Five Things

A while back I was guilty of tagging others with a '4 things' meme. Karma is having it's way with me, and now Raph has tagged me with a '5 Things' meme.

Ok, I'll bite, but this time the buck stops here. I'm refusing to tag others. Thou shalt not dirty the internets and all of that.

So, here goes. Five things you don't know about me:

1. I was kicked out of college and became a ski-bum for a period of time. Quebec has a system where you finish high-school at 16 and go to something called CEGEP, a kind of interim college or community college before either entering the work force or going to university. At 16 I found girls, beer and the local pool hall far more compelling than my compsci classes and paid the price for it. I subsequently went and worked in a ski town in Alberta for a season before coming back and returning to school.
2. French was my first language, though you'd never know it now. I actually learned both at once (dad's a Brit, mum's French Canadian), but my French was stronger because I was babysat by another francophone while mum and dad worked. At age 3 we moved to an English suburb where I lost most of it until much later.
3. I didn't get a driver's license till I was in my early twenties. I owned and drove a motorcycle and a car before that time, but never got around to actually getting my license till quite late (see number 4).
4. The police once bestowed a nickname upon me. My friends and I had a significant number of *ahem* encounters with the local law enforcement when we were teens. Enough so that they new a few of us by name. One night one of them gave me a nickname and it stuck for a while.
5. The number of drinks someone needs to buy me in order to learn the nickname in #4 is... well... ask it not, for it is legion.