I'd like to get to know you (well)

I meet with a small group of friends around once a week to catch up, talk about deep stuff and possibly read some Bibles and so forth. For our last get together before the Christmas holidays, my dear friend Rubies decided that we should find out how well we knew each other.

It worked like this. Each of us wrote down three short statements about ourselves. The only requirement was that they had to be true. Rubies prepared a question sheet for each of us which had the names of the 11 participants across the top, followed by 33 statements. We then had to match three statements to each name. Each correct match scored a point and the person with the highest score won cash and/or prizes.

So it looked something like this:

Participants: Pacey, Rubies, Doc, Petrolhead, DangerMouse, Betty, Hunter, INC, Widget, Duke & Wigs*

There followed a list of 33 different statements, which included:

I played the tambourine on the stage at the Sydney Opera House

I nearly blew up the backyard when I was young

My youngest sister has five stitches above her right eye where I hit her on the backswing with a cricket bat

My first date with my spouse involved floating down a river in a rubber innertube

I helped run a youth group named “Only After Dark”

My first car’s name was Luke

When I was in the under 16c cricket team at school, I had a bowling average of 4.

I featured in a fly fishing magazine article (photo and all)

I once spent an entire week at a Bible College. It was a Baptist college so they played drinking games with water. Two guys drank so much water that they threw up

I love Glen Murcutt’s architecture

I chose my dog primarily because my boyfriend said he ‘didn’t like that one’.

When my flatmate visited Tasmania, I insisted that she must send me a postcard from the town of Baghdad. She ended up driving about 50km out of her way and her friends got cross with me.

etc etc etc





I scored 12 out of 33, which include the three that were about me, so when it came to guessing other people's I actually got 9 out of 30. I've known most of these people for two years or more so it's a bit embarassing.

It should be emphasised here that most people in the group did worse than that. Also, the absolute highlight of the evening was when DangerMouse turned to the young lady next to him and said "Well, I guess you're the one I know least about, Heather", and got the reply "My name is Betty."

Regular readers have probably already guessed that the one about getting a postcard from Baghdad was one of mine. Two of the others are mine too, but I'll leave you to guess which ones.

Which brings me to the most surprising discovery from this exercise. Rubies, who compiled the quiz, told me afterwards that she had nearly decided to edit the "Baghdad" one because she thought everyone would guess it was me instantly. But not because it involved a stupid postcard. No, it was because, apparently, I am the only person in the group who would use the word 'cross'.

Who on earth would notice something like that? I hadn't noticed and apparently I'm the one who says it all the time.

So, in the spirit of pointless curiosity and also coming as close as I will ever come to starting a meme, here's an opportunity to see how well we all know each other. If you'd like to join in, email me three statements about yourself (preferably not things that you have blogged about recently) and the address of your blog. If at least five people actually do this, I'll throw in another three from me and I'll post a list of the participants and their statements. You can either guess in the comments section or, if you want to know your score, email your answers to me.

There will be a small prize in the form of getting your name mentioned on this blog for the person with the highest score.

Feel free to take your time sending in entries. One of my nieces is arriving tomorrow and she's staying for a week. Another niece arrives the day the first one leaves and she'll be here for another week, so if I get a chance to post anything, or even check this blog, in the next two weeks I'll be mildly surprised.

Have a fabulous fortnight, folks.

* Yes, I spent hours trying to come up with nicknames for everyone. Which may be a waste of time since I'm pretty sure none of these people read this blog