Why won't the year just get GOING already?

It's been one of those Christmas/New Year periods that feel like they're taking forever to be over and done with. It's the second-last day in January and I still have nothing to show for the month because I'm stuck sitting around, waiting for everything to happen. We head out on a cruise for 10 days on Valentine's Day (coincidence, not planned - trust me, we're sharing a cabin with my brother and best friend, Valentine's Day will not be overly romantic). Once the cruise is done it's the Soundwave Music festival two days later. Then uni starts. Once uni starts I'll know when I'm free through the week and I can plan my horse riding classes and volunteer work, but until this damn cruise begins I'm stuck lying around the house watching old episodes of Doctor Who and reading the last few novels before textbooks take over my bedside floor again.

Anyway. In the meantime I've been making my Mum and Dad's costumes for my boyfriend's 21st party next week. I'll be posting photos of them tomorrow after I come back from Mum's place. Until then though, I'm going to spam any followers I may or may not have with answers to this post on The Art of Darkness. Basically Cobwebs has given 11 random facts about herself and I have to do the same. Then, I get 11 questions I have to answer. I then make up 11 questions of my own and tag 11 different people to respond with their own random facts and answer my (not Cobwebs') questions. Since I despise chain mail though, I promise I won't tag anyone else, just add my own questions if anyone wishes to join in. So here goes:

Random Facts About Me

1. My uncle is from Pennsylvania in the US. I was confused by the similarities between 'Pennsylvania' and 'Transylvania' and for a few years when I was little I thought my uncle was a vampire.
2. My Dad was a Catholic priest, who taught me some Latin. He also read me the classics of literature when I was little, including The Iliad, and the Odyssey from a book that had them in both English and Greek. These days, given time, I can translate a reasonable bit of Greek and Latin, and because they're parent languages that gave rise to many others, I can pick out many European languages, when written. Spoken is an entirely different matter.
3. When I'm around people with accents, I pick up on it and start talking like them. I really hope that they don't notice, and if they do that they don't think I'm teasing them. If I ever get a bad hit to the head, I just KNOW I'm going to wake up with Foreign Accent Syndrome.
4. I have done swordfighting. Not fencing, swordfighting, with broad swords and claymores. It's hard, but so awesome, and it means that if I ever get assaulted and there's a stick nearby, I'm fine. On the other hand, without a sword/stick I hit like a 4-year-old.
5. When I was little, my career goals were as follows: Catwoman, a vampire, an actress, a vet. In any order. I'd still kind of like to be any of them.
6. Wind makes me nervous. No idea why.
7. I once took so long to do the cross country run that I came third in the 11-year-girls. I was turning 10. Two other groups had passed me.
8. I was reading by the time I was three years old. I remember Mum being sick so I tried to help her sleep by reading 'Puppy on the Farm' to her. She assumed I had memorized it but when Mary came down a few days later and brought some new kids books for me, she asked me to read them out loud and I did. I've been crazy about reading ever since and most of my childhood photos are of me with a book in my hand (or standing and grinning like a dork under a tree).
9. I love cooking and I love experiementing with food, but I get the shits with cookery where people 'fuse' flavours that have no business being mixed together. No, I don't want your pretentious pear, bamboo, and onion chutney on thick-sliced organic, free-range yeasted, gluten-free, dairy-free, no-pet household, Italian-inspired ciabatta. You twat.
10. When we have the income we plan to buy a house with a decent amount of acreage surrounding it. I want goats. And chickens. And a few horses. He wants some pigs. It's going to be a lot of work, but I like that kind of work.
11. Speaking of work, I hate doing housework around other people. I probably come across as lazy to anyone unfamiliar with it, but I just can't bring myself to work when other people are lying around on the couch or something. When they go out though I get a lot done.

OK. question time:

1. What is your favorite candy?
   I love honeycomb. The lolly shop down the coast makes it beautifully, but the one slightly further on always seems to use too much bicarb and it comes out really crumbly and tasting like soap. My brother makes some really nice honeycomb too. And toffee.
   
2. What is your least favorite vegetable?
   Spinach. Ew.
   
3. Do you play a musical instrument?
   Yep. I play the piano. I was also taking violin lessons for a while, though I've probably forgotten almost all of it.
   
4. What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?
   For someone who gets hurt easily I don't get genuinely injured very easily. The worst injury I've ever had was probably from sliding across the deck of the Young Endeavour during a midnight tack. I hit the life reel and cut my foot open and it got infected a few days later. I had to have a pretty intense dose of antibiotics and I wasn't allowed to do anything energetic until it healed. I was so angry that I couldn't join in working with everyone, then I realised I had doctors orders to laze around on a multi-million dollar yacht for the next week.
   
5. What’s under your bed?
   Some foam gladiator beating sticks. Two wigs. A witches hat. A heap of books. A blanket.
   
6. If you could publish one book, what would it be about?
   I'd actually really love to write later on in life. I'm at university for now, studying archaeology, and I'd love to do what Bill Bryson does and write books about history and science for the general public.
   
7. Do you believe in ghosts?
   Yep. Though much like religion I don't have a rock-solid belief in what they are, just that they're there in some form or another.
   
8. What’s on your mouse pad?
   David Bowie :D
   
9. What are you currently reading?
   I read quite a few books at once because reading different kinds of books needs different conditions. I can't read novels when people are around, for instance. So right now I'm reading: The Biography of the Thames, by Peter Ackroyd; The Land of Painted Caves, by Jean M Auel; Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer; The Book of Household Management by Isabella Beeton.
   
10. If you could have any job you wanted, what would it be?
    Like I said before, I'd love to write science and history books for the general public. I'd also love to do recovery archaeology for development firms, though that would end up being tough on me because of the inevitability of  having to just bury it all again after the money's run out.
    
11. What’s your all-time favorite TV show?
    Though it was cancelled after only 12 episodes, I loved Miracles, with Skeet Ulrich and Angus MacFadyen.

Rightio. Now 11 questions for you:

1. What's the strangest/spookiest thing that has ever happened to you?
2. How many different jobs have you had?
3. Which movie character do you wish you could trade places with (either permanently, or for the length of the movie)?
4. What's your favourite dish?
5. If you could have another house anywhere in the world, where would you have that house?
6. What movie, book, or tv show do you think was a good idea, badly executed?
7. Who is your favourite historical person?
8. What is your favourite item of clothing and why?
9. Which superhero or villain would you team up with?
10. Which fairytale or kids book was your favourite when you were little?
11. If you could be skilled at any craft, what would it be?

OK. Go crazy. Or don't, since I'm sure I'm talking to myself.