1. My parents bestowed upon me the unfortunate middle names "Bieke" and "Francoise". After moving to the UK I managed to drop the latter. My friends have since nicknamed me
"Beaker"2. One of my earliest memories is of trying to keep up with my dad as he is walking along a hospital corridor. He is carrying a white teddybear twice my size. I couldn't keep up. This was the day my brother was born. Cue an age-long struggle for affection with the sibling.
3. At the age of 4, my cousin told me that 100 people died each year by choking on salami-rinds. It took my parents 5 years to convince me otherwise.
4. I got my first Vinyl LP when I was six: Madonna's "True Blue". Shortly after, that same cousin goaded me into wearing mini-skirts, jean jackets, fluorescent bracelets and chewing gum with my mouth open. I strapped my Playskool Recorder to my bikerack and put Madonna on max volume. I got grounded for the first time shortly after.
5. When I was 8, I founded a WWF-club in an attempt to save the world. There were 5 members until I forced them into picking up garbage off the streets with me. After this, it became a club of just the one.
6. My mum took me to court with her one day (no panick, she's a lawyer). She walked up to the front of the room in her black toga, uttered one mere sentence, and won the case. I instantly became compelled to obey her a little more.
7. As a kid, I owened three library cards which allowed me to take out 15 books at once, which I often did. By the age of 11 I had read every book in our local library. Nowadays, I have a compulsive need to own every book I read, mark it with pencil, fluorescent markers and dog-ears until they are well and truly mine.
8. I spent a summer at the European Space Agency's Space Camp for teenagers. They made us wear pink T-shirts with the ESA emblem embroidered on it and fed us dried food. I ranked best commanding pilot in the shuttle-flight-simulations, miserably failed any balance-orientation tests and got awarded a diploma by Astronaut Dirk Frimout. It was the summum of geek-life.
9. I got kicked in the stomach at Disney World Florida by a boy that wanted to use the slide I was on. My brother rushed to my defense and knocked out the kid's front teeth. Our parents managed to narrowly escape a lawsuit. I've liked my little brother a whole lot more since that incident.
10. My auntie gave me a pet rabbit when I was 4. For some reason, my four-year old little brain felt it appropriate to call him Ian. When Ian reached old rabbit age, my mum persuaded me to move him to my Uncle's house, where he could share a stable with other bunnies and horses. Two days later, he got eaten by a cat.
11. Most kids bond with their dad over sports. We bonded over Star Trek.
12. I spent four days rafting down the Colorado River with a riverguide called Red who mooned every cargo train that passed us on the Moony River trainline. That same summer, I went along on a three-day horseback riding trip with a bunch of wranglers in the Rockies. They fed me bear and fish-eyes.
13. I failed to get my driver's license the first time round, as I couragously attempted to drive up a one-way street in the wrong direction.
14. Upon my first day at the University of Lisbon, I foolishly attempted to show off what little knowledge I had of Portuguese, by replying to an enquiring "how are you" with what I understood to mean "I'm tired". Instead, I managed to bring out the portuguese equivalent for "I'm stoned". It took me a while to make friends.
15. Although I am now 27, I still sleep with three cuddlies. Harvey the rabbit, Ox the
Ugly Doll, and a very grumpy fibear. I am not proud of this, but it does make me sleep better.
16. I have the attentionspan of a gnat.
17. When my professors at uni warned us they'd rather have us stay in bed than bored in class, I took em up on it. I spend a meager 20 hours in class during my entire first year. I failed 6 out of 11 classes, but I learned to play poker really well.
18. I have a secret desire to own a star-trek suit.
19. My dad gave my first Mac Desktop when I was 10. I was forced to defect to a Windows PC at uni through no cause of my own, but he's never forgiven me for it.
20. Whilst I am a Belgian native, I left the country when I was 20. I spent the last 7 years abroad. I moved house 9 times, lived in 8 different cities in three different countries, had two long term relationships, completed a Bsc, Msc and a PhD and while I distinctly set out to develop my wings, I seem to have found more roots wherever I touched down.
