A ..so many... facts about me.

1. I was born 50 years ago in the middle of the winter.
2. My mother didn't want children. She abused me physically and psychologically all during my childhood.
3. My twinbrother died during pregnancy.
4. My grandmother found me blue and not breathing the second day after birth.
5. She turned out the most important person in my life.
   She taught me to see love where it was, and not to look for it where it's not to be found.
6. From all 4 seasons I love spring the best.
7. I like dahlia's, lilies of the valley and honeysuckle most. Beside of a blue flower with a stem full of blue bells, roses, orchids and hydrangeas.
8. I'm a clinical psychologist.
9. Studied a lot of other subjects too. Including medical ones.
10. I've never met anyone who could use their studies so much in everyday life. LOL!
11. One of my favorite subjects was autism. I now have one autistic son, one with asperger, one with adhd and their father has autistic traits too.
12. I worked for over 20 years as a grief therapist for parents of deceased children. Always did it for free, so I could be available for my children anytime.
13. Used to be the youngest in a sleigh contest.
14. I've got loads of humor. I'm the one that spices up waiting rooms. And silent parties. Maybe I could have been a stand-up comedian?
15. Learned ice skating at 5, on my fathers feet
16. He also taught me how to swim at an unusual early age.
17. I almost always smile. Not because I want to hide my feelings, but because dealing with people puts my own life to the background. And eh...smiling makes other people smile too. Most of the time.
18. I like to put the first footstep in the snow
19. Love snow on tree branches
20. I used to sing in choirs. Was first soprano and soloist.
21. My father was the director of the first choir I sang in.
22. I wish for peace for everyone. Not only at christmas.
23. My glasses are worn by a giraffe beside my bed at night.
24. I don't like champaign. But I love port, Beerenburger and a good whiskey.
25. I almost never drink it though.
26. I always try so hard to do things without help that I only want help when I'm completely exhausted, and then I'm too tired to ask, or people think I can do everything and think I'm making fun.
27. When I was young people said I cried and sang like Yma Sumac. (It was a compliment). Later someone said I sang like the French Barbara, and at other situations like Kiri Te Kanawa.
28. I have, what they call, absolute hearing. That means that I can easily hear when someone or something is only a slight itsybity tiny bit off tune. It come in handy, but is also annoying at times.
29. I'm learning to play the bagpipes.
30. I already play whistles, flutes etc, guitar, piano and organ, and some african instruments.
31. I'm teaching myself to play violin too. Never thought I would, because my childhood friend played violin very well and made me feel I never would be able to. Turned out later that I started learning when he came back on internet to advertise his teachers skills. LOL!
32. I've been a ballet dancer and have been on tour. I stopped to marry. Got my own ensemble when the children were still little and boosted ballet for adults in my country. Peformed the last when I was 43. Had to stop because of health problems.
33. I was a rather healthy, very skinny young child. I'm now diabetic, asthmatic, and a lot more. And when I say more I also mean there's more of me, and it's not my ego. LOL!
34. I'm allergic to fruit and fresh vegetables. Because of other troubles I have to keep my diet restricted on sugar, fat and protein too... So guess how boring my diet is.
35. I've been a chairman of lots of organisations. Mainly because I love to know a lot about what's discussed, and because I can deal with matters very efficient.
36. Favorite on TV: As The World Turns, Casualty, Holby, Grey's Anatomy and DIY programs. I loved ER, Hill Street Blues.
37. I do the most DIY myself at home. The father of the children has drilled through a wall...twice!!!, thinks you can put a waterpass anywhere on a bowed shelf to hang it straight. He does the silicone lining in the bathroom though.... don't go there!
38. I love presents. It needn't be big ones. I love attaching a history to things, and presents have a history.
39. If you want to give me flowers, give me orchids. They don't make me sneeze.
    Don't give wine. It contains a chemical that causes problems. But I can deal with Port and Whiskey.
40. I don't have a driver's license. Well, we don't have a car.
41. I'm honest. But I don't kill people who are proud of their new dress, for instance, with my own opinion.
42. Do you know that TV program in which they have a house and a psychologist, and every week 3 couples with children come for help with raising the kids? I would love to do that job too.
43. I hate arguments. Only the last years I have learned to speak my mind. But I still almost never do.
44. I believe that all people are equal.
45. I believe that allmost all people should have a second chance. Those who are harmfull to others should live in a more caring environment, so they won't become machines, but are given the opportunity to discover the caring human in themselves.
46. I do believe in freedom of speech, as long as it's not used to harm others.
47. I'm a strong fighter for payment for the work of mothers of children with special needs too. We do the work ourselves, instead of letting others do it while we go out to work and earn money. We save society a lot of money.
48. I was educated to be a journalist at a magazine. I loved it!
49. I've been a columnist and I'm a critic of politics.
50. I'm very loyal to friends. Maybe I don't have enough time to get in contact with them very much, but they are my friends like we have a bond forever.
51. Ladybugs...I love them!
52. I always try to help others, even at my own expense.
53. I would love to make a choreography with a professional balletgroup on Pachelbel.
54. I like to sleep with one or two feet outside the bedwear.
55. My ears are pierced. Nothing else.
56. But I would love to have a bracelet tattoo.
57. Because my time is very limited I always have to make choices about what to do. It seems nothing is ever finished, and I never can please all those involved. I'm trying to learn to feel less guilty about not being able to do certain things and about choosing for me sometimes.
58. I've been to Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg, Austria, Italy and about 10 km through France. LOL! Also went to England, Wales and the south of Scotland.
59. I speak Dutch.. and english, german, french, a little bit of swedish, italian and swahili. I can understand a little bit of written Japanese.
60. I love to exercise dialects...
61. I hate painters stepping in my garden without looking and killing my plants. They did this summer and an hydrangea of 15 years old is gone. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
62. I collect: little houses (like those of Lillyput Lane, but less expensive), giraffes, african items, fountain pens (those who don't work anymore too), ...and jewelry. LOL! I used to collect teapots, but they took too much room, so I stopped. I'm gathering dollhouse things 1:12. I'm longing for one of those beautiful old english houses, but I have a rather decent building set now of a little house. Wow, am I happy!
63. Two of my ancestors were scottish. How come I'm stubborn?
64. I love to see the blackbird that comes in my garden so often, that he looks at me when I'm hanging the laundry outside. He dares to come at a distance of 1 meter. The robin loves to look inside, but doesn't dare to come near to me. The finch loves to sit on the roof of the shed, and look inside my bedroom.
65. I dream of going to Mali. The Malines music really triggers a feeling of home.
66. I don't like it when internet goes down. And it does regularly... It's a good training to keep calm. LOL!
67. Almost always I'm wearing flip flops.
68. I almost never wear make-up, but I do at special occasions.
69. I love Janis Joplin, Melanie, Janis Ian, Joni Mitchell.
70. I always cut my hair myself. My 3 nieces who were national champion hairdressers taught me when I was young. My asthma gets in the way of a visit to the hairdresser and I don't like people fuzzing with my hair.
71. I have red berries in the garden. brambles, strawberries, raspberries and there should be apples on the tree, but I can't find them.
72. When I was 8 I was in a children's home for 6 months. It was huge and I felt lost. We had to drink warm milk with a tough layer on top. Ugh.. bah!
    I liked the trips to the beach nearby. One time I didn't hear them call me and all went back and forgot about me, untill I wasn't at the dinnertable. When they came to fetch me I was still building a castle.
73. I have blue eyes with a layer of dusty grey.
74. I'm very forgiving. I can be angry with someone, but when time goes by I realise the other person is just human. (Well, I hope...LOL!)
75. I've always loved singing. I've sung in a band too. Now I would love to sing jazz and the blues. Well, I do when no-one hears me.
76. I had a crush on Ron Ely.. the tarzan of the series. When I saw him years later, all wrinkled and old, I got the same feeling. That man has a smile that makes me melt.
    I had the same when I saw my first love at the school reunion... If I ever have to redo my life I'll hunt after both of them. LOL!
    (My first love is now one of the richest people of the country. LOL! But I don't know if he's happy.)
77. You can wake me up for seafood. Especially those of my country: herring and muscles.
78. One of my long wished for items: a gardenhouse... just for me. With a bed, place for my musical instruments and a desk for my computer.
79. I used to make dolls. There's still one hanging on the wall in the livingroom.
80. I'm an online blogger for ages.. since march 21 2001, to be precise. I kept a dutch weblog for some time, but I feel better about an english blog. The language fits and resonates with me better, even though I have only a limited vocabulary.
81. I hate the telephone. It feels like people barge in antytime of the day, and it dictates me what to do. When the phone company made a mistake and closed our number instead of another, we left it like that. So when I'm bussy with a child, I'm just bussy with the child, instead of gesturing at the phone and saying sorry and such for not giving my undivided attention.
    
82. But I worked quite some years at the national phone company, when they still used phonebooks instead of the computer. I withnessed the introduction of the computers and worked with them, and then stopped.
83. We have so much laundry I can make piles of black, socks and other dark colours, white delicate, white high temperature, red, yellow and handwash.
84. The attick is an organised mess. Whenever I die, people will find the story of my life. Including my diaries I wrote when I was 12.
85. My mother made me shop for groceries when I was 4. I had to cross a bussy road to get to the shop that was still selling over the counter. I witnessed the start of the first supermarket near our house.
86. I loved to eat cheese. You could wake me for it. Now I don't feel well after eating it, because it disturbs my glucose.
87. I went to the university dentist when I was young. He was great and when he started for himself I went with him, untill he moved out of town. The family dentist was an old man, I left as fast as I could when I started to study. Then we got the best dentist of the world. He was a dear friend to us and a legend here in town. He left for Canada and his follow-up took a fancy in everything in a skirt. Although I was wearing something else and was 5 months pregnant, he tried to become my lover. Ugh... Bah!!
    He wasn't good at his job, and he made me afraid for the dentist. He knew he was doing when he placed the drill somehwere in my mouth and caused such pain that I nearly fainted. He smiled....
    We changed to two ladies, who turned out to be rude and unkind.
    Now we have a new dentist, 5 minutes bycicling from here, and he's very kind, and above all: he's goo--oo--d. Never knew that you could give an analgesic shot without hurting someone. I'm still a bit scared though.
    He loves his job, but I'm not completely glad with him, because he says there's nothing like familiar bad teeth, only bad cleaning.
    Well, my father had bad teeth and bones. And I have always been very carefull with my teeth. Brush every day very consciously, and still I have two molars pulled, and from the others pieces fall off, even when I'm just typing and doing nothing with my mouth.
    [update]. He now accepts that I have bad teeth. And it feels we're a team caring for them. LOL!
88. I don't like it when people think they know things about me better than I do.
89. I always enjoyed seeing the travelling programs of Michael Palin. I would love to meet him and I would love to travel like that. I'm sure you would enjoy my programs! LOL!
90. I've been on TV several times. Most memorable was a program about the impact of the death of a baby on the life of his parents and the people around them. The make up was done so well, that I didn't recognise myself in the mirror and when I went to a friend, he didn't recognise me at the door until he heard my voice. LOL!
91. Do you know I live in The Netherlands? A tiny country in Europe. We speak Dutch, are called The Dutch. Our country is not supposed to be called Holland, because it refers only to the western part of the country.
92. I believe everything in life comes in circles. Whenever a circle closes you can learn the lesson and move ahead. So if you hear me say: "A circle is closed" you know what I mean.
93. I grew up a catholic child. Later I thought that too many people told others they knew what God wants and made the message serve themselves.
    So I decided to give my own spiritual life a chance.
    It has given me a thourough ingrown sense of justice and the trust that the first source of energy, God, doesn't need humans to threaten with punishments for sins. God will deal with me when I die, and he will be nice to me, as I did my best. I did all I could to make this world a little bit better.
94. I'm a strong believer of reincarnation.
95. When we moved into this house, there was an old willow in the garden. It feels like it's a holy willow. I don't want to move because I don't want other people it's just an old willow they should kill to give the garden a new look.
96. Last year the neighbours moved and the house-owner came and had all the trees shopped off to a metre high.
    I never believed before I could get so angry with someone. The owner had already left when the workers started. But I ordered them to stop and get the owner back. We had a harsh talk, but the worst had already happened.
97. I hate growing old. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. Now give me an eye lift, pull up my breasts, and remodel me, and I try to shut up.
98. I'm allergic for cats, etc. I also have a strong internal reaction on people who are manipulating, dishonest, think they are better than others, and propagate things that go against my strong feeling for respect and peace.
99. I'm tired of turning every coin a thousand times. I want to be able to live a normal life. Well, to be honest I want to be rich and travel to all my online friends, go to Tibet and Nepal, want a personal trainer, singing lessons. And want such a life that I can inform people more about spectrumdisorders and start research, start new schools where they can be happy,....
100. I'm a dreamer.