draliman on life

It’s Share Your World time, and we’re at week 32 already! Soon be Christmas…

Thanks as always to Cee for hosting and posing the questions.

Are you a collector of anything?
I collect neuroses, fears and anxieties of all sorts. I’ve got loads! I’m hoping they’ll be worth something one day.

What is your biggest fear or phobia? (no photos please)
No photos? Boo. Which to choose? New places, new things, change, spiders and creepy-crawlies (obviously). Fear of fear (phobophobia). Sometimes I don’t want to do something because I know it’s going to make me fearful and I don’t like that feeling. It’s like, “fear squared” or something.

Do you prefer reading coffee table books (picture), biographies, fiction, non-fiction, educational?
Fiction for sure. The only non-fiction I read is the news. Reading for me is escape. I don’t want to hear about someone else’s life or whatever.

Blog reading is a bit different, mind, as I feel I “know” my bloggy friends to some extent and I am interested to see what they’re up to. I see that more as keeping in touch with friends.

Complete this sentence:  If I Must Be Reincarnated, In the Next Life I Want to Be…
… me again! Because I’m me, there’s no point trying to be anyone else. I’d just end up being me again.

Here is my Sharing of my World courtesy of Cee at her photography blog.

Would you rather take pictures or be in pictures?
Take pictures, for sure. Sometimes someone will get a shot of me – to avoid a picture at a Christmas party when I’m sitting at the table is tricky, but I usually manage to look the other way or turn around just before the flash goes off.

It’s not like I believe the picture’s going to steal my soul or anything! But it might be going to steal my soul though :-(.

Where do you like to vacation?
Usually at home. There are so many lovely places to go and see. I occasionally go away. Well, very occasionally. It’s more fun going away on holiday with someone else.

If you had to describe your day as a traffic sign, what would it be?

Uneven road ahead!

List at least five favourite first names.

• Chad and Brad, obviously 🙂
• Tarquin heh heh
• Samantha
• Stephanie
• Charlotte
• Scarlett

Okay, I don’t really have favourite “names”. I see a girl I like, then like the name by proxy :-).

Here is my Share Your World for this week, courtesy of Cee.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Either a train driver, a secret agent or a football (i.e. soccer) player. Sadly I was totally rubbish at football (though the teachers at school were nice enough to let me hand out the half-time juice). Life got in the way of my train-driving aspirations! Secret agent was never really an option.

What was your favourite food as a child? Do you eat it now?
Chocolate. Yes! But not nearly as much. If I start eating chocolate I get addicted, so it’s only for special occasions.

If you were invisible, where would you go?
Ooh, the possibilities. Heh heh 🙂

It would be cool to sneak into some of these government meetings to see what actually goes on.

Would you rather forget everyone else’s name all the time or have everyone forget your name all the time?
I already forget everyone else’s name. I’m really rubbish with names. They take a while to sink in and get etched into my brain. Then I’ll go to talk to someone I’ve known for months and their name will be gone. Gone I say!

That comes across as rude so I’d rather it was the other way round.

It’s time for my Share Your World post, with questions posed as ever by Cee.

What is your favourite comfort snack food?
That would have to be chocolate, I guess! Ice cream works too. I don’t know that I’d call it comfort food, exactly. Sometimes my body just says, “hey, give me sugar, dude!”.

If you had to spend one weekend alone in a single store but could remove nothing, which store would you pick? (except food or beverage)
I guess a shop with video games and such. I’m sure that would keep me busy for a couple of days!

What was the largest city you have been to? What is the one thing you remember most?
London. I remember getting lost in Harrod’s, which is also the largest shop I’ve ever been to! I also remember how much I hate the underground (=subway). Too cramped, too many people all pushing and shoving.

Finish this sentence:  It has recently come to my attention that…
… my back garden is getting out of control. I guess that’s my job for this morning.

Here is my Share Your World, courtesy of Cee at her photography blog.

What is your favourite month of the year?
Mmm, tricky one. Let’s take a look.

• January – too cold, Christmas just over, back to work with a vengeance
• February – pointless
• March – rain, not quite Spring yet, still cold
• April – neither one thing nor the other
• May – not summer yet
• June – potentially warm but probably not, rain likely
• July – holidaymakers start arriving, add 15 minutes to evening commute
• August – holidaymakers everywhere, add 25 minutes to evening commute, can’t go anywhere because everywhere is full of holidaymakers
• September – rain
• October – rain, windy
• November – another pointless month
• December – has Christmas in it (yay), too cold, might snow or freeze so I’m constantly worried about driving

Conclusion – none of them.

Do you drink coffee at all?
Do I ever! Mmm, coffee.

What was one of your first moneymaking jobs (other than babysitting or newspaper delivery)?
I had a summer job for three months before going to university. I was working in the computer room at the county council. It was quite cool and allowed me to save up some pennies before leaving for my studies. Remember the old films with computers where you see flashing lights and big tapes in big machines whirring round? It was exactly like that! One of my jobs was to put the tapes in the machines.

List: If you play video/computer games list 5 games you like? 

• Witcher 3 (that’s what I’m playing at the moment)
• The Mass Effect series
• The Elder Scrolls series (Oblivion, Skyrim)
• The Last of Us (“like” may not be the right word – I’m terrified of this game, it’s too realistic)
• Gears of War

It’s time once again to Share My World, courtesy of Cee over at her photography blog.

In a car would you rather drive or be a passenger?
Generally I’d rather drive. Possibly it’s a control thing. Though I don’t like driving to new places, especially big/busy places. It is nice once in a while to be a passenger so I can take in the scenery, but if it’s a long journey I’d definitely want to drive. I quite enjoy driving which I guess is why I spend so much each month on a fun car to drive.

If you were handed free opera tickets, would you go or sell them? Why?
I guess I’d go just to see what it was like. I went to see “Carmen” as a child at an open air theatre in Cornwall, but I don’t remember much. To be honest opera singing generally sounds like screeching to me and winds me up, but this sort of thing is often better when experienced live.

Describe your own outlook on life in seven words or less. (NOTE:  does not necessarily have to be a sentence.)
Battle through it. You’ll be dead soon.

Hmm. That came out darker than I expected. How about:

Live life and be happy. Party on!

Which would you prefer:  a wild, turbulent life filled with joy, sorrow, passion, and adventure–intoxicating successes and stunning setbacks; or a contented bordering on happy, secure, predictable life surrounded by friends and family without such wide swings of fortune and mood?
Content, predictable, routine. No surprises, please!

Here is my contribution to Cee’s Share Your World.

What did you or did not like about the first apartment you ever rented?
That was a room in student housing on-campus. Which was, well, a room in student housing on-campus. So leaving that one alone, I rented a house with three other students in my second year at university.

What a laugh we had! Our landlord was Iranian, claimed to be the “agent” for the mysterious owner back in Iran, insisted on rent paid in cash and was dodgy as hell. He used to come round, complain about the mess and then get down on his hands and knees with a dustpan and brush to “demonstrate” how to clean. Hilarious.

We lads fought, laughed, cried, argued… ah, I miss those days.

What kind of art is your favourite? Why?
I’m going with music. That’s an art form. Not classical music, I don’t like that. Rock, pop and whatnot.

Some paintings are okay. I particularly like the ones where paint seems to have been just chucked on the canvas. I don’t like portraits particularly, but I do like scenes of wind-swept moors and mountains and raging seas.

How many siblings do you have? What’s your birth order?
I have one brother. The birth order? Ooh, I thought that was a top secret. We were born into the Grand Order of the Peanut.

Oh, I see. My brother is 18 months younger than me.

Complete this sentence: I’m dreaming of a white …. (and no you can’t use Christmas as your answer)
Ummm… white out? Well, technically “Wite-Out”. That stuff is amazing. Covers up all your mistakes. I could do with some of that stuff on my life. Magic!

Here is this week’s Share Your World, hosted by Cee over at her photography blog.

What’s your favourite charitable cause and why? 
Me! No, only joking. I give to different charities across wildlife and health. If I had to choose just one, I would probably keep giving to Macmillan Cancer Support. They provide support, advice and nurses to help you out. But they can’t help everybody and not for very long because they need money, so that’s the one I would choose.

What colour do you feel most comfortable wearing?
Black and dark blue.

If you had your own talk show, who would your first three guests be? (guest can be dead, alive, famous or someone you just know)
Adrian Edmondson. Comedian, comedy actor (The Young Ones, Blackadder). I’ve also seen him on a couple of more factual shows and he seems like a really nice guy.

Sir Terry Pratchett. Author extraordinaire.

Scarlett Johannsson. Because, Scarlett Johannsson.

List:  What are at least five places you’ve enjoyed visiting?
North Wales

Tintagel, Cornwall

Godrevy, Cornwall

Godrevy, Cornwall

Trelissick, Cornwall

Golitha Falls, Cornwall

Here’s a quick Share Your World, which is hosted by Cee. Just three questions this week, as there was also a poll. I voted but it’s a secret!

For your blog do you basically use Mac or Windows applications. What type of device laptop, desktop,tablet, phone or pad?
I always use my laptop. I find phones and such too small and my fingers are too big to type properly. For a post like this, I type it straight in (I use the “classic” post editor, I’ve never seen this new “beep boop” one). For fiction, I write it in MS Word and then paste it in for preview and editing.

If you were to treat yourself to the “finer things” what would you treat yourself to?
I’m not really sure what I would consider the “finer things”. Weird and expensive food when I would rather have a pizza? Maybe I’d get one of the supermarket’s “premium” pizzas, just for a treat :-).

Although I wouldn’t right now, because my oven is broken :-(. I’ve needed a new cooker for a while as the grill is broken, but now that I’ve lost the oven as well I have re-prioritised it from “at some point” to “immediate”. For yesterday’s Saturday Pizza I had to do an emergency cheese omelette with chilli.

Can you change a car tyre?
Yeah, probably :-). I haven’t had to do it for years. I always jack the car up first, then realise I can’t get the wheel nuts off like that and have to jack it back down again. Duh.

To be honest, if I needed to change my tyre I’d probably root around in the boot for the jack, see if I can find the jack points and ultimately call the AA (Automobile Association). I pay them a fortune and haven’t called them out since  2002. For the near £1000 they’ve had off me in that time, the least they can do is change my tyre.

It’s sharing my world time again, and this week Cee has posed some “finish these sentences”, um, sentences. It can be fact or fiction!

Never In My Life Have I…
…accidentally shot myself in the face while playing an ill-advised game of Russian Roulette while smashed on tequila shots. Not even as a student! That’s one for the bucket list. Probably should be the last item.

My neighbour wants me to help her…
…not have to keep asking me to cut back the undergrowth that gets in her way, probably. I’ve managed to pre-empt her this year by being proactive in my shrubbery cutting. Yay me! Why the shrubbery can’t just stay within the confines of my borders, I don’t know. Damn you, shrubbery.

When I was little I wanted…
…to be a football player (that’s football football, not American football), a train driver and a spy. Maybe I could win the cup final on the weekend, drive trains during the week and do my spying at night. That’s do-able, right? At least to a ten year old.

Will you come here to…
…read my little stories and see my photos? I hope you will :-).