I Am I Said

Welcome to a cloudy South Manchester on a Saturday afternoon. I just have time for a blog post before getting ready to go to the Manchester Apollo later, with Mrs PM, to see the Stranglers, a band that started off as a punk rock band back in the 1970s and are still around 50 odd years later. Although no longer a punk band, they are still producing good music. Here are a couple of songs from “then” compared to “now”. 

No More Heroes – 1977

White Stallion – 2021

I’m looking forward to reviving the inner punk from my childhood. 

In the meantime, let’s answer some silly questions from Sunday Stealing.

I AM …

I am a 63 year old retired IT consultant/software engineer who is enjoying life outside the rat race and the politics of work. I have a largely eclectic taste in music and I am a weird geek who loves weird things. I could perhaps fit into a British remake of The Big Bang Theory if I were younger. I love to travel and do so whenever I can. I am also an adopted Northerner living in Manchester coming originally from a town in “The Black Country” called Walsall where people talk like this:

I guess I am a Mancunian Yam Yam (if such a thing exists).

I LIVE …

I live in a leafy suburb about five miles south of Manchester city centre. My house was built in 1903 and I know this because when we moved in, we stripped the lounge walls down to the original plaster and found a message from one of the original builders with the date and his name (corroborated by the deeds). It has three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, a loft that is easily big enough to use as storage space, a lounge, a man cave (though Mrs PM calls it the “back room”) which can be adapted easily to be a second lounge or a dining room and a kitchen. There is a small garden and a brick outhouse where we store garden equipment and all manner of other junk. 

This is my house of course but it is owned and run by my furry overlords, Ziggy and Star(dust). 

I THINK …

I think all the time about weird and wonderful stuff. I am a bit weird, it has to be said. My mind to me is a strange place where I can retreat to and use my imagination to float mindfully (aided by music if necessary). 

I KNOW …

I know a lot of useless facts that I have picked up on my journey through time from 1962 to 2025 (and counting). A few years ago, I was asked to join a quiz team from work consisting of a couple of young lads who had only ever finished at most fourth in the pub quiz. When I became a member of their team, we won. In fact, we never finished lower than third when I was in the team. 

I WANT …

I want a peaceful and active life, which is why I am doing my best to not watch the news on TV (it drives me to rant)!

I WISH …

I wish the world wasn’t so divided. I plan to write a blog post about this because whenever I hear news about the UK, it seems that we are more divided than ever at the moment. We are following in the footsteps of the US with our own version of Donald Trump, a man-frog called Nigel Farage, who is a grifter, a chancer and a disruptor and is stirring up a pot of hatred with lies. This is why I am trying to resist the temptation to watch the news. 

I PRAY …

Actually – I don’t pray.   I was christened as a Roman Catholic and I went to church religiously (if you will pardon the pun) until the age of 16 when I decided to follow the fascinating scientific path and consider alternatives about the origins of the universe. However, I was indoctrinated with certain beliefs so although God is not part of my life, those old teachings from my past are still there and I would never call myself an atheist. I actually think religion can be a good thing and I love chatting to religious types about their beliefs. I think that religion can bring comfort to people and I welcome that – even if I don’t believe it. 

I would rather believe that the universe is a vast unknown entity with trillions of galaxies, each of which has billions of stars, each of which has several planets. My mind is boggled by the scale of this and I would love to know more.