My name is Shane but unlike most of the name I am a female.
How did I get the name? Well, my mother's name is Jean and her Easter Ross Gaelic speaking relatives called her Shane. Hence I inherited the name.
When I entered university I was informed that there was no vacancy in the male hostel.I often wonder what would have happened if there had been, and I'd turned up with my belongings!
When I came to Sudan after I married a Sudanese fellow student, I discovered that in Arabic Shane means 'ugly'.I know I'm no beauty, but ..see for yourself
By now you should have two pieces of information about me. Let's fill in some more. I was born in London, I'm ashamed to say I hated the place until I reached my 50s, when I suddenly discovered the charm of the City. Now that I am obsessed with tracing my family history I realise why. I have found out my great great grandmother and my great grandmother were Londoners. I'd never thought about them before. It had always been rubbed in that we had illustrious Italian forebears. Italian , yes; illustrious? I'm not so sure; unless we are a collateral branch of those illustrious medical Moscatis.
No, my proven ancestors are more down to earth. My paternal grandmother's father was from Norfolk , a shoemaker with a small piece of land. His wife's family were Suffolk agricultural workers.My maternal grandfather was a blacksmith but his ancestors had been fishermen for generations. My mother's other grandfather had worked on the land and became a gardener.His wife 's granfather was a pensioner , having served in the Peninsular War against Napoleon, and in India.My maternal great grandmother came from Sutherland stock, cleared from their homeland by the Duchess of Sutherland
When I was 15 we moved to the North of Scotland, and I attended Aberdeen University. From there I went to the Sudan where I have lived for the past 39 years.
As a child I was considered 'a bit odd'. I told the children in the neighbourhood that in a past life I'd been the son of a pharaoh and drowned while out hunting hippopotamus.
Yes, well.. Now I flirt with the idea of re-incarnation. I could have been a male several times , as I prefered males to females as friends. I never quite knew what to talk about with females, certainly not the fashion/make up scene.As a teenager I played cowboys and indians, and football and cricket. My mother tried to interest me in the nice girls in the vicinity, but my brother and his friends were more my scene.
I did have some girl friends but often our friendship was based on shared intellectual interests,
At 16 I became interested in Ancient Egyptian History. This added to my reputation of being odd. Now I dabble in astrology,standing stones and genealogy. All quite normal in this age of Aquarius.
So too is my mixed marriage,although in the 60s it was rather frowned upon.
