11 things meme

I joked today that I would do this meme to up my post count. So yeah looks like things are desperate here! Anyways. I thought that it's probably a good opportunity to do one of these early on and introduce myself a bit. The questions were asked with other people in mind, so I hope it's OK that I'm hijacking it *^^*

11 things about me:

• I grew up in the Western Australian countryside, where my parents were teaching at the local school. I've been in Perth since I was 12.


• I play piano! I used to be quite good but now I just play hymns at church. Every so often I think I should play some Liszt again but I never do. I was best at contemporary (20th century) music but it's probably the genre I like least.  I also used to play French horn but they are prohibitively expensive, so when I graduated high school I returned my loaner and never played again.  Sigh.


• I take the bus home from work every day. One of my pet peeves is how rude people are on public transport!


• I speak passable Japanese, and a bit of Italian. I understand more Italian than I speak though.


• My husband is Italian. I'm trying to get dual citizenship but Italian red tape seems thicker than Australian.


• I did exchange in Japan for a month when I was 16. I stayed in Akashi, near Kobe.


• This year I dropped something like 20% of my body weight (intentionally). I still have a couple kilos to go but I am pretty damn proud of myself.


• I loathe the boganization of Australian culture.  My life goal is to never be a bogan.


• I love food so much it hurts.  I'm willing to try almost anything once.


• I love animals, but right now I live in an apartment so I don't have any. Both my dogs and one of my cats died of old age in the last 18 months :( I miss them every day. The other cat is still going strong at my in-laws' house, though, which is great.


• I am an ardent Francophile, but I've never been to France!  Lame.  I keep going to Japan instead, which is a pretty awesome compromise.  Living in the Asian sphere of influence is pretty great :D

Onto the questions!

1. Do you love blogging ? Why ?
I love other people blogging!  Seriously, I do enjoy it when I'm in the swing of it, so I'm going to try really hard to make a proper go of it this time.  I also like staying connected to my friends by blogs, be they real-life or internet friends.  (By the way, internet friends are just as good as real-life, if not sometimes better.)

2. What is one thing you want the most in your life ?
To remain content, with strong faith.  My life is pretty blessed and great right now, but I'd like to be able to be happy with what I have regardless of what comes at me.

3. Tell me your favorite food
I can't choose!  Savory I love char kway teow, oyakodon, okonomiyaki, good cheese and a proper Napolitan margherita.  Sweet things, I love gelato, creme brulee, and chocolate.  Oh, how I love chocolate.  And rocky road icecream.

4. Are you addicted to social media (twitter , facebook , etc) ?
I tweet like a mad thing but I can't stand Facebook.  Tumblr is my poison, though.

5. Are you a K-poper ? If yes , who is your favorite singer/girlband/boyband ?
Sort of.  I love SNSD but I don't really even know any other bands.  And I still can't tell Yuri and Yoona apart.

6. Things that you can’t leave home without.
iPhone!  Total addict.  I think I love my iPhone like normal people love their children.
Wallet, obviously.
Lip balm. I try other things but I always come back to Carmex and Lucas' Pawpaw.
Headphones
Nurofen

7. Your 5 favorite blogs .
This Is Glamorous
Jenny's Blog
8tokyo
The Royal Order Of Sartorial Splendor (I'm a royal watcher)
Apartment Therapy

Oh, there are too, too many. I have hundreds of blogs in my RSS reader. And I just discovered Matsu-you, which I am loving right now.

8. Describe your personal style
I tend to gravitate towards classic styles that are a bit preppy, and a bit French-y. BUT, I also love Japanese fashion. I guess I am always trying to reconcile the two, so often that means retro-girly influence. It's hard to make a lot of gyaru clothes work in a western context, I think. I often wear jeans to work (I work in a lab, which is the most casual workplace in the world), but I'm trying to break out of that habit a bit.

9. What will you do to face some annoying people/things ?
I'm so bad at confrontation. I just remove myself from the situation wherever I can.

10. Your favorite quotes.
I don't know who said it and I'm probably misquoting it, but recently I'm fond of "Don't be afraid of dying. Be afraid of not living the life that you want to."

11. Have you visited Indonesia ?
No, and I really should because it's such a close neighbour (well, relatively speaking. Everything is a 5 hour flight from Perth.)

That's it! Hope that wasn't too boring to sit through. I shall post pictures of things tomorrow!