Alice Dearing – Favourite Things
Alice Dearing is a British swimmer. In 2021, she became the first black female swimmer to represent Britain at an Olympic Games, completing the 10km marathon swim at the Tokyo Olympics. Dearing is also the founder of the Black Swimming Association, a charity set up to increase awareness of water safety and diversify the world of aquatics through education, advocacy, support and research.
These are a few of Alice Dearing’s favourite things…
Gaming and Esports
I have been a gamer for as long as I can remember. I have spent so many Saturday mornings sitting in front of the television playing video games or bugging my eldest brother to let me into his room to watch him play. The first video game I completed by myself, without any help from my brothers, was Fable; I was so proud of myself. Fable is an Xbox role-playing game and is still one of my favourite games of all time. It’s set in a mythical Medieval world, and you face challenges in which you can choose to be good or evil. I always had such a strong moral compass and could never make myself choose the evil options, even though it was only a game.
Chinese food
I love a Chinese takeaway. People send me pictures of their Chinese takeaways whenever they have one because I talk about it so much and always post when I have one. It brings me so much joy to see someone enjoying Chinese food, and I just think it’s so good. My typical order is salt and pepper chicken, seaweed and some version of fried rice or noodles. Then, this is controversial, but I get chips. A lot of people don’t like that, but chips are so good from a Chinese takeout, especially with curry sauce. I think once people try adding chips to their Chinese order once, they’ll never go back.
Will Ferrell movies
Will Ferrell is my favourite actor, I absolutely love his movies. When I first got social media when I was younger, I even used the name Alice Ferrell instead of Alice Dearing. Lots of people thought that was my real last name for ages which is quite funny. Blades of Glory is my all-time favourite movie, and Talladega Nights is a close second. A few of my friends and I quote Will Ferrell movie lines to each other all the time, as we know them off by heart. I think I have seen all his film’s five to ten times each, I am a huge fan of their absurdity. The films are so stupid and so smart at the same time.
Cats
When I grow up, I am probably going to be a crazy cat lady. I will be one of those people who take their cats on a walk and have a little backpack with a window in for them. I think cats are great, and I love their autonomous nature and how if they don’t want to be petted, they’ll let you know about it. It is nice to see that in a pet, they have their own personalities. I used to have a cat when I was younger but she passed away a few years ago, I’m still hurt by it. But I hope one day when I have more time and live in accommodation that allows me to, I’ll rescue one.
Travelling
I love seeing the world and am so fortunate to have seen quite a lot of it at a young age. I first started getting to travel with swimming when I was sixteen years old, and I have been able to see so many cool things. I feel really fortunate for that and always have wanderlust for my next trip. I haven’t been to mainland Africa yet, just the Seychelles for swimming but considering my mum is from there, Ghana is top of my list. My friends are trying to plan a holiday to Ibiza at the moment but I’m not really a party head so I will probably only go out once, I’ve heard it is a stunning island with lots of beaches, castles and museums too, which is a bit more my scene.
Enjoyed Alice Dearing’s favourites? Explore last week’s Favourite Things here.