Blogging Meme #2

This is my second blogging meme I was tagged in and I'm finally getting around to doing it.

My turn – I’ve been tagged into this blogging meme by A Keen Reader (@AKeenReader  – blog post here), and there is a Google+ page where it is all linked so click here to get to it, and so here I go…

The blogging task includes:

• Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
• Share 11 random facts about yourself.
• Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
• List 11 bloggers.
• Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer, and let all the bloggers know they have been nominated. Don’t nominate a blogger who has nominated you.

11 Random Facts:

1. I love reading books by Wilbur Smith and by Danielle Steel - polar opposites as far as genre go... but I like it like that.
2. I am an underwater waterskier - that means I rarely get on top of the water when skiing... I'm dragged behind the boat, under the water.
3. I do not have a head for heights.  Despite being on top of the abseiling tower at Totara Springs more times than I can count, I have not and will not ever abseil.
4. When I eat a Mellow Puff, or similar biscuit or chocolate bar, I eat all the chocolate off first before eating anything else.
5. I am that annoying person at the movies saying "As if!" and "Actually, he should be dead by now!"
6. I am a tail gating, impatient, road raging driver.... but if someone is up my butt, get lost buddy!!
7. My favourite movies are:  Bill and Ted's Most Excellent Adventure, The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Grease, Shawshank Dedemption, Under the Tuscan Sun and all Jason Bourne movies.
8. I have watched the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth more times than I can count.
9. I Google the plot of every movie as I am watching it so I have few surprises and can spot the differences between the movie and the Wikipedia description.
10. I am obsessed with quiz nights and will hog the mike at karaoke.
11. I was bitten my an Alsatian as a child and I still don't like them.  They are beautiful dogs, but I don't like them.

11 Questions A Keen Reader asked me to conquer:

1. Who has been a colleague (past or present) that you have regarded as a mentor?  Bob Marlow, the third principal I had, who saw I had a passion to teach, and that despite when I have been at my dumbest, has still had faith in me and who still gives me great advice more than eight years after I fled the nest.
2. What is your favourite NZ native bird, and why?  The mohua (yellowhead).  I've never seen one in real life, because they live in the lower South Island, but they are really endangered and seem like really amazing birds from what I've read about them (and there's not a lot on the net about them).  In 2010 I was doing my NZ endangered bird unit with a class, and one of the kids and I emailed someone who knows about mohua.  He sent us a letter and a $100 note (which the mohua is on) to buy some bird books for the class!  How cool is that?
3. What was your favourite book as a child?  Dog House For Sale - I got it from the Lucky Book Club.  I read it so much.  Now I take it to class with me and my classes love it too.
4. Worst job ever!  What was it?  It wasn't the whole job, just part of it.  At University I worked part-time as a day care centre reliever.  The job wasn't that bad except changing poohy nappies and undies and supervising the sleep room, which made me sleepy.  I also worked as a market researcher for a radio company... dead boring.... three cups of coffee every night... I was a mess!!
5. What’s the icebreaker question or activity you use to get to know someone?  I play that game in the class with the kids in a circle and you have to say your favourite food or the like, and as you go around each child repeats all the one's before them and then adds their own.  Of course you can do it with lots of topics.
6. Best person to follow on Twitter for one of your passions?  @boonman - he is funny and insightful.
7. What is your least favourite household chore?  I hate housework full stop - but I'm really not into cleaning the shower.
8. What’s one lesson/activity/unit that you really look forward to teaching?  I love teaching my NZ endangered bird unit.  It's science, social studies, English, art, music......
9. Fly first class to your overseas destination and have a little less spending money, or fly ‘cattle class’ and have a little more in your pocket?  Probably 'cattle class' so I can have more money to play with. 
10. What’s a web tool or app that you’ve come across recently that you’d heartily recommend to others?  Pinterest - I've actually been signed up since November 2012 at Educamp The Tron... but it has only really been in the last few months that I have really gotten into it.  I'm pinning stuff left, right and centre now!!
11. If you hosted a dress-up party, what theme would you choose, and why?   Rockstar/Popstar because then the karaoke would be even more fun.  I did tell you I hog the mike aye.

And now I shall choose 11 really lucky blogsters:
@NStevenson  @mrkempnz  @LinaLepou  @missmatich                        @HeatherGreaves3  @Tim_de_Vries    @nzleeangela   @Kar3nlj   @TeachingJuniors    @SimonAshby2   @nommopilot        

And here are your questions:

1. The movie that will always bring a tear to your eye is... and why"
2. The advert you hate most on tv is.... and why you hate it?
3. You have the opportunity to make what ever dishes you could possibly want to for a special dinner party.  What dishes would you make?
4. Who are the three people at this dinner party apart from you, and why?
5. The musician/band/group who you would most like to come to a venue near you and why you want to see them?
6. Which side of the bed do you sleep on?
7. Your most memorable family pet was..... because....?
8. Someone makes you breakfast in bed.  What would you most like it to be?
9. The worst present you ever received was....?
10. Which place in the world that you have never been to would you most like to go to?
11. The best beach in New Zealand is....?

Thanks for playing.  I hope I have not done any double ups!!