Welcome to a very sunny and very pleasant South Manchester. The weather has been very hot lately but now the temperature has dropped to an agreeable 25°C (77°F). The air is clear too which is a vast improvement on a couple of days ago. As you head north and west from Manchester, you reach the Pennines, a chain of hills that forms a natural split between Lancashire and Yorkshire and is known as “the backbone of Britain”. Here there is a lot of moorland and last week some idiots started a fire there which nature decided to spread across the city. At one point, Manchester looked like it was infested with a smog monster and we could all smell smoke. The air quality was extremely poor and although it was hot we were all advised to keep our windows closed.
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| Manchester covered in smog |
Thankfully things are better now and the fire fighters are hopefully winning in their battle with wildfires around the country generally.
It’s rare not to have rain in the UK, in Manchester in particular, but we haven’t had any here in the city for 11 days with no rain forecast for the rest of the month at least. While that’s great for cricket, it’s not so good for the local flora.
Anyway, let’s divert from the British trait of talking about the weather and dive into a set of questions driven by the alphabet, as usual they are from Sunday Stealing.
A is for Age.
My age is 63 years 9 months and 10 days (to the end of today). It’s questions like this that make me realise just how old I am.
B is for your Booze of choice.
This time of year my beer of choice is usually lager, usually the continental ones. For example, Cruzcampo and Madri, from Spain, Moretti from Italy and Budvar from Czechia. That said, I do sometimes have ales and bitters but I tend to drink those in the colder months. I’m also partial to the odd glass of red or white wine. I don’t drink anything stronger than that.
C is for Career.
I used to be a software engineer but that role has included more political roles such as Team Leader, Database Chapter Lead (I still don’t know what that meant in reality – it was some bullshit that was encouraged from the Agile methodology) and I’ve dabbled very briefly in Project Management. I’ve also been an Installation Engineer, a Support Engineer and many other rubbish meaningless titles. I was once asked if I was a “Database Ninja” and my response didn’t go down to well with the person who asked it.
Of course, all of that is behind me because I am retired.
D is for your Dog's name.
I don’t have a dog, unfortunately and I haven’t had a dog since I was a kid. The last dog I had was called Paddy.
I will give you my cats’ names though: Ziggy and Star(dust).
E is for Everyday Essentials.
Food is essential because it helps to keep me healthy and prolongs my life. Associated with that, drink is pretty important too, such as decaf tea, water, the odd decaf coffee, a mixture of apple and orange juice and sometimes the odd can of Sprite. Oxygen also helps because without that I would probably transition into the realm of ghosts. Oh, exercising is important too and I try to walk five miles per day. Finally sleep helps to recharge me and keep the realm of ghosts away for a few more years yet hopefully.
F is for your Favourite Food.
I have loads of favourite foods, probably too many to put in a simple question like this. I’ll just give you a few off the top of my head: Italian food, Mexican food, Indian food, cheese, chicken, fish and chips (rarely eaten these days), bangers and mash, paella, burgers (again rarely eaten these days), a full English breakfast, fruit (oranges, apples, bananas) and many many more.
G is for your favourite Game.
My favourite board game is Monopoly probably.
My favourite Playstation game is FIFA football (though I love Metal Gear Solid, GTA and Far Cry). I particularly like “open world” games where you can basically do what you want.
My favourite game to watch is football but I love cricket and rugby too.
H is for your Hometown
I presume you mean the place where I was born, in which case it is Walsall, a town in the West Midlands, in an area known as “The Black Country” because of its history of heavy industry. It is 12 miles north of Birmingham, 76 miles south of Manchester and 136 miles north of London. It has a population of about 270,000 at the time of writing.
I is for an Instrument you play.
I used to play the trombone (from the age of 11 to 16). Nowadays I try to play the piano (very badly) on a Yamaha digital piano and I also make a lot of noise with a Roland JD-Xi hybrid synthesiser.
J is for your favourite Jam or Jelly flavour.
I don’t eat much jam but if I have to, I would probably select strawberry or raspberry.
Of course, “jam” is known as “jelly” in the US and this has been confusing on my visits there. We use the word “jelly” in the UK too but it is completely different. Jelly is a wobbly fruit dessert that you eat with a spoon. The idea of spreading jelly on a sandwich is hilarious and I would love to see what happens if an American tried it in the UK. For my part, when I was offered jelly for my sandwich in the US, I laughed and said “Why would I have jelly on a sandwich?”, which probably seems an really stupid question to ask in America.
K is for Kids.
I have two kids. When I say “kids” I mean adults. My eldest is 33 and my youngest is 30. They are still kids to me though, and like me, they still act like kids.
L is for the Last show or movie your watched.
The last movie I watched was a thriller called “Knock at the Cabin” by M. Night Shyalamen. It was a little odd (as most of his movies are) but I enjoyed it.
The last show I watched was Daredevil: Born Again. I love a bit of Marvel superhero action.
M is for your Most prized possession.
I would say that my house is my most prized (and most expensive) possession.
N is for the Name of your first crush.
I can’t recall which one of these came first but they are all from the 1970’s.
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| Agnetha Fältskog |
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| Linda Carter |
O is for what you Observe from your window.
I can see my garden. The sun is shining and the sky is blue.
P is for Phobias.
I am scared of heights, a phobia that has developed over the last thirty years. When I was in in twenties and thirties I loved heights and climbed the Empire State Building in New York and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The thought of even approaching those two structures fills me with dread now.
Q is for your favourite Quote.
I have lots of favourite quotes. Here’s one for you.
“I’m not as dumb as you look!” – Stan Laurel.
R is for Regret.
I regret not learning to play a musical instrument properly when I was a kid. I did play a trombone but my heart wasn’t in it and if I found myself in my 11 year old mind I would scream “Learn the piano or the guitar!”
I also regret not putting more effort into learning foreign languages when I was a kid.
S is for Sweets.
I don’t eat many sweets but I do like Polo mints, especially when I am travelling.
T is for the Time you wake up.
I try to get up at around eight o’clock so I can go for a nice long walk in the morning.
U is for Underwear.
What about it? Yes, I do wear it.
V is for your favourite Vegetable.
I don’t think I have a favourite vegetable. I eat most things that are put in front of me but mostly I eat broccoli, carrots, peas and corn.
W is for your Worst habit.
I have many good habits that make my retirement routine enjoyable. As for bad habits – I don’t really know. I guess I love being a little bit lazy and this contributes negatively in my war against procrastination.
X is for X-rays.
I have a dental X-ray every year but no others.
Y is for your Yummiest recipe.
I hate cooking but I can cook. I guess the recipe I use most is a lovely chicken pasta. It takes no time to cook so it is wholly acceptable.
Z is for your Zodiac sign.
I am a Libra. I am told by the charlatans that believe in all of this bunkum that I am a charming, beautiful and well-balanced person and that I am a king of compromise and am really generous. On the bad side, apparently I am superficial and a gossip and I can’t make a decision about anything.
It’s all bullshit.
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