Spill the Beans

 

Welcome to a rather strange South Manchester – weather wise. We had a couple of really hot days this week (over 20 °C) and now it has returned to typical April weather with cooler temperatures and scattered rain showers. 

Let’s dive straight into some Sunday Stealing silliness. 

1. Can you touch your nose with your tongue?

No – not even close. 

2. What foreign language did you study in school? How much of it do you still remember?

I studied French and Latin for five years and German for three years. I passed my “O-Level” examinations in all three. I didn’t see the point of Latin until I started studying German when I discovered that the weird Latin noun forms were all used in German too (apart from ablative). 

How much do I remember? Actually, I remember quite a lot of French and some German and this has helped because I am currently refreshing my knowledge in both via Duolingo. I have discovered that I actually remember quite a few of the words when they are introduced for the first time. Some of the vocabulary is still locked away in my head somewhere. 

I think I would struggle with Latin though because it is the hardest of the three of them. Being a Catholic I was exposed to Latin during Mass because when I used to go in the 1970’s sometimes the entire Mass would be conducted in Latin. I can still remember some of The Creed, for example. Ask me to read a random Latin sentence though and I would probably struggle. 

I still actually have my Latin/English dictionary from school and, were it an active language still, I might be tempted to dive back in. 

3. What recipe did you most recently prepare? Where did you get the recipe and how did it turn out?

I haven’t followed a recipe for years. These days when I cook, I just do the basics. Mrs PM on the other hand has tried loads of recipes and 95% of them are successful. 

I think the last thing I tried to cook from a recipe was a risotto and it turned out quite well, as I recall. My last disaster was a dessert – I have forgotten what it was – which is probably just as well. 

4. What song have you listened to over and over and over again?

I’ve been listening to a lot of Devin Townsend recently, mainly in preparation for his new album called “The Moth” which is due for release next month. On his last album there is a weird song that I just love because it is quite quirky and a little funny. It’s called Ruby Quaker and is all about loving coffee, bizarrely, and the style shifts as the song progresses. The chorus is quite catchy and is a bit of an earworm. 

Here it is:

5. Are there currently any pets in your household? Are you considering adding another? 

Yes – we have two black cats called Ziggy and Star(dust). I am quite happy with just having two because when we have introduced a third cat it has caused chaos. 

People who have read this blog for a while may recall that before Ziggy and Star, we had two other black cats called Jasper and Poppy, both of whom lived to the ripe old age of 18 years old. When they were younger, we had a friend who decided to emigrate to Abu Dhabi because her husband got himself a good job there. The problem was that they had a black cat called Liquorice and they didn’t know what to do with her. In a moment of madness, we decided to keep her and add her to our household. 

What we didn’t realise was that Liqorice was a psychopath. She turned our house upside down. Poor Poppy basically fled upstairs to live there permanently and defend her new kingdom from this psychotic interloper. Jasper, the bigger of the two cats, then waged war on Liqorice for dominance of the rest of the house. In the meantime, this lunatic new cat decided that Mrs PM and I needed to be subdued and started to attack us regularly. 

After a while, though, things settled into a state of détente. Jasper and Liqorice learned to live with each other and, although there were some skirmishes the two of them tolerated each other. Jasper won, I think, because he used to roam around the whole house, whereas Poppy and Liqorice had a stand off where Liqorice would creep upstairs only to end up having a battle with Poppy who, surprisingly, managed to defend her new territory. The problem was that poor Poppy became an upstairs house cat. 

As for the human slaves in the house, Liqorice grew very fond of me and used to often sit on my lap or cuddle up next to my leg. I still had to be alert because, being a psycho, she would occasionally lash out if I touched her when she wasn’t expecting it, or if I accidentally stroked her when she didn’t want to be touched at all. That said, she always used to greet me at the door when I came into the house. 

At the moment, I am happy with the two that we have and I definitely do not want a repeat of the Liqorice situation so there will be no more until something happens to both Ziggy and Star. 

6. As an adult, have you ever performed with a drama group? (Student productions don't count.)

No. I have considered it but I am not sure that I would be comfortable performing in front of others.