an even hundred.

1. esther is not my first name.
2. i do not trust highwaistedness, or people who overshare.
3. i have never owned a pet.
4. when i was five, though, i used to want to be a Queen who travelled the world with a suitcase and a dog called george.
5. i still aspire to the first two parts of this childhood dream, although i no longer think spaceships are real.
6. one of my biggest fears is owning too much furniture.
7. i am also afraid of spiders.
8. i sing, a lot, and often at weddings. it always makes me nervous and i always say yes the next time.
9. i frequently make little sense, but i call it logic.
10. i love shoes. shoes are items of salvation, like chocolate and new underwear.
11. sometimes, i am all about the shallow. actually, it's most of the time. i do know the difference between like and love, although i will never own a prada backpack.
12. i am allergic to all things lactose. this is a pain in both the neck and the ass.
13. catherine told me once that i do not suffer fools gladly. this makes me think of eddie izzard, (tell me, who DOES suffer fools gladly?!) but she is right: i have a zero tolerance approach to people who are vague, or who are patronising.
14. i like to think of my ability to cry under any circumstance as a gift. it is, however, damn annoying.
15. i have one nephew and i will always dote on him.
16. in a fit of stupidity a few years ago i joined friendsreunited. since then, however, i have deleted every email they have ever sent and nothing will stop me from continuing this.
17. i have never broken any bones.
18. i cannot speak fluent geek, though i try my best when i am with brianne, caroline or catherine. they frequently laugh at my feeble attempts.
19. i have only ever had one x ray, but sometimes i still fear that i will become a mutant.
20. until i bought justified (justin timberlake), i was a music fascist. i now pretend i am musically open minded.
21. (this is is not strictly true, since one of my favourite bands is sigur ros and if you asked me to sing disney/whitney houston/mariah carey at your wedding i would TOTALLY CUT YOU).
22. there are two words that will always make me retch, without fail. these are sac and supple.
23. i get addicted to things very easily. these have included caffiene, blogging, music, shopping, and amazon.co.uk.
24. in the past five years, i have lived in three different countries: england, new zealand, and northern ireland. new zealand will always be my favourite.
25. i studied politics for six years and still managed to be disenfranchised during a general election. this is embarrassing.
26. i have two tattoos: one celtic cross on my right hip, and one swan on my ankle. i am sorely (haha) tempted to get one a year, but so far have managed to resist. my cousin calls me the rebellious one, so i may have to rethink this.
27. i'm secretly quite blonde.
28. i have yet to master walking in high heels.
29. as a general rule, i hate musicals. this does not stop me from loving rent, or stop the wizard of oz being one of my favourite films.
30. i refuse to drink instant coffee, though in desperate times i have been known to do just that.
31. fantasy dinner party guests would include eddie izzard, emmiline pankhurst, imelda marcos, johnny cash and cary grant.
32. i included cary grant in that list because i'd like to check that up close, he WAS almost purple.
33. i miss eating cheese.
34. the three best gigs i went to in 2005 run as follows: brian kennedy, at the dog's bollix in auckland; missy higgins, in the skytower theatre in auckland; and coldplay, at the odyssey arena in belfast.
35. i have read all of "what not to wear", and subsequently you will not find chunky bracelets/ankle straps/round-necked top/poloneck jumpers/chunky anything/tapered anything/clothes cut on the bias anywhere in my wardrobe.
36. there can be no such thing as owning too many earrings.
37. i have two bridesmaid dresses in my wardrobe. neither has had a second wearing.
38. anything ginger flavoured is good.
39. i always want to live near the sea.
40. i love maps, especially old ones, and anything peters' projection-y.
41. i make good tea.
42. at any given time, there will be five tubes of lip balm or lipgloss in my bag.
43. few things are better than open fires and pajamas.
44. that said, i hate winter and generally run on half power until spring.
45. my iPod was the best thing i bought in 2004.
46. the best album i bought last year is a toss up between the killers' hot fuss and rosie thomas' if songs could be held.
47. the best albums i TECHNICALLY did not buy include over the rhine's drunkard's prayer, coldplay's x and y, and missy higgins' sound of white.
48. i never EVER get asked for ID, and i have learned that the best way to avoid being searched at an airport is to look hurried and avoid eye contact.
49. i sometimes think i should have been born a catholic, because i feel guilty a lot.
50. summer is my favourite time of year.
51. summer used to be a complete mystery to me, until i went travelling at the end of 2004. after eight months of sunshine and tanning and constant freckles, i came back to what everyone else called an indian summer. i, on the other hand, shivered and complained and added layers and wished i could warm up my extremities, just a little. all it took was a little real summer to change my seasonal makeup and now i love summer and hate winter. bring on sunshine and feeling warm to my bones.
52. travelling is amazing, and i hatch daily plans to return to new zealand some day. i also want to travel to poland, canada, bolivia, zambia and antartica.
53. other than that, i have a pressing desire to see as many capital cities as i can before i die.
54. if money was no object, i would fly to argentina and take a cruise to antartica, and visit easter island if i could.
55. i have a bachelor's degree and no tangible way of using it.
56. the first time i visited new york, it scared me just a little. the second time i stayed, i didn't really want to leave.
57. if by some miracle i was actually able to write songs, i'd make an album with a hidden track and call it things we might say if we could.
58. most, if not all of my joints crack once at some point each day.
59. chances are i am taller than you.
60. sometimes i will write my oscar thankyou speech while i'm really bored, or in the shower. i have never yet finished it.
61. when i was a teenager, i once had a poem published in an anthology of young writers. i can't be sure but the poem was probably about love gone sour, because i was SO DRAMATIC it hurt.
62. i have never... is one of my favourite games ever to play. this is even more fun when there is dirt to be dished on any of the players, and works best when some alcohol is involved.
63. i went to harvard...for a few hours this past summer. i actually studied in england, and i still believe leaving northern ireland was one of the very best things i did.
64. i harbour moderate dislike for many things, though because i am often over-dramatic this manifests itself in vitriolic and uncontrollable rages vented solely to myself, catherine, smilesinstead and anyone in the near vicinity that might be listening. or, not listening, as the case may be.
65. these things include but are not limited to people stealing tables in cafes, poor use of punctuation, rogue apostrophes, people who talk during films, people who walk slowly when i'm in a hurry, broccoli, the vast majority of christian music, bin-emptying, tonsilitis, slow drivers, massholes, boybands, winter, extreme temperatures.
66. if i was to choose a song that best summed me up, it would be God put a smile upon your face by coldplay.
67. having said that, night minds by missy higgins would run a close second.
68. a cool thing to do in summer is partake of the wonders of cambridge folk festival, which i fully intend to turn into a tradition sooner rather than later.
69. i've read everything that douglas coupland has ever written, and go back to it again and again. you might say he's my favourite writer of all time.
70. because i never had a tv when i was little, reading is one of my favourite things to do and i am very good at it. i've read a LOT, but i still get overwhelmed with all the books out there that i haven't read and want to.
71. i can't drive, but i wish i could and it's my resolution to learn in 2006.
72. the best bagel i ever had was at a starbucks in manhattan.
73. i'm learning to make cocktails. when i am good, i will teach you.
74. i hate doing things i am not good at. see driving, learning cocktails, explaining chemical imbalances to boys who know only three letters (pms), managing money.
75. i have nothing at all against married people, but i do hate married people who are obsessed with matchmaking me; similarly, i have nothing against well meaning church people but i hate it when they try to marry me off.
76. generally, i have no idea where i'm going. i am not really okay about this.
77. every night on radio 4 the shipping forecast is broadcast at 12.47am, and if i am up i will listen to it no matter where i am. it was one of the things i missed most about the uk when i lived in new zealand.
78. men from poland and the netherlands say good morning to me every day. because i am full of skills and magic, i generally have a mouthful of coffee at the time meaning i can only smile in a vaguely puffer-fish way.
79. given the choice i'll choose independent cinema over mainstream, one of the few times i am not all about the shallow. that said, going to the movies is one of my favourite ever things.
80. for me to consider a film to be good, there must must MUST be a good soundtrack (se also: music obsession). hence i loved eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (amazing on all levels), but also in good company (soundtrack chock full of iron+wine, see also: topher grace).
81. the first film i ever went on my own to see was the life aquatic with steve zissou. prior to this i had never been to the cinema by myself, and i made the exception because i REALLY wanted to see the life aquatic and catherine wouldn't come with me. it was strangely empowering and i wanted to applaud at the part where they used sigur ros over the part where they find the shark who killed zissou's best friend, mainly because IT'S SIGUR ROS and I JUST WATCHED A FILM IN PUBLIC BY MYSELF.
82. i am not good at suffering. if there is a pill to take that will alleviate the symptoms only slightly, i will take it. probably more than one, and possibly more frequently than the instructions recommend.
83. "i need air! i can't breathe!" will always be funny under any circumstances.
84. the best retort runs like this: there is a mosaic under your chair, so shut up.
85. i use the word 'like' too much.
86. when i lived in england i used to make people guess where i was from, and they always asked "america? canada? scotland?" before i would roll my eyes and click my tongue and say "like, duh! i'm totally from northern ireland!".
87. my accent fluctuates between weak and strong. when i am in belfast, it's as strong as it will ever be. ten minutes in england/on phone with english friends and it's weak as water, until i am in scotland when after twenty minutes i come over all "och aye the noo". this is very embarrassing, and yet i cannot stop.
88. after i watched bride and prejudice i sang "no life without wife" for a week, and referred to said film as bend it like bollywood.
89. i put extra syllables into words, most of all the word particularly.
90. i went to canada for the day.
91. this is not news to anyone, but seriously, weirdos love me. i have no idea why this is.
92. i don't like peas.
93. i love roadtripping. and making mix cds for the roadtripping.
94. when driving across america last summer, brianne, catherine and i sang along to since u been gone so often i can still remember all the words. i may also go to a kelly clarkson gig someday. total guilty pleasure album.
95. turning the kaiser chiefs into the kaiser chefs was MY JOKE and i want it back.
96. top three starbucks beverages, any size: extra-shot soy gingerbread latte, soy caramel macchiato, extra hot soy chai tea latte. i'm an addict.
97. favourite songs of all time: lucy in the sky with diamonds (aimee mann), hallelujah (jeff buckley), coney island (van morrison), God put a smile upon your face (coldplay), feeling good (nina simone).
98. relative to the length of my arms and legs, i have very small hands and proportionately small feet, but i wear mens gloves because gloves for women are generally too fussy.
99. i know i am old because my friend alan and i had a conversation on christmas eve that ran along the lines of "fashion is dead to me now".
100. don't sit there, there's a mouse with a plan.

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vanity project to come. stay tuned...