100 things

1. I'm short.
2. I'm blonde.
3. I have two beautiful children aged 8 and 10.
4. I have a wonderful blue eyed husband.
5. I'm 47 years, 5 months old.
6. I'm the oldest of four daughters.
7. I always wanted to be an author. And I am.
8. I had something like a photographic memory at school. Not such a good memory now though.
9. I always wanted six children, including twins.
10. I love reading but never seem to get enough time to do it.
11. I love blogging.
12. My joke book was published on April Fools Day last year.
13. I dream of being rich and famous.
14. I like eating chocolate more often than I should.
15. I enjoy sitting in a cafe and drinking latte or mocchachino and watching people.
16. My favourite season is autumn.
17. I prefer to be cold than hot.
18. I believe in angels.
19. I believe my Dad, who died nearly 7 years ago, is always there when I need him.
20. I am an optimist.
21. I love laughing.
22. I spent about six years very involved in a pentecostal church.
23. I met my husband while training to be a telephone counsellor. He was completely dressed in my favourite colour, purple.
24. Walker Books is publishing a picture book manuscript I wrote last year and I'm very excited as it's a dream come true.
25. I like to stay up late.
26. I love sleeping.
27. I'm not afraid of dying.
28. I adore baking.
29. I learned to fly a plane before I could drive a car.
30. I'm far too self-centred.
31. I have a favourite party dress which is a genuine 1950s dress covered in huge pink roses which I wore to every Christmas event I was invited to in 2006. I bought the dress in Auckland when I was in my 20s. It's my favourite piece of clothing at the moment.
32. I would like to have beautiful nails, but I don't.
33. My friend Kate committed suicide.
34. I started my own children's second hand book shop and learned heaps about collectable children's books from a wonderful woman I met through the shop.
35. I love writing funny limericks for family occasions.
36. I fell from a ladder a few days before my shop was due to open and broke my jaw and right wrist. I'm right handed. I opened the shop anyway.
37. I learned to ski while on a school trip to Germany and Austria.
38. I travelled to South America and visited Chile, Bolivia and Peru.
39. I love the night sky.
40. I love getting together with my three sisters as we have so much fun.
41. I love karaoke.
42. I play squash.
43. Three close family members have coeliac disease which requires them to be gluten free. I test negative for coeliac disease but don't eat bread anyway and always feel much happier if I don't eat wheat.
44. I was very close to my Nana.
45. I worked for a short time as a postie during the university holidays.
46. I also worked for a short time delivering singing telegrams!
47. I love romantic comedies.
48. My fave actors include Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and Rene Zellwegger. Go figure!
49. I have a close network of women friends who I love dearly.
50. I hated being a teacher.
51. I love the thought of being a good gardener.
52. I love pets but I don't have a natural affinity for animals.
53. I fell from a tree when I was a child and thought I'd broken my back. I didn't.
54. I was a navigator for my father in car rallies as a child.
55. My favourite physical feature about myself is my long blonde hair.
56. I don't want to parachute or bungy jump.
57. I hate housework with a passion.
58. I don't believe in ironing.
59. I like being alone.
60. I'm good at spelling and picky about other people's spelling. Apologies for any errors here!
61. I was good at speech and drama at school.
62. I learned theatre sports (improv) and loved it.
63. I love hard physical jobs like concreting and digging.
64. I am quite paranoid. But getting better with age.
65. I like reading biographies.
66. I have a letter from Margaret Mahy which I treasure.
67. I like giraffes.
68. I like swimming, body surfing and general water stuff.
69. I love telling funny stories but try not to hog all the attention.
70. I am learning to be okay about my body.
71. I have been to counselling.
72. I went to the police last year about a historic rape case. It was very healing.
73. My first flying lesson ended in a forced landing in a paddock with my flying instructor who soon became my boyfriend.
74. I was in the cycling club at university and cycled around a large part of the North Island of New Zealand.
75. I love the tranquility at a place called Mangonui in the north of the North Island.
76. I'm very pleased to have been born in New Zealand.
77. I would like to write a screenplay.
78. I hate sleeping anywhere except my own bed.
79. I had the wedding of my dreams, dressed as a princess and surrounded by seven little girls dressed as fairies.
80. I went to Maori language classes in the evenings for three years and enjoy the Maori language very much.
81. I wish I could have servants. Sorry, but it's true!
82. I was holidaying on an island in Malaysia once, and got out of a hammock seconds before a coconut fell from a great height onto the hammock where I'd been lying.
83. I was born with dislocated hips. They're fine now, as long as I don't sit in a particular position for too long.
84. I gave birth to my second child (a daughter) unexpectedly at home 10 days early after no contractions that I was aware of. My husband caught her. I was in labour with my first child (a son) for 17 hours.
85. I can still do the splits pretty well if I'm warmed up.
86. I was a fanatic of Jazzercize when I was in my early twenties.
87. I've been writing a book for young teens about the Rainbow Warrior bombing.
88. I want to win the Joy Cowley Award. And I shall.
89. I used to have wonderful dreams where I knew how to fly like a bird and would teach others. 90. I love the Carpenters music. Also the Beatles.
91. I don't like practical jokes very much, or people being silly around swimming pools. I get very nervous and panicky around stuff like that.
92. I don't think much before I speak but my friends are training me up and I'm improving!
93. My friend Lynley and I both dressed as Marge Simpson for the Rugby Sevens in Wellington in 2006 and we're doing it again in February this year with one of my sisters. It's a blast and I'm sooooo looking forward to it. It's one enormous party.
94. I almost never drink alcohol.
95. I have never smoked or done drugs.
96. I love cheesecake and I made one tonight.
97. I love fruit.
98. I love liquorice tea but I hate liquorice.
99. I'm not very good at keeping in touch with my friends but I love them all dearly.
100. I hate flies.