about me

I am a nosy person and love to find out interesting things about others. At the off chance that I am not the only such inclined person, here a brief description of myself. A CV so to speak, with lots of holes but you should be able to get to know me a little.  

I have asked various family members a million time to take a nice picture of me. Without success of course. I wonder if this is because I see a picture of myself in the mirror that does not correspond to the reality?

I have tried to capture a photo of myself in the mirror, feeling slightly silly doing so, but here you go, an up to date photo of me. It is a bit out of focus (to blur the wrinkles). I am wearing my beloved red turtleneck sweater, hand made to fit me perfectly. It hides my double chin. This particular red is one of my favourite colours and I think it suits me. Fashionistas may beg to differ but I really don't care. I also like most other colours apart from grand father beige and military green. I may have mentioned my favourite colours elsewhere in my blog and quite possibly, they are no longer the same now. You see, I often change my mind about things.

I am a vintage 1970 edition, some may call me middle aged but I think this is only true in years, not in spirit. Being born in 1970 makes it easy to work out my age.

I grew up in Switzerland with one brother and my mum and dad. Dad is no longer with us and I miss him a lot. I think I look a lot like him. My dad was Italian, which makes me part Italian, part Swiss but I feel a lot more Swiss than Italian and really, I am Italian on paper only.

As a child I lived in the German speaking part of Switzerland, in a small village near Bern, the Capital. It was  great when I was little because I lived in a traffic free estate. We were safe to roam the estate and surrounding fields. It was not a great place for a teenager unfortunately. I remember being bored out of my wits but maybe teenagers are bored wherever they are. 

I was a brainy child and glad to start gymnasium in Bern, escaping the teenage tedium. Gymnasium is a bit like 6th form college but longer. I chose to attend the language section of gymnasium and took German, Latin, Italian and French as main subjects. How I ended up studying Biology remains a mystery but I am sure I had a reason at the time. I finished my studies with a PhD and was researching the lives of teeny weeny single celled parasites for a long time.

When I was still working towards my PhD, I met Richard, my long suffering husband. We met at a conference on the Cape Cod, during a poster session. I know, very romantic. I have never looked back.

Richard was living in the United States at the time but wanted to move back to the UK. I didn't really care where we lived as long as it was together, and we ended up in Glasgow in 1999. We didn't think we would still be here now but we grew to like Glasgow which is one of the friendliest places I have ever been to. Unfortunately, the weather is awful a lot of the time but when it is nice, we really really appreciate it.

Sam was born in 2000, followed by Annie three years later. I always liked the idea of lots of children and in 2010 we decided to become adoptive parents and siblings. It was a long process but early in 2012, we finally met James and Alistair. It seems they have been with us for ever.

I was always a working mum but moved from being a parasite researcher to being a teacher at University. I was lucky and worked part time since Sam was born, and was able to work around my children's school times for the past 8 years. I have recently been made redundant.

I am a stay at home mum just now but hope to find work again soon. I seem to need the intellectual stimulation of academia, even if the stress of it all is often too much. I am studying towards a Master in Education in the meantime.

My tastes and likes are changing and evolving but here is snapshot of some all time favourites.

I love to all things yarn and usually have one or two projects on my needles or hook. I like sewing, too, but don't often do it because I have no dedicated space for the sewing machine. I squirrel away yarn and fabric for the future. I am not sure when I will ever use it but imagine it will be after retirement and when the kids have left the house. I hope this is before arthritis and poor sight will dominate my life.

I am a keen cook but find the daily feedings of fussy eaters tedious. We mostly cook fresh food because I like to know what I eat. Sam sometimes asks why we can't eat like everybody else. I am not sure what he means.

I like to be fit and go for jogs about three times a week. I would prefer to call it running but really, my running pace is not much faster than the average walking pace. I particularly like jogging in the winter, before people close their curtains (because I want to see how everyone else lives).

I like art and seem to be unable to restrain myself from buying a piece of art most years. I should probably start painting myself to save money. Unfortunately, I have no talent. We have lots of paintings, drawings, watercolours and a tapestry from all around the world and from local artists and friends. I'll show you my favourite ones another day.

I love spoken word and listen to at least a dozen radio programmes and podcasts downloaded onto my iPod every week. These include (but are not limited to) Inside Health, More or Less and All in the Mind (all BBC Radio 4), The Naked Scientists and some more obscure geeky science podcasts. I usually fall asleep listening to one of these.

I read a lot and I listen to audiobooks. My taste in fiction is eclectic and unpredictable. I also love non fiction, mostly popular science.

I have a soft spot for science fiction, in particular for Star Trek.

I am often grumpy and I often shout. I blame the children, or the lack of sleep, or stress, or bad coffee. Sometimes all at once. I would like to think that I have a sunny personality but I guess there is plenty of shade where there is sun.

On the grand scheme of thing, life has been kind to me. I like who I am and who I share my live with. Sometimes (at least once a day) I wish to be someone else somewhere else, preferably somewhere warm and without children. Maybe glamorous, too, and witty, funny and clever. But mostly, home is best. I am quite funny and clever actually, but definitely not glamourous.

There you have it, me in a nutshell.

Have a lovely Wednesday!  Cx

P.S. Thank you all for your thoughtful and encouraging comments on my last post!