Six (quite) random things...

Lovely Lisa has posted six random things about herself and extended the tag to anyone who would like to play... 

I love reading these things about people so in the spirit of "fair's fair" and "if you show me yours,..." these are (almost) the first six that came to mind about me:

1. I feel most at home in my body in one of the least natural environments for a human body - when scuba diving. I don't dive often or like to go very deep but it's the only time I feel freed from the ordinarily very clumsy limitations of my physical being, and yet simultaneously most present in it and in touch with what it can do. Float, spin, glide... Now if only I could develop those Man from Atlantis traits I've always longed for so that I can ditch the air-tanks, goggles and fins...

This beautiful photograph from skywatcher's photostream (not of me) perfectly expresses the graceful joy I feel when I dive.

2. I compulsively or involuntarily assign triptych colour-codes to places, experiences and people. I don't know why I do this but I can't remember a time when I didn't. With people the combination is sometimes the same three colours they would choose as their favourites if asked, but often not. The codes are emotionally charged for me so they might change over time, if my experience of or relationship to the person or place fundamentally changes. Whenever I recall a place or think about a person, I sense the colours before I picture landmarks, events or faces. Some of you might have an inkling of this based on what I've blogged about before. Perhaps you weren't aware that I can't help myself from doing it. Weird, I know.

3. I've spent two nights in prison cells but have never been arrested: 

The 1st time was when a friend and I were caught in town after a night shift, unable to get home because a forest fire had cut off the mountain pass and telephone lines to the small village we lived in at the time, and without the wherewithal to pay for a night's accommodation in a hotel or the train-fare back the next day. We went to the police station, where they very kindly put us up in a spotless cell and then called my mum in the morning to collect us. The poor woman nearly had a heart attack because all she was told was that I was at the police station and that she needed to get there as quickly as possible.... no other details.  She arrived with some warm clothes and a bunch of bananas. Good woman.

The 2nd time was a lot scarier. I was rounded up on campus while at a peaceful anti-apartheid protest rally - after running out of my shoes to escape a policeman waving a sjambok - along with about 30 others who did not run fast enough or left their shoes behind. All of us were 'detained' overnight by the police who, under the countrywide state of emergency in place at the time, could pretty much hold anyone, for any reason, for as long as they saw fit, without charge. Thousands of people - mostly black people - were tortured and even killed during this time and although we were not what one would call militant activists and mostly white middle-class students, we were extremely frightened. We were not ill-treated - if you discount the fact that we were there in the first place - and they saw fit to keep us only a few hours, asked no questions except our names, and then let all of us go... Perhaps they had bigger fish to fry that day & just wanted to scare us? I still feel guiltily lucky about it either way. I was terrified. I still attended other rallies in support of the anti-apartheid campaign but I was always scared after that. Almost four years later Nelson Mandela was freed from prison after 27 years. I don't think I'd have lasted 27 hours. I'm not very proud of this. He is a truly remarkable man.

4. I sometimes have a few blocks of chocolate with my first cup of tea in the morning. I enjoy chocolate at any time but at the start of the day it always tastes better somehow. Not a lot needed, just a taste. I have been known to eat ice-cream for breakfast too.

5. As a child I always wanted to be an oceanographer or marine biologist (see how those MfA skills would have been useful?) but was persuaded that there was no career to be made in it for me. I'm not very mathematically or scientifically inclined and have never taken what might be recognised as a direct or ambitious career path, so it's probably true, but part of me still wishes I'd followed Jacques Cousteau. My second choice was ice-skater. I didn't do that either - see 1. for reason...

6. I can only wink with my left eye. It causes some amusement amongst my friends because as hard as I try, as madly as I contort my face, I cannot close my right eye and keep my left eye open even a little bit. Not exactly a wild party trick but probably the closest thing I have to one. Sad but true.

And that's it. Now you know these things about me. For better or for worse. You also know that I have trouble answering things succinctly. Oh well. We won't count that one. You'd probably already guessed it.

I wonder if we asked people who know us well to pick six random things to share about us what they would choose? And I wonder if I'd answered this tomorrow or yesterday how my list of six might have differed? 

Anyway, I'd be delighted and fascinated to know six random things about you, so if you feel like playing and you haven't already been tagged, please consider yourself so...

P.S. For those who liked the thought of choosing one idea to focus on and guide your year... You might like to check this out - a list of other people's chosen focus words. It's inspiring. I'm aware that this is something lots of people do - probably have been doing since New Year resolutions began - but I had no idea there were so many online... it's virtually a movement. Cool. Okay, perhaps not in the sense of being a suffragette or anything but still cool.