draliman on life

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

What made you feel good this week?
Nothing in particular, really. Life just trundles along. Everything is nicely stable on the contentment scale. I did visit St. Michael’s Mount. I’ll do another post with pictures, but here’s a little taster.

For potlucks or parties do you cook it yourself, buy from a grocery store, or pay for catering?
I don’t really go to potlucks or parties, but I would certainly buy something from a shop. Pay for catering? That sounds a bit too high class for any sort of party I would be invited to. And me cooking would likely lead to some sort of unfortunate mass poisoning incident :-(.

What is your favourite part of the town/city you live in.  And what Country do you live in?
I live in England. I guess my favourite part of my village is my house. There isn’t a lot more here. The shop, the village hall and so on.

Complete this sentence:  My favourite place in the whole world…
… is anywhere with lovely scenery. Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, Wales, anywhere I’ve been and seen lovely places.

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Week 34 already. Where has the year gone?

Thanks as always to Cee for hosting this challenge, on top of all the photography challenges she hosts as well!

Was school easy or difficult for you? How so?
Yes. Both. The work was okay, I usually got good marks. But the whole school thing. Yuck!

Who was it who said school is “the happiest days of your life”? Or did that saying just pop up out of nowhere? It’s a big fat lie, anyway.

As an adult, with bills and responsibilities and all the rest, at least you’re in control of the big mess you’re making of it :-).

What is your favourite animal?
To have as a pet, it would be a cat. As for animals in general, I like cute. Koala Bears are cute. Even if they’re lying about being bears.

Here’s a picture of a raccoon I bought from Goldfish’s online store. Goldfish can make anything look cute in her pictures.

How cute is that?

If you had to have your vision corrected would you rather: glasses or contacts?
I’ve worn glasses since I was around 10, and have to wear them all the time.

I did spend a few years wearing contacts while I was at university. However, back then due to my astigmatism I couldn’t have soft lenses, I had to have “semi-hard gas permeable”. They were pretty uncomfortable, and I had a real problem falling asleep in lectures back then. You don’t want to fall asleep with contacts in. Nasty.

List:  Name at least five television shows (past or present) you enjoyed?
Oh boy. I could go on forever. I guess I’ll just name some that I’m enjoying at the moment, or have enjoyed recently (which doesn’t necessarily make it recent!).

• The Good Wife
• Dr Who (obviously)
• Grimm
• Stargate SG1/Atlantis
• Blake’s 7
• Red Dwarf
• Blackadder
• From Dusk Till Dawn (the Netflix spin-off) – darker and more gory than the film – series 2 out now!
• Bones
• Lost Girl
• Grey’s Anatomy (anything medical actually – ER, Casualty, Holby City…)

Here is my Share Your World, hosted as always by Cee at her wonderful photography blog.

What are some words that just make you smile?
“Asshat” and “douche-canoe” (not technically actual words). Thanks, Merby! Kerfuffle (according to Chrome, also not actually a word). Evidently, words which are not words make me smile :-).

You’re given $500,000 dollars tax free (any currency), what do you spend it on?
Me! Mortgage and miscellaneous debts. Pay off my car. Then save for my retirement. I might even buy friends and family a present. Like a chocolate bar or something. If I’m feeling particularly generous I might even buy them a bottle of wine! One bottle between them.

What subject would you like to study in depth, if given the time to do so?
I don’t fancy the idea of studying anything to be honest. Maybe the Jedi path. As long as the study pack comes with a light sabre so I can decapitate muggers.

Would your rather be stuck in a small plane with bad turbulence for 2 hours or be a passenger in a car racing the Daytona 500?
No.

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!