TAG, I’M IT

One of the things that have always fascinated me with blogging is the whole tagging issue. As you may recall , I was tagged to write a letter to my sixteen year old self, and believe me that felt great, because it meant that not only was I getting some traffic on this site , but a blogger thought of me as a colleague . You cannot imagine the pseudo-dancing that went on in my house after that.

I have to confess though, that there is one type of tag I have secretly been yearning for – the one that asks you to give 10 , or 30 or 50 details about yourself in an effort to get your reader to know a bit more about you. I had been hoping that I could get tagged soon- I even had a strategy all laid out as to how I would react if indeed it ever happened. I would act all cool and calm, a little amused and just a tad exasperated, then I would oh-so-graciously spin out a post . Unfortunately , this plan needed someone to actually tag me – which has not yet happened. I have decided , therefore, to tag myself and wow you all with some amazing facts about Magaribina, that you do not know (and probably don’t care about- but lets not go there)

1. I hate sweet potatoes
Don’t ask. I love sweet stuff and this is baffling even to me. But the fact remains that I cant stand cooked sweet potatoes of any kind. Funnily enough, I don’t mind them raw. Yeah, very strange.

2. Weddings bore me
Maybe its because I have only been an attendant in one wedding years ago, where I wore a screaming pink frock with a pink ribbon on my head. Or maybe it’s the idea that you have to listen to people droning on and on about stuff that even the bride and groom cannot possibly want to hear. Or it could be the fact that I end up being hungry most of the day – only to have food poisoning the next day because I gave in to the demands of my stomach. In any case, I avoid them as much as I can.

3. I talk to myself
I could use the excuse that I live alone, but the fact is that I have been talking to myself for a long time now. I hold lengthy conversations with myself whenever I can. My family, neighbours and friends are resigned to the fact. For the most part I don’t care who notices. The only exception is when I forget myself and start a solo conversation in a matatu, which tends to make people quite uneasy for some strange reason. However , I have learnt how to deal with that – as soon as I catch myself doing it, I start singing. It is only mildly eccentric to be singing aloud in a matatu, and the first part of it could have been a rap, couldn’t it?

4. Having too many friends confuses me
Strange but true. I realized that I prefer to have a few good friends than a hoard of friends who I never interact with. I don’t do casual acquaintances very well. You can imagine the kind of strain that puts me under when I’m online – its really tough having a meaningful relationship with someone you only know as Mgondi24

5. I have never told a guy I loved him
This is another idiosyncrasy on my part. I figure a declaration of love is as binding as a marriage contract. You can imagine the havoc it wreaks on my relationships

6. I love accents
It doesn’t matter what kind – local or foreign – I love accents. I think they make the spoken word so much more beautiful. The only type I can’t stand are the fake ones – the ones you acquire when you go to the airport to see off a relative. And that is why I don’t watch local news.

7. I have a one-track mind
I can’t do two things at the same time. At least not consciously, and not if I want to do them well. In school I could day dream and take dictation, but if I came out of my day dream, I would immediately lose the thread of the sentence I was writing. Today, the only time I can listen to music and hear the words while doing something else is if I am playing computer solitaire. And beware – if you find me watching a movie and have a conversation with me, be prepared to repeat yourself later, cause I didn’t get a single word you said.

8. I copy other peoples laughs
I actually do not have my own laugh. I copy the style of whoever happens to be around me at the time. You an imagine the embarrassment sometimes , especially if the person has a rather horrible laugh. For a few months in my early twenties, whenever I laughed, I reminded myself of a pig. True story.

9. I love books
I started reading when I was 4, read my first Mills and Boon when I was 7, and it has pretty much been a lifelong love affair ever since. I can live without just about anything else , but take away my books and I don’t know how I would survive. Oh – and my taste in books has not improved with age.

10. I rarely visit people
I keep telling my pal that she should consider herself lucky that I visit her twice a year. She thinks I’m joking. I’m not. I do town meetings and such , but rarely other peoples houses. Incidentally, I’m not too keen on being visited either.

Eh- this is much harder than I thought. I can see now why older bloggers pretty much ignore tags – I can’t see myself doing this again. Of course in a real tag, this is where I am supposed to pick out a few victims who then have go through the same ordeal. I have decided to tag everyone. Yep – if you read this you are tagged. Wait – before you slink away into the cyber-night without leaving a comment, let me just add that this tag is as unstructured as I am. You can write about whatever you like, however and whenever. In other words you have been tagged to continue as you were. And you don’t even have to link back to me. Old school bloggers, tell me – have I created the perfect tag or what ?

Update : Ok – for the avoidance of doubt Nkirdizzle – you have been tagged . Now go write something

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