Sunday 8 December 2013

Questions for Everyone


I'm thrilled that Carol in Cairns gave me the Sunshine Blog award! I'm going to answer the 11 questions of the award and set 11 questions to everyone who reads this. If you don't want to read my answers, below, maybe you'll skip to the end and fill in some of YOUR answers. 

I won't be picking out blogs I specially liked to pass the award onto, though.   Not only is it hard to actually choose favourites, but I hate leaving out blogs I like.  

I'm putting random pictures on to break up the areas of text. Most of them are slightly relevant to what I have written ... but mainly I just like the pictures.


So here are my answers to Carol's questions.

1. What do you love about blogging?

I like the interaction with people I probably wouldn't otherwise meet or know about..



2. Who is the most interesting person you have met in real life and why?

I was very lucky to work as a journalist for years and got the chance to meet all kinds of interesting people, both famous celebrities and "ordinary people".  I learned equal amounts from both groups.  I have family and friends that I love but I never wonder how "interesting" they are!



3. Who is your favourite author and can you recommend one thing I should
read of theirs?

I don't have a favourite though I have always read a lot. I'm interested in Lewis Carroll as a person (as anyone who has read the sidebars here will know) and  "Alice" has had a big effect on me. I will generally read Kate Atkinson's new books, although she's gone off a bit lately. I like Terry Pratchett -  much underrated by the "serious" literary establishment, like Roald Dahl used to be.  Dickens IMO is the best and most vivid descriptive writer who ever lived. A true genius. His writing can set me on fire.

The book that has made most impression on me lately is "Elbows off the table" by John Kennedy Bain.      It is a self published ebook telling of his life growing up in care - but it's not a misery memoir. His personality comes right through and it's original and full of humour.  Personally I think a publisher ought to pick it up but they have little opportunity to take anything a bit unusual these days.   I do have a large collection of cook books, though I don't cook as much as I did.



4. Newspapers, radio or Breakfast TV?

Radio 4, sometimes radio 3, some newspapers.  I only watch Breakfast TV occasionally, when I feel like seeing human faces instead of listening to disembodied voices.


5. What is your favourite cake?

I'm choosing plainer cakes these days, fruit, carrot cake, etc. I hate sticky chocolate ones but. I suspect that if I ate creamy ones I would realise I prefer those.



6. One thing you would still like to learn?

Too many to list, but if I had really wanted to learn them I would have had a go by now. My one regret is that I didn't learn to ice skate or ski well enough, so if I go on a rink I'm always anxious.


7. What was your first job?

I was a temporary clerk at Westminster City council. I didn't have anything useful to do and I couldn't believe they were paying me for sitting and reading all day. Yay!!

 How life has changed. Now, I'd probably be working like a robot in Amazon's horrible warehouse, or on a zero hours contract in a fast food place. I am  sorry for this generation of new jobseekers. They seem to be faced with a bleak and difficult path.



8. One place you would like to visit again before you die?

I hope anywhere I visit again, would be before I die!



9. Can you speak a language other than English?

No, I don't like speaking foreign languages because I can't do it well enough and I am too lazy to stick at it until I can.  But I can sort of understand several foreign languages if I read them.  Thank God most people speak intelligible English now.  And for Google Translate.



10. The first album you bought with your own money?

I bought it when I was living in Belfast - Jack Hylton's "Egyptian Ella" on a scratchy old 78.  Not that I was foxtrotting around in 1925, but my dad was born in Alexandria and brought up both there and in Cairo, and so I had Grandma's stories to go on and I guessed this song would have wended its way out to Egyptian's foreign residents before the war.  I played it on a wind up gramophone I got in a Belfast junkshop.

Weird kid, eh?



11. What is your favourite flower?

Probably a rose, but  in Spring it is a narcissus. Or sometimes a freesia. Actually, I like almost any flower.



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MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU

Here are my 11 questions. Feel free to answer any of them, all of them, or none of them.

Questions:

1.  If there is one candy left in the box, do  you have to eat it, or can you leave it sitting there all alone for the next few weeks?



2. What do you want to remember most of all, if you survive to be very old?



3.. Would you enjoy being a very rich and famous celebrity? ( after all you don't HAVE to be like the unedifying Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson and pay someone £1,600 a week to clean your silver and gold collection....)



4. Which of the photos in this post is your favourite and why do you like it?



5.What piece of music do you personally find most emotionally moving?


6. How do you deal with anxiety, depression and bad times?



7. What do you love doing that bores everyone else stiff?



8. Did you ever encounter an inanimate object that seemed to have a will of its own?


9. What is your very favourite hotel or restaurant? (This blog does have "travel" in the title, after all)



10.  Do you think prisoners who have committed particularly vile crimes should be segregated in jail for their own safety?



11. What do you wish you had known when you were 18? (if you are under 18, ignore this question)




47 comments:

  1. Great post - and isn't it interesting how thought-provoking some apparently trivial questions are!

    I'll have a go:
    1. It would depend on the day. If it's rainy and miserable, I'd eat the candy. If it's sunny, and likely to to sunny tomorrow, I'd probably save it!
    2. Memories - I suppose, if I'm really old, what matters most is remembering if I turned the gas off.
    3. A celebrity - no thanks. I'd have to have a proper haircut.
    4. Which photo is my favourite? No idea - though my first reaction to the street looking down to the church was to wonder where it was. And I love the child looking in the mirror. But I'm sure they all tell a story.
    5. Probably Elgar's Nimrod. Tho O Magnum Mysterium can also make me sniff a bit.
    6. Bad times - that's what friends are for. And mine are wonderful.
    7. What bores other people - I suspect some get fed up when I talk about travelling. Well, people who don't 'get it' can glaze over. But plenty of others will join in, so that's ok.
    8. Inanimate object with a will of it's own - my computer!
    9. Favourite hotel - The Golden Banana, in Siem Reap.
    10. Should we separate prisoners to give them protection - yes. Only by being treated humanely can they learn about humanity.
    11. At 18 - I wish I'd known that sometimes life sucks, but you get over it.

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  2. I love your answers, Jenny, and am pleased that you mentioned John Bain's book. I saw a brilliant review on it yesterday and so true.

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  3. Great post Jenny. Thank you for joining in the fun ~ it is great to know a little more behind the blogs. I love the photos!

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  4. I have to be careful because I have so much to write and I don't want to make any mistakes. Typos come thick and fast with me on account of me being a fast typist (of the two fingers variety). I loved these questions, the ones you were asked and the ones you asked us. I will have to come back to answer.

    One thing, though. As I have found out recently once again, whilst teaching Spanish to a group of parents at the school where I work, learning a foreign language is contextual. You make it what you want it to be. It doesn't have to be arduous and hard work, and it's so enjoyable. On the same note, Google Translate is the worst piece of software ever invented. It's diabolical. Please, don't use it. Take it from me, pretty soon you will be telling Spanish speakers that you have x amount of "anuses", instead of years.

    My favourite photos were the paella (always one for food that's me, especially Spanish food) and the children. They remind me of my two little ones, who are not little ones anymore. It's funny how time goes by. yesterday whilst cleaning our downstairs toilet I looked a photo of my daughter when she was the same age as that little one in your first photo and I almost cried.

    What a beautiful post. Lovely to hear of your family connections, Alexandria and all that.

    Also, thanks for your response to my post. As I wrote in my reply to you, we're both singing from the same hymnsheet. The only difference being is that I do place more emphasis on nurture than nature and I gave the reasons why. I agree with everything else you wrote.

    Have a lovely rest of the weekend.

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  5. Nice set of answers and great set of questions. Is it okay to answer them on my own blog? That means I get a post out of it too! :D

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  6. This was very interesting, and I am debating with myself whether to reply to the questions right here. like your first commentator did, or make it a post on my own blog, like LL Cool Joe suggests.

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  7. I loved Egyptian Ella, that was really fun to listen to.

    I would definitely eat the last candy just to get rid of the evidence that I ate the whole box.

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  8. Great questions all that make one think and would need considerable time to answer. However, how you cleverly matched your pictures with the answers had me smiling all the way through … with an extra chuckle for your response to number eight. Well done!!!

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  9. I love posts like this and getting to know my fellow blog community better. I'll give them a try.
    1. It all depends on the candy -- some would be gone in a heartbeat. Others not-so much!
    2. I would recall my first afternoon in Paris with Rick -- his first time. We got a bottle of wine and went back to Jerry's fifth floor apartment, watched out the courtyard and celebrated discovering a new place together.
    3. I don't need to be very rich -- might be fun for awhile. (But a little more discretionary income wouldn't be bad!)
    4. My favorite photo(s) are the village shots (I can't resist a village) and the music graphic with the guy with wings over the staff. Just because it's so whimsical!)
    5. Favorite emotional piece of music -- two. Orchestral is the Barber Elegy for Strings and lyrics: Bridge Over Troubled Water.
    6. Bad times -- I hunker down, bake, try to make art and if it's nice, walk it out.
    7. Lots of people think blogging is boring! Not me!
    8. The inanimate object with a will of its own is my computer!
    9. Favorite hotel/restaurant -- No favorite hotels. I'll have to think about the restaurants. But I do love a good B&B.
    10 Prison -- whatever makes people safest. Everyone.
    11 I wish I'd known how strong I could be and that the human spirit is profoundly resilient and can triumph over dark personal obstacles, loss, health, grief. I know that now and it is a great gift.

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  10. I adore your photos. And your answers/commentary here are delightful.

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  11. If there were one candy left in the box, and I liked it, I would eat it. If I didn't like it I would as if someone else would like it. If not, I would throw it away. I don't do complex well, although I believe I did once.

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  12. Interesting post.
    Not everything has an answer, but can have a remark.

    1.free up the box to make something
    2. my love ones
    3. No
    4. Tie between baby and desert
    5. "Oh My Lord" spiritual
    6.Breath through it
    7.nothing
    8.my keys like to travel
    9.haven't been there yet
    10. yes
    11. Confidence

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  13. You certainly deserve the Sunshine Blog Award! I enjoyed reading all of your interesting answers to the questions. Since I like to answer questions (as long as they're not too personal), I might greedily steal Carol's questions and yours - - and use them on my blog.

    By the way, my favorite photo on your post is that of the roses.

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  14. I so get what you are saying about awards!
    As for your questions, the one that rings true here is I love watching renovation shows and the family HATES them. And the ONE song that makes me cry every time is called 'On Eagle's Wings' It's a religious song that is played at every funeral mass that I've been to but love it anyway.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rRea9qnjK4

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  15. Love your answer to Question #8--about being alive for the places you visit.

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  16. Love your answers. Your questions even more.

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  17. Lovely post, Jenny. The photos are gorgeous, and like Jo, I was curious about the street with its tudor houses running down to the church, but I liked all of them really. I enjoyed reading your answers to the questions and Jo's answers to yours. There's always something new to learn about the lovely people we connect with!

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  18. It's interesting to get these different responses and comments. Thank you so much to everyone who has answered my questions, and also I will look forward to reading the blog posts inspired by this too

    Joanne, your response made me laugh! thanks! :)

    Thanks for the link to the lovely song, Bonnie, I didn't know it. And thanks for appreciating my efforts with the photos, Penelope.

    Your comment was full of interesting things, Cuban. I am not exactly a fan of Google translate, but it comes in useful for someone like me, and I know enough of some languages to be able to avoid some of the worst pitfalls - or at least I hope so. (Perhaps I am actually living in blissful innocence!

    Haha, eating the last one to clear the evidence.... I like that. And I am glad you liked Egyptian Ella. It still pleases me to hear it and see the old photos.

    I'm glad you like John Bain's book too, Valerie.

    Jo, your comment about the gas made me think of myself this morning. I still can't believe I turned the darn tap the wrong way. I am stating to wonder if I have a secret compulsion to burn things!

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  19. A well deserved award...and a super way of passing it on!

    1. A sweet could sit there forever....or until one of the dogs found it. I don't have a sweet tooth.
    2. I would want to remember that I had been loved and the man who loved me.
    3. Rich and famous? Bring it on! It's about time I had a taste of the gravy train where the more you can afford to buy what you want the more you are offered stuff for nothing.
    4. I liked the photograph of the chaps by the duck pen...reminded me of the old county shows.
    5. the Flowers of the Forest always turns on the waterworks.
    6. Bad times...and there have been plenty...just keep buggering on.
    7. Never mnd who is bored, I'm listening to Test Match Special. They can get their own tea...
    8. The inanimate object? The visitors's loo in a cousin's house in Belgium...designed by Daleks.
    9. My favourite restaurant is the Trianon in Saumur run by a Belgian chap who must by now be in his nineties, shuffling round in his woolly hat and carpet slippers. Solid plain food and an atmosphere second to none.
    10.I would have the gaol run properly so that there was no possibility of inter prisoner attacks. I like the idea of the Victorian judge who thought prisoners should work to keep themselves and their families - and no work, no food.
    11. I wish I had been more streetwise at eighteen...

    I enjoyed doing that - almost as much as reading your original post and other readers' replies


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  20. Love you post today. Filled with lots of interesting questions and answers, Your added photos were terrific !

    cheers, parsnip

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  21. Great answers, and I especially like how cleverly you used pictures to complement your answers. I especially like the second picture, where everything looks so velvety soft with moss, and the one of tot in front of the mirror. Such a cutie!

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  22. I love these kinds of posts, where you get to know the author of the blog a bit more. Some of the questions (the ones you were given, as well as the ones you gave) were thought provoking.

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  23. 1.I don't like candies
    2.My childhood and my daughter.
    3.No
    4.Τhe penultimate because I love mystery.
    5.Adagio in G Minor (Albinoni)
    6.I contact close friends
    7.Nothing
    8.A statue of Auguste Rodin (The lovers)
    9."Grande Bretagne" in Athens.
    10.Yes but decently
    11.Self-confidence.

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  24. Great questions

    I was given the sunshine award too, so I've answered some questions already - but I like yours.

    1. Weeks? Are you kidding? Who keeps sweets for weeks?
    2. I hope if I'm very old I get to remember my own name, at least. And my darling K.
    3. Rich, yes. Famous celebrity? No. I'd like to have enough money to be a permanent student.
    4. Favourite photo is tricky. The creepy forest near the top is good. It stirs my imagination. But I thibk I like the village street around Q10. Because it looks like the church is falling over!
    5. See my post for December 5. http://morningaj.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/empathy.html
    6. Ditto. (I don't!)
    7. Museums, art galleries, history stuff.
    8. Almost daily. I have a distinctly clumsy side and things leap out of my hands without warning.
    9. Unfair! The Ice Hotel was good - but it's not exactly somewhere you'd stay regularly. Hambleton Hall on Rutland Water - ditto. Portmeirion? Anywhere that I can see the sea from my bedroom window.
    10. Political question. I probably need to think about that, but my gut says no. Serves them right. (I'll probably pick up some bad karma for that.)
    11. I wish somebody had convinced me to start saving. That the world wouldn't 'sort itself out' if I gave it long enough. I needed to prepare for the future.

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  25. I love your responses, and your pictures too.
    I wouldn't know the answers to some of your questions, but I do know that I do yoga to deal with anxiety, and right now I have a thing for sushis and love Yashin, in kensington. That said, I keep changing...

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  26. Fascinating questions. I might try answering them on my own blog.

    As for your answers, my two favourite authors right now are Lionel Shriver and A M Homes. They both go in for very perceptive and unflinching accounts of modern life, seasoned with plenty of wit and dry cynicism.

    I'm surprised the question about the news didn't mention the internet, which is what I always turn to first thing in the morning.

    My favourite cakes are the sticky chocolate ones, with plenty of creamy icing inside and out!

    I'd still like to learn Italian well enough to be fluent. I understand it pretty well but if I try to have a conversation I'm miserably out of my depth.

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  27. Hi, Jenny :0) Such an interesting post, I enjoyed reading :0) Thank you for the good reading, beautiful pictures and for your lovely comment as well. I'm very glad to hear from you again :0) and also to know a bit more about you.
    Have a lovely week
    Natasha

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  28. 1. I would eat the last candy
    2. my babies boys
    4. winter skiing
    5. Mozart
    6. my family helps me

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  29. Oh Jenny, your answer to number eight made my day! Love the visuals as well, to everything!

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  30. As always your post is full of interest and photos which I wish that I had taken. I would love to know, though, how it is that this post has only just arrived in my reading list on my Dashboard. It is becoming a real problem in that I have to go back over the last three pages of my Dashboard every time I look at it to make sure no new ones have suddenly appeared: which they do with monotonous regularity. I must find a more reliable way of keeping up.

    Your answer to question 8 really tickled my sense of humour.

    Your photos with answers 6 and 7 provided a hard choice but it has to be 6 (learning to ski) that takes the accolade. I'd happily give that space on my wall.

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  31. These are much more interesting questions than the usual ones! I'll answer only one. What do I want to remember the most? That first month with The Hero in Tokyo. :)

    PS: Pratchett, Dahl and Dickens. Yes!

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  32. I suddenly this evening decided to answer your questions:

    1. If there is one candy left in the box, do you have to eat it, or can you leave it sitting there all alone for the next few weeks?

    A. I'd probably eat it if I was in the mood simply so that I could dispose of the box and have one less thing cluttering the fridge or cupboard.

    2. What do you want to remember most of all, if you survive to be very old?

    A1. I'm getting to the stage when I'd be very happy to remember anything when I get very old.

    A2. I'm really not sure that I want to get very old although my parents both lived full and happy lives into their 90s. They both had excellent memories at the time of their deaths. I've never had an even half decent memory.

    3. Would you enjoy being a very rich and famous celebrity? ( after all you don't HAVE to be like the unedifying Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson and pay someone £1,600 a week to clean your silver and gold collection....)

    A. Rich perhaps. Famous definitely not.

    4. Which of the photos in this post is your favourite and why do you like it?

    A. Learning to ski. I have no idea why but it touched my heart and my eyes.

    5. What piece of music do you personally find most emotionally moving?

    A. That is an impossible question to answer. I listen to music most of the time and what I listen to depends upon the mood I'm in although it's mostly what is referred to as classical. I can be moved almost to tears by a piece of piano music or by some of Gounod's Mass to St Cecelia: the list is endless. On the other hand Laura Branigan and Bonnie Tyler also sing songs with great emotion.

    6. How do you deal with anxiety, depression and bad times?

    A. Once you've been told that you are going to die and that it's likely to be sooner rather than later anxiety, depression and bad times just don't exist any more. If I wake up in the morning then it's a good day. It really doesn't matter what shit is delivered it's likely to be small stuff and there's no point in sweating the small stuff.

    7. What do you love doing that bores everyone else stiff?

    A. Hopefully not blogging. I've learned not to mention croquet to The Family.

    8. Did you ever encounter an inanimate object that seemed to have a will of its own?

    A. Not apart from my croquet mallet.

    9. What is your very favourite hotel or restaurant? (This blog does have "travel" in the title, after all)

    A. I've thought long and hard about this and I just can't answer it. There are just too many I really enjoy or have enjoyed for various reasons: some very expensive and some very simple. I feel very at home though having coffee or a simple lunch at The Woodlands Centre on Lewis.

    10. Do you think prisoners who have committed particularly vile crimes should be segregated in jail for their own safety?

    A. Perhaps many of them should possibly be segregated for the safety of others. I suspect, though, that you were thinking of vile crimes perpetrated against children and so on. That's a more difficult question to answer.

    11. What do you wish you had known when you were 18? (if you are under 18, ignore this question

    A. When I was 16 I was a teenager so I knew everything. By the time I was 18 I realised that there were things I didn't know. Now at nearly 70 I can't remember what they were.

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  33. My mum was born in Alexandria! Have we shared this before? I think we have.

    1. If there is one candy left in the box, do you have to eat it, or can you leave it sitting there all alone for the next few weeks? I'm really disciplined so I can leave it for weeks until I really feel like it. Chocolates live in our fridge for this very reason.



    2. What do you want to remember most of all, if you survive to be very old? I want to remember sunsets out in the South African bush.



    3.. Would you enjoy being a very rich and famous celebrity? ( after all you don't HAVE to be like the unedifying Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson and pay someone £1,600 a week to clean your silver and gold collection....). No, despite being a blogger and apparently appearing to everyone to be an extrovert, I'm really private and introverted.



    4. Which of the photos in this post is your favourite and why do you like it? The one of the boy dressed up in his finery. I love the expression on his face.



    5.What piece of music do you personally find most emotionally moving?

    I don't know the name of it, only how it sounds. I think it's Chopin.

    6. How do you deal with anxiety, depression and bad times? I exercise. I've found my most successful routine is with the games on the Wii Fit. It causes a mind-body reconnect which somehow seems to be torn apart by depression. It never fails to lift depression and anxiety but it's often hard to get around to doing it.



    7. What do you love doing that bores everyone else stiff? Washing dishes. And accounting.



    8. Did you ever encounter an inanimate object that seemed to have a will of its own? Yup. Was coaxing my cardigan just last night to sit straight on my body and not twist about.



    9. What is your very favourite hotel or restaurant? (This blog does have "travel" in the title, after all)
    I'm useless - I think it was called the Palms Guesthouse in Durban. We kept shyly approaching reception each morning and extending our stay because we couldn't bare to leave.


    10. Do you think prisoners who have committed particularly vile crimes should be segregated in jail for their own safety?
    I think prisoners of different calibre should be separated so that those borderline cases are not corrupted further. I think.


    11. What do you wish you had known when you were 18? (if you are under 18, ignore this question)
    I wish, with all my heart, that I'd realised how beautiful my body was. Now that I'm chubbier than ever, I feel the best I ever have but I wish I hadn't spent 20 years feeling fat.

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  34. Jenny, I've answered your questions on my own blog!

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  35. That was an entertaining post – I enjoyed reading your answers, and will try to answer some of your questions –
    1 . If it is an American candy, it will stay in the box (too sweet) if it is a Belgian black chocolate – watch out…
    2. I need to remember everything since my husband has onset-Alzheimer
    3. No interest in being rich and famous at all.
    4. I like the photo under no. 4 because of the red tile roofs – it reminds me of Nice in France.
    5. Chopin waltzes because my father used to play them.
    6. If I am depressed I look at pictures of my hometown, Paris, and try to visualize being there again, and I read French books, listen to French music.
    7. I like to look at vintage postcards.
    9. I stayed at a small hotel in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where they served you afternoon tea on your own veranda, I liked that.
    11. When I was 18 and wanted so much to travel – I should have planned my travels but made sure I’d get back home (Paris) instead of being an expatriate.

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  36. SO interesting to read these answers, all so different, some really thought provoking, some amusing. Mandy, I think your answer to No. 11 is wonderful, I often wish people of 18 could realise this too and I certainly wish I had. I'm glad you liked the picture of the boy. It was taken in Trieste, and it struck me like a thunderbolt, it looked like a window in the wall with a boy looking through- so incredibly alive. the artist is a Slovenian called Giuseppe Tominz, who I do think should be better known! Think I'm going to have to try the Wii fit. I need something like that.
    Nick, I will head over to your blog and read what you have written!
    Graham, I thought when I read your replies that you are actually very lucky if your parents lived full and happy lives till their nineties. It doesn't absolutely guarantee you will but at least you have heredity on your side - that must be very rare. Your comments on depression etc. were life affirming and good to read. And, I loved your practical reason for eating the choc! I can understand your feeling at just liking somewhere simple for lunch. Going somewhere that is familiar, where one is known, where one likes the food and the ambience - it's worth an awful lot of fancy food somewhere else.
    Rurousha, I loved your answer, another 10 couldn't have improved something so nice.
    Nadezda, I'm with you on the last candy. Or at least, I have been till recently. In recent months I've been trying to force myself to throw it away unless I really, really want it! And I too (and AJ too) would want to remember loved ones. COme to think of it, I should respond to my own questions, hadn't thought of that! :)
    Natalia, I couldn't believe I had not seen your blog all this time, but it was worth it for your beautiful posts.
    AJ I am glad you liked the mossy forest, something amazing about a place that is almost entirely green of various shades. More comments coming up - this post is getting rather long.

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  37. More comments: Val Poore, the street is in Shropshire. I cannot at this minute remember the name of the town but it was so pretty and peaceful in the evening light.
    Thingsandthoughts, I listened to the .Adagio in G Minor by Albinoni - haunting..If I get to Athens (which I hope to do next Spring) I will go in search of "Grande Bretagne"
    Jeanie, the Barber elegy is SOOO sad, I can see how this could make anyone feel emotional.
    Helen, your answer to Q4 made me smile, I think you are probably the only person who has definitely wanted to be both rich and famous so far - and for very good reasons! And your answer to Q2 is touching and reflects my own feelings. Your jail answer is so sensible - and so was Mandy's response to that question.
    Maywyn, I hadn't encountered Oh My Lord, I love it!

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  38. Done. Over at my place. Kettle's on.

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  39. Time to answer your questions. I didn't forget1 :-)

    1. If there is one candy left in the box, do you have to eat it, or can you leave it sitting there all alone for the next few weeks? I leave it. I don't like candies.

    2. What do you want to remember most of all, if you survive to be very old? My memories.

    3.. Would you enjoy being a very rich and famous celebrity? (after all you don't HAVE to be like the unedifying Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson and pay someone £1,600 a week to clean your silver and gold collection....) No, I wouldn't.

    4. Which of the photos in this post is your favourite and why do you like it? The paella and the children. Food and family go hand in in hand together.

    5.What piece of music do you personally find most emotionally moving? I can't answer this question. There are so many, Chopin's Revolutionary Etude, The Beatles' Because, Elis regina's Aguas de Marco and Gerardo Alfonso's Sabanas Blancas (he is a Cuban singer songwriter).

    6. How do you deal with anxiety, depression and bad times? I always think that someone else is in a worse situation.

    7. What do you love doing that bores everyone else stiff? Watching Gillette Soccer Saturday :-)

    8. Did you ever encounter an inanimate object that seemed to have a will of its own? Yes, my bike.

    9. What is your very favourite hotel or restaurant? (This blog does have "travel" in the title, after all) Restaurant is the Indian buffet restaurant near Angel tube station in Islington. We always go there when we go to Sadler's Wells.

    10. Do you think prisoners who have committed particularly vile crimes should be segregated in jail for their own safety? I'm split down the middle. Half of me think yes and half of me thinks no. It depends on whether I wake up a small "c" conservative or woolly liberal in the morning :-)

    11. What do you wish you had known when you were 18? (if you are under 18, ignore this question) What I know at 42. :-) But then that would have prevented me from living life to the full.

    Have a nice weekend.

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  40. Cuban, I enjoyed reading your comments. Your last one made me think. When I was young I read a story about someone who had the chance to live his life over again, and each time he came to the point where he could change his behaviour, he didn't, because he hadn't yet learned enough about life to do it. So he ended up exactly the same situation as before. Oh, yes, hindsight is a wonderful thing!

    Zhoen, your answers were so interesting, and very individualistic and distinctive, too. Thanks for introducing me to 3 Mustapha 3, not only is it nice music but they are rather sweet too! And I realised I don't subscribe to your main blog, but to the other one which gets fewer postings. I'll go back and remedy that.

    Vagabonde,what you said about Paris made me wonder how I would feel if I was far away from my home country. In a way it links with what Cuban said - that in youth, when the world is open and exciting,you don't think about the things older people know about. Leaving family and friends thousands of miles away - I can remember how it just didn't matter.

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  41. I answered some at Nick's, but for number 4, I love the photo of the fruit and sorbets and also the box of candy. That is not something you could get in the states.....we seem to only have boxes of chocolates.

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  42. Just to let you know I answered the questions on my blog. Thanks they were fun! I cut a couple out as the whole post was getting very long!

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  43. um, not they call it prison for a reason...or they are there for a reason...smiles
    i want to be remembered for my love....yum that dinner looks great up before your answer to 4....

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  44. This morning I have more time...so now I can answer your questions in a lengthier manner!


    1. If there is one candy left in the box, do you have to eat it, or can you leave it sitting there all alone for the next few weeks? I leave it.

    I'd probably eat it, so then I could toss out the box.

    2. What do you want to remember most of all, if you survive to be very old?

    My life

    3.. Would you enjoy being a very rich and famous celebrity? (after all you don't HAVE to be like the unedifying Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson and pay someone £1,600 a week to clean your silver and gold collection....)

    I'd enjoy being rich; one doesn't have to become self-centred by being rich - there is so much that could be done...and if I was a famous celebrity...I make sure I did enjoy being so, but not in the way some do, but in the ways others do. Richard Branson certainly appears to enjoy himself, as do Bill Gates and his wife...just a couple of examples...and good on them, I say!

    4. Which of the photos in this post is your favourite and why do you like it? The baby, I think...a glimpse into the future....

    5.What piece of music do you personally find most emotionally moving?

    Perhaps, Clair de Lune...and "Moon River" - and "You're Always on My Mind"...too many, in so many genres move me...I really can't just pick out one in particular.

    6. How do you deal with anxiety, depression and bad times?

    I keep to myself.

    7. What do you love doing that bores everyone else stiff?

    Probably everything.

    8. Did you ever encounter an inanimate object that seemed to have a will of its own?

    Yes...some people.

    9. What is your very favourite hotel or restaurant?

    Apropos to my five chapters on my blog re "Singapore Fling" - I'd have to say Raffles.

    10. Do you think prisoners who have committed particularly vile crimes should be segregated in jail for their own safety?

    Extermination comes to mind.

    11. What do you wish you had known when you were 18? (if you are under 18, ignore this question)

    That I didn't know everything when I was 18! ;)

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  45. Thanks for finding the time to answer, Lee. I suspected you might say Raffles ! :) Bijoux, I'm going to go back to Nick's and see what you said/

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  46. Your answer to #8 made me laugh aloud. And your answer to #9 completely matches what I would have said.

    I haven't done one of these on my own blog in ages. I might - might, I say - grab your questions and give it a go, though. Good questions. If so, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday.

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