draliman on life

Here is my post for Share Your World Week 4, hosted by Cee over at her photography blog. Pop over and take a look at her wonderful photos!

Where did you live at age five?  Is it the same place or town you live now?
I lived in two (technically three) places at age five. We were living in the little village of Carnon Downs and my parents bought a house in Truro, but it wasn’t quite built yet so we had a rented house in Truro for a few weeks. My brother and I called it “the Little House”.

I’ve lived all over the place since then – South East England, Germany, Ireland, and now I am just a few miles outside of Truro. Back to my roots!

You are invited to a party that will be attended by many fascinating people you never met.  Would you attend this party if you were to go by yourself?
I wonder who has described these people as “fascinating”? If these “fascinating” people are going to regale me with stories of the great artists and composers of the past five centuries I think I’ll pass. If, on the other hand, they wish to compare similarities and inconsistencies between various series of Star Trek, I’m in! Because they’ll likely be as socially hopeless as I am.

An original Klingon

Next Gen mutated Klingon

Judging by these pictures, the new Klingons aren’t as happy as the original ones.

Did you grow up in a small or big town? Did you like it?
My “formative” years were spent in Truro, Cornwall’s only city! I guess the population is somewhere around 20,000. So I guess that counts as a small town?

Did I like it? Yeah, it was fine :-). I’ve lived in a few villages, which I prefer. The village I live in now is a couple of thousand I suppose. A new housing estate has just been built so that will swell numbers a bit. We have a pub, a post office and a little shop.

When I first moved in I noticed quiet. I could hear the birds and there was no distant road noise. Also, people passing by wished me “good morning”. I’m happy here :-).

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Lots of things! Sometimes a spy :-). After watching Wimbledon I wanted to be a tennis player. During the FA Cup I wanted to be a football player (that’s soccer, not American football). After our annual summer trip to visit Granny in Scotland, I wanted to be a train driver.

Obviously I never wanted to work in IT as a kid, since the entire world contained about 2 computers so there weren’t many jobs in that area.

It’s (the end of) week 3 on Cee’s Share Your World challenge. So I’ll jump straight in!

Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?
Anyone? Anyone at all? One sec while I type “supermodels” into Google…

No, seriously I reckon I’d like to meet Ade Edmondson. I first knew him as “Vyvyan”, the punk rocker in “The Young Ones“, the programme I consider to be the first in the “alternative comedy” revolution in the early 80’s. He’s done TV, stage (Rocky Horror Show in the West End), music, all sorts. He’s multi-talented and I’ve also seen him on an art program where celebrities are asked about their favourite art or whatever it was. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy and very clever.

Plus he’s married to Jennifer Saunders so I’d get two comedic geniuses for the price of one!

When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?
Probably yesterday in the car, though I sometimes quietly sing bits and bobs during the day without really realising it. I only really sing in the car because the music drowns me out. Otherwise my lack of singing ability annoys me.

I tend to “burst into whistle” a lot more often. My pitch is pretty good, whistle-wise.

I won’t do either within earshot of anyone else.

If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?
I really have no idea.

Flying sounds cool. Or the ability to channel the energy of the universe and bend it to my will I SHALL RULE THE WORLD AND ALL SHALL BOW BEFORE ME bwahahahaha.

Oh dear. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a good idea after all. Maybe I’ll go for more confidence instead. That sounds safer.

What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about?
More things than I can list here. Poverty, racism, The Holocaust and similar atrocities, the list goes on.

See you again next week!

Here is my Sharing My World, hosted by Cee over at her photography blog.

Are you a hugger or a non-hugger?
I like hugs but I never initiate them, because I don’t know if the other person would want a hug from me. Of course, they may be thinking the same thing, so everybody goes hugless. It’s a hugastrophe :-(.

What’s your favourite ice-cream flavour?
This question looks familiar and I’m trying to remember what I said last time, for whatever challenge it was. Nobody’s checking, right?

I guess if I’m not sure then it’s hard to pick a favourite anyway. Vanilla always works. Chocolate is good when I’m in a chocolate mood, or mint choc chip. I also like stuff like black cherry.

Do you prefer exercising your mind or your body? How frequently do you do either?
I prefer to exercise neither my mind nor my body. For preference it would be my mind.

I’m stuck exercising my mind when I’m at work. I can’t do my job if I act like a dimwit. As for exercising my body, I go for the occasional walk. I did the vacuuming last week, does that count?

Are you more of a dog person or a cat person? Why?
Cat person all the way! I should mention at this point that I’ve never had a dog.

I know that dogs are loyal and all the rest of it, but I’m quite lazy and dogs are much higher maintenance than cats. Cats pretty much take care of themselves. Just bung them some food and water, change their kitty litter and give them hugs when they want one. That’s the sort of pet I could handle.

It’s 2015 and it (was) the first week, which means it’s time for Share Your World 2015 Week 1, hosted by Cee on her wonderful photography blog.

It’s not Sunday, which is my traditional SYW day, but tomorrow has been designated “Unicorn Appreciation Day”, so I shall be busy appreciating unicorns!

How do you get rid of pesky phone calls from telemarketers?
Fortunately I get very few of these now since I registered with the Telephone Preference Service. I used to get so many I stopped answering the phone.

I wish I could be like my dad, who is quite rude to telemarketers, but I can’t bring myself to be nasty which is actually worse for them as they’re forced to speak for ages, wasting their own time, before I can get a word in to tell them that I’m not interested. Sometimes they’re quite nasty about it.

I once had one chap who talked for a full 2 minutes with no break whatsoever before I finally managed to say “actually I rent so I’m not interested in water pipe damage insurance, that’s my landlord’s responsibility”. Poor fellow :-(.

What are you a “natural” at doing?
Hmm, umm, I don’t think I’m really a “natural” at doing anything. Unless “slobbing around” counts. I seem to be able to manage that without too much effort!

How often do you get a haircut?
It used to be every 6 weeks, but now it’s every 5. My hair is quite short so it doesn’t take long to start looking messy, curling round my ears and whatnot.

My hairdresser used to be a “walk-in” type so I kept putting it off until my hair got ridiculously messy, but a year or so ago she started out on her own and only does appointments which forces me to go at a pre-arranged time which is a good thing, hair-wise.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “fun”?
Hmm, umm, ah. Well, nothing came immediately to mind. That’s a bit depressing, isn’t it?

It’s week 51 of Share Your World for 2014. I probably should have made an effort to do this one at the beginning of the week so that it was posted in the correct year, but never mind.

The questions are posed by Cee over at her Photography Blog.

Would you prefer snowy winters, or not, and why?
I love snow. It’s all magical and whatnot. But you can’t easily drive through it and I have an eighteen mile commute so unfortunately I’m going to have to say no to the snow.

If I didn’t have to drive in it, I would definitely like snow in the winter. We had snow a few years ago and that was actually okay, but then it froze and that was awful to drive on.

I should point out that where I live we rarely get snow and when it does snow it’s rarely more than a couple of inches.

So, you’re on your way out and it’s raining. Do you know where your umbrella is or do you frantically search for it all over your apartment/house?
I might have an “emergency” umbrella somewhere, I’m not sure.

Me and umbrellas don’t mix. I can’t control them, they blow inside out, they poke people in the eye. It’s a disaster. I have a little cap to wear in the rain.

Here’s a funny story which happened to my Mum a few days ago. She had one of those telescopic brollies and when she pushed the “open” button the end flew off and nearly hit someone :-). It must have been one of those KGB assassination brollies.

Do you prefer your food separated or mixed together?
Well, I definitely prefer to separate my main course and my dessert :-).

Otherwise, it comes as it comes. Some stuff is supposed to be mixed together, like stir fry, otherwise everything just goes on the plate and I eat it. A bit of meat, a bit of potato and a bit of veg on the fork. Into the mouth.

What is set as the background on your computer?

Here is my contribution for Share Your World, hosted by Cee at her photography blog. This week’s questions come to us courtesy of Dawn over at The Day After.

Do you have a signature dish? If not is there one in your family?
Here is my recipe for “Saturday Pizza”!

1. Pre-heat oven to 190^oC (because that’s the temperature I cook everything at)
2. Remove pizza from freezer and take off plastic wrapping
3. Bung in oven for 8 minutes
4. Whip it out and add extra pepperoni and cheese
5. Bung back in oven until cheese melted
6. Take out of oven and eat

Does that count? No? Boo :-(.

Do you have a favourite board game?
Not really, as board games are a bit boring on your own. I quite like Monopoly, though. And also Trivial Pursuit because I don’t like games where you have to use any brain power, so “knowledge” games are good – you either know it or you don’t. (I don’t, I know virtually nothing about anything.)

Is there a household chore that you enjoy?
Is this a trick question? It is, isn’t it? No?

I actually used to quite like ironing. It was quite relaxing, with some music playing along. Of course, now that I’m alone again I haven’t done any ironing for six years. I don’t enjoy it that much. I have an iron and ironing board, but the ironing board (which I bought in 2008) is still in its plastic wrapping!

Here is my cupboard under the stairs, in which I’ve marked the ironing board, iron and Hoover with blue arrows. In a few months they will probably be buried!

What is one thing you will never care about?
There have been some great answers to this in other people’s posts, and I don’t want to copy them.

I’m sure there are lots of things I will never care about, but since I don’t care about them I don’t think of them and therefore I don’t know quite what they are.

* Disclaimer to all prospective girlfriends who may be reading this – it’s all in jest! Obviously I’m constantly cooking delicious food and cleaning and ironing and whatnot 🙂

I hope everyone had a great Christmas/holiday and Happy New Year to everyone!

It’s time for Share Your World again, with the questions posed as always by Cee at her photography blog.

What is your preferred hot drink: coffee, tea, water, hot chocolate, or other?
Coffee, obviously :-). I don’t actually drink any other hot drink.

I love chocolate but hot chocolate – I’m not a fan, for some reason. I’ll occasionally drink tea but I hate milk so it has to be black or preferably with lemon.

So it’s coffee for me, all the way.

What was your favourite toy as a child  . . .  and now?
I liked Lego as a child, but I also had a great fort which my Dad made for my brother and I. It even had a working drawbridge, which had a cotton reel providing the counter balance. We spent hours playing with that fort. It’s possible it’s still in my parents’ loft, I’ll have to check!

As for now, I don’t know if it counts as a toy but my PlayStation 4 is pretty cool.

Candy factories of the entire world have become one and will now be making only one kind of candy. Which kind, if you were calling the shots?
Noooooo! It’s like my worst nightmare come true :-(.

Wait a sec, we still get one kind of sweet, you say?

I don’t know exactly what the word “candy” encompasses (it’s an American word) but I’m going to assume it includes chocolate, ’cause I luuuuurve me some chocolate. Look what I got as part of my work Secret Santa present.

390g of pure chocolate yumminess

And it’s entirely possible that I bought too many boxes of these delicious Guylian seashell chocolates. I’ve eaten one, wrapped one (pre-photo) and I need to wrap two more of the five remaining. I guess I’ll have to take one for the team and eat the extra boxes :-).

It’s a tough job but someone’s got to eat them

Would you want $100,000 right now or $120,000 in a year (tax Free)?
I don’t need the money right this minute so I’ll take the extra $20k bonus for waiting a year. In theory.

In practice, I’d need to check the current exchange rate and exchange rate forecasts. In a year’s time, if I’m extremely unlucky, the larger amount could convert to the same amount of pounds Sterling as the smaller amount does now.

If the US Dollar collapses in a year compared to the pound Sterling, I could end up with nearly nothing. At least it’s not Roubles.

I’m over-thinking this. My brain hurts :-(.

Thanks for Sharing My World with me this week!

It’s time to Share My World with you all, courtesy of Cee at Cee’s Photography Blog. Thanks for posing the questions, Cee!

What is your favourite toppings on pizza?
Everything! Chuck it all on.

Well, none of that vegetable shit, obviously. Or those weird little fish. Cheesy meaty goodness, that’s what we want. Olives are good (I checked and they’re fruit, not veg). And peppers too (also fruit). So the “no veg” rule holds firm.

Is that extra cheese? Why yes, yes it is.

I want to learn more about …
I’d quite like to learn the guitar properly, rather than just the easiest chords (I know that’s technically learning to “do” something rather than learn “about” something, but hey).

Because everybody knows the lead guitar gets all the girls. And because it would be cool.

I have a 20 year old electric guitar which is largely broken. I need a new one. It’s on the “list”.

What are three places you’ve enjoyed visiting?
That’s tricky – I’ve got to choose places I’ve enjoyed visiting but not lived in, so that rules out Ireland and Germany straight away.

North Scotland – summer holidays with my Granny when I was a kid. Beautiful.

North Wales (my little holiday last year). Beautiful as well!

Tintagel (Cornwall) – I had a wonderful day out during the summer.

Do you prefer eating the frosting of the cake or the cupcake first?
I’m not anti-frosting per se, but it can be pretty sweet and overwhelming. So I attempt to eat the frosting and cake together, which is a good combination. I suppose if it weren’t a good combination, people wouldn’t frost cakes.

Bye bye for this week!