Ten things…

This is the tail end of my post from this morning. 🙂

See, the downside of compulsive honesty is that I don’t think I have any secrets left to tell you guys 😛 still, lets see what I can come up with…

1. A tributary of a local river runs through my back garden. The river is called the Piddle!!

2. Despite the fact that I am currently studying for a physics degree which requires a lot of maths, my lowest GCSE grade was in maths (I got a B, and that was only because I got a medical certificate exempting me from one of the exams because I had a bit of a, um, panic attack. Oops. Still, maths has that effect on a lot of teenagers!)

3. Despite my horror of maths as a teenager, I thoroughly enjoyed doing my weekly maths coursework in York. I love solving problems. It’s probably one of the reasons why I am so analytical and relentless practical when it comes to recovery – I look at myself like I would a science experiment 😛

4. From posts on various websites now saved to my computer or printed off, letters I wrote to my psychologist when I was 17/18 and paper journals, I have a sort-of-diary running back to when I was 16. I fully intend to write a book one day. I am going to wait until I am recovered though. There aren’t enough ED related books which end with the author being recovered.

5. I am the only vegetarian in my family. I randomly decided to stop eating meat when I was 9, after seeing a documentary about meat production. What I was doing watching such a thing at the age of 9 I don’t know! My vegetarianism precedes the eating disorder by three or four years, I don’t think one has anything to do with the other in my case.

6. My favourite actor is Robin Williams and my favourite film is Hook 😉 I also love Patch Adams, Awakenings, One Hour Photo, Mrs Doubtfire (I could go on all day!).

7. I also own all nine seasons of The X Files on DVD 😛 I’m not entirely sure if I got into it in the first place because I had a crush on Mulder or because I wanted to be Scully! Although heck, I was 14 at the time, it could have been the other way round…

8. When I was an occupational therapy student I had a placement shadowing an OT in the psychiatric hospital I was admitted to a year later. After I was admitted I avoided the OT department for a month (although my supervisor came up to the ward to see me), before giving up the last of my self respect and going anyway thanks to extreme boredom.

9. You probably already know that me and psychiatric medication don’t get along (I’ve been med-free since October 2007)- but I also extend this to painkillers, indigestion remedies, antihistamines, caffeine, alcohol…with the exception of the caffeine in chocolate and the occasional nurofen if I’m really in pain, I never take any sort of drug. Not that I judge other people for doing so, I’m just too sensitive to them! The amount of caffeine in a can of coke used to give me palpitations 😛 epic fail, nervous system.

10. I am named after my dad’s great aunt Kathleen. Mum wanted to call me Helen, but she was in too much pain after giving birth to me so dad got to the registry office first, the git. I hated my name when I was a kid, but I quite like it now. At least I wasn’t one of the six or seven Katherines in my year at school – 1984/5 were great years for Katies of various sorts!

Three good things about today:
1. After mentioning poi on my blog earlier I got my favourites out this afternoon. I started trying to teach myself to juggle again too. I was aaalmost there when I was in York, but then I lost interest when I was ill. I will learn to juggle yet! I love poi, it’s so rhythmic and relaxing.
2. My stomach has calmed down a lot since yesterday! I’m still not sure what’s upsetting it, but I appreciate it not being upset a LOT.
3. The skies are lovely and blue again – another good night for astronomy? Fingers crossed 😀