I have been tagged for a meme by my friend Rebecca the mother of Amy’s long distance boyfriend, Jackson. A meme (pronounced /miːm/) is described by Wiki as any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Memes propagate themselves and can move through a “culture” in a manner similar to the behavior of a virus.

Thanks for giving me a virus Rebecca! Just kidding… I decided to use the opportunity to do something I have been meaning to get around to forever so I made a lightbox out of an old packing box, some masking tape and some white tissue paper. (I blatantly nicked this idea from the ever-brilliant Leah.) I set up a couple of lights and stuck my camera on a tripod and then shot some photos. The results were, hmm, ok. Not great, but then I did shoot the pics in a hurry and my lights are not great so this is definitely something I will play around with some more. Still, its fun to have an excuse to do something!

The premise of this particular virus, I mean meme, is to take 5 photographs of things you see around your house and then describe what they say about you.

1. This pic shows two things really, firstly, photos and secondly, family history. Both are things which I love passionately. These wedding photos of my parents and Ron and myself echo each other in a way that makes me happy deep inside. The photo of us was taken by a dear friend Myfanwy, it was unposed and spontaneous and is one of my very favourite from our wedding day. I love that it mirrors my parents photo taken 30 years before. I guess what this photo taken of photos says about me is that I treasure the past and place a lot of emotion around photos that mean something to me.
2. My passports. These were out on the kitchen table along with Amy’s Australian and British and Ron’s Australian passport. I needed them for some admin this week and haven’t put them back into their safe box yet. What does this photo say about me? That I am duplicitous by my dual citizenship, privileged by my birth and always excited by the opportunity to travel.
3. A collection of old pieces of silverware that were given to me by my grandmother. I adore family history such as this and treasure these items. Granny had a whole trunk of the family silver in the flat in Cardiff and was amazed that I was interested in it. She thought that a young person like me wouldn’t want to be burdened with bits of the past. On the contrary, I love tangible pieces of history. What does this photo say? That I collect things that have relevance to me.

4. A bottle of Meerlust Rubicon that Ron and I bought in 2005 in Stellenbosch, South Africa. There is a long story to this bottle of wine. I was given a bottle of Meerlust for my 21st birthday party by a group of guys in a band called Meldt. It was a 1984 bottle of Cab Merlot and I carried it around the world with me waiting for the right time to open it. By the time I finally faced up to the fact that there would never be a perfect time, it was almost too late. I uncorked the bottle on Christmas day 2004 in our flat in Balham in London. I took a tiny sip before decanting it to breathe and it tasted terrible. I was convinced it was corked. I almost wept. But we set it aside to breathe and when Ron and I sat down to our christmas dinner for two consisting of organic beef rib with all the trimmings, the wine was perfect. I have never drunk a bottle quite like it and sadly, probably won’t ever again. When Ron I went to Stellenbosch on holiday a few months later and happened past the Meerlust vineyard, we stopped in for a look and ended up spending a lot of money on another bottle to lay down for a special occasion in the future. The same man who sold us this bottle of rubicon also told us that we were very close to drinking vinegar with my 20 year old bottle. It was best drunk between 17 and 20 years after bottling! What does this photo say about me? That I love tradition and ritual and long to create these in my life.

5. To finish on a light note, a collection of Amy’s nummy’s (as she calls them). I ran out of energy, inspiration and light so grabbed the nearest things and took a quick pic. What does this photo say about me? That I am a mother and one who is humbled by how motherhood has changed me. This may be a (bad) photo of some dummys but its also evidence that motherhood is the great leveller and how ever high and opinionated we start out, we all end up making compromises we said we never would!

This has been lots of fun and really prompted me to think about something other than doing the dishes, sorting a pile of laundry, or vegging in front of the telly tonight! As for who I should tag, well I don’t really have that many internet friends who would do this kind of thing so I am going to leave it up to the internets. If anyone is inspired, link back to me!