draliman on life

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

Do you watch and enjoy reality TV shows?
No and no. There’s enough reality in my own life, thanks.

If you had the power, where would you send anyone you didn’t like?
I do, of course, have The Power. I generally just wave my hand and utter “go away” and they do. I don’t know where they go, though. Just… “away”… 😮

Do you enjoy your own company and what do you do with your ‘Me Time’?
I’m usually on my own.TV, video games and walks is what I do.

If you wanted to change anything about your partner/pet/family what would it be?
I wouldn’t want to change anything about my family. If they do something I don’t like, I can just wave my hand and utter “go away”… I’m kidding! I wouldn’t do that to my own family! Or would I… 😮

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

What is your idea of a good holiday? Seeing the sights, lazing on a beach, hitting the night spots, getting away from it all…
Nice scenery. Not towns and architecture but moorland, mountains, cliffs and whatnot.

You are offered tickets to a show. Which would you prefer, Opera, Play, Cinema, Entertainment, Ice Gala, something else?
I’ll take the money alternative, please!

Have you ever won a sports trophy (or something similar for a particular achievement)
Sports trophy? Me? Hahahahahaha.

I jointly won the award for “best improvement from second to final year” in my department at university. But I kind of set that up as I didn’t do nearly as well in my second year as I should have, due to only doing 12 weeks revision before the exams. That sounds a lot, but not when there’s 10 exams.

What is your dream car (fact or fictional)
The Batmobile, obviously. But not the original one. As I recall that one had no roof and it rains a lot here.

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

If you can, how often do you exercise every week?
I try to get my 20 minutes walk about 5 days a week. I go on the exercise bike “occasionally” 😉

In the summer I sometimes go for longer 5-6 mile walks, but it’s all country roads and a bit dangerous in the winter when it’s dark after work.

Do you belong, or have you ever belonged, to a gym?
Nope, never have, never will.

Do you prefer to exercise alone or in a group (ie. aerobics)
I have to exercise alone because otherwise my fitness and prowess upsets the other people ahem cough cough 😉

Do you enjoy it or feel it’s something you ought to do?
In general I’d prefer not to have to bother especially when it’s cold and wet. It’s enjoyable going for long walks in the summer, though.

Here is my post for Share Your World, hosted by Di. These questions were posed by Melanie last August – she sadly passed away this time last year after hosting SYW for many years.

Do you ever feel more excited about getting the package in the mail, rather than the item that’s in it?
Not really. Though it can be exciting wondering where the delivery driver will leave the package. Usually they knock on the door, but sometimes I get a “delivered” notification on my phone and I have no idea where the package is. This is why I got a doorbell camera. Once I saw the driver ignore the front door and go through the side gate out of view. He’d left it in my outside storage bin. I was right there waiting!

What is the difference between your ideal self and your real self? (i.e. what attribute or physical feature would allow you feel the ideal ‘you’?)
My ideal self has a smaller waist size, for a start…

If you found $2,000 on the ground and there were no witnesses, what would you do with it?
I’d feel sorry for the poor American tourist who dropped it… If it were pounds, I’d call the police and tell them. I have no idea where the nearest police station is which is open to the public, so they can come and get it if they want it.

Are you ever morally obliged to take action? Under what circumstances?
That depends on your own moral compass I guess. I’m assuming “take action” means actually doing something to help, rather than videoing the whole thing on your phone to post on YouTube later (other platforms are available)…

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

Do you have carpets, rugs, laminating flooring, tiles, or wooden floors (or something else) in your property?
Mainly carpets. The kitchen has a sort of parquet flooring made of up dinky blue wooden boards. The previous owner of my house had the kitchen completely remodelled a couple of years before she sold it to me.

Do you have a bathtub and separate shower, or a combination of the two?
I have one of those mixer tap affairs, where you switch between bath and shower with a little lever. I would like to have the tub taken out and a proper shower put in, but that’s very expensive.

What is your favourite room of the house, and why?
The living room. It has the TV, PS5, best Echo device and so on in it. It’s where I spend most of my waking hours.

How many televisions do you have?
Two, but the one in the bedroom is just in storage and not hooked up. It’s an emergency fallback in case my actual TV breaks. Though to be honest, it’s so quick to buy stuff like that these days I could watch on my computer while waiting for a next-day replacement.

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

When food shopping, do you prefer to shop online or in person?
I prefer not to have to do it at all.

Do you take/stick to a shopping list?
I do use a shopping list, but don’t always keep to it. I don’t go crazy or anything, but sometimes I see something I forgot on the list, or something that looks like a nice treat!

Do you shop around or are you store loyal for convenience?
For shopping week to week, I use the one single shop in the village, so shopping around isn’t really an option unless I want to drive somewhere, and if I did that any money saved on the shopping would be spent on petrol.

I also do a “big shop” once every 6-8 weeks or so. That mainly consists of stuff I can’t get in the little village shop plus stuff which is cheaper and can be bulk-bought like canned goods, toilet rolls, cleaning supplies and such. I always use the same shop for that. This shop is online and delivered.

Roughly how long does it take you to do a weekly shop?
That’s the one I do in person in the village shop. About 3 minutes walk there and back and about 4 minutes in the shop so about 10 minutes 🙂

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

What is your favourite dessert?
Choclate gateau. Black Forest gateau. Other sorts of gateau. Ice cream of nearly any flavour. Ice cream-based desserts. Chocolate eclairs, profiteroles and choux buns. Cheesecake. Eton Mess.

Desserts are my favourite dessert, really.

Do you still use cash to pay for goods?
I do at the once-a-month village market as mostly they don’t take cards. Apart from that I use cards and occasionally my phone.

Apart from a house, car or holiday, what is the most expensive thing you’ve purchased?
Probably various computers. I tend to buy something around mid-range – the one I’m typing this on is a Microsoft Surface, mid-range at just under £1000.

If you are going out for a special occasion, what is your favoured outfit?
It depends where this “special occasion” is taking place. If I can get away with jeans, trainers and jumper I will. Otherwise I have various things up through the “smart scale” all the way up to a suit.

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

Do you prefer a duvet, quilt or sheets and blankets on your bed?
Definitely a duvet. I hate being all squished in under sheets which are tucked in. Whenever I’m anywhere with sheets, the first thing I do is untuck them.

Despite much Googling, a duvet may or may not be the same as, or similar to, a “comforter” in the US. Though I’m afraid whenever someone says they use a “comforter”, the following image always pops into my head…

Do you sleep with one or two pillows?
There are two pillows but side-by-side, so technically I suppose the answer is one. Two pillows are too high, your neck ends up at a silly angle.

Do you prefer a single, double, or kingsize bed?
I don’t know about “prefer” – I have a double bed. Which, according to “the Google” is roughly the same size as a “full” bed in the US.

In the winter, do you have a hot water bottle or an electric blanket?
A hot water bottle, but I don’t take it to bed with me.

Fun question: have you ever slept in a hammock?
No. It looks fun to try, though I expect I would fall out and break something I need. Like my legs.

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

When you were a child, did you have your friends round for tea even if it wasn’t your birthday? Were you invited to stay to tea at a friend’s house?
Yes, everybody did that back then. Over to a friend’s, play on the computer or race around on our bikes, fishfingers and baked beans for tea, then back home 🙂

What was your first job in adult life?
I had a summer job at the County Council in their computer department between finishing school and starting university. That was back when computers took up most of a room and had big machines with tapes spinning in, like you see in old films on the telly 🙂

Do you enjoy shopping (food, clothes, gifts etc)
Nope, not at all. Surgical strike – straight to the goods, pay, get out.

What was the best bargain you ever got?
In all my life? Let me think dearie ooh there that one time 1974 I think it was or 1975 that there sweet shop was doin’ them penny chews at a ha’ppeny each if you can believe that ha’penny each my word you don’t get that these days don’t know what the world’s coming to 300 quid for a loaf of bread it’s disgusting I blame the government gibber gibber mumble…

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

Do you remember your first teacher at school?
No! I remember one or two teachers from Primary School but not my very first one from Infants School. I was only little!

What was your best and worst subjects?
English (language) and Physics went well, maths and Latin not so much.

Were you encouraged in class or did you just muddle along?
Some teachers encouraged, some didn’t. You’ll always get a range from “exciting enthusiast” to “nasty asshole”.

Would you like to be a student today?
I would at university – that was great fun – but not back at school, no way no how. Being completely under someone’s control again, being told what to do and what not to do? No thanks 😮