draliman on life

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Are you busy making preparations for Dec 25th?
I wouldn’t say “busy” exactly. Over the past weeks I have ordered all the food and bought the presents. So I’m nearly there. Either next weekend or the weekend before Christmas I’ll get the decorations down from the loft and put them up.

What is your favourite Christmas/holiday movie?
“Die Hard” obviously. Nothing says Christmas quite like decorations, a work party and a load of bullets and explosions.

What is your pet hate Christmas song?
I’m not alone in nominating Wham’s “Last Christmas”.

Which actor in your opinion made the best Father Christmas?
I can’t even think of any Santa actors off the top of my head.

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

Do you have a keepsake box (where you retain special cards, pictures, letters, things that are special to you)?
Nope 🙂 I have bits and bobs scattered about here and there.

What has made you smile lately?
Various funny comedies on TV.

Are you a morning person or a night owl?
More a morning person. And I start work at 0700 anyway so I don’t have much choice,

Do you prefer to be hosts or guests at a dinner party or family event?
A guest, definitely. I can’t be having people round here, my house is too small. And I’d have to do the vacuuming and dusting and I wouldn’t be happy about that 🙂

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

What was the last book you read?
The last book I finished was “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir. I’m currently reading the first book of Peter F. Hamilton’s Void Trilogy.

Do you think movies are better or worse than the books they are based on?
The books often contain more, for example “The Martian” book contains scenes not in the film. I don’t think I’ve watched enough book adaptations to give an opinion one way or the other.

What is the most memorable movie soundtrack or theme to you?
For overall soundtrack, I’ve always enjoyed the soundtrack album to the Robin Williams film “Toys”.

Did you enjoy the old musicals (Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Howard Keel, Doris Day etc)
Not massively. Some are all right, but the music and singing style are a bit old-fashioned for me. Musicals I enjoy are films like Grease and Rocky Horror Picture Show, though they’re both old enough now to probably count as “old classics”!

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

If you were a colour, what would you choose to be?
Some sort of blue. Because I like blue. I wouldn’t want to be a colour I don’t like. That would be rubbish.

What one piece of advice would you give your younger self?
I wouldn’t. If I gave my younger self advice, I would change something, likely never be in a position to give my younger self advice in the first place, so everything would change back to the way it was, so I would give my younger self advice, change something…

You see where this is going, don’t you? Yes. The END OF THE UNIVERSE 😮

What was the best piece of advice you were ever given?
Huh, no idea. I don’t listen to advice 😉

If you needed advice on a matter, who would you ask (friend, family, professional etc)
It completely depends on what I needed advice about. I hear that ChatGPT fellow is quite knowledgeable…

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

If you were offered “The Full English” what would you expect?
The moment I read this question my mouth started watering…

Fried or scrambled egg, sausage, bacon, black pudding, mushrooms and/or baked beans, grilled tomatoes, hash browns and/or fried bread and of course a mug of tea to wash it down! And probably some toast on the side.

How do you like your toast (with butter, jam, marmalade etc) ?
Lightly browned with butter.

How do you prefer your eggs?
Either hard boiled and cooled or fried.

If you have a boiled egg, do you like to dunk ‘soldiers’?
I rarely have boiled eggs, but I’d tend to eat the egg and soldiers separately.

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

Can you remember your first wage packet? Was it cash, a cheque or paid directly into your bank account?
I don’t explicitly remember it. I assume back in those days it was a cheque. For our younger readers, “cheques” were pieces of paper that you had to tramp down to the bank to deposit. Nobody except for my Mum has written a cheque in decades.

For our younger readers, a “bank” was a place in town for getting and depositing money. It’s now called a “phone app”.

Do you prefer to shop with cash or card?
Always card. It’s just so easy to tap your card on the machine. Though I’m suddenly out of date again, most people I see in the village shop use their phone. I do very occasionally but it’s a hassle finding the right app.

Do you know the price of half a dozen eggs?
Anywhere between £2 and £3 depending on free range-ness etc. I can get 6 eggs for £1.50 from the monthly village market.

Have you ever kept chickens?
No! I’ve eaten a lot of chickens, though.

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

What did you have for lunch yesterday?
A cheese, piccalilli and tomato roll. Lunch is not my main meal.

Did you have a dessert, and if so, what was it?
Yes, if a chocolate digestive counts as “dessert”. I usually have a banana as well but I ran out 😦

Do you have a sweet tooth?
Yes, to a certain extent.

I read recently that a leading manufacturer has reduced the amount of cocoa in their chocolate biscuits, and it is now referred to as chocolate flavoured. Would you still buy such a product knowing that the chocolate actually isn’t.
It’s a huge brand and very well-known biscuits too! I’m not a fan of “substitute”. One wonders what it is. New! Improved! Now with at least 90% MonoTriPhosphateHydroAlkaSodiumGlutogen!

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

Who/what is your favourite Muppet?
I’m going with Animal. Nobody drums quite like Animal.

Do you enjoy animated movies?
I don’t watch a lot of them. Though I’ve seen little bits of Moana and liked what I saw so I am planning on watching the whole thing at some point.

Have you seen any animated movies remade as Live Action?
I can’t even think of any. Ask me the same question about films and video games (in either direction)…

Can you remember the last animated movie you watched (with or without kids present)
It was Zootropolis (“Zootopia” in America).

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

The clocks go back at the end of October here in the UK. Does your country do the same?
Yes, because I’m that country too 🙂

Do you enjoy Halloween?
I have to remember to buy some sweets because I usually get a couple of groups of greedy kiddies round. But apart from that I don’t do anything. So it’s not too bad, though I hate that I go on high alert every time I hear people walking past outside chattering excitedly…

Dare I ask if you are preparing for Christmas? If you do not celebrate it in your country, do you have any December traditions?
The only thing I’m preparing to do is order the food, as you have to get in early and since it’s all locally sourced (it’s not a supermarket) it’s all top quality and I don’t want to miss out.

Are you likely to have snow anytime soon?
I’m not likely to have snow at all. Snow in Cornwall is sparse and usually confined to a few square miles so it’s the luck of the draw. When driving into work the other morning, though, I did see an amber temperature warning briefly appear on the car’s dashboard. So it briefly dropped below 5 degrees (it goes red below 0C).

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

If you could be a flower or a plant, what would you be and why?
I’d be a bag of self-raising, because I can’t spell.

Do you believe in magic?
I believe that some things which we might think of as magic might one day be possible, as per Arthur C Clarke’s Third Law: “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Do you believe in Karma?
No. If someone does something mean, it’s up to you to seek them out and knacker them yourself.

Do you live in a community spirited neighbourhood?
I would describe it as “semi-community spirited.”