draliman on life

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

Do you have a bucket list?
No. Too much pressure to get things done for a lazy boy like me 🙂

Cremation or burial?
Cremation. There’s not enough room in this country for burying people really.

Recognised service/celebration of life, or private gathering?
Whatever whoever is left wants. I may be “last man standing” so maybe nothing.

Flowers or donations?
Donations would be nice. Flowers seem like a bit of a waste for a non-happy occasion.

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

If you wanted to do something completely against your character, would you dye your hair a shocking colour, shave your head or get a tattoo?
I really don’t fancy any of those. I guess dying my hair would be the most temporary option.

What is your dream/perfect job?
I wouldn’t mind working outside, some sort of nature conservation. I’d probably soon wish I was back working inside again, though.

Would you like to learn how to fly an aeroplane?
Yes, though I wouldn’t be any good at it. It was scary enough learning to drive a car.

Have you been on a hovercraft?
Nope. Riding on one of those little hovercraft sounds fun, though.

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

Of all the household chores (laundry, dusting, hoovering, washing up, cooking etc) which is your least favourite?
I never do any dusting, so that.

With food prices going up all the time, do you buy less, find substitutes, or don’t buy at all?
I just buy what I always bought and complain about it. I’m fortunate not to be on a budget.

Do you enjoy meals with left overs?
If I have leftovers I’ll make something with them. They can often make the best meals, chucking everything in together, adding some tinned tomatoes and cooking it all up together.

Do you prefer bagels, crusty bread, or toast?
I like crusty bread but thirty years ago a piece of crusty bread jammed into my gum and it got infected so that put me off a bit. I don’t really know exactly what a “bagel” is. They mention them a lot on American TV.

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

What is the weather like today where you are?
It’s currently 5C. We’re towards the end of what we would call a “cold snap”, though temperatures barely dropped to 0. It’s colder than average and quite prolonged. It’s still dark outside but I think it’s supposed to be cloudy today.

Have you booked your annual vacation yet?
I’ve booked a few days in the Pitlochry area, in Scotland.

Do you have a passport, and when does it expire?
I have an expired passport. It expired about 10 years ago, I think.

When was the last (or first) time you went abroad?
When I last lived abroad (Ireland). I came back to the UK early 2003. The first time I went abroad was a school exchange trip to Germany, which would have been somewhere around 1985/1986.

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

Would you consider 2024 to have been a good year?
It was okay I suppose. I spent up until October doing a major website rewrite at work with almost all annual leave cancelled, so I had weeks off during the last 3 months of the year so that was nice.

What has been the highlight of 2024 for you?
I don’t recall any highlights.

Did you keep any New Year resolutions if you made any in January?
I don’t make New Year resolutions. If I make them I’d break them and then I’d spend the year feeling guilty about it.

Are you looking forward to 2025?
No more than any other year. It’ll be another year like any other, I’m sure.

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

What is the best or worst gift you have ever received?
I always remember my first computer, which I got for my birthday in 1982. It was a Sinclair ZX81.

What is the funniest gift you’ve ever given or received?
I have no idea. I don’t recall ever getting or giving funny gifts.

Do you purchase a gift specifically with a recipient in mind or buy something you like and hope they do?
I always buy for the recipient. To be honest I usually ask what they’d like. Then I get that plus another something small so there’s still a bit of a surprise.

Have you ever recycled/ passed on an unwanted or unsuitable gift?
Not that I remember. I wouldn’t really re-gift. That can come back to bite you on the ass, especially if you forgot who gave it to you and you give it back to them the next year.

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

Is it your birthday today (or a friend, family member, anyone you know?)
Nope.

What’s the worst part about the festive / holiday season for you?
All the organisation and fear that I’ve forgotten something.

Do your Decembers have a hot, cold, or moderate climate?
I took a leaf out of Dawn’s book and Googled this as Google has that AI section at the top now. It says 11C during the day and 7C at night.

Would you like to hibernate when it’s cold?
No, that’s a lot of life I’d be sleeping away.

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

Do you prefer a slice of cake from a larger one or an individual item like a bun, scone or Danish pastry?
I’m good either way. Bring it on.

Do you like sugary items such as doughnuts, gateau with cream, cupcakes or fruit cake?
I’ll have all of that except the fruit cake.

Can you bake a cake?
I’ve only ever tried the one type of cake, but I guess that’s a yes. I went hunting through my photos and found a picture.

Care to share a favourite cake recipe?
Just the one for the cake above, a standard dead easy sponge – self-raising flour, eggs, caster sugar, baking powder, mix and cook.

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

What is your favourite Christmas (or traditional) memory?
Gran always visited from Scotland, and we used to have lots of fun going around the place. We also used to go for a lovely walk on Christmas Eve, all together.

Do you think merchandise is sold too early for these celebrations?
Yep. The only reason there’s no Easter Eggs in the shops yet is because they’ve been full of Christmas stuff since October.

Do you decorate your house with ribbons, streamers, tinsel etc?
Not very much, a couple of strips of tinsel and some flashing coloured lights.

What is your least favourite Christmas song?
I was struggling to decide which one is the absolute worst, but Dawn reminded me that it’s “Last F*cking Christmas” by Wham.

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

Do you like snow?
I do, in theory. I like walking out in it. I hate it if I’m out somewhere, it starts to snow and I have to drive home. That’s frightening.

However we never had much snow here and even less in recent years.

Did you build a snowman as a child and dress it with coal eyes, a carrot nose etc?
I think we built rather half-hearted snowmen but never got as far as dressing them up. They were pretty poor anyway, given the amount of snow we had to work with.

Did you have snowball fights?
Yep 🙂

Did you have a sleigh?
I had neither sleigh nor sled, due to the afore-mentioned lack of snow. Snow which actually settles for more than 10 minutes once every 5 years doesn’t make it worthwhile.

I remember once we borrowed food trays from Mum and slid down a steep road on them. That’s as far as we got, sled-wise.