Who is Paul Stewart?

Hey. So, this is my entry for Kayleigh Fraser's unofficial Get To Know Me Challenge for September.

I feel like during my time publishing on Vocal I have given of myself quite a lot. Whether I am writing fiction, non-fiction, poetry, satire, horror or in the comments, there is always quite a lot of Paul Stewart in there. So people know about my accidental poet status, my love of music and film maybe, my family, my animals, my depression and anxiety and trying not to shy away from the fact that I am an incredibly flawed individual.

But, I thought I'd give it a shot and try to cover some things you may not know. If you do, then oh well!

1. I am incredibly introverted. I have spoken about this before, but I think my "publish anything" attitude might suggest that I am a confident person. The computer is a safety net I guess? I don't pretend to be anything other than me, but if we met in person, I'd be a lot quieter, until I felt at ease and used to you. Whenever I do those personality tests I always am categorised as INFP, which is often described as a mediator. I think that often sums me up.

2. I love music. Aside from writing, food, and movies, music has always been my main passion. Among the jobs I dreamed of having when I was younger was being a musician...and then couldn't really focus enough on learning an instrument beyond the basics, so that changed to being a music journalist or working in/owning a record shop.

My dad, who I often speak in very negative terms, is responsible for my huge love of music, because he was a collector of cassettes and then CDs, so I was exposed to lots of music from as young as I can remember (I was born in 1980) through to when I left home. Music of all kinds, from all decades. He is, in part, responsible for my eclectic music taste. I have yet to find a genre in which I don't like any artists or bands at all.

3. I don't read as much as I should, but I am looking to change that. Although I read a lot of Vocal pieces - under Stories You Liked, I have liked 2968 so far - I don't read as much actual books. But, I have a selection I am very painfully slowly working through and when they are done I will move onto others.

4. I'm incredibly cynical and skeptical. In general. And have had to eat my words about things. I try to be open-minded, but my default is to be like "that's a lot of crap" until I'm convinced otherwise. I should add grumpy into the mix, but I'm trying to change that...

5. I love knowledge. Whether it's trivial crap or random stuff I've picked up over the years of being a content writer. The research side of that job was one of the things I came to love about it. It was always handy if someone asked something about something and I could say "I wrote an article about that"I'm your secret weapon in a pub quiz.

6. Despite not being successful in most things, I have a strong perfectionist and competitive streak. To the point that even the silliest, daftest piece I write...I will make sure it's as perfect as possible. I get obssessive over everything I write.

7. I'm not great at accepting I'm wrong. I think this ties in with a lot of other personality traits, but basically...I like being right. It's something I'm unlearning.

8. I love flat-pack furniture. When people bitch and moan about the instructions being hard to decipher and follow, I don't get that. Seriously. I have yet to find a flat-pack furniture or other self-assembly item I have not been able to conquer. I think this taps into the fact I am not very handsy...can do basic plumbing, some DIY but am rubbish at things involving wood etc. With flat-pack furniture, I get to feel like a winner.

9. I am fiercely proud to be Italian-Scottish, but hate the whole Scotland/England rivalry thing. I would prefer Scotland to have its independence, but think the real issue is between Scotland and the British government, and England and the British government, not Scotland and England. Also, married an Englishwoman. So yeah. But aside from Norway and New Zealand, Scotland is the most beautiful country in the world.

10. I have been hit by a car. I saw Naomi mention this and then it made me think of my own experience. I was involved in a couple of car crashes when I was younger, but perhaps the craziest and lowkey scariest was when we were living in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

I often refer to it as Paul Vs the Fiesta/Corsa/hatchback and the car won. There was a little slip road that turned into a main road, I crossed the road...misjudged how quickly the car was going...and felt my world tumble upside down. It was like a cartoon or movie, I saw myself hold out to tell the car to slow down? Then bump, hit me and I went flying in the air. I think the story is quite hilarious and shocking at the same time. I stupidly forgot to take pictures of my injuries and their car, because I was in shock and a bit dazed. The people that were in the car asked if I wanted a ride home. I objected, because I was dazed and in shock.

I was crossing the road to get parrot food for our now-deceased African Grey Parrot Titus. Once we had said our apologies, I went into the pet store, that actually sat beside where the incident happened, bought the parrot food. Then walked through the small town of Crossgates in Leeds through the Arndale Centre to the taxi freephone and called sa taxi. Got the taxi to take me home and then broke down when I got in the house and Ruth saw how bad my face looked.

I had quite visibly been involved in something. Why no-one said anything to me at all is a mystery, shocks me and also makes me laugh. It's either they were scared because I looked like I was in a fight. or it's just another example of people not caring. The taxi driver didn't even comment. But, Ruth was shocked the moment I walked in.

I had to have some work done on my teeth, but that was really it. I lived and had a bit of shock and sometimes I think back to it, but I'm okay.

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Anyway, there you go. There are 10 things you may not have known about me. A bonus is that I tried stand-up on one occasion as part of a failed attempt to do a bunch of stuff before I turned 30. I did one 5-minute open mic stint in a comedy club/pub in Glasgow called The State Bar.