7 weird things

mummyjaan tagged me on this meme, and I'm sitting here racking my brains trying to think of 7 weird things ( or do I mean trying to think of only 7 weird things about me?). I remember when I was in high school - an American one - it was in fashion to say, "I'm weird", and express strange opinions or profess to 'uncool' likings. Maybe it was the art of making the uncool cool...

rules of the meme:
Rules.1. . Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I have a positive fetish for old things. I collect out-of-print and classic children's books, detective stories. I like the old TV serials - I love Lucy and the like. I like old movies - Cary Grant still makes my knees weaker than any of the heroes who've come along since. I love antiques and wish I could afford the money and space for more of them...

2. I hate slimy food. Any bhindi which isn't cooked right, the mere thought of gumbo or that West Indian dish in which they boil bhindi...yeeuch!

3. I'm hopeless about paperwork, except at work - I'm always behind in my tax returns, I forget to pay insurance premia on time...I just hate dealing with documentation.

4. I have days ( most of them, in fact) when I just don't bother picking up after myself or organising anything. I think of it as time wasted from doing something more fun like playing with the kids or reading. On the other hand, when the tidy fit hits me, I can give OCD patients a run for their money. Once I had even colour coded my closet.

5. I'm always reading - in a car, in a plane, at work...No, not when I'm driving a car, and that brings me to my next point...

6. I don't drive. I don't know if it's laziness or a phobia. I took driving lessons twice. The first time, my driving test unfortunately was the morning after I had been out partying all night, and moreover my driver who was my teacher, hadn't taught me the art of reversing. Well, my test involved me having to reverse the car in through some particularly narrow gates, and I managed to scrape the car ( a Maruti 800, so you know how badly I was driving) and knock the sideview mirror off. After all that, my driver hopefully goes up to the hapless guy from the license department who had to sit white-knuckled through my performance and asks him if I passed! The second time I had to pass a written exam and perform a driving test to get my license - and we all know how rare it is to have to jump through those particular hoops in India - and I did pass with flying colours if I say so myself. But after getting the license, I have not driven for a single day. Every year I promise myself I'm going to do it and every year I chicken out.

7. I'm scared of going down the stairs. Kind of ironic, given that we live in a Duplex house, and the first and second floor of that, so I'd never be able to get out of home, or even the bedroom if I gave in to this fear. It started when I fell down the stairs at school when I was a teenager - got knocked out, knocked a couple of teeth out and had to go to the dentist for weeks ( and I have a dentist phobia too!). It got pretty bad when I was pregnant and my body got cumbersome, and it got worse after the kids were born. For the first 9 months of their lives, I never carried them down to the living room from the bedroom - my husband had to do it, or I'd call one of my domestic helpers up. Even now, it's with extreme reluctance and only in emergencies that I will carry them down voluntarily!

There - done - and it was fun - and in the process, I finally figured out how to link to from my posts! Thanks, mummyjaan! And now, I tag Sujatha, Lulu, Asha, gettingtherenow, mnamma, Tharini and Kodi's mom.