Hello! I'm Ændr, The Mad Hatter.

Welcome to my page. I don't have a lot of time to play with it so it will be fairly basic. I suppose you'd like to know a little bit about me? is that why you have come here?

My nickname

Well, my nickname is Ændr. Ændr is one of my nicknames anyway. It is the one my friends and some¹of my relatives know. Ændr comes from "And", one of the most commonly used words in English and also is a combination of various letters gleaned from my first and surnames. I'm left handed and if you consider a left handed android, it wouldn't have painful diodes so take them out. Contemplate the meaning of the ancient celtic word Ændr as a description of me. I also perversely like words that are hard for native English speakers to pronounce. I was actually given the nickname by a Gaelic speaking relative. Thus, a number of reasons for my nickname. To pronounce it, say "And" using a longish "a" sound such as in "car" mixed slightly with the "e" sound in "hen" and then add a slightly rolled "rrrrr" at the end, but no ending "uh" if you don't mind!

The Mad Hatter comes about because I love hats². I had uniform hats at school and at Guides, but the first hat I bought just to wear (which I lost in 2000 or so ) was a Lindsay Tartan Hat made by "Mad Hatters Co." I also really like the character of the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. However, I did not give myself this nickname - it was given to me by the Guides on Guide camp one year, I like the nickname, which is lucky as it stuck.

Oh, and I'm FEMALE!³

Baking Ingredients

As some of you who have seen me around may know I like baking and cooking. Well, I don't. I love cooking and baking! Here on h2g2, I tend to cook and bake for The pub formerly known as the Forum and something beginning with F and have been in the past the court Baker of Cakes, providing cakes, sweets and other delectable food items for The Court of the Dragon Queen of Damogran, where I was also Court Scientist and Student of Atmospheric Phenomena. Some of my favourite recipes can be found on one of my other websites.

Hats

I like hats.
A lot.
An awful lot.
An incredible amount, you can't imagine.
I wear one almost every single day.
People notice when I am not wearing a hat, not if I am wearing a hat.
People recognise me by my hat.
People arrange to meet "by the hat", especially tall people when we are going into crowded rooms.
I have only a few hats - 78 at last count, still working on the collection though.

I have two wooden mice. They roam over my hats and clothes, choosing where to sit randomly depending on their mood. Generally they ride my hats, although waistcoats, collars, cuffs and shoulders are other places they like to ride. Sometimes they even refuse to come out with me (when it is cold) and stay in, on my bedside table. I would have more wooden mice, only friends admired them too much, so I gave 4 out of the 6 I started with away. Those 4 are quite happy in their new homes and meet up occasionally, when I visit my friends.

h2g2 people

Okay, here's my list of h2g2 people and places... these days it seems that everyone has to have such a list... but it isn't by any means comprehensive, nor does it say anything about me or anyone else...

• Menza
• Irving Washington
• Kitty
• Joanna
• Tatty
• Jac
• Cakewalker
• Bluebottle
• Pandora
• Redbeard
• The Tentacle
• The FnF pub
• The Aroma Café
• The Court of the Dragon Queen of Damogran
• The Hotel Chrome has a good telegraph station.
• The POST is our very own weekly newspaper (note, this link may become out of date.

Did all that work?

Yes. At least, I think so. Sigh of relief. Right, I am updating this now and won't play with it again for a while, being busy elsewhere and preferring to spend my time in the fora and threads. Cheerio. Ændr⁴.

Update

I have no idea when the above was written, but several years ago by the looks of it. Since then, I got my DPhil, spent a few years in Exeter, moved across the country to be with my partner and got married. I spend very little time on h2g2 any more, as it lost a lot of the community sense it had for me.

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¹ The older relatives and parents don't seem to be able to get used to the fact that I don't like the short form of my given name, or my given name for that matter, and insist on using it whenever they wish to speak to me. Just have to grin and bear it I suppose!
² I had somewhere over 70 at last count, but I've lost count and haven't recounted since
³ For some reason, lots of people assume that Ændr is a male name.
⁴ How do I do the Æ thing? If you are running Windows as an OS, then make sure numlock is on, hold down the Alt key and on the numeric keypad press 0198, then release the Alt key... If you are on a Mac, hold down shift, the option key and then the apostrophe or quotation mark key ' and then release... Hey presto Æ!