draliman on life

It’s Sharing My World time again, hosted by Cee at her photography blog.

Here are this week’s questions.

For your blog do you basically use Windows or Mac, laptop, desktop, pad, or phone?
I’ll read on anything but I always write my blog on my Dell Latitude Ultrabook. I’m not sure what the difference between a laptop and an ultrabook is. It’s actually way outside my budget but I bought it from Dell Outlet, where people buy stuff and then immediately send it back so Dell resell it cheap, so £1100 became £650. Cool! It runs Windows 7.

I need a keyboard to type at any sort of speed. That’s why I use a laptop rather than my tablet or phone. And I need to be able to use it, which is why it runs Windows 7 rather than Windows 8 🙂

Here it is. I’m writing this post on it – freaky!

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be either a football (soccer player) or a train driver. Fortunately neither came to pass.

Every summer we visited my Gran in the north of Scotland and to get there we went by train much of the way. The car went with us on the train. It was very exciting, hence “train driver”. As it happens, though, driving a train isn’t as exciting as it looks. As for “football player”, well, doesn’t everyone? The closest I ever got to that dream was handing out half-time oranges at primary school. I didn’t get to play because I sucked.

Did you grow up in a small or big town? Did you like it?
I grew up in a little village, but only until I was five so I don’t really remember it. We then moved to the biggest (only, in fact) city in Cornwall, a teeming metropolis of around twenty thousand people. Ah, city life. The bright lights, the crowds etc etc.

Since then I’ve lived in reasonably-sized cities (Guildford, Cork, Stuttgart) but I like where I live now, a little village again, though I’ve only been here two months. Yesterday was very weird. It was a beautiful day. I was outside doing a bit of gardening, a couple of others were washing their cars. Everyone said “hello”. Then my friend from around the corner came round with two of her little kiddies and we all went to the village market. I felt all grown up. When did that happen?

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?
Probably around 30, though I like knowing that I’m older when I get all the weird aches and pains. If I’d had these aches and pains at 30 I would have been seriously worried. Here is a list I have compiled of all my ages:

• Emotional age: 16
• Life experience age: 30
• “I’m getting too old for this” age: 52
• First thing in the morning age: 12
• Any time after 9pm age: 93
• Physical age: 107
• Actual age? Well, I posted a photo a little while ago, have a guess! Anyone guessing over 50 will be removed from my Christmas list.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I hate this question. It doesn’t seem like a “bonus” to me. I’m glad nothing went wrong last week and I hope nothing goes wrong next week? I’ll just copy and paste that from now on.

See you next week!

It’s time once again to Share My World! The questions have been posed by Cee over at her photography blog. I don’t have a lot of time, I’m off to work soon to start the “long weekend of work” so I’m writing this now in case I don’t have any more free time until next week.

Do you believe in extraterrestrials or life on other planets?
Of course there are other thingies and whatnots out there. Have you not seen the TV? I was watching an excellent documentary the other day, it was called “Star Trek” I think, and they had lots of pictures of extraterrestrials. Here’s one (copyright probably CBS/Paramount).

Not human, as shown in the documentary “Star Trek”

What type of pet or pets do you not want to have?
I wouldn’t want a duck-billed platypus as a pet. I would think that they’d be quite hard to take care of!

High-maintenance pet.

(Picture from State of the Environment, Tasmania website, credited to Dave Watts).

If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?
I’d be bluey-purple. I like that range of colours. Or alternatively I’d be white, because no-one would use those much and I’d exist a long time.

What type of transportation would you be? Why?
Transportation? I’d don’t really fancy dragging people from place to place. If I had to be a mode of transportation, maybe a little boat, cutting through the waves in the sunshine. That might be nice. Except I wouldn’t know if it were nice or not, because I’d be a boat, and boats aren’t aware of such things.

From superyachts.com, for sale now at only £6.5m. I’ll take two!

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
Oh dear, this tricky question again. I’m grateful I’m still alive and kicking. I’m looking forward to the hopefully successful completion of this weekend’s big project at work.

See you next time when I will be “sharing my world” once again!

I can’t believe a whole week has gone by already, and it’s time once again for me to Share My World, part of Cee’s Share Your World feature.

Here’s the badge, which I must remember to pop on my sidebar.

If you were an ice cream cone how many scoops and flavours would you be and why?
Mmm, ice cream. What to choose, what to choose? I think we’ll start with cool mint choc chip. Add to that a bit of plain old creamy vanilla and add in a bit raspberry and I think we have the perfect cone.

Unless the raspberry clashes with the mint choc chip, in which case it’ll be gross.

Are you left or right handed?
I’m right-handed. Very right-handed. I can count on the fingers of one hand the things I can do with my left hand. I’m counting those things on the fingers of my right hand as my left hand is not up to the job.

Before making a phone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say?
I rehearse to the point that I have an idea what I want to say, and I decide up-front my opening line. A bit like when I’m giving a talk – have an idea, an outline, and know how you’re going to open and the rest will flow naturally.

I hate making phone calls. “Dread” might be a better word. I put them off as long as possible, so you can imagine what the past few months have been like, buying a house. Calls to the solicitor, estate agent, changing my address with a gazillion people. It’s never-ending!

How many rings before you answer the phone?
I actually stopped answering the land line phone ages ago. I was getting multiple junk calls a day, until I registered with the Telephone Preference Service, and then they largely stopped. My mum uses a code – a certain number of rings, hang up, then she rings again so I know it’s her.

As for my mobile, I’ll answer it as soon as I fumble it out of my pocket. Sometimes I accidentally answer it while it’s in my pocket.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful that in the three days I took off from work last week I actually got a lot done, rather than just vegging out like usual. I bought and constructed some bookcases, and they are actually really good, sturdy things. Unbelievable considering they only cost £22.99 from a warehouse chain store – I’m very impressed. Here’s a picture of one I put in my bedroom.

Finally “the gang” has found a new home!

I even registered with the local doctor! I needed antibiotics for my eye, which I had to pay for. £7.85, if you can believe that. It’s gone up since my last prescription back in the 90s. As a new patient the nurse did a full work-up including a blood test and now they want to monitor my blood pressure. I tried to tell her that it’s been “borderline danger level” for years and coming back to have it taken again in 4 weeks isn’t going to make any difference, but she wasn’t for swaying 😦 .

In the week coming up I’m looking forward to – nothing in particular. Let’s just get through it in one piece, shall we?

That’s me for this week. Tune in again next week, when I will be Sharing My World once again!

It’s time for me to share my world again! Actually, it was time to share my world almost a week ago, but this last week I picked up a bit of a social life. I know, me!

I’m also still spending time getting the house in order. The sitting room is all spick and span and the kitchen is pretty much there, but I still have a lot to do in the bedroom.

This week has some tricky questions. It’s all based on introvertism (I think I just made that word up – my browser is not happy with it), and is hosted by Cee over at Cee’s Photography Blog.

Describe yourself in a word that starts with the first letter of your name.
Hmm, the only word I can think of (avoiding the obvious) is “average”, so I’m going to use my bloggy name and go for “dark”, which pretty much describes my character, and is easily divined from my stories.

If 100 people your age were chosen at random, how many do you think you’d find leading a more satisfying life than yours?
Now this is a hard one. Most of them, but that would be my perception. They would have problems and worries that don’t show on the outside, I’m sure. The grass is always greener, and all that.

If you were a tree, would you become a book or furniture? Please describe.
I think I would prefer to stay a tree, thanks. Looking out over the world, enjoying the sunshine and rain and the wind blowing through my leaves or needles.

I wouldn’t want to be a book, leafed through, falling to bits and discarded. I also wouldn’t want to be sat on. Please don’t chop me down!

You are trapped in an elevator, who would you want to be trapped with?
I don’t generally use lifts. Fortunately most buildings in Cornwall are not so tall that you can’t use the stairs. I’d definitely walk up three or four flights rather than getting all squashed in a lift with strangers. Enclosed spaces are fine as long as I’m in there alone.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I guess I’m grateful that nothing went horribly wrong last week. There was no reason why anything should, but you never know. “Dark”, remember? I’m looking forward to a couple of days off next week.

That’s all the questions for this week, most of which I have managed to avoid answering correctly!