The Eight meme

Kiki kindly tagged me for this - here goes!

8 things I am passionate about:

1. My family
2. Playing my guitars
3. Dogs
4. Reading
5. My work
6. Cycling
7. Food
8. Um, "being married" if you get my drift...

8 things I often say:

1. Quotes from The Simpsons
2. Can I have a quesadilla with cheesy nachos and a Coke
3. Did you HAVE to drive that close you *&%$!
4. I am hungry
5. Can I buy a new set of strings?
6. Is it that late already?
7. Where did the weekend go?
8. Sorry I did not mean to turn it up THAT loud
   

8 books I have read recently:

1. Bill Bryson, Down Under
2. Stuff about the Black Prince and the Battle of Poitiers
3. An alternative history about what might have happened if the Spanish Armada had succeeded in conquering England
4. Stuff about the Polish army in the 17th Century
5. Stuff about doing maps on computers, related to my work
6. Something by Terry Pratchett
7. The Penguin Dictionary of The Bible, with maps by me(!)
8. Stuff about the Romans

8 things to do before I die:

1. Play in a band again
2. See my kids through to adulthood, hey maybe even see a grandchild!
3. Take the coast to coast train journey across Canada, taking a few detours to visit people
4. Write a book
5. Write and publish a set of wargame rules
6. Learn to play the piano
7. Learn to play the drums
8. Finish painting all of my toy soldiers

8 songs I could listen to over and over again:

1. Strangers in the Darkness by Gary Moore
2. Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd
3. Stormy Monday by The Allman Brothers
4. While My Guitar Gently Weeps, as played by Jeff Healey
5. The song that Ray Charles sings in The Blues Brothers
6. Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd
7. Helleluyah I Love Her So, as played by Humble Pie
8. The karaoki version of Ebony and Ivory from the movie Undercover Brother

8 things that attract me to my friends

1. A sense of humour
2. Intelligence
3. Similar interests
4. Can't think of anything else - I just tend to click with people or not!

8 things I have learned in the last year

1. How great blogging is
2. That Doctors can do whatever they like and not have to answer for it
3. How much my wife loves me
4. Lots of stuff about maps and computers
5. How little we really know about what happened in the past - so much British history seems to have been made up by the Victorians
6. Lots of new stuff on the guitar
7. I have got one particular, really good friend that I met a couple of years ago. This year I realised that we actually met once over 25 years ago, had planned to meet up again but never did until recently.
8. I love bagels

Phew, made it! Anyone else want to try this one? I won't tag anyone because I am nice ;-)