Five things you may not know about this Buenos Aires blogger…
Internet memes are like buses…
..or colectivos…or even bondis…as we say in Buenos Aires. Just as one meme comes along, another follows it soon after….
I was recently tagged by Darren over at ProBlogger (his excellent blog that includes tips for how to improve your blogging and get more people to read what you write) as part of the “Five Things” meme that has been doing the rounds on the net for a while…thanks Darren! 
The idea of the meme is to reveal five facts about yourself that your readers will probably not know, so as they can get better acquainted with the blog author, and then to ‘tag’ five more people who post the same, and so on…like an blogging…shudder…chain letter… only, errr….cooler.
So, here are five things you may not know about me, Alan Patrick…
Five things you may not know about this Buenos Aires blogger
1. Alan Patrick is my ‘internet stage name’! This is in fact my first name and my middle name…my surname will remain a secret because of all the internet stalkers I get 
2. My favorite person OF ALL TIME is one Matthew Le Tissier, the most gifted football (soccer) player ever, who played for my beloved Saints (Southampton FC). In my (albeit biased) opinion, no midfielder in history scored spectacular goals like he did in such a consistent, effortless way…absolute travesty that a series of inept England managers were scared to pick him for the national team 
3. I should write a little something about Buenos Aires here, I guess…to keep barely on theme for the website. The truth is, I only ever planned on coming to BA for 3 months to learn a little Spanish and teach a little English. Falling in love intervened (with both my now fiancee, plus the city), and here I am still, almost two years later!
4. I like beer A LOT. Now, that might not sound remarkable. I mean real beer…and unfortunately for me, there ain’t a whole lot of that in Argentina. But lots of other things do make up for that…like the malbec wine, for example!
5. I am half Irish, on my mother’s side. The slightly interesting thing here is, I actually tell a lot of Argentines that I have just met that I am Irish, because it gets things off to a lot better start than saying I am English (Actually, I feel like I am both nationalities, because I was in Ireland a lot as a child). Maybe something to do with Argentina and Ireland both being Catholic nations? Though I have suspicions that it is just because everyone here loves Ireland for giving them “Irish pubs” and the yearly drunken St Patrick’s day celebration!
Tag – You’re it!
OK, I’ve done me. What have you learned about me…well, I guess the main thing is that you can’t trust me…because I lie about my name and my nationality…but at least you know what kind of drink to buy me!
Now over to some of my favorite fellow Buenos Aires bloggers…I’d like to get to know you all a little better, so I am tagging the following five of you: Diva of Buenos Aires Through My Eyes, Jeff Barry of Buenos Aires, City of Faded Elegance, Jorge Gobbi of Zirma, Ian Mount / Cintra Scott, both of GoodAirs, and Deby Novitz of TangoSpam. If nothing else comes out this, I at least hope some new readers will click on these blogs and discover their delights.
Looking forward to you all revealing some juicy secrets! Also, any other bloggers reading this, please feel free to join in on this meme.
And I promise, very soon, this blog will resume normal Buenos Aires related service….
January 5th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
There are lots of things people don’t know about me…hmmm…
1. Why do I call my blog tangospam? Well actually about 6 years ago when I started traveling around the world dancing tango I would write these long emails about my travels. (This was pre-blog era) Someone accused me of spamming them with my emails, so when I started my Yahoo group (the precursor to blogs) I called it tangospam. Since I was so well known by this name, I kept it as part of my blog.
2. When I was 8 years old I wanted to be a nun. This is sort of unusual for a Jewish kid. But I thought they had a good life. They always had friends, they lived in a big house together. It seemed like so much fun. My orthodox grandmother wanted to strangle my father when he took to calling me “Sister Shapiro.”
3. I kissed Clifford Dunn in my bedroom closet when I was 13 years old. We were 5 girls and him. I am not sure why we went into the closet. I am sure we had good 13 year old girl reasons for doing it.
4. My favorite food is blueberries. Most people think it is chocolate but they are wrong. I love blueberries. It is the one thing I miss from the U.S. (OK that and Morningstar Farms.)
5. I worked for a circus when I was 19 years old to pay my way out to California….(and no I was not in the freak show)
And yes, when the do the movie about my life I want Parker Posey to play me.
January 5th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
hey, I`ll do it. But when I`m back in BA.
One more thing, you posted 3 things that we all knew…post your deepest secrets, creepy stuff, you are always the good blogger, jajajjaja
January 6th, 2007 at 1:02 am
I’m so glad you didn’t tag that condescending sourpuss, you know, the one that hates all things Argentine.
I love your blog, Alan, it’s so refreshing and informative. Can’t wait to read Jeff’s answer, I read his blog as well, and Karine’s and Robert’s. And I envy all of you soooo much! Because you get to enjoy (and suffer) that wonderful city I miss dearly.
All the best to you,
Erika (an Argie in gringolandia)
PS: Since when porteños celebrate St. Paddy’s Day?!
January 6th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Ok Patrick this is a really cool posting you got here. It makes me remember that I still need to do a posting about “The perfect day in Buenos Aires” and maybe should I write down 3 little things about myself too.. ? I’ll promise those 2 things in my weekly BA blog.
Best,
Karine.
January 10th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
[...] Alan Patrick is back with his fifth installment of the Buenos Aires Blog Roundup including a nod to a Baires blogger-cum-body-waxer who graciously clarifies, “I dont even mind if you ask me to do shapes like hearts and stars in it.” If you’d like to get to know more about Patrick himself, (like the fact that it’s not his real last name), check out his five things meme. Following the meme, Global Voices contributor Jorge Gobbi was tagged by both Alan Patrick and Rodrigo. We learn [ES that Gobbi once worked in a supermarket, first studied Anthropology before switching to Communication, and that his first purchased album was “The Head on the door” by The Cure. David Sasaki [...]
January 10th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Whoops… I missed all these comments for a while…sorry for not replying until now guys!
Deby,
Thanks for sharing those five things about you. Lucky guy, that Clifford Dunn…must have been a young charmer!
Diva,
Looking forward to your 5 things post when get back from your hols….hope they are more interesting than mine! Oh, and to get to know the scary stuff about me, I need to be drunk first…
Erika,
Thanks for the nice comments…I love the blogs by Jeff, Robert and Karine too. I hope Jeff does his five things soon because I’m looking forward to hearing them!
Oh, and I seriously have no idea who you mean by “that condescending sourpuss”, though I’m dying to know now! You can tell me privately if you like, by contacting me through the form on my ‘About’ page (click on the picture of me on the top right).
Oh, and there has been a huge celebration in the Microcentro the two St Paddy’s days I have been here for. Not sure how long it was going before that though?
Karine,
Looking forward to your perfect day and hearing some things about you too in your weekly blog. Go on, tell us 5 things, not just 3!
Thanks all. And to David Sasaki at Global Voices Online (again) for the link
Alan
January 17th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Hey, I wrote my five things and you didn`t say anything!!!! I`m waiting for your comments!!!
January 17th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Hi Diva,
I just wrote a comment on your blog post. Thanks a lot!
Sorry to make you wait…way too busy at work at the moment…oh to be a tour guide again…
Cheers,
Alan
January 19th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Hey Alan, ditto the Diva’s comment! What about MY 5 Things??
January 20th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Hi Cherie….I can’t see your 5 things anywhere? I’m confused…
Did you mean your perfect day in BA? I commented about that in the other thread….
Cheers,
A very over-worked Alan who wishes he had more time to post on his blog
January 20th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Alan, you may be overworked, but I’m nuts; maybe because I broke 2 ribs at the gym and am stuck at home playing with my computer.
Too much screen time and no tango made me more confused than normally.
Thanks for answering so nicely about my Perfect Day. I’ve got my list of 5 Things on my computer (trying to keep my spirits up) but haven’t posted it anywhere.
God, life as an “in valid” is hard to get used to. But thank goodness I don’t have to. Another month of doing nothing and I can haunt the tango halls once more.
February 9th, 2007 at 1:28 am
sorry for my english! i’ll try to do the best i can.
i know why everyody here loves irish people: ’cause “Bono the great” is one of yours!!!
;o) i’m a fan… have you noted it??
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:51 am
I have to comment on the Irish bit. I think ‘the Irish’ are a myth. I don’t know a single foreigner who lived in Ireland for a while and still thinks the Irish are great folks. Sure there are some that are, but as a nation – not so much. Even my Irish friends wouldn’t say the Irish as such are great, unless they get really drunk and sentimental
Oh yea, and in Dublin most people I met can’t stand Bono, they say he thinks he is Jesus…
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:40 am
Well, my mum is Irish, and she´s great, and certainly not a myth….
Although, I wasn´t commenting on the world view of Irish people, just that it gets a better reception here most of the time than saying you are English, or American, both for differnt, obvious reasons.
Thanks for reading back through my posts to this point!
Cheers,
Alan
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I did not say anything that sounded like ‘All Irish are arses’ to you, did I? I know fantastic Irish people myself. All I am saying is that I don’t know where outside Ireland that reputation comes from that ‘all the Irish are so great’. Maybe it’s that thing about not having been involved in some major big war or something.
I totally get your point – when I travelled outside Ireland there were places where I preferred to say that I was ‘from Ireland’ rather than German, cause for being German you get a lot of crap in many places.
Anyways, I just wanted to say I didn’t mean no offense, I haven’t lived there for no reason, that’s for sure.
Cheers!
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Hi Coogie,
No, don’t worry, you didn’t say anything that sounded like “All Irish are arses” to me.
I didn’t say anything that made you think I was accusing you of that, did I? [I like to respond to a question with a question
]
To be honest, almost all of the Irish people I know are nice, except the ones from Dublin. Maybe that’s the difference we’re seeing? It seems a bit like the Paris/France phenomenon there. Maybe.
Although, to be honest, as much as I like stereotypes, I think they are all pretty flawed and pointless in the wider scheme of things.
Cheers, and thanks so much for reading
Alan