Nic threw down the gauntlet of writing eight things about myself, so I will try.
- I have the Freedom of the City of London.
- I didn’t have any pets as a boy, but after we were married Katy took me to a local cats’ home and two of them chose me.
- My Spanish is limited to not much more than Nadie espera la Inquisición Española*.
- As a boy, I once went on a Brownie pack holiday.
- One of my lecturers at college invented the subroutine / procedure call / function call. For a while it was known as the Wheeler Jump after him.
- I broke my leg as a boy by falling from a tree I was climbing.
- I learned today that there is a Scottish word in the OED that rhymes with purple. It’s hurple, and means to run or walk in a limping kind of way.
- I don’t own an auto-gyro.
I can’t think of eight other people I want to inflict this on, who haven’t already been inflicted, so I’ll stop here.
*Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
1. By servitude, patrimony, nomination or presentation? Inquiring minds want to know!
4. I went on a Guide holiday. That’s what you get for your Mum being Brown Owl.
1. Sort of 3 out of the 4. My grandfather worked for the City of London Corporation, so got it through servitude (I guess). My mum and uncle got it via him by patrimony. They then both nominated me (and my sister and cousin).
4. My Mum was Brown Owl too, my Dad was away on business and my sister was a Brownie.
Cool – have you ever taken advantage of it? A friend of mine could have got married in the Tower of London, but inexplicably didn’t.