draliman on life

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

How many siblings do you have? What’s your birth order? 
I have one brother. He’s 18 months younger than me and lives about 7 miles away.

In a car would you rather drive or be a passenger?
Mostly I would rather drive. Maybe it’s a control thing. It is nice to be driven around sometimes, but that rarely happens as I live alone, so it’s nice for a change! On a long journey, I’d definitely prefer to drive, though. And I like my car!

When you lose electricity in a storm, do you light the candles or turn on the flashlight? How many of each do you own?
This rarely happens, though by coincidence it did happen a couple of weeks ago during extremely high winds. I like candles but I worry about the house catching fire 🙂 so I go for torches (that’s what we call “flashlights” over here).

I have one in my work bag, one in the car, one in my bedside table and two in the kitchen drawer. One of them is one of those which has different modes and can be hung up or arranged like a lamp – that one was very handy in the blackout for showering and whatnot.

List at least five of your favourite types of animals?  (any animal to domestic to wild to marine life)
I like small furry animals the best.

Cats, some of those cute little guys you get in Australia like koalas, quokka (quokkas?) and wombats. Here’s a link to a Daily Mail article with those guys in. I think pandas are cute and also meerkats (why is meerkat not in my spell checker? – it wants to change it to “beermat”). I think raccoons look quite cute too, at least in the picture I got from Goldfish’s online store.

How cute is that?

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World. We’ve reached double week numbers already! A fifth of the way through the year nearly.

What would you ask for if a genie granted you three wishes?

• A long and healthy life
• Tons of cash
• Babes

What experiences are most meaningful to you?
That’s tricky. I don’t really have “experiences” any more. I just shuffle through life. I enjoy sunny days out in “the nature” and family Christmases and whatnot.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a train driver! Every year as a kid we took the train to North Scotland to see my Gran and it seemed like it would be very exciting to drive the train. My brother and I sometimes made a “train” out of the furniture, and we had a Hornby model train set too.

I guess in reality it would quite boring, though.

Complete this sentence:  The best day of my life was…
I guess it was the day of my PhD viva. After the questioning I went across the corridor to the high pressure physics lab and wandered around waiting to be called. It was great to go back in and see them all stand, hold out their hands and say “Congratulations, Dr Phillips” :-). Word spread quickly – by the time we’d finished up and I’d gone back down to the office I shared with some other postgrads and postdocs, someone had already taped a piece of paper with “Dr” on over the “Mr”!

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World, where we answer questions posed by Cee.

Have you done something you truly want to do today?
Well, it’s only 8am. I guess I had a bit of a lie in which was something I wanted! I don’t usually “truly want to do” anything to be honest. Days come, days go…

What can you help the world with?
Well, nothing really. But this does remind me of a craze which swept our school back in the day. Someone would ask if they could “help” you and if you said “yes”, they’d turn your bag/pencil case upside down and empty it out all over the floor. I am proud to announce that I was part of the originating group for this!

So I could turn the world’s pencil case upside down and empty it out. Maybe it needs a bit of a clear out.

If life was ‘just a bowl of cherries’… which fruit other than a cherry would you be..?
I’d be a passion fruit, obviously… 😉

Quotes List: At least three of your favourite quotes?
Here are some quotes I used before for a quote challenge.

• Do or do not, there is no try (Master Yoda)
• In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded (Terry Pratchett)
• Be excellent to each other (Bill and Ted)

Here are my answers to Cee’s Share Your World challenge.

What household chore do you absolutely hate doing?
Yes 🙂

What was the last URL that you bookmarked?
I don’t tend to bookmark much stuff, to be honest. I can never find the bookmarks when I need them. The only ones I really end up using are the ones which fit along the top of my Chrome browser. I guess the most recent bookmark I added, sometime in the middle of last year, was for a company which scans your websites looking for vulnerabilities. Not very interesting, I’m afraid 😦

Close your eyes. Listen to your body. What part of your body is seeking attention? What is it telling you?
Let’s see… nothing too much right now as I’m reclining on the sofa typing this. If I stood up my brain would be screaming “Posture, dude, you’re walking around like an old man! Stand up straight!” Don’t you just love getting older?

Would you rather have a two-bedroom apartment in a big city of your choosing or a mansion in the country side in the state or country where you currently live?
The two-bed flat sounds like the sort of size I would like, but I wouldn’t like to live in a big city. Living in the countryside sounds great but a mansion would be too big and expensive to maintain. I guess I’ll be staying put!

Well, for the first Sunday in weeks it’s not raining and I’m not going out so I guess I need to wash the car. See question one :-(.

It’s time again for Cee’s Share Your World.

What are you a “natural” at doing? 
I can’t really think of anything I’m a “natural” at. I’m pretty good at having naps at the drop of a hat I guess.

Would you prefer a one floor house or multiple levels?
I like having an upstairs to go to at the end of the day. However, I do worry about the stairs when I get older. I may end up in a single-storey house at some point in the future.

Okay at the moment…

What was your favourite subject in school?
Physics, I guess. I also liked English, but only half of it. Lessons (and exams) were split into “English Language” and “English Literature”. It was the literature I never got on with. All those old books, and worse, the poetry… :-(.

Complete this sentence: If only the rain…
… would stop already. We’ve hardly had a day without rain all year. Even if it starts off looking okay, it rains later on. People are getting sad and grumpy :-(.

Nice start, didn’t last.

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World. There are lots of questions this week! They were suggested by The Happy Quitter.

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone, and happy 13th AA birthday to me :-).

What is your favourite word?
“Douchecanoe”. That’s a good word, even though it’s not really a word (though weirdly Chrome thinks it is). “Awesomesauce”. “Nincompoop”. That’s a good word too, because there’s no aggression or rancour to it.

What is your least favourite word?
“Housework”. Or maybe it’s just the idea behind that word which I don’t like.

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Oh gosh, these are toughies this week. Lovely nature scenes (in real life) I guess.

What turns you off?
Dog pooh. Seeing dog pooh. Smelling dog pooh. Treading in dog pooh. Pretty much everything dog pooh-related, you might say.

What is your favourite curse word?
“Gosh darn it!” (said no-one ever). Because I’m a proper gentleman. I don’t swear, that would be a naughty, naughty… oh fuck it, it’s “shit”. And “fuck”.

What sound or noise do you love?
The gurgling of water.

What sound or noise do you hate?
Vacuum cleaners. Lawn mowers. Drills. I hate any sort of loud, persistent noise. In fact, I think I may be allergic so it’s probably best that I don’t do any of those activities. And while I’m at it, the sounds of dusting and washing the car and organising my paper work. I’m allergic to those noises too. Honest, guv’.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
International jet-setting playboy. I reckon I’d be good at that.

What profession would you not like to do?
Sanitary engineer. Dog pooh picker-upper. Call centre operative. Door-to-door salesman (do they still exist?). Anything involving talking to people.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
“This is terribly embarrassing, but the Pearly Gates are jammed after Angel Gabriel crashed into them in his AngelMobile. Pop back down to Earth and have another go while we get them sorted, there’s a good chap. You can be an international jet-setting playboy this time, if you’d like.”

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

If you had a shelf for your three most special possessions (not including photos, electronic devices and things stored on them, people or animals), what would you put on it?
Special possessions that are not electronic devices? That makes it tricky.

There’s my Granny’s gong and candlesticks I requested when she passed away, now on my mantelpiece.

From Granny’s house

There are some Dr Who bits and bobs. Dr Who stuff is spread across multiple shelves.

And of course, “the lads”.

If you had a box labelled ‘happiness’, what would you put in it?
Memories of happy times. Or rather, copies of memories of happy times. As a backup in case I need to restart my head.

What do you want more of in your life?
Keep… it… clean… must… keep… it… clean… gnnnnnnn… Star Wars Lego. Phew, I did it!

Daily Life List: What do you do on an average day? Make a list of your usual activities you do each day.
On average, I’ll be at work, so…

• Wake up (0550)
• Complain a lot
• Have a coffee
• Make lunch and place in Dr Who Dalek lunch box
• Get ready for work
• Go to work (around 0655)
• Arrive at work (around 0720)
• Work
• Leave work (1700)
• Watch DVD/Netflix while having tea
• Watch more Netflix/Amazon Prime/play some PS4/do some blogging
• Go to bed (around 2200)
• Read for a bit and go to sleep

Thrilling stuff! And if you’re a nasty thief hoping to use this itinerary to rob my stuff, please remember to smile for the cloud-connected motion-sensitive infra-red security cameras.

Here is this week’s contribution for Cee’s Share Your World.

What one thing are you really glad you did yesterday?
Hmm. Umm. Well, it was Saturday.

I went to the supermarket. I bought petrol. I had an afternoon nap. I played Star Wars Battlefront and shot a bunch of people. And got shot/blown up by many more.

Maybe I should have timed this post after a day when I actually did something.

Are you generally focused on today or tomorrow?
Both, really, especially at work. Obviously I have to be focussed on what I’m doing at that moment, but I also have to keep a thought for deadlines and pending work so I don’t let anything else slide.

At home, I’m more focussed on “the now”. I can’t be thinking of tomorrow’s episode of “Walking Dead” while I’m in the middle of today’s, now can I?

Would you want a guardian angel/mentor? What would they tell you right now?
Nope. I can’t be getting hassled all the time with “helpful” suggestions, whether from non-corporeal being or human.

That said, hopefully right now they’d be telling me that they’ve given up, I’m a hopeless case, I never listen and they’re leaving :-). Toodlie-pipsky, annoying inner voice.

Would you rather live in a cave house or a dome house made out of glass?
Hmm, a nice cosy safe little Hobbit burrow or a big open glass house with, presumably, little privacy. Let me think… the Hobbit burrow for me! Hobbits are cool and they make very cosy houses.

Imagine how hot the glass house would get in the summer. You’d need a second mortgage just to pay for the curtains and air-con. And imagine what would happen if some neighbourhood kid kicked a football? Would the whole thing come crashing down?

Am I over-thinking this? No. Hobbit house!

It’s time again for my post for Cee’s Share Your World.

What is your favourite piece of art? (it doesn’t have to be famous)
Hmm, I really just like what I like (I’m interpreting “art” as traditional paintings/pictures/sculptures for the purpose of this question). Nothing in particular. For example, the “Mona Lisa” may be an exceptionally famous piece of art, but to me it’s just a painting of a woman. I don’t see why it’s so “exceptional”.

On the other hand, I think this picture (done by my friends’ older son on the back of an off-cut of wallpaper when he was, I think, eight [EDIT – his mum has told me he was only five!]) is so good I framed it and hung it over my fireplace.

What made you smile today?
Well, nothing yet. I’ve only been awake for two hours. And I’ve been watching “Scream” (the series) on Netflix, which is very good but nothing to smile about, what with all the dead teenagers and whatnot.

Which place do you recommend as a Must-See? Please state which country, state or province.
Tricky, very tricky. There are so many lovely places that if asked to choose I’ll have to go for Cornwall, UK, since I live here. You can see loads of photos if you click on my “Photos” category, but here’s a little taster.

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Complete this sentence: When I was younger I used to…
… wish I was older. Now I wish I was younger :-). But retain all my current life experiences and acquired “wisdom” so I could make better choices. I know. It’s a big ask.