One Year Anniversary!

Can you believe that it has now been a whole year since I switched hosts? It has honestly been the best thing I could’ve done for my blog aside from really focusing on an update/promo schedule from June. After existing on Tumblr for about 5 years prior to the change and receiving no interaction over there, moving has made it so much easier for people to leave comments and to take part. Thank you all for the continued support and for contributing to the growth of my blog.

For a while now I have been scouring the internet for fun tags to do to celebrate this anniversary and to my delight I recently discovered the “Get to Know Me” tag over on Lindsay’s blog. You can find her original post here. What better way to celebrate a full year of "properly" blogging than to let you all get to know me a bit better?
This also happens to be a double celebration as I am pleased to report that, in time for this one year anniversary, we have reached over 20,000 views since the end of June last year! I am over the moon that this has reached so many of you. If you would like to subscribe to this blog, there is an email subscription box to the right of this post or if you would like to follow my social media accounts then they will be linked at the bottom of this post.

There are 100 questions in total but I’m going to split it up into 2 posts (one on Monday) so go get a drink and/or snack, get comfortable and I’ll see you back here in a sec!

Settled? Let’s get started!

1) Are you a morning or night person? I used to be a night person up until about a year and a half ago as I was unable to sleep at night due to my anxiety, and my depression made it so that I was sleeping until 2pm at the earliest. These days, if I have somewhere to be (appointments, town etc) I prefer to be up for about half 7 to catch the quietest bus and to be home before 11 (permitting) but I wouldn’t say that I’m a morning person either as, on minimal sleep (if any), I get into some really bad moods.

2) Are you afraid of the dark? I used to be as a kid but not in the traditional sense of “there’s a monster under my bed/in my cupboard”. I just didn’t feel comfortable in the dark and felt really panicky. As I got older I found that I could lay in the dark but still couldn’t sleep properly unless I let some light in at the side of my curtain next to my bed. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I discovered that I was feeling so bad in the dark due to it triggering panic attacks and severe anxiety – a condition that I didn’t even realise that I had until I was diagnosed with it.

3) Are you an extrovert or introvert? I am an introvert.

4) Are you double jointed? I am! I have double jointed fingers and if I’m not careful they tend to stick and stay that way!

5) Are you left or right handed? I am right handed.

6) Are you more of a tidy person or messy one? I am a tidy person. I can’t stand mess! It just unsettles me so much. When I used to stay at friend’s houses I had a reputation for asking if I could tidy up or at least make their bed (if they hadn’t) as it made me feel unsafe and stressed out. I have since been told by mental health professionals that I have anxiety based around cleanliness and safety (as part of having GAD – generalised anxiety disorder) and that this need to clean and do checks in order to feel safe is part of the OCD traits that come with it.

7) Are you on time or always late? I am perpetually early! Aside from it being rude to keep others waiting, it is a massive feature of my anxiety. I just can’t be late otherwise I feel really ill.

8) Are you ticklish? I am. In general I hate people touching me too and I have really quick "fight" (out of "fight or flight") skills so if you ever tried to tickle me you'd probably find yourself (accidentally) being hit/knocked out. 

9) Can you curl your tongue? I can! I can turn it onto both sides as well so that it’s vertical rather than horizontal!

10) Can you ice skate? Nah. I’ve never even been to an ice rink.

11) Can you wiggle your ears? Nope.

12) Coffee or tea? I miss coffee so much but even when I drank it I still preferred tea. I have to be careful of my caffeine intake as it messes with my adrenaline which in turn makes my anxiety worse so these days I have caffeine-free fruit/herbal teas.

13) Cookies, cake or donuts? I’ve taken a bit of a shine to donuts recently. I sometimes treat myself to a bag (to have over a few days) every so many months.

14) Did you ever participate in a talent show? Never anything labelled as a “talent show” but I used to perform with NYCoS (National Youth Choir of Scotland) from the time they recruited me until I left and I was in at least one school play a year.

15) Did you go to prom? I did and I actually regret going. If you want to know why, feel free to ask for a post about my prom experience.

16) Did you like school? Hahahahahahahahahahaha. No.

17) Do you believe in ghosts? I’m not actually sure. I’ve never been in a situation that couldn’t be explained logically (something falling off a shelf, feeling cold) but after one of my grandads died when I was eight I used to feel like something was stroking my leg in a comforting way when I was in bed. It only ever happened at night and I’m not sure if I did actually feel something or if it was my imagination running wild as a kid.

18) Do you bite your nails? Yes, and it’s been a tough habit to try to break. When I was in school/college/work/volunteering I would bite them all the time. It was another sign that I was agitated and anxious. These days it does still serve as an indicator that I am feeling wound up but, as a result of growing out of wanting to do it and minimising stressful situations, I do it a whole lot less now.

19) Do you consider yourself a good cook? Nah. I can cook if I need/have to but I don’t go out of my way to actively learn how to make certain meals or to improve. I like simple, basic meals and cooking doesn’t interest me.

20) Do you enjoy dancing? I do but only on my own (*starts singing “On My Own” from Les Mis*) in the dark with the curtains drawn. A friend’s aunt once told me that I was a “pretty sexy mover” once so…

21) Do you enjoy DIY or crafts? I love arts and crafts and I do enjoy DIY. Aside from two pieces of furniture I have built up the rest that’s in my room by myself.

22) Do you forgive easily? Not so much as forgive but forget. My memory is so bad that even if someone has done something really horrible to me my brain just doesn’t absorb it (it’s my way of protecting myself from said hurt) and I can go on as if nothing ever happened. I’ll still remember that they did something bad but it doesn’t affect me as my brain just blocks out the pain.

23) Do you have a nickname? I do but that’s too personal for this blog (aka; anyone who knows me will know that this is my blog if I reveal it). For the record; I hate all shortened versions of my name.

24) Do you have any allergies? Yep. I am allergic to penicillin, melon (all kinds) and to loads of animals.

25) Do you have any phobias? I have an intense fear of needles and anything to do with hospitals. Even just being outside of one makes me feel faint and wobbly.

26) Do you have any piercings or tattoos? I have four piercings – two in each lobe.

27) Do you have children? I don’t but I really want to have as many as I can handle. I can’t actually physically have children and have known from a young age that I want to adopt. People will say I’m crazy but I want 5 children – minimum!

28) Do you have any pets? Not right now. I’m open to having a dog in the future, though.  I miss the one we had when I was growing up.  We also had budgies (I’m terrified of birds so…), a rabbit, a kitten at one point and many goldfish.

29) Do you have siblings? I do. I have one younger brother.

30) Do you prefer dogs or cats? I prefer dogs.

31) Do you prefer MAC or PC? I’ve only ever had PCs/laptops – always Windows-based devices.

32) Do you prefer the beach or mountains? Out of those two? I would chose the beach but I would rather be in a field somewhere near a river or lake.

33) Do you prefer the bath or the shower? I miss having a bath so much! When we re-did our bathroom we only had a shower unit installed and whilst it’s great for quickness sometimes you just want to lay back and relax.

34) Do you sing in the shower? I sure do!

35) Do you smoke? Nope. I’m the only person in my immediate family who has never smoked at some point in their life and I don’t ever intend to start.

36) Do you speak any different languages? I know a lot of French and Spanish (I sing in these languages too) and I also sing in Portuguese as well as a bit of Italian.

37) Do you still have your wisdom teeth? I do and they are the bane of my life. They’re mostly impacted so I won’t need them removed but my bottom right one has been trying to break through for about 2 years now and I have a hole in my gum above it so I’ll probably need that removed soon.

38) Do you still watch cartoons? Nah.  I don’t even watch animated movies unless I happen to be entertaining a child.

39) Do you/have you played any sports? I don’t play sports and I hated P.E at school due to bullies but I was rather good at games that required a bat or racket.

40) Does your name have a special meaning? Like a lot of women in the last 30-ish years, I was named “Kayleigh” after the song by Marillion. My middle name is after one of my great grandmothers.

41) Have you ever been hospitalised? As a child I was for some sort of bladder infection, I believe. Other than that I tend to stay away from them as even just standing outside of one makes my legs wobbly. I went in when I when I was about 12 for mouth surgery and actually forced myself to eat something about half an hour after I had woken up so that I could go home as soon as possible. I woke up just after 7 and was home by about 8.

42) Have you ever been on a diet?

As a teen; constantly. I’ve always been overweight due to medical issues stemming from when I was about 2. I’ve always been self-conscious of eating in front of people so I would go home for lunch even though walking home and back to school cost me 2/3 of my lunch break. When we moved campuses I would eat in one of my classrooms with my friends so that I didn’t get bullied for eating. These days I view my eating habits as a lifestyle change and have completely over-hauled what I eat. In doing so I’ve lost over 5 stone (70+ pounds).

43) Have you ever been to a concert? I have been to several. On tour I’ve seen Westlife 4 times, McFly twice, One Direction twice, Little Mix once, 5SOS once (as a support act) and the Drifters once. I went to the last Live & Loud (05/06) where I saw McFly again and acts like Lemar, the Faders, Mel C etc.

44) Have you ever gone camping? Never. It just doesn’t appeal to me.

45) Have you ever met any celebrities? I’ve met a few. To name a few; I met Westlife in 2011 and Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid from Harry Potter).

46) Have you ever skipped class? Yes but not to be rebellious or because I didn’t feel like going. I would call the school at lunch times and tell them I wasn’t going back due to the relentless bullying I was suffering and a lot of the time I felt too ill to attend due to my anxiety over said bullying.

47) Have you ever won something? I won tickets to see One Direction and Little Mix at the Apple Music Festival in 2015.

48) Have you ever had braces? Yes and now because of my wisdom teeth, it looks like I never did.

49) How are you feeling right now? If you’re a regular reader of my tweets then you can probably answer this for yourself. I’m tired and actually feel rather low.

50) How tall are you? I am 5ft 1 (no relation to how low I feel).

Tune in on Monday to see part 2 of this "Get to Know Me" special. Again, you can find the original post here.

Feel free to leave your own answers in the comment below or send them to me via Twitter!

Anxiously,
Me

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