draliman on life

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

Do dogs ‘talk’ (communicate) with their own species?
Presumably. Who else are they going to talk to properly? I expect different dog species have a bit of trouble communicating, though. And dogs from different countries woof in different languages,

Have you ever had to work on Christmas Day?
No, no more than just a few bits I’ve had to check on and off, but done from home.

If someone gifts you something that you immediately loathe, do you pretend to really like it anyway or are you brutally honest about your opinion?
I would pretend to like it. No need to be nasty.

Which popular drink, found during the Christmas season most often, is called “milk punch?”
I imagine it would be eggnog, which sounds a bit gross to be honest.

How many ghosts show up during “A Christmas Carol?”
I immediately thought “three”, of course, but then I Googled it to see and there were in fact four – I had forgotten about his old business partner, Jacob Marley!

Are you all about the holly and jolly or more about remembering the alleged ‘true’ meaning of Christmas?
I’m more about the ‘true’ meaning of Christmas.

Presents.

Please share a memory or thought about the holiday season if you’d like, whatever kind of celebration you may observe.
Christmas always used to be about Gran coming down to visit from Scotland for a couple of weeks. We had things we always used to do, like going to a little place nearby and buying satsumas. She’s been gone a good while now, twenty years I think.

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

Do you enjoy receiving Christmas cards through snail mail?
Yes, it’s nice to get stuff like that through the post. I don’t get much stuff through the post any more since so much stuff is online. At least that means no bills through the post anyway!

Do you like the taste and/or smell of peppermint?
To a certain extent. Not if it’s too strong.

What is your least favourite holiday side dish?
We only have “side dishes” at restaurants and I don’t eat out at Christmas. If we’re talking “my least favourite thing to put on my plate”, then carrots. I’m not keen on carrots.

What is the coolest (best) gift you ever gave someone?
I can’t think of anything. I’m not great with gifts.

Bonus question because I thought it was nifty: What is a Christmas song that makes you cringe?
l’m with Dawn on this one – “Last Christmas” by “Wham!”. It’s overplayed and annoying. And it’s not really a Christmas song either. It’s about unrequited love and just happens to mention Christmas. It could as easily have been set at Easter.

Here is my post for Melanie’s Share Your World. This week’s logo features special guest star Santa!

What is truth?
Wow, straight in with the deep philosophy.

Truth is something said or written which agrees with the actual facts. On top of that, everyone has their own truth. And then there’s that “history is written by the winners” thing. If everyone believes something happened, then it happened, whether it actually happened or not.

Or are we retrospectively causing something to have happened through belief, creating our own truth and bending reality to our will?

It’s too early for this sort of thing 🙂

What’s one thing people would never know about you just by looking at you?
Lots of things! And they’re secrets. So there 🙂

Do loud noises bother you?
Yes, they do. There for I am unable to perform tasks such as vacuuming and cutting the grass.

I know. It’s a tragedy.

If you were guaranteed the correct answer to just one question, what would you ask?
“Mortal, you may know the correct answer to one question. What would you ask of me?”

“What, just one question?”

“Yes, just one question. You have your answer.”

“Wait, what? No! That wasn’t my question! Aw, shit.”

Here is my post for Melanie’s Share Your World. And here’s the new logo. I have saved it as “share-psychedelic”.

What’s your remedy for the Holiday blues?
I don’t really get them. I get January blues. Because January is rubbish.

Your favourite beverage (if it differs) during the holiday season? If it doesn’t differ, just answer the ‘what’s your favourite beverage” part.
I just keep drinking my cloudy fizzy lemonade and diet Coke.

This one has been asked before, but what’s your take on pumpkin spice?
What’s pumpkin spice? Spice with crushed dried pumpkins? Sounds a bit dodgy to me.

Is there is a person or god connected with your holiday?
No. It’s about going round visiting my family and having a big Christmas dinner 🙂

Who are they and do you believe in them?
If you do not believe in these people or gods, does the celebration/honouring of that being, bother you in any way (e.g., ignored, dismissed, angry, etc.)?
Yep, I believe in my family. They’re not made up or anything. People can believe in/honour whatever they like as long as they don’t try to shove it down my throat.

Share a song that you enjoy during this Winter season (whether it’s Christmas, Hanukkah, The Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa and so forth).
It’s the classics for me. “Fairytale of New York (Pogues/Kirsty MacColl), “Merry Christmas Everybody” (Slade), “Stop the Cavalry” (Jona Lewie)… though having one Christmas line in a song about the second world war – “I wish I was at home for Christmas” – doesn’t really make it a Christmas song any more than setting a slaughter-fest at a Christmas party makes “Die Hard” a Christmas movie…

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

What did you have for dinner last night?
It was Saturday evening so I had sausages, baked beans and fried egg with a couple of slices of bread and butter. I usually have something like that on a Saturday while I watch a film. Yesterday I watched “White House Down” again.

Would you rather go out on a Saturday night or stay in?
I would rather stay in. If I really had to go out, Friday and Saturday would be the days I’d least like to do it as they’re more likely to be busy out.

How are you, truthfully?
One day I’d love to answer that question properly when asked in the morning at work. It’s standard in the morning – “how are you?”, “how was your weekend?” etc etc. Imagine their surprise if you actually launched into an actual full and truthful answer rather than saying the standard “fine thanks, you?” Heh heh.

What’s the best topping/ice cream combination? If you don’t eat ice cream, what’s your favourite combination dessert?
I quite like vanilla ice cream by itself. It’s nice with strawberry topping too. I also like chocolate ice cream, fruity ice cream, mint choc chip ice cream… I’ll just say “I like ice cream”, I think.

Share Your Gratitude with a thought (quote), a picture or a short paragraph.
I’m grateful I forgot it was Black Friday pretty much all day so I didn’t feel tempted to spend any money on “cheap” crap I don’t need.

Amazon had Black “Friday” all week. It’s a bit like Christmas. The longer the build-up, the less special and exciting the actual day is, to the point where I just forget about it.