Tagged: Another 6 curious things

My Mind Reels - in Corel Painter

Connie has tagged me to divulge 6 random things about myself - I've done at least one version of this tag yonks ago (though that one wasn't very random as they all seem to be about elephants!) but there must be another 6 things for me to confess to - especially if I can now dismiss elephants from my mind:

1. When people say "Try not to think about pink elephants..." and then wait a while before saying "I bet you thought about pink elephants..." - I usually haven't as I purposely programmed myself to think about something completely different when challenged like this... and from this you may deduce that I was teased a lot as a child and found various coping strategies!
   
   One of the ways of getting away from something like that quickly is by playing word association games:
   
   pink elephants - purple tigers - red pantaloons - green macaws - squawk - animal noises - etc.
   
   (I have no idea why those pantaloons crept in... )
   
   
2. When I was first working and living in north London I discovered that I had a fear of going down escalators. I got over it by learning to ski downhill - and in particular to learn how to stop whilst skiing downhill. I tackled a fear of hypodermic injections by having acupuncture - once I'd survived all those needles being put in me I no longer panicked when I needed a jab from a single needle.
   
   
3. Long ago I heard about the theory that if one disliked someone else intensely it was likely to be because we were projecting parts of our own unacknowledged shadow onto them. I discovered that sometimes this was clearly true and consequently made friends with all sorts of people I'd otherwise have avoided.
   
   It also helps when one inadvertently happens to be on the wrong end of someone else's dislike or fear; though they are less likely to want to come to terms with it!
   
   
4. Before I went to university I was really into making or growing things and selling them - somehow I lost this entrepreneurial urge when I started to work and had to earn a living.
   
   For instance, in the sixth form (aged 18ish), I painted stones that I made into jewelry and was thrilled when I sold some to a local boutique. I was even more thrilled when I saw someone wearing one of them that they had bought
   
   
5. I used to love wearing wigs to parties. Come to think of it I loved wearing a wig to a party only last April...
   
   
6. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I used to say:
   
   An astrophysicist or an artist
   

I'm not going to tag anyone else explicitly (too many of my tags have been ignored in the past to encourage me to tag explicitly any more) but do let me know if you do it - I'd love to see what you've written.