7 More Things You Don't Need to Know About Me ( and probably don't care)

I have been tagged by Sarah Stewart to write about things most people don't know about me. Not sure anyone will really be that interested and I will make this very brief.

1) I was a child model. I was one of three little Gemmell sisters and our parents were good friends of the Pearson's who owned a clothes shop in Friars Vennel in Dumfries. My oldest sister was 5 years older than me, my middle sister three years older so we were ideal ages apart for modeling children's wear. We used to be taken around all the local village halls for fashion shows. The problem was that I got dreadfully car sick at the time. I remember one show where I got an extra round of applause for bravely going on when I had vomited a about twelve times on the trip there, I got another round of applause for being the only one who would model a swim suit.

2) My Dad was a church organist and my mother was a concert violinist. I spent a lot of my childhood hanging out in orchestra pits. I particularly loved the big Timpani. My dad was also the musical director for our local Christmas pantomime and my sisters and I got to star in small roles in several of these. It was through this that I first learned Pythagoras's theorem, the square of the hypotenuse etc. I amazed my teachers with this.

3) I lived in Holland (Amsterdam) for a year and a half in the mid 1970s, when I was early to mid 20s. It was a great experience and just a wee bit wild. My friend and I worked nights at the Academisch Ziekenhuis and learned to speak a little dutch. We suspected our neighbours thought we had some other type of night work!

4) When I lived in Amsterdam I learned to sail. I loved sailing up and down the canals and going for pub crawls by boat. Mooring was a bit tricky at the end of these expeditions. My knowledge of sailing language is all Dutch eg "Klaar om te wended" (The English term is "ready about" I think)

5) I left school at 15 years of age with 4 Scottish O'Levels (GCSE equivalent) under my belt. At that time you only needed 3 O Levels to do Registered Nursing. I did some nursing courses following this RGN and SCM but did not enter tertiary education until 1994 when I enrolled in a Bachelors Degree for Registered Midwives. I now have a Masters Degree. I discovered I really like formal study and education.

6) I hate housework but love a tidy house. How do you balance these polarities? Answer: with great difficulty. Same can be said for gardens and gardening, I guess I am just lazy.

7) My most favourite city in the world is Florence. I went there only once when I lived in Holland and I just loved it. I loved the architecture, the art, the landscape, the people and the food. I am a bit scared to go back though just in case the memory and reality do not match.

Sorry folks but I am not tagging anyone as all the people I would tag have been tagged already.