draliman on life

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World.

What is the most famous landmark or building you have ever seen?
I guess it would be some of the London landmarks. The tower with Big Ben in, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and the like. It was many years ago, though, pre-camera phones and digital cameras and I don’t have any photos.

Do you like long vacation or lots of mini-vacations?
I prefer little holidays here and there. I have two weeks off coming up but I’ll just take one day as it comes and have little days out.

What is your favourite National or State Park?
We don’t really have state parks (not least because we don’t have states). We do have areas owned by English Heritage (a charity), The National Trust/The National Trust of Scotland (a charity) and The Forestry Commission (which would be the closest to America’s “National Parks” I guess).

Area-wise, North Wales, North and especially North-East Scotland and Cumbria are lovely. Also Dartmoor in Devon and, of course, Cornwall 🙂

Here’s a photo I took a couple of years ago in Dartmoor.

And here’s North Wales.

A waterfall in Coed y Brenin forest park, Wales

What is your fantasy vacation?
Have I mentioned before visiting the Hobbits in New Zealand? And there’s lots more to see there too!

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World series.

What one thing have you not done that you really want to do? 
Can anyone guess? That’s right. Go to Middle Zealand to see the Hobbits. There’s lots to see there too, with the two main islands and whatnot. I’d just need to be sure not to wander too close to Mordor while I’m there. It’s a 25 hour flight, thought, ‘cos it’s like a hundred thousand miles away or something.

How often do you get a haircut?
I get my hair cut every 4 weeks. Otherwise it kind of “fluffs out” from my head. It also tickles my ears 🙂

In regards to puzzle what’s your choice: jigsaw, crossword, word search or numeric puzzles?
Jigsaw, I think, followed by word search. I can’t do crosswords because I don’t know anything, and numeric puzzles make me feel ill 😦

How many cities have you lived in? You can share the number of physical residences and/or the number of cities.
If we’re talking actual “cities”, three I think. There is a handy list of cities I can refer to in the UK, fortunately, ranging from the biggies like Birmingham down to the tiniest like London. Towns are “promoted” to cities via royal charter. I don’t know what makes a city a city in the other countries I’ve lived in.

Guildford (Surrey) is a town. I’ll call Cobh (Ireland) a town as well. Welwyn Garden City (Hertfordshire) is actually a town, though it seems to be masquerading as a city. Nice try, Welwyn Garden City. Redruth (Cornwall) is a town.

Truro (Cornwall) is a city and so is Cork (Ireland) probably. I’ll call Stuttgart (Germany) a city.

Liss (Hampshire) is a village I suppose, as are Grampound Road and Carnon Downs (both Cornwall).

So that’s three cities, four towns and three villages. I think that’s all of them 🙂

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World series.

How many languages do you you speak?
Mink bimble flibble hatstand meep meep. Snurgle McPhee mehaaaaaa.

None, evidently.

What are you reading, watching, listening to, eating?
I’m reading one of my standard urban Gothic-style books. You know the sort of thing – feisty heroine, has some sort of “banned” magic, living in secret, demons attack blah blah blah. Also “The Invisible Man” by HG Wells for my book group.

I’m watching Grimm series 5 (I think), Once Upon a Time series 6 (?) and Colony series 1 (all on Netflix). I have a few things lined up including iZombie series 3 (?). Looking forward to that! While writing this I’m watching Casualty from last night.

I’m listening to a lot of Gin Wigmore, The Pretty Reckless, Evanescence and Dragonette at the moment.

I’m eating all sorts of stuff. Mostly with hot sauce.

What was the last photo you took with your phone?
This one. I took it yesterday for my Instagram to illustrate the beauty of Spring time.

What is your favourite time of day?
Right at the beginning 🙂

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World.

When you’re alone at home, do you wear shoes, socks, slippers, or go barefoot?
I have a battered old pair of slippers. When you vacuum as “often” as I do, barefoot is not to be recommended heh heh.

What was your favourite food when you were a child?
Yeek, that’s a long time ago to remember. I really liked a chocolate bar called “Yorkie”. Does that count as a food?

Are you a listener or talker?
I listen a lot. I can also talk a fair amount once I’m comfortable with people. With new people I keep my mouth shut until I’ve listened a lot and have sussed out what sort of people they are, their sense of humour, topics to avoid and so on.

Favourite thing to (pick one):  Photograph?  Write? Or Cook?
Do I pick one topic or do I pick one thing from each topic?

Photograph: views of nice places.

Write: flash fiction, preferably with dark/quirky humour.

Cook: I’m more a fan of eating the cooking rather than the cooking itself 🙂

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World.

Would you rather live where it is always hot or always cold?
No.

You want an actual answer. I’ll rephrase.

No.

Okay then, if I have to answer, cold. At least in a cold climate I can put on more clothes and switch on the heating. There’s not a lot you can do when it’s too hot.

Do you prefer long hair or short hair for yourself? 
Definitely short. Long hair can get annoying (and my hair’s never been particularly long).

What is your favourite month of the year?
That’s a tricky one.

December has Christmas in it but it’s pretty cold. June to August can be quite warm so that’s nice. Back when I was younger September was very nice, warm and dry, but in recent years it’s been pretty wet.

Every month has its plus and minus points. Except January. January’s just rubbish.

What is the easiest way for your to learn something new?  By reading, by seeing and doing, in a classroom?
I like to do things. Someone can tell me and/or show me how to do something all they like, but until I’ve tried it myself it doesn’t really sink in.

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World.

Wanting something to quench your thirst, what would you drink?
Something sugar-free and fizzy straight from the fridge. If it has a little ice floating in it, all the better!

Mmmm. Nearly no calories of tasty refreshment.

Complete this sentence:  Never In My Life Have I…
… visited the extra-dimensional space, that space between spaces, the world you can only catch glimpses of out of the corner of your eye, the land where the fairies live. And Hobbits too, probably.

If you could be given any gift what would it be?
Not wishing to sound greedy, but just the one gift, is it?

Then I shall take the gift of dance, that I may bring joy to the world with my snappy footwork. Or a million pounds. I haven’t quite decided.

What do you do if you can’t sleep at night? Do you count sheep, toss and turn, or get up and try to do something productive?
I get little phases of this maybe a couple of times a year for a couple of days. Generally I just toss and turn for a bit. It usually happens during the summer when it’s a bit hot.

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World.

When writing by hand do you prefer to use a pencil or pen?
I use a pen, a standard Bic biro. Cheap, light and chewable. I don’t write much anyway – birthday and Christmas cards, thank you letters and notes at work, that’s all.

Would you rather be an amazing dancer or an amazing singer?
That’s a tricky one to answer as I’m already awesome at both. You should see my feet move when I’m “throwing some shapes” of a weekend. And my singing is second to none (as long as whatever I’m singing along to is loud enough to drown me out).

If you were on a debate team, what subject would you relish debating?
I would debate the merits of debating debates in the debate in the hopes that this would cause a metaphysical spiral of infinity, causing the auditorium to implode so we could all go home early and do the watching of the Netflix.

What are you a “natural” at doing?
I don’t know that I’m really a “natural” at doing anything. I’m quite good at learning things to an “okay” level, though.

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World.

Have you ever participated in a distance walking, swimming, running, or biking event? Tell your story.
I have done quite a few marathons.

Netflix marathons.

Ha ha ha.

No.

Name one thing not many people know about you.
No, because then lots of people would know it about me 🙂

What is your favourite flower?
I don’t really have a favourite flower. I have favourite flower colours, my preference being blues and purples. Here are some which pop up in my back garden every Spring.

I don’t know anything about flowers but I’m guessing they’re bluebells since they’re blue and they looks like bells.

Things I want to have in my home (paintings, hot tubs, book cases, big screen TV etc)
I’ve pretty much got everything in my house that I want/need. The TV in the sitting room is already as big as will fit, though it’s not big by today’s standards (42″).

Catching up on last night’s “Casualty”

I have pictures on the walls and as many book cases as I have wall space for.

My house is full!

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World series.

Does your first or middle name have any significance (or were you named after another family member)?
No to both questions (and names), as far as I’m aware. My first name is a mixture of English (Dad) and Scottish (Mum) spellings, though it’s quite a common spelling. I’m used to people spelling it wrong, though.

Just last week I emailed someone and signed off “Alistair”. He replied “Hi, Allister”…

Music or silence while working?
Music, usually. I often listen to music at work on my headphones. Most people in IT at my company do throughout the day. Not if I’m doing something really complicated, though.

If you had a special place for your three most special possessions (not including photos, electronics, people or animals), what would they be?
Not electronics? What does that leave? 🙂

I put artwork by my friends’ kids on my fridge.

The Never List: What are things you know you never will do?
In true Bond style, I will “Never say Never Again”! Except I’m never going to bungee jump. Or do any extremely dangerous things. There are enough ways to suddenly die already without flinging myself out of an aeroplane.

And on that happy note, I shall leave you to your Sunday!

Though I will just add, did anyone know that cheese toasties can be quite dangerous? I left mine under the grill for less than a minute on Thursday and when I went to check they had burst into flames! I was going to fetch my phone to take a photo, but I decided discretion was the better part of valour and put the fire out instead.

They tasted nice though after I’d snapped off the charcoal. They had quite an authentic flame-grilled taste.