A few days ago I came across a thing that a few people across the Internet are doing called 10 things. Each month you pick 10 things that you want to share.  Any 10 things - it really doesn't matter.  So here are 10 memories from my childhood...

1. Early years humiliation - I remember one day at nursery school, we were painting huge sheets of paper grey to make elephant ears.  My best friend Scott and I took our very wet sheets of painted paper outside to help them dry a little faster when all of a sudden a gust of wind came out of no where and blew the sheet of wet paper up onto me.  The sheet was as big as I was and i was covered from head to toe in grey paint! 

2. Go Karts - My Dad made my brother and I this really cool go kart that you could drive by turning a string that was attached to the front wheels.  We lived at the top of a small hill and on a Sunday afternoon, we were allowed to take the Go Kart out and ride down the hill.  I remember going so fast down that hill and loving it!

3. Milkshakes - Probably about once every two months, my parents would take us to a Rhodehouse on a Saturday night and we were allowed to order something to eat and a milkshake.  My favourite was a plate of chips and a chocolate milkshake.  It felt so grown up being able to place my own order.

4. Holidays - We would have a family holiday once a year. We would wake up at some ridiculously early hour, hitch up the caravan and ride the 10 hours to the coast.  We would then pitch the caravan tent followed by our own little tents.  Every year this ended in arguments, but once we had all had some sleep the rest of the holiday was wonderful.

5. My Mom - Before I left for the states, my dear mom took me shopping with some money that she had been saving up for me.  She bought me my first lot of makeup, some Tommy Hilfiger perfume and a gold necklace.  The perfume is long finished and I still have the makeup that she bought me ( although I definitely don't use it ) but my favourite of these was the necklace - which i still wear nearly every day.

6. My Dad - My Dad and I had a very rocky relationship as a teenager. We are so opposite and yet so similar.  While all these arguments made for very heated moments, today - my Dad and I are best of friends.....well, most of the time. :-)

7. Tigger - My first and only pet.  My cousin gave me Tigger one Boxing Day.  He was a little orange cat that was born without a tail.  While he looked a little odd, he was my favourite.  He used to love having his tummy tickled and would climb under the bed covers with me just to lie on his back so that i could tickle his tummy.  He used to drink water directly from the tap.  He purred like a sewing machine and tried to make friends with our parrot. 

8. Being a good little girl - I was such a good girl at school. I always did my homework, studied very hard for all my tests, never stayed home sick ( OK, that was more down to my mom than me but I'll take it ) and I was made a Prefect.  I NEVER bunked school, except for this one time and even then I felt so guilty that I made my friend come back to school with me.

9. Field Fires - Next to our house we had this massive filed which had a playground in it. Some swings, a see-saw, a fireman's pole, jungle gym and sandpit.  We spent many of our school holiday hours there. The one thing that you could count on each year was that during winter, someone would set fire to the dry field and my family and our neighbours would all be out there trying to put the fires out.  The good thing was that once it was burnt - they couldn't burn it again but sometimes those fires were pretty dangerous.

10. Earning some cash or perhaps it was more like punishment - Our neighbour had a peach tree that used to hang over the wall and our driveway.  Towards the end of summer, that peach tree used to drop all of its ripe peaches and our car would squish them into the driveway.  Some years, my parents would pay us a little pocket money to pick up all those squished, yukky peaches and other years they would use it as a punishment if we had been particularly naughty.  Either way, it was a very mean form of punishment and they never really paid enough as a chore.