Weird and Random Facts - Part One

Over a week ago, I put my cyber-hand up to take on a meme over at my fellow Kiwi expat Badaunt's blog. Ever since, I've been stalling on it, because it turns out it's much harder than I bargained on and several other posts and life in meatspace have got in the way.

The idea is to list five weird and random facts about yourself and then pass the meme on to five people. It's late though, and I'm knackered and have an early start in the morning. However, I'm determined to make a start, in the (possibly vain) hope that once it's up and running, the rest will come easily. So tonight I'll give just one weird and random fact about myself, with a view to completing the task tomorrow.

Here's the (beginning of the) meme:

Rules of the game: Post 5 Weird and Random Facts about yourself, then at the end list the names of 5 people who are next in line to do this.

1. I may regret admitting to this, but it certainly qualifies as weird and random: I have hairs which grow on one shoulder and not the other.

Let me explain. I'm a reasonably hariy guy. Not desperately so. Not needs-to-shave-three-times-a-day type hairy, or could-be-mistaken-for-a-bear hairy, but put it this way, I've don't have any trouble growing a full beard if and when desired. The hair on my (left) shoulder is not thick. In fact it's pretty sparse. It's really just a few random stragglers. At most about 10 - 15, right on the top of my shoulder. But there are none whatsoever in the same place on my right shoulder.

I think I know why. I used to play Australian Rules football. It's a rough and physical game and shoulder injuries are pretty common. I was not spared, and dislocated my (right) shoulder whilst playing on several occasions. As a result, I took to strapping up my shoulder pretty heavily before games. As any reasonably hairy man who's ever had to strap anything will tell you, it pays to shave the parts you're strapping beforehand. If you don't, when you take the tape off after the game it tears the hair underneath out by the roots. And that is not the most comfortable feeling in the world (as any woman who has taken to waxing can attest).

The point is, when I used to strap my shoulder, I kept the hair under my right arm and at the top right of my chest shaved for exactly that reason. By I never once shaved the hair on top of my right shoulder. My theory is this: there used to be a similar number of straggler hairs on top of my right shoulder, just like on the left one. But the poor little blighters, without the protection of prophylactic shaving, got torn out by the roots so often as I was ripping off the strapping after a game that they eventually gave up trying and never returned. I've not strapped my shoulder for some years now (at least six) and there is still no sign of them. Evidently, they got the message and they got it good.

I am considering taking up strapping my left shoulder. Just to balance things out.

The rest tomorrow, all being well.

memes