Tagged twice - I've arrived!

I got tagged for a meme - the same meme - by the virtual-celebrity of Scottish blogging, Misssy M AND the lovely Weight by the Seashore from my spiritual homeland of Nova Scotia. Wow. I'm such an international blog tart these days. Dooce will be inviting me over for coffee any day now, just you watch. The meme is one of those nice vague "Six things about you"ones. The first item in Misssy's version jogged my memory for my first one which is.....

1. We sometimes used to bump into Idi Amin in Safeway. My dad worked in Saudi Arabia when I was younger and we sometimes went out to stay with him for a while. He lived in Jeddah and the local supermarket was a Safeway. It was right opposite the Sands Hotel which is where Idi holed up after the good people of Uganda (and most of the rest of the world) decided he wasn't their cup of tea. I can authoritatively report that he didn't push his own trolley.

2. I have a small brown mark on the sole of my left foot. It marks the spot where I jumped barefoot into a sandpit as a child and landed on a rusty nail sticking out of a piece of wood which someone had hidden in the sand. Serves me right for trusting a sandpit in West Lothian, frankly. The nail went through my foot, a story which I delight in telling my children because it makes them nearly throw up.

3. That same Safeway from number 1 up there used to stock packs of stuffed lambs' testicles in the freezer section. They came in little miniature egg-box type cartons. We never bought them, but I kind of wish we had.

4. I used to love the taste of cold coffee as a child. Not frappucino or iced coffee. Cold coffee. Specifically the dregs of any coffee my parents left behind to go cold. The very thought of that now makes me queasy.

5. My brother once pushed me into a pile of wet cement. It was at primary school and workmen were mixing cement for the foundations of the ubiquitous huts being built as extra classrooms and all of us nosey kids were watching. He came up behind me and just shoved. I was very upset at the time but now with the benefit of 30 years or so, I can see that it must have been funny. I doubt I would have been able to resist had he been the one in front of me. I did have to chip dried cement off the face of my watch though.

6. I cannot stomach porridge made the proper Scottish way, ie with water and salt. If I have it (and I often do) I have to make it with milk and brown sugar. And a touch of cinnamon. That sound you can hear is my granny spinning in her grave.

I would tag more people but I am very predictable and always tag the same suspects and am scared of tagging anyone else because they will think I am impertinent and presumptious for daring to impose on them. At least, they do in my head. So I'll just say, if you fancy a meme, go for it.