me according to music

Finlay clambering round what is enigmatically named "Big Tree" - a thousand year old kahikatea you can visit on the equally original "Big Tree Walk".
My sister Felicity and nephew Alex, with the bouncy balls Alex made himself from my Christmas present to him.
Alex with the huhu grubs they found in the forest and threatened to feed us surreptitiously.

So, on JenKneeBee's blog I came across this post, which challenges you to answer a quiz solely with music lyrics - and how could I resist?

1) Are you male or female?

She's the dollars

She's my protection

Yeah she's the promise

In the year of election

Oh sister, I can't let you go

Like a preacher stealing hearts

At a travelling show

- Desire, U2

2) Who are you?

I want to trip inside your head

Spend the day there...

To hear the things you haven't said

And see what you might see

I want to hear you when you call

Do you feel anything at all?

I want to see your thoughts take shape

And walk right out

- Miracle Drug, U2

3) Describe your neighbourhood:

I look at my environment

And wonder where the fire went

What happened to everything we used to be

- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn Hill

4) How do you look?

Welcome to real life

welcome to real life

I've come to realise it's no game

No one is the same

There's so much more to life

Than meets the eye

- Real Life, Evermore

5) What is love?

One man come in the name of love

One man come and go

One man come here to justify

One man to overthrow

In the name of love!

What more in the name of love?...

One man caught on a barbed wire fence

One man he resist

One man washed on an empty beach

One man betrayed with a kiss

- Pride (In the Name of Love), U2

6) If you could say one thing to the person you love, what would it be?

You're the only one who

Holds my hair back when I'm drunk and get sick

You're the only one who

Knows exactly what I mean

- You're the Only One, Maria Mena

I was born a child of grace

Nothing else about the place

Everything was ugly but your beautiful face

And it left me no illusion

I saw you in the curve of the moon

In the shadow cast across my room

You heard me in my tune

When I just heard confusion

- All Because of You, U2

7) What's your secret?

I've been a fool - more than once, more than twice

I'm gonna move to a new town where the people are nice

I hope I never, I hope I never have to sigh again

I hope I never, I hope I never have to cry again

I still want to beam and smile

Happiness is back in style

- I Hope I Never, Split Enz

8) Are you strong?

My breath smells of a thousand fags

And when I'm drunk I dance like me Dad

I've started to dress a bit like him

Early morning when I wake up

I look like Kiss but without the makeup

And that's a good line to take it to the bridge

And you know and you know

Cos my life's a mess

And I'm trying to grow so before

I'm old I'll confess

You think that I'm strong

You're wrong, you're wrong

- Strong, Robbie Williams

9) Where do you wish you were right now?

In a world full of bitter pain and bitter doubt

I was trying so hard to fit in, until I found out

I don't belong here, I don't belong here

I will carry a cross and a song where I don't belong.

- Beautiful Letdown, Switchfoot

10) What do you think about your friends?

I may not always love you

But long as there are stars above you

You never need to doubt it

I'll make you so sure about it

God only knows what I'd be without you

- God Only Knows, the Beach Boys

11) Any words of advice?

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now. ...

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's. ...

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly. ...

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. ...

But trust me on the sunscreen.

- Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen, Mary Schmidt

12) What do you wish you were doing right now?

Like a bird

Through prison bars

I'm escaping

And behind me on the long highway

Lies all that I've forsaken

Cool river, flow

I am bound for wherever you go

I'm gonna bathe in the river

Gonna hold my head up in the river

Not gonna worry any more

Gonna reach that golden shore...

Mighty river, hear that rushin' sound

Cool clear water, lay my burden down

- Bathe in the River, Mt Roskill Preservation Society feat. Hollie Smith

13) What do you think about drugs?

Sweet the sin

Bitter the taste in my mouth

I see seven towers

But I only see one way out

You've got to cry without weeping

Talk without speaking

Scream without raising your voice

You know I took the poison

From the poison stream

Then I floated out of here...

She will

Suffer the needle chill

She's running to stand

Still.

- Running to Stand Still, U2

14) If you could say one thing to your enemy, what would it be?

Hate is a strong word

But I really really really don't like you

- Hate (I Really Don't Like You), the Plain White T's

15) What do you do on Friday nights?

I went out walking

Through streets paved with gold

Lifted some stones

Saw the skin and bones

Of a city without a soul

I went out walking

Under an atomic sky

Where the ground won't turn

And the rain it burns

Like the tears when I said goodbye

Yeah I went with nothing

Nothing but the thought of you

I went wandering

- The Wanderer, Johnny Cash and U2

16) What would you do if you won a million dollars?

But while we're waiting we could try saving the world

Or are we storing that up for a rainy day?

I'm anticipating the time when it'll be my turn

It could be fun to try

I think that I'll save the world as a fun afternoon activity

- Saving the World, Brooke Fraser

17) How do you feel right now?

The earth is in a blaze

The world is in a maze

The way of life today

Is strange and odd. Oh Lord

What happened across the sea

May come to you and me

Oh, come let us go back to God

- Come, Let Us Go Back To God, Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers

18) Are you for World Peace?

Lay down

Lay down your guns

All your daughters of Zion

All your Abraham's sons...

Here's my heart and you can break it

I need some release, release, release

We need love and peace

- Love and Peace or Else, U2

19) Where were you born?

Aotearoa, rugged individual

Glisten like a pearl, at the bottom of the world

The tyranny of distance didn't stop the cavalier

So why should it stop me, I'll conquer and stay free

- Six Months in a Leaky Boat, Split Enz

20) Any closing words?

Take these shoes

Click clacking down this dead end street

Take these shoes

And make them fit

Take this shirt

Polyester white trash made in nowhere

Take this shirt

And make it clean, clean

Take this soul

Stranded in some skin and bones

Take this soul

And make it sing

Yahweh, Yahweh,

Always pain before a child is born

Yahweh, Yahweh

Still I'm waiting for the dawn

- Yahweh, U2

Phew, that just about does it! I'm not going to tag anyone because it does take time, but if you're as sad as me, go ahead! It's very fun.