Fact-Finding Mission

Nizo is on a fact-finding mission, 10 facts at a time. And now I find myself tagged, for the second time in less than 6 months, with the 10 fact meme.

So here goes - 10 facts about me which you couldn't possibly have lived without:

1. I knew how to sing before I could talk. According to my parents, I would hum the tune of This Old Man to the highly improvised lyrics "dit dot dit".

2. I still sing songs before knowing, or even bothering to get to know, the words. Sometimes, I am very surprised (and often quite disappointed) when I find out what the real words are. My imaginary ones are usually much, much better :)

3. That is one of the reasons I never do karaoke. I've been known to stop singing in the middle, while staring at the words running along the bottom of the screen, and suddenly exclaim through the microphone "so that's what they're singing!??", to the general chagrin of the reluctant audience.

4. And yet despite all of that (or perhaps because of it), I prefer to work in silence. I almost never play music while I'm working. I find it distracting, because I like to sing along with it.

5. I didn't start painting until after the age of 30. In fact, it had never even occurred to me that I might be able to draw. I was never good at, or even inclined towards, art at school.

6. My least favorite (and least successful) subject at High School was English. I could not write an essay to save my life. My second least favorite subject was History. This is interesting, because I now make my living by translating into English, and history has become an absolute passion.

7. I like cleanliness, but I'm hopeless at actually cleaning. I'll start with one part of the apartment and get distracted and go and do another part somewhere else. The end result is that I would always have clean "bits", but never a clean apartment. For the past seven years, therefore, I have employed a cleaner. In fact, I've employed several cleaners, because the State keeps deporting my cleaners.

8. I would employ a cook too, except that for some reason, that seems utterly decadent.

9. I don't have a kitchen or dining table. I eat in front of the computer, in front of the television (rarely) or outside on the balcony, on my newly renovated furniture.

10. I am a technophobe. I'm quite good with mechanical things, but hopeless with electronics. My general solution for any computer failure, for instance, is the famous Microsoft workaround - shut the thing down and restart it. Failing that, I find that leaving the apartment, walking around the block and coming back has a similar effect.

So there you go, Nizo and others. 10 more little facts about me which you couldn't possibly have lived without.

For some inexplicable reason, I'm inclined to tag Nobody. I know this is not his blogging style, but I'm doing it anyway :) Feel free not to accept the meme, ya NB, but just know that I felt that if there was someone out there in the blogsphere about whom I wished to know 10 facts, it's apparently you.

Update:

NB has already answered this meme, so I guess I'll once again use the honor system. You wanna take up the challenge, go for it, and let me know :) (the problem is - I think everyone I read has done this meme already at least once, and I don't like to impose ... so if you haven't done it, and you want to do it, you know what to do)