Five Facts About Me

A couple of days ago I put myself in a position where I was likely to be invited to do this new challenge that is currently floating around Steemit. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do the challenge, but I also wanted to comment on my friend @erh.germany's post since it was genuinely an interesting read.

So, after a couple of days of considering what he hell I should write, here is my 5 Facts About Me Challenge post.

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Fact 1 - My Wife Doesn't Want me to Write this, But She Made all the Moves

I met my lovely wife (@bluebellpossum) at university. I still remember seeing her for the first time at our first lecture. She had a massive grin on her face that made me laugh immediately. I knew I wanted to get to know her better from that moment. We became close friends in our first year and, while I wanted to be more than friends, for some reason I was too scared to make a move. Probably because I was so scared of ruining our amazing friendship.

_source

Anyway, one evening at the university tavern while we were drinking free cups of tea (we were poor university students, who the hell could afford beer?), the gorgeous @bluebellpossum turned and said to me; I want to go on a date with you tonight, take me out to dinner.

So, with the money that was meant to be used for petrol, I took the lovely lady on a date at our local Thai Restaurant. It was an amazing evening, which we finished with a movie - Kill Bill 2. This definitely isn't the sort of movie that most people would choose to see on their first date. It's a tad graphic with a few limbs being cut off here and there. Not exactly a romantic film. However it was a good film all the same.

_{So romantic!}

I drove my incredible wife home, visualising the long walk home to my house in the Adelaide hills given that I was about to run out of petrol and had no money left, where she invited me in for a cup of tea.

More tea? Or am I about to have the best first date of my life? - I thought to myself.

We walked through her front door, only to be greeted by my now Mother-in-Law. @bluebellpossum was quite serious, we had a nice cup of tea and a lovely chat with my Mother-in-Law.

I'm pleased to report that my wife and I are still the best of friends. @bluebellpossum is my favourite person in the world.

_{I should probably make it clear that this fact may not be entirely factual: @bluebellpossum did make the first move, but was very sweet and non-demanding. I just wrote it this way for hilarity reasons. We did go for Thai food and a screening of Kill Bill 2. Wifey did indeed invite me in for a cup of tea, and I was greeted by my now Mother-in-Law. While I was dirt poor, I did have enough petrol to get home that night (only just though).}

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Fact 2 - I Stole Chocolate and Sold it to my Fellow Students for Pocket Money

I come from quite a poor family, and rarely received any pocket money throughout my childhood or teenage years. Being a young teenager in his first years of high school, I needed money to buy the things that my friends were showing off at school. I knew full well that my parents couldn't afford these things so there wasn't any point asking for money.

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So I decided to get creative. I had already discovered that I was pretty good at stealing food for breakfast. I never ate breakfast at home. So I thought I'd target some of the bigger items in the supermarket. I found that I could fit a bulk pack of chocolate bars down the front of my pants. And if I walked carefully, the crinkling noise of the pack wasn't too loud.

So I started stealing bulk packs of chocolate bars on a daily basis, and I sold them for 50 cents each (about half price at the time). And this was how I made my pocket money. Thankfully, the scanning units at the exits of supermarkets didn't exist at this time, otherwise my plan would not have worked.

It's funny that the only time I got caught stealing was when I stole a Milky Way bar from a different supermarket. If you don't know what these bars are, they're tiny, and a damn sight easier to steal than a bulk pack of chocolate bars.

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Fact 3 - I Love Photographing Feathered Things but can't be Bothered Processing the Images

For those that follow me, you'll know that I post a tonne of bird photos. The funny thing is that most of these photos were taken more than 2 years ago.

_{This image is from 3 years ago}

I have about 30 gig worth of photos that I've taken over the past 2 years sitting on various SD cards, simply waiting to be processed in my image processing software. I am a terrible procrastinator and keep telling myself that I'll sit quietly with a beer and some music playing and start sorting through the images.

But then I go out and take more photos to add to the backlog of photos that need processing...

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Fact 4 - I Post About Beer a Lot but Actually Know More About Wine

I spent a few years working in the wine industry both in vineyards, doing maintenance work, and in wineries themselves, helping with the wine production process. I developed a love of red wine during this time, since I was able to take a lot home when the stock was damaged or the bosses were feeling generous. Without realising what was happening, I developed a palate for good quality red wine. I've since visited most wine regions in Australia, and love a good quality red wine. I'm the first to admit that I am heavily biased towards wines from the South Australian wine regions though.

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My love of beer is actually quite new. I wanted to know about home-brewing, with the view that I might progress to make mead. But while learning about home-brewing I started trying various craft beers to learn about the different home-brewing techniques and processes. And I ended up falling in love with craft beer and after discovering the weekly #BeerSaturday contest run by @detlev discovered how enjoyable it is to write beer reviews.

So, for the time being, I'm posting a lot about beer. I expect that during the cooler months I might post the occasional wine review, since all I drink is big and bold red wines. And you don't drink that type of wine in hot weather. I also have a few nice bottles in my collection that are waiting to be consumed.

_{This bottle has been taunting me for 5 years}

Fact 5 - I'm in Love with Skydiving but have a Fear of Heights

I've jumped out of a perfectly functional plane on 3 seperate occasions and have loved it every time (despite almost having a heart attack on my first jump). I'm now at the stage where I plan to learn to jump solo.

_{That dot in the sky is me on my last jump. I high fived a cloud!}

The funny thing is though, the reason why I jumped out of my first plane was to get over my fear of heights. It's helped with the fear, but I still get a little vertigo when I'm at height and on a slightly unstable surface.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to solo jump though. My lovely wife is having a hard time coming to grips with the concept. So we'll wait and see what 2018 brings. I might be posting a DTube video of my first solo jump before the year is out.

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So there's my five facts! I hope you enjoyed reading them. I'm going to nominate my fellow wine fiend @braveboat to take on this challenge. Let's see what he brings to the table!