I’m all the way up to the “J’s”… who’d’ve thunk?  I sure as hell didn’t expect that I’d persevere with it but the letter lists are proving fun.  The previous letters are all tagged under ‘list’ over there —->

List of 10 Things I Like That Start With “J”….
1.   Jewellery – custom, unique or unusual items mostly
2.   Jambalaya – good jambalaya is awesome
3.   Jasper Fforde – frivolous fiction for classic literature snobs
4.   Jam drops – only Mandy’s ‘special’ jam drops circa 1990
5.   Juniper berries – without which we would have no tasty gin
6.   Jarlsberg – don’t know why it took me so long to think of this!
7.   Jack Russel Terriers – smart like Eddie from Frasier
8.   Juxtaposition – artsy fartsy twonk words ahoy!
9.   Joe Cocker– Fisherman’s Wharf on the Gold Coast… good times
10. Journal comments – helps alleviate that feeling that you’re a cantankerous old misanthrope who spends your time going ‘blah’ about life’s little injustices all over the internets when actually you’re a certifiable lunatic who spends all your time talking to yourself  🙂

List of 10 Things I Hate or Dislike That Start With “J” List
1.   Jackass – doing their bit to cleanse the gene pool since 1999
2.   Junk – yard sales or $2 shops are not for me….we prefer quality
3.   Jealousy – such a wasted emotion, nothing good can be gained from it
4.   January – It’s always too fucking hot… and too hot for that too
5.   Jellyfish – pure evil… and I suspect smarter than we think
6.   Jacaranda Trees – one month a year they drop purple mush everywhere
7.   Justin Timberlake – other than blonde bimbos, what does he do again?
8.   Junk mail –  ‘Oh I want one and it’s cheap!’ even though I don’t need it
9.   Jay – of “and Silent Bob” fame….that character just grates on me.
10.Jalapenos – prefer not ‘feel the burn’ when dining.   I don’t know what it is but if you go out for curry or Mexican with more than one man at the table there invariably ends up being some sort of dick waving contest to see who can handle their meal the hottest that comes in pigeon pair with inevitable taunts of “wuss” to whomever pikes first.  I don’t get it and am not interested.  Perhaps this is because I like to taste my food rather than feel it or perhaps it’s because I’m comfortable with the size of my equipment  🙂

Bloody hell the “J”s were hard.
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More letter lists…. and I was totally right the “I”s were ridiculously hard.  And I made it harder on myself by not using ‘Icecream’ cos it kinda goes without saying that everyone likes icecream of one variety or another.  Can’t wait for the ‘Oh Oh Ohs”.  True. it’s quite difficult.  See if you can come up with a list of things starting with “I” that you like.

List of 10 Things I Like That Start With “I”….
1.   IVF – it’s a miracle  🙂
2.   Internets  – are for porn… goats, midgets what have you. Rule 34!
3.   Istanbul – one of my favourite European cities such an amazing place
4.   Idioms – the origins of many English idioms are truly bizarre
5.   iPhone – the love affair continues unabated after several months
6.   Insurance – hate the bills but like being covered if shit happens
7.   Isfahan rugs – thanks to Shmael in Quetta who rarely barters with women
8.   Icehouse – actually just the one song ‘Nothing too Serious’
9.   Italian men – Ciao bella! Want to see my scoot? 😉
10. Instant Messaging – being able to catch up with friends and family when you see them pop online is fantastic.  It’s easy and convenient and I’m sure has allowed me to keep in touch with people overseas or interstate who I might have lost touch with otherwise.

List of 10 Things I Hate or Dislike That Start With “I”
1.   IVF – it’s a curse  🙁 
2.   Insulin resistance – causes the metabolism of a dull witted slug.
3.   Intolerance – variety is the spice of life… get over it
4.   Ipswich – wanna go crack some laps on Fridee night?  ewww.
5.   ‘It’s a Small World After All’ – used to work for Disney… nuff said
6.   Ironing – is for other people
7.   iTunes – necessary evil if you want other ‘i’ things
8.   Internal monologue failure – no one wants to know what’s in here
9.   Illegible handwriting – no one writes and when they do it’s fugly.
10. Infertility – It’s one of Nature’s cruellest jokes to imbue a desire to procreate yet fail to provide one with the intrinsic capability to do so….  ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to conceive.’

The lists are good but I’m finding that it is getting increasingly more difficult.  I’m obvious a natural pessimist and usually have plenty of things in the Dislike section and am finding it really hard to keep coming up with things for the Like section.  For one’s personal development I should probably make some vague attempts to work on this particular character flaw.  Perhaps I ought try taking more time to smell the roses and count my blessings blah, blah, blah.  After all, one doesn’t want to become some sort of misanthropic arsehole who finds fault everywhere and is only happy when they have something to bitch about.  However, I think I’d rather be overly self critical and slightly dissatisfied in general than be wandering mindlessly through life with an inane grin on my face blithely thinking all is well with the world.

Whatever…. it’s the “H”s this week

List of 10 Things I Like That Start With “H”….

1.   Honesty – don’t care what it is just give it to me straight
2.   Hands – can happily watch beautiful hands all day
3.   Hariyali kebab – spicy spinachy goodness
4.   Heraldry – graphic design for the middle ages
5.   Hammam – if only you didn’t have to go so far to get one
6.   Hourglasses – have no clue where that penchant comes from
7.   Hammocks – big ones made for two or more
8.   Honey – in particular Vanilla Bean honey from DJs
9.   Hanover Gold Waterford Crystal – discontinued, the bastards!
10. Heat packs – seems to be the only thing that offers any relief (albeit temporary) from the persistent back pain nonsense.  Makes the nerves send heat signals instead of pain signals… apparently.  It’s become a morning ritual to have a heat pack and a cup of tea while I try and shake off the brain dead/drug fucked feeling of being over sedated.

List of 10 Things I Hate or Dislike That Start With “H”

1.  Hot weather – shite metabolism means crap internal thermostat
2.  Highway noise – barriers were supposed to make this place quieter
3.  Heaters – hot, dry air on my skin feels like I’m desiccating
4.  Hairdressers – they take off too much and charge way too much
5.  Hormones – lack thereof is the bane of my adult existence
6.  Hand injuries – stories of accidents/injuries to hands make me nauseous
7.  Hairy backs – surely this needs no explanation
8.  Hyphenated surnames – something pretentious this way comes
9.  Hangovers – it’s the lack of sleep and the sugar overload mostly
10.  Hollywood ‘blockbuster’ films – more often than not they suffer from being over hyped and therefore tend to under deliver.  The best lines are usually trundled out for the trailers so they fall flat when you actually see the film and I don’t think the movie mogul powers that be grant their audiences with any intelligence whatsoever.  Give us a small quirky independent or foreign film any day.
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Okay the lists are getting harder and harder.  Not looking forward to the remaining vowels :S 

List of 10 Things I Like That Start With “G”….

1.   Gilt frames – mirrors, prints, paintings, photo frames etc
2.   Graphics tablets – makes life sooo much easier
3.   Gold Class Cinemas – comfy chairs and frozen cokes w~bourbon
4.   Guacamole – it’s the simple things in life…
5.   Glassware – needs must have the right glass for the right drink
6.   Grosse Point Blank – one of my favourite movies ever.
7.   Glow worm caves – dark, cool, quiet except for a distant drip
8.   Göreme – amazing little place in Kapadokya
9.   Graph paper – it’s safer not to ask
10. Google –  It’s common place around here to jump on the PC to find out or confirm ‘stuff’…    Need to make a point over a dinner party debate?  Just Google it.  Want to know what Sarah Palin’s latest gaffs have been?  Google!  How about what a Rhesus Monkey looks like?  Or how to surreptitiously kill your neighbour’s annoying tree*?  Get hire car prices in Istanbul?  Investigate the mating habits of a dugong?  Make a Mongolian Yurt?  Find the perfect recipe for marijuana jam drops?  It’s all there right at our fingertips.  What on earth did we do before the internets !!!

List of 10 Things I Hate or Dislike That Start With “G”
1.  Grocery shopping – save me from the tedium that is filling the pantry
2.  Game Cube etc – responsible for Vitamin D deficiency in our youth
3.  Goats – apparently one should always draw the line at goats
4.  Girly problems – oh dear God shoot me back in ’99
5.  Guinness – fine if you like carbonated molasses which I do not
6.  Graffitti – disrespectful on so many levels… especially if it’s obscene
7.  Glamour puss photography – totally tacky and trite
8.  Green – not my colour… not in my decorating my wardrobe
9.  God botherers – don’t mind if you’ve got God, just don’t inflict it on me
10.  Gossip – Everybody does it.  I think it’s just human nature to discuss mutual acquaintances and see what your friends are up to.  Hell it is probably the entire reason Facebook and other social networking sites exist.  But I can not abide unsubstantiated or deliberately malicious gossip that has no ground in facts – it’s destructive and pernicious and often leads to nasty consequences that unfortunately never seem to fall on the gossiper.  Strangely I don’t usually mind if I hear people have been gossipping about me… so long as they stick to the to truth.

* Not that we’d ever do such a thing of course.