 19. Since then I have added 6 more to my collection, all of them just in simple black and each one meaning something.

1. Black cat – behind left shoulder – my spirit animal
2. Stars & Leo symbol – inside left wrist – my star sign
3. Orca (Killer Whale) – left shoulder – I have had an adopted Orca for more than 20 years!
4. Tiger in Kanji (Japanese Calligraphy) – back of my neck – I was born in the year of the Tiger
5. Seal of Rassilon – just beneath my collar bone on the left – A symbol from Science Fiction
6. The Illuminati Diamond – outside of my left arm just below shoulder – A symbol from Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons representing the 4 elements
7. Hummingbird – inside right wrist – The logo of Diabetes UK represents my family’s struggle with the condition

I play the flute

I started playing the flute when I was at primary school and by the age of 10 had passed grades 1-5 including grade 5 theory (grade 8 is as high as you can go). I was pretty talented and was chosen a few times to be a soloist both in primary and secondary school. After passing grade 7 I, unfortunately, had a falling out with my music teacher which lead to me putting away my flute and not picking it up again for many years.

A couple of years ago this all changed when a local wind group was formed and was looking for people just like me who had played an instrument in their younger years and I joined. I have enjoyed getting back into music and blowing the cobwebs off my musical skill once again.

I hate bananas

These days I classify myself as whole foods plant-based eater which means I focus on unprocessed vegan food, so it might surprise you there is one fruit I just can’t stand: bananas. When I was younger my parents discovered that when I consumed banana I was sick a few hours later, in fact, my Doctor had to request special medicine for me because it all came in banana flavour and I just wouldn’t have it!

Although this intolerance seems to have calmed down and on the few occasions that I’ve accidentally ingested some I have been fine. Despite that, to this day I avoid banana as even the smell makes me feel queasy. Now, being vegan, a lot of recipes call for the use of banana which can be super frustrating!

I was a Goth

For years I wore nothing other than black clothes. I dyed my hair black, wore dark makeup and wore scary looking jewellery. From my last couple of years at secondary school until a few years after graduating from University. Not many people know this because there aren’t many photos of me dressed this way around and I don’t dress as extreme now.

I do still prefer to wear black where possible as I feel comfortable in it and I do still dye my hair although I have been focusing on more of an auburn shade recently. I think I connected with the Goth culture because I never really felt like I fit in anywhere having lost a few close friends after a big bust-up in our friendship group at school and being a Goth externalised my feelings of being different.

I am ambidextrous

That’s right, my brain is a bit weird. Just like my mum, I am ambidextrous which means I have no marked preference for the use of the right or left hand. When I was at school learning to write my mother was called in to talk to my teacher who told her I was left-handed because she had seen me writing with my left hand. My mother informed my teacher that I could actually write with both hands which I think was a bit of a surprise!

Being ambidextrous hasn’t affected my life all that much because I ‘decided’ that my right hand was going to be my main writing hand and so I write with my right hand these days. However, I am still able to write with my left hand (although it needs practice) and at meal times I will always cut my food with my knife in my right hand and then swap my fork to my right hand to eat which is a bit weird! If I am stressed or under pressure I can sometimes mix up my right and my left but this is pretty rare.

Are there things about you that people probably don’t know? Be brave and share in the comments below.