A Little Bit Personal....

Awhile ago on facebook there was a thing going around where you had to write 7 little known facts about yourself to share with your friends. Being somewhat reserved, unwilling for people to know me better and a great hater of group sharing things on FB I didn't actually take part but the idea stuck with me and got me thinking.

I don't actually like to talk about myself all that much to people that I hang out with, I always say it's because I'm boring and there's not much to tell but I think I actually have trust issues. I figure the less people know about me the less they can use to hurt me. Of course the flip side is that the less they know, the less they care which is why I don't have many friends. I am the way I am though.

Over the course of a work day I tend to have a lot of time to think so the ideas came to me fairly quickly. I ended up with a few more than 7 although the final list was whittled down quite drastically to just the 9 facts I have chosen below. Chances are the ones that made the list some people will know anyway and the real juicy facts will remain secret just because there are some things that I'm not brave enough to share. Unfortunately I've managed to blah on about most of the facts rather more than I had anticipated so I've highlighted the titles if you just want to get the basic idea.

So without further ado, onto the list!

1) I'm terrified of the ocean.

I love the beach and I love to paddle in the waves but if I go more than knee high I start to get anxious, more than waist high I start to get an adrenaline rush and if I get neck high or my feet leave the ground I can full out panic. I have been able to convince myself into the water a few times, usually when the waves are small and I'm alone just to prove to myself that I can but I don't enjoy it. I feel especially awkward in the summer going to the beach with people I know who all run for the waves as soon as we arrive. Usually I make sure I have Rush with me so that I can use him as an excuse to wander off for half an hour while they enjoy the water but if I don't have a dog I tend to just look lost, standing around on the sand. I can't even contemplate swimming with other people. Even now, safe at home, the thought of someone tipping me under the water whether by accident or in play, makes my stomach twist. I don't even really know why I'm scared of the sea. I can swim well, although I have sinus issues if I go underwater, and the only somewhat distressing memory I have at a beach is when me and sister rock hopped out too far and the tide closed in behind us. We were promptly rescued by Dad though and I don't even remember if we got wet...

2) Cows are my favourite animals, not dogs, like most people believe.

3) I despise hugs. Also I dislike almost all other physical contact.

This one won't surprise many people, after all I can be rather blunt or brutal when letting people know about this one. Luckily for me there are few situations where I am forced into touching someone or have to tolerate some one else touching me. Most of all I despise hugs, even among friends and family I still find them awkward. There is in fact only one person on the planet that I can hug with complete ease and that's my friend Rach. I've known her for a long time (we even lived together for awhile) and she comes from a very huggy family so she expects (and often demands) a hug on greeting and departure. She knows I don't like to be touched and she leaves me to my personal space in all other ways but she insists on the hugs and after years of being chased down or grabbed before I could escape she has successfully desensitized me to the hug. At least hugs with her. If anyone else tries to hug me they get a stern word and a frowny face at best. At worst, a nice bruise.

As for why I dislike physical contact? Again I don't know. I've always been stand offish, even as a child I can remember refusing to hug relatives and being dragged from hiding places to say goodbye to guests properly. It's just a built in aversion.

4) I have never broken a bone. My most serious injury to date was a sprained ankle.

5) I find being called 'pretty' somewhat offensive.

Being judged by my gender or face really aggravates me, especially when people tell me that I am too pretty to be doing a certain job or too pretty to be dating a certain person. Why does it matter what I look like? Just because I have a passably attractive face doesn't make me a better person, it doesn't mean that I should be treated better than anyone else and it certainly doesn't mean that I am unable to complete or enjoy manual jobs. I know that all human beings judge others by appearance but when people look at me and decide my personality before I have even spoken it makes me wonder if I should even bother speaking. I have met more people than I would like who assume so many things about me just because I am female that they think I am lying or attention seeking when I tell them my true views and opinions which is why I give so many vague answers. Sometimes I will just tell them what they want to hear because I know they won't accept what I really believe and then I try to distract them with another topic to avoid any more detailed questions.

6) I have an extremely active imagination.

I often tell people that I have a poor memory which is a bit of a lie because I have an excellent memory for certain events that strike a chord with me. My problem is that I spend a lot of time making up stories in my head and I have very vivid dreams at night so my reality and fantasy worlds can get somewhat blurred. Quite frankly I'm just not sure if the memories I have are real or made up so I tend to err on the side of caution and just say that I don't remember.

7) Only two people outside my family know the true me

They know who they are and I love them both, they will always be my most important friends even when they eventually find me too odd and stop spending time with me. Most people find me odd to be honest, even my own father says I'm strange but I'm ok with that, I know I'm different from the norm and I really rather enjoy it. I tend to tone it down for those who don't know me extremely well though because my undiluted personality can be difficult to handle. Even for those who have accepted me can find me difficult to understand and get weirded out or worried by my strange behaviour, they have usually seen enough of it to just shake their heads at me or tell me to pack it in though. One day I will give in to myself and allow my true nature to run rampant but I haven't quite given up on society yet.

8)I have a strong fear of rejection

I still have difficulty believing that people can like me and I have discarded many budding friendships and relationships simply because I have passed them off believing them to not be genuine. I am often callous, indifferent or down right mean to people when I first meet them in the hopes that my poor attitude will drive them away before I decide I like them. I also figure that if I hand them the reason to dislike me then I won't be hurt when they don't want to spend time with me. A few tenacious people have made it past this stage, either by sheer determination or accident, and I am now rather fond of them. Not that I would let on and they shall remain anonymous to save anyone being embarrassed and because I'm afraid they won't return my feelings of fondness. Which rather nicely sums up the point I am trying to make.

9) I am more comfortable around guys

Again this will not come as much of a surprise to most people but at least I can define the reason. To put it simply, they don't give a crap. I don't like to talk about my feelings, dissect my relationships with people, think about my future life goals and I have little to no interest in most things girls talk about. Trying to hold a conversation about make up, babies, boyfriends, clothes, calories, shoes, hair care, shops, weddings or whatever else is important generally makes me want to hit my head against a wall just to keep myself awake. I can talk about these subjects in small bursts, making passable responses like some sort of talking parrot (or a well trained boyfriend I suppose) but mostly I prefer to just avoid these topics all together. Guys don't really do touchy feely conversations and when they do I tend to avoid them too. Also I can look my worst around a bunch of guys and not feel hideous cos they all look pretty terrible too. I always feel like there's some sort of competition happening that I don't know the rules to when I'm in with a group of girls. So although I really do try to get along with the girls I know I usually just feel like I've warped into somewhere foreign with a strange language and customs I don't understand.

So there's my list! Some what long winded but that's why I don't talk about me very often. No need to worry though there won't be many more heartfelt confessions any time soon (if ever) so you can relax.

Has anyone else got any personal facts they want to share? If you like this blog idea and decide to write one about yourself send me a link so that I can check it out. I'd be interested to see what other people think about themselves.

Taranaki Touring. Part 2

Day two of our adventure away started with a somewhat unplanned walk. We had decided to check out a lake that was on the way to where we were heading that day. When we got there we found out it was a fully fenced reserve with double electric gates and huge pest proof fences, I forgot to take photos but it was pretty surreal having to drive through.
Once we were in we had a mooch at the info boards and then decided to go for a 10 minute walk along the lake trail but once we started we figured we may as well carry on and it took us an hour to complete the circuit. It was a nice walk through native bush with plenty of bird song and the sound of ducks on the water. There were no mammals to see though as New Zealand has no native land based animals.

Being so close to the mountain meant that we had to go check it out, unfortunately the weather wasn't the best so I couldn't get any great pictures but it was still a nice drive. We drove up to one of the car parks and then took a short 20 minute walk to Dawson Falls which was very pretty and we met a nice family at the base who took our pictures for us and we returned the favour. I still get surprised about how friendly New Zealand people are sometimes.

To finish off the day we did a tour around the coastline, the highlight of which was seeing the Cape Egmont lighthouse.

The next day we went into the town of New Plymouth for a look around. The first place we explored was Pukekura park which has lots of pretty pathways with visual features such as a nice bridge, a little waterfall and large old trees. We walked the length of the park until we got to the little free zoo that they have. It's mostly farm animals but I'm always happy with that. They also had some exotic birds, meercats, otters and monkeys. We took a walk along the coastal pathway as well although we didn't really enjoy it as there was a lot of bike traffic but none of them had bells so it felt like we were constantly watching our backs trying not to get run over by bikes. It was pleasant scenery though and on the way back we stumbled across a Truck gathering. It was pretty cool, I've never seen so many big rigs all in one place. I think the best one though was a child size one that the kids could climb into the trailer of to get a ride around the fair. Very cute

When we got back to the farm that night we fed all the animals and then took the quad out for a ride. We followed the tracks for quite a long way and found a whole heap of mushrooms on the way. It was all quite exciting in a novel kind of way since neither of us had been on a quad for awhile and I always love collecting mushrooms.

Taranaki Touring. Part 1

I apologise if it seems like I wandered off for awhile because, well, I did...
The interesting thing about being a house sitter is that you never really know when the jobs will come in. Sometimes I seem to get multiple requests just when it's highly inconvenient  and other times the requests arrive just when I'm waiting a break and are really quite welcome. They can be a blessing or a burden depending on the circumstances. The last job I did was a real blessing, my cousin wanted me to look after her farm while her and her family went away. She lives in a rural area about 2 hours drive from where I live and about 1 hour away from New Plymouth which is a town that I was planning to explore with Dad.
The entire area around where she lives is very scenic so it was really a gift for me and Dad to be able to stay there and have not only free accommodation but get paid to stay. We did of course have to look after her animals which included a house dog (an elderly terrier), 3 chickens, 2 pigs, a cat and 8 farm dogs which may sound a lot but only took an hour or so to care for morning and night.

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though. On the Thursday we traveled up in a very leisurely manner. We were taking the coast road so we stopped at all the beaches along the way and found things of interest at every one. At the first beach we stopped at there is a bit of a camp ground and some of the people who were staying there had apparently had a party on the beach the night before. They had set up a wind break and benches out of drift wood and had themselves a large bonfire. When we arrived the ashes were still warm so being the pyromaniacs that we are we wanted to see if we could get it going again. I found some beach tumble weeds ( I have no idea of the proper name, they are some sort of seed from the sea grasses I think and when its windy they roll along the beach like mini tumbleweeds. Turns out they make good tinder) and Dad got some small sticks which we stacked onto the warm ashes and then we wandered off along the beach. On our way back we saw someone else adding sticks to the fire before scuttling off down the beach so we reclaimed our space and built up the flames until we had some big logs on there. The people we had seen adding sticks then came back to join us and had a chat with us while they enjoyed the heat from our fire. It was all very impromptu but that always makes the best memories.
 

The next stop along the way was a beach which I knew sometimes had seals and I was really hoping there would be one there. I was in luck! I always forget how much they smell though, like some sort of mix between old wet dog and stinky fish and ocean. The one we saw was alone and somewhat nervous so although we got close enough to take pictures it wasn't too keen on us being around and headed down the cliff and out to sea not long after we had moved away.

 Up next was a beach that had a super cool old sea wall that we just had to walk along even if the tide was coming in and making it look a little dodgy. It was perfectly fine of course and we didn't even get splashed by the waves. There was also a ship wreck washed up on the beach that we had a mooch around and through. A few years ago when my sister visited we went to the same ship wreck and as she stood in front of it for me to take a photo a huge wave came over and splashed her! It was hilarious at the time and so we couldn't resist going over to it to take photos again but we did make sure the waves were breaking further out first.

The final beach on our tour had lots of rocks which made a great rock hopping course. Even at 71 Dad is still a keen rock hopper and he even made it to the ocean edge before me. Although I did get a little distracted looking in the rock pools for awhile. I didn't see much life except a few little quick darting fish but I did find a rubber end to a milking machine which will make a good dog toy.

Well that's pretty much it for our first day of traveling. From the last beach we headed straight on to my cousins farm, arriving about 5pm and the family at about 6pm after showing me around and telling what needed doing while they were away. We settled our selves in and since it had been a long day we turned in early to prepare for the next day of adventure.
Look out for part two which I'll be posting soon.