There Is A Scalp Under The Hat

One: My Hips Are Suspiciously Flexible

For reasons nobody's ever explained to me, my inner hips are enormously flexible, and always have been. They're also the only part of my body that's stayed that way.

Everything else demands constant maintenance to keep from seizing up.

Everyone's got something odd about them. This one's mine.

Two: There Is, In Fact, A Scalp Under The Hat

If we ever meet in person, you'll notice I always wear a hat. Always. I've been doing it since I was about thirteen, which makes a decade of hat-wearing. Perhaps I should mark the anniversary.

The current one is a black fedora with badges on the side, plus a couple of feathers whenever I find them on the ground, because I think they look brilliant. I used to favor trilbies (the more fashion-conscious choice) but I wanted a wider brim. Pale skin, harsh sun, obvious maths.

People compliment it more often than you'd expect, and I appreciate every one.

If you're not interested in fashion but still want to feel like you're wearing something interesting, an interesting hat is the shortest path there. Bonus points if it keeps the sun off your face.

Three: I'm Not Vegetarian, But I Eat Like One

Day to day, I generally prefer food without meat in it.

Enough exposure to enough things taught me vegetables are extraordinary: ridiculously delicious, cookable in infinite ways, and not substitutable by anything else.

Which is why it's disheartening to open a menu and find no vegetarian options. Or find them, and discover they're boring. Or just potato.

You can't blame people for the outdated notion that nothing interesting happens without meat, because so much of what's put in front of them proves the point. Everything we do to shift that is a step forward: for people's health, for other animals, and for a lighter existence on this earth.

I keep meaning to build a resource page for this.

Something for the people who don't believe me that vegetables are interesting, and the ones who are intrigued but have no idea where to start. Knowledge being power, and all that.

Intrigued? Start with these, as recommended by Eri: Nisha, Kat, Phoebe and Dora.

Four: I Don't Like Chocolate

I don't know why. It never appealed.

At school this was treated as a kind of personal betrayal. As an adult I rarely mention it, because adults have the good grace not to care.

If anything, it's fewer decisions to make. Such a terrible problem to have!

Five: I'll Make A (Mostly) Tasty Dinner No Matter The Pantry

I didn't learn to cook from recipes, I learned by example, which in many cases, meant examining the fridge and pantry, and figuring out what to make from there.

Flexibility and creativity are skills you can learn by the urge to feed yourself!

Six: I Like (Perhaps Far Too) Strong Flavors

Blue cheese? Dijon mustard? Pesto? Vegemite? Yes please! And cue that absolute shock horror and disgust from perhaps every living person on earth…all four on bread? Sure! Why not?

Seven: Liking Harry Styles And Mumford Sons Aren't Mutually Exclusive

In a desperate attempt to seem cool at school, I professed hatred for those 'dreadful' pop singers and went with what I thought were more acceptable: 'serious' folk or blues musicians.

It's only taken a decade and a half to realize I can like Harry Styles, Mumford & Sons, Coldplay, and still be a functioning human. A perhaps cringe-worthy one, but oh well! Who cares!

Eight: I Volunteer So I Never Take Things For Granted

I'll never forget the work that goes into an amateur theater production, a local food subscription service, home library delivery, or a Worldschooling conference. Why?

Because I've helped, even in the smallest ways, to make them happen. I don't want to become complacent, because then it's easy to slide into entitlement.

Nine: I'm Terrified Of Losing My Accent

I really, really don't want to stop sounding Australian. Nor do I want to stop using Australian vocabulary. Ironic, given I use American spelling, but the more diversity in language, the better!

And it's a ridiculous fear. No one in Australia's ever asked if I'm from another country. Of everyone who's guessed where I'm from when I'm overseas, only three people have been incorrect: one person said American, one said Mexican, and one, for some reason, said Scottish.

Ten: It Doesn't Take Much To Make Me Happy

In a song, Sports Car, from one of my favorite albums, Maybe, by the Canadian indie-pop band, Valley, Kara, the drummer, goes: 'well it doesn't take much to make you happy.'

As deep in the doldrums as I can sometimes get, show me something as simple as an interesting cloud, or beetle scuttling along, then I'm all smiles.