draliman on life

Here is my post for Share Your World, hosted by Di.

Do you have a special talent (ie music, art, singing, dress making, pottery etc).
No, nothing I can think of. More a jack of all trades. Some trades. A couple of trades. No.

What was your best subject at school and was it your favourite?
Either English or Physics. They were both favourites of mine. I always enjoyed writing stories and I ended up doing my degree and PhD in Physics.

That was English Language, mind (in the UK, Language and Literature are separate exams). Shakespeare, Great Expectations etc etc… aargh! I enjoyed my German Literature more, at least they chose fun books to read (mostly).

Do you like to cook?
Not really. I do cook a lot of stuff though, mainly batches of curry, chilli, stuff like that. I like eating the result!

Do you get riled easily?
Riled? Riled? Why are you asking me this, for God’s sake, questions, questions, never-ending questions, it’s enough to make me… ooh! Looks like the answer is “yes”! 😉

Here is my post for Share Your World, hosted by Di.

Do you celebrate the Easter holiday and if not, do you have an alternative?
Well, I don’t have to work on Easter but I don’t celebrate it in the sense of it being a religious holiday. But a couple of days off is a cause for celebration!

Do you exchange gifts or have a traditional meal?
We all get together on the Sunday and we exchange Easter eggs.

How many Easter Eggs (or alternative) did you receive/give?
I received and gave three Easter eggs. Somehow, though, I have seven Easter eggs to eat. I must have “accidentally” bought too many again…

Was Easter a Bank Holiday in your country or did you have to work this weekend?
Yes, Easter Friday and Easter Monday are both Bank Holidays in the UK. I have a feeling years ago Easter Friday wasn’t officially a Bank Holiday, but most people had it as holiday anyway.

Here is my post for Share Your World, hosted by Di.

Do you have a favourite movie?
No, I have a number of favourite movies. It depends on what mood I’m in. It could be anything from Working Girl to Expendables to Armageddon to Die Hard to something Marvel or Star Wars or even some Resident Evil or Underworld.

Sometimes I’m in the mood for comedy, sometimes I just want to see people’s heads get blown off 🙂

Who is your favourite actor and actress?
I don’t really have a favourite. Only favourite films.

Do you attend or have you ever attended a live theatre production?
Yes, I’ve been to a few, mainly musicals when I was younger.

Have you ever wanted to be an actor/actress?
Oh goodness me, no way! To be the centre of attention and have it recorded for all time 😮

And to finish, here’s a random photo of a horsey I took while on a ramble around the country roads on Friday with my friend.

Here is my post for Share Your World, hosted by Di.

Do you have a lot of friends or do you know a lot of people?
I have a small number of friends, some work colleagues and then a few other people I know, the sort of people you say “hello” to as you pass them in the village.

If you are at a party and know very few of the guests, do you mingle and introduce yourself, sit on the sidelines and people watch, or discreetly leave?
In general I wouldn’t be there in the first place… I’d probably sit on the sidelines until I’d been there long enough that leaving wouldn’t seem rude.

What is the best job you have ever had?
The job I have now is pretty good. I haven’t had that many jobs in my life.

Can you swim?
Yes, my parents took me for lessons when I was little, and then we had swimming lessons at school.

Here is my post for Share Your World, hosted by Di.

Do you use an ‘air freshener’ in your home/car/office? (solid, gel, spray, pot pourri, etc)
No, I’m not so keen on artificial scents constantly around the place. I sometimes use Glade (a powder you shake onto the carpet) when I do the vacuuming.

How often do you clean the oven or microwave?
Hoe often do I do what, now? I have cleaned the microwave a couple of times. My oven is “self-cleaning” so I didn’t clean it and now it’s fecked. Lying bastards.

Do you use a fabric conditioner in your laundry and/or fragranced tumble drier sheets?
I use a standard liquid fabric softener which I put into “drawer 2” in the washing machine.

If you have the choice, do you prefer to get your laundry dry outside on a line or use a tumble drier?
I haven’t had an outside drying facility for decades. The garden isn’t really big enough. So I get to sit here and watch the pennies click away on the smart meter remote display while the tumble dryer does its job.

It’s in the “amber” at the moment as the water heater is on for my shower later. Obviously the heating’s not on as you can see by the blistering 13 degrees C… (which for the benefit of Americans and really old British people is 55F)

Here is my post for Share Your World, hosted by Di.

What kind of music do you like?
Quite a wide range, depending on my mood. Starting with Abba, Dido, Marina all the way through to Iron Maiden, The Pretty Reckless, Marillion, Nightwish and Within Temptation.

So that’s pop through to symphonic rock and heavy metal.

What is your favourite food?
All the stuff that’s really bad for you. Pizza, chilli, burgers, chocolate and ice cream. Mmm, chileh…

What is your favourite tipple? For those who don’t drink, what do you order when out with friends?
My go-to drink when I’m thirsty and want something really refreshing is a dash of lemon juice (the kind used in cooking), two thirds lemonade and one third chilled water.

What relaxes you?
Listening to music, reading and walking out in nature.

Here is my post for Share Your World, hosted by Di.

Does your spouse/partner (or do you) help with the household chores?
What partner/spouse? If household chores were to get done, I would be the one who would be doing them.

What is your least favourite chore?
It’s immaterial really as I don’t do any. But I’ll go with “vacuuming” since the lack of that is the most obvious sign of my popular “Household chores? No thanks!” policy. I guess I’ll need to do it soon though, as the dustbunny tumbleweeds are getting annoying.

As a kid, did you have to do chores to earn your pocket money/allowance?
Not that I recall. Probably not, I would have been penniless.

Did you save any of your pocket money or spend it all?
I saved it until I had enough to spend it. I usually saved it up for our summer holidays in Scotland.

Here is my post for Share Your World, hosted by Di.

Did you attend Sunday School at your local church as a child?
Yes. I don’t remember hardly any of it. Presumably they taught me something. I would have preferred not having to get up on a Sunday morning to go to church, to be honest.

Did you attend after school classes ie. drama, sports, as a teenager?
I was in the Chess Club for a while. That’s the only one I remember.

Did you go to evening classes after you had left school?
Nope. I’m too busy with my hectic schedule of watching TV and playing video games to better myself.

Do you now belong to any groups/meetings?
No, not at the moment.

Here is my post for Share Your World, hosted by Di.

When food shopping, do you go with a list and stick to it, or buy on the hop?
Always a list. Supermarket shopping online or essentials shopping in the village shop, always a list. I usually buy more than what’s on the list, for example stocking up on condiments or whatever. Sometimes I even miss something that’s on the list!

When clothes shopping, do you prefer to shop in a store or buy mail order?
I rarely clothes shop. I get a lot of bits and bobs for birthdays and Christmas. I’m pretty sure the last clothes I bought was my North Face waterproof jacket just over three years ago. That was in an actual shop, I’d never buy something that expensive online as I needed to check it was a good fit and the sort of thing I wanted.

Do you like shopping for shoes?
Nope. The last time I did wasn’t too bad – it was the first time I ever took a chance and did it online. Nice pair of Nike’s. Fitted perfectly.

Do you enjoy shopping alone or with friends/partner?
I always go alone, when it’s as quiet as possible, in and out as quickly as possible. A “surgical strike”, if you will. Group shopping isn’t really a thing that we blokes do.