Seen this on 3 different journals already, so now I think it is my turn. Rules are below, but I ignore them.

• Bloggers that are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

Here we go, eight small facts about me.

1. I'm a wriggler. When I ly in bed, I always wriggle my toes and try to catch the blanket and fool around with it.
2. I like cats. A lot. I don't have one because I'm not sure about keeping a cat on the 3rd floor of a flat. But I have been browsing sites of animal shelters.
3. I can do a pretty good imitation of a cats mew. Sometimes the animals respond to it, and people have been wondering where the actual cat is. My behaviour is sometimes rather feline as well.
4. I have suffered from, and survived, childhood cancer. When I was 1,5 years old I was diagnosed with retinoblastoma. That's why my right eye is a prosthetic. No, I can't see with it. Yes, I can only see with my left eye, which means missing the ability to see depth.
5. When I was in primary school I took drawing lessons after school time. Nowadays I don't draw much except for doodles during meetings.
6. I don't like children. At all. Especially the small ones are annoying. You can hardly communicate with them and they tend to get on my nerves. It's even so bad that I sometimes see baby's as parasites. This makes it hard for me to congratulate pregnant friends or acquaintances. I just can not imagine feeling happy about getting a baby.
7. My childhood wish was to later have a house with as little corners as possible so vacuum cleaning would be easy. Also there would be a huge garden with a secluded pond, trees to climb in and pretty flowers.
8. When in primary school I never wanted to become a doctor, nurse, police officer or the other cliches. I wanted to work at the seal shelter at Pieterburen or become an arts teacher. I am a programmer now.

I'm not going to tag anybody. If you feel like posting/blogging your 8 facts, go ahead.

Went shopping in Apeldoorn with my mom and Moniek the 12th of January. They've got a lovely shop there called Ursula with gothic/punk clothing. At the day we were there they had a sale. The old collection of Stuka pants was 50% off so Matthijs and I both got one. I also bought a purple shirt with points at the hem and pointed sleeves and we had a lot of fun dressing Moniek and my mom in clothes they would never wear in public.

That evening when we went to Monieks house for dinner, there was a surprise in the garage. The Kia Pride stood there, freshly washed with a red ribbon from nose to back and a bouquet of (fake) white roses on the hood. My mother had finally gotten her new car and the Kia was mine now. We could drive home to Enschede instead of going by train.

That evening we immediately arranged insurance for the car and the next Monday we went to the postal office to get the car put on my name. So I am now the owner of a car (and payer of road tax).

My three trial lessons of Taekwondo are used up now, so I'm going to become a member of Arashi. The good thing is; when you're a member of Arashi, you pay contribution once a year but you can participate in all sports. The second and third taekwando lesson I stayed to train with the advanced class as well and I didn't have half as much muscle aches as after the first lesson. It feels so good to be training again!

I already did the first two kata's (taeguek) and I found a site which has diagrams and videos of these forms. Last Wednesday I had a little time for myself when I didn't have a partner, so I did the two first kata's of kempo again. I still remembered them! I'm curious how far I get when I'd try to do them all. I think four will be a problem, because I never liked that one and it was one of the hardest to do.

I met a yellow-band, whose name I forgot, who had also done some form of karate (both kempo and taekwando are often called forms of karate) and he agreed that some of the taekwondo forms and kicks are just weird. I mean, what use is it to kick your oponent 4 times in a row, when (if you do it right) he's already down after the first kick? So I am a bit sceptical sometimes, but I like the exercise, so I'll continue. In February there will be an informal meeting about a possible new martial art for Arashi. I hope it will be something like kempo. ;-)

Short news:

• Matthijs and I are trying new recipes from the Allerhande.
• I'm at book 7 of the Wheel of Time series.
• I hope to become part of the Badawi group at Aon 3.
• I'm playing StarCraft again. I'm at level 4 of the Zerg campaign.

Just a few minutes more and it's the last day of the year. I could write a lot about what happened these past 12 months, but I already did that during the year itself. There were some memorable events though:

• Moved into my own little house in Enschede.
• Got my drivers license the 1st of Februari.
• I had my first flu in years, during Pandora, of all days!
• Got a year contract with Brevidius and a raise.
• My mom had surgery on her hip and revalidated very quickly, both in Belgium.
• My parents told my brother and me that they were getting a divorce.
• I fainted (never done that before) after eating nothing for a whole day (felt nauseaous all the time), and nearly broke my nose on the doorpost before hitting the floor.
• Went to Schiermonnikoog by bike with Matthijs.
• Made several skirts for myself and shirts with cuffs for Evolution Events npc's. Yay for sewing!
• Joined a close harmony choir at the University of Twente. And already participated in a movie-night, study weekend, masterclass, 'sinterkerst' and winter concert.
• Learned to spend my money more freely, instead of looking at every penny. It's so much more relaxed.

And probably a lot more, but these are the things that come to mind. One thing this list points out to me, is that I should work on my physical self again. I have not been involved in any kind of sport this year, with moving and settling and all that. I did do regular exercises every morning, but no real sport.

In 2008 I plan on sporting again, probably TaeKwondo. I want to loose some inches on my waist and feel confident again that I can still bash scary man's heads. :-p Next to that and work, I'll be committee member of Musilon: secretary. Yes I'm going into a committee after my studies.

Well, that's for the goals of next year. Let's see what comes of them and what other things I will do and not do.

Now it is time for bed, and tomorrow (ehrm.. today by now) New Year's Eve will be spend at Glimmie's place. Good year everybody!