Tuesday, February 03, 2009

25 Random Things About Me

Well if it's good enough for John Prescott, it's good enough for me. And I suppose it just proves that blogging is about me, me, me :). Anyway, here are 25 random things you probably never knew about me, and probably never wanted to know. Tough.

1. I worked for a year as a nurse in a German spinal injuries hospital after leaving school.
2. My first car was an orange Cortina Mk III, which became known at university as the Big Jaffa.
3. On my 20th birthday I wrote off my Cortina after hitting a Transit van head on at 50mph.
4. My parents lost me at the 1964 Essex Show, when I was two. I was found picking up cigarette butts and eating them.
5. As a baby I somehow fell out of my pram. I still have the mark on my forehead.
6. I was bottom of my German class aged 14. I went on a three week school exchange and then came top.
7. I lived in London from 1985 to 1997, in Fulham, Putney, Walthamstow and the Isle of Dogs.
8. Our Gio is a Battersea dog. We went in for an adult Spaniel and came out with a Jack Russell puppy.
9. Gio got run over once, while still on his lead, while I was walking him.
10. My first West Ham game was at the Abbey Stadium in Cambridge in 1972. We lost 3-2.
11. I was an ace hockey player at school, scoring several hat tricks.
12. I won the 1992 Medway Ports Authority Golf Championship - my greatest sporting achievement. I play off a ridiculous 13 handicap, when it should be at least 20.
13. As an eleven year old I fancied Esther Rantzen something rotten. Explains a lot.
14. I have 31,589 songs on my iPod.
15. I have been to three US Presidential Libraries - JFK, Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon.
16. In 1984 I met and spoke to Franz Josef Strauss.
17. I once completely dried up doing an early morning Sky News paper review.
18. Frank Dobson once called me 'dear' when I was presenting Sunday Service on 5 Live.
19. I once appeared on 'Beat the Jock' on Radio 1 with Mike Read.
20. I own more than 120 Cliff Richard CDs, yet when I met him I was completely tongue tied.
21. I first drove a Combine Harvester at the age of 8 - unsupervised.
22. I was the first Briton to go to Beirut after the release of John McCarthy. It's a long story.
23. I was at university with Caroline Flint. And David Grossman, so he tells me. I once debated the issue of VAT on tampons with Miss Flint.
24. I am on my 12th Audi. The first was an Audi Quattro Coupe in 1989. D52 VJN.
25. Neil & Christine Hamilton once threatened to sue me.

Rules:
Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you. To see who I tagged click HERE.

(To do this, go to "notes" under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish)

13 comments:

Patrick said...

Iain,

If you used to fancy Esther Rantzen, at what age did you realise that you weren't that way inclined?

Anonymous said...

"20. I own more than 120 Cliff Richard CDs, yet when I met him I was completely tongue tied"

shocking stuff there. How old are you?!! :)

Unknown said...

Anyone who rescues a dog is a star - though I'm puzzled by the running over bit.

@molesworth_1 said...

1. I spent a year in Austria causing spinal injuries after I was expelled from st.custards

2. My first car was a bright yellow Ford Cortina MkIII Estate known in my street as the 'Get out of the f***ing way!"

3. On my 20th birthday I dumped it for a foxy-looking fur-lined Transit

4. I was conceived at the 1966 Essex Show. My parents were found picking up cigarette butts & selling them.

5. As a baby I somehow sold my pram. I still have the tanner.

6. I, too, was bottom of my German class aged 14. Some years later I went to Germany & realised all the smart square-heads spoke English.

7. I lived in London from 14/08/08 to 19/08/08 in Wembley. It was a delightful weekend.

8. My Con was a proper Heinz57 & all the better for it.

9. Con got run over once. With his lead in his mouth & chasing me.

10. My first West Ham game was at Fratton Park & we won 4-2. I was bored.

11. I went to a boy's school & we played Rugby Union.

12. In 1992 I too stole several Golfs.

13. As an 11 yr. old I fancied Samantha Jenkins. This explains nothing.

14. I will never, ever own an i-Pod

15. I have been to three libraries. Well, actually, I have been to a library three times.

16. In 1982 I met Robert John Godfrey

17. I once completely dried up on a girlfriends second attempt at consumation in 1983.

18. Somebody once called me 'dear' shortly before picking his teeth up off the ground.

19. I shouted unwarranted (at the time) abuse at Noel Edmonds as he broadcast his R1 B'fast show from Havant Railway Station.

20. I have never owned a Cliff Richard CD & were I ever to meet him he should expect a severe kick in the nuts.

21. I first joy-rided an unattended tractor at the age of 22 - supervised by Big Vern.

22. I was the first Briton to enter a Zaandvoort town-centre bar after a surprisingly strong showing by Nigel Mansell in the '81 Dutch GP qualifying sessions. It is a dull story.

23. I was at st.custards with Sir Tufton Gusset OBE KCMG (Ret'd). The subject of non-taxable sanitary protection never arose.

24. I am on my 24th clapped out old-banger D666 OMG.

25. My neighbours also cross the street, if they see me coming.

strapworld said...

What I cannot understand is you lived in Walthamstow and you ignored Leyton Orient and went for the Hammers!

Walthamstow folk, now they do not have Walthamstow Avenue to support, choose between Tottenham and the O's

shame on you!

Iain Dale said...

I started supporting West Ham in 1972. I lived iN Walthamstow from 1988-92!

Anonymous said...

his is the Facebook equivalent of a Chain Letter.

Please stop it or in about 9 days, no productive work will ever be done by anybody ever again!

Ed said...

I'm sorry Iain, but I have now removed you from my Christmas card list as you have owned up to owning an orange Ford Cortina III. That is simply beyond the pale. :-)

BTW, I once owned, for about 3 days, a white Ford Cortina mark 1 (ban the bomb light clusters). Its a complicated story. Maybe another time. ;-)

Yak40 said...

I'm on my third car since 1989. Looks like Audi's are crap if you're on your twelfth :)

haddock said...

"I once debated the issue of VAT on tampons with Miss Flint"

the witch strikes me as the sort who rolls her own tampons

Simon Gardner said...

“As a baby I somehow fell out of my pram”

...and haven’t stopped since?

Couldn’t resist.

Anonymous said...

Poor Gordon.

The creep may have been first to ring and congratulate Obama on his inauguration recently but he wasn't first to meet the new president was he.

That mantle went to a certain Anthony Blair!

The same person, who, it was revealed yesterday, wanted Charles Clarke to be promoted to Foreign Secretary so he could have challenged Gordon in a certain leadership contest all those months ago.

That was of course BEFORE he resigned as Home Secretary.

Poor boy!

Anonymous said...

Sorry Iain. Wrong post.

25 STATISTICS ABOUT THE GREAT GEOFFREY G BROOKING
Following on from Iain Dale and John Prescott's stories I thought I would go into a bit of detail about yours truly.

1. I was born in Boston in 1971.

2. I went to the Morris Secondary Modern School in Skegness from 1981 to 1986.

3. I first got into trouble at school by doing a moonshine out of the rear of a coach full of fellow school rats on the M1!

4. I first entered politics in June 1987 as a delivery boy for the Liberal Party.

5. I did a two year apprenticeship in print finishing at East Lindsey District Council between 1987 and 1989.

5. I first joined the Conservatives in November 1987.

6. My first full time paid job was as a Bingo Caller for the Coral Bingo in Crawley in November 1989.

7. I once had a chinese at a restaurant next to the Bournemouth International Centre even though I had left my wallet and credit card back at my hotel - I still managed to pay the bill though.

8. For five years between 1992 and 1997 I ran my own sports consulting business based in Plymouth where I was snooker writer for the Western Morning News, an odds compiler for Stan James Bookmakers, and later in time, albeit briefly, a darts tipster for the Sporting Life and a magazine called Odds On Monthly.

9. Harry Findlay, who currently jointly owns the Cheltenham Gold Cup winning horse Denman, once praised me in his collumn in the Racing Post in 1997 for keeping him up to date with all the stats and information at the BDO World Darts Championship whilst he was at home in bed with flu.

10. I was successful at first attempt at becoming a Conservative member of Colney Heath Parish Council in Hertfordshire from 2002 to 2003.

11. Dover PPC Charles Elphicke once bought me an ice cream for campaigning with him when he was Conservative PPC in St Albans in 2001.

12. I studied politics at the University of Lincoln in 2003 after completing an Access Course at Oaklands Independent College in St Albans.

13. I was once hit on the head with a load of leaflets by a rather fired up ex Labour councillor during the 2005 General Election Campaign - it was quite a "Grim" experience!

14. I nearly caused a riot during a debate at the University of Lincoln by calling Gillian Merron "the tea lady in the whips office!"

15. I have so far lived in fourteen towns and cities namely Blackpool, Crawley, Guildford, Lincoln, London, Nottingham, Oxford, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Reading, Skegness, St Albans, Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City.

16. I have written over 1,000 letters to the media attacking Labour since 2001 in all sorts of local papers in the towns and cities where I have lived.

17. I once minded Ronnie O'Sullivan at a Darts Tournament.

18. I had the enormous privilege of attending John Higgins' private party after he won his first ranking snooker title.

19. I love RnB Music, Rhianna, and All Saints.

20. A Labour councillor from Skegness last year reported me to police for putting a photo of his car on this blog when he illegally parked it in a disabled bay.

21. Lincoln Conservatives kindly awarded me the President's Cup in 2005 and the Chairman's Cup in 2007 for services to letter-writing.

22. I once wrote a true story about the St. Giles estate in Lincoln and have been castigated for it ever since.

23. I once got barred from Vote 2007 for telling a few home truths about a Lib Dem MP called Mike Hancock.

24. I am proud to have played my part in bringing down New Labour but as you can tell I tend to get carried away with my blogging every now and again.

25. I currently live in the Milton area of Hampshire and run my own distribution business in Southsea.

GOD BLESS YOU ALL.