Sunday 5

Welcome to a sunny Sunday afternoon in South Manchester. 

I am now free of Covid-19 – well the truth is that the symptoms only lasted for about three days and they were relatively mild but it took a further five days to get a negative test result. At least I can actually go out now and I have managed to watch England beat South Africa in a One Day Cricket International and also go to a musical festival featuring tribute bands playing the songs of AC/DC, Kiss, Metallica, Megadeth, Thin Lizzy and many more. 

That was yesterday and it was fun.

Shall we answer some silly questions from Sunday Stealing? 

1) What one event from your lifetime would you change if you could, and why?

That’s a difficult one because if I changed one thing earlier in my life then I wouldn’t be the person I am today. 

There have been many embarrassing things that have happened to me through the course of my life that I would probably want to forget but each one has made me a better person and I get to joke about them on this stupid blog. I probably wouldn’t change any of those either.

I guess the answer therefore has to be none.

2) If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be and how old would your younger self be when they got it? Do you think your younger self would listen?

I would tell him to just go and start talking to strangers. People are brilliant and I am quite happy to chat to strangers these days. For example while we were queuing up to get entrance into the music festival yesterday, I started chatting to the two women in front of me in the queue and it was fun. 

Would my younger self listen? 

Absolutely not because he was shy and I think he would probably rather have removed his own fingernail than chat to a stranger in a queue. I would tell him that his efforts would ultimately be rewarded in his thirties anyway so it would happen eventually.

Again, in relation to question one – perhaps it would be better for him not to listen to me.

3) Would you be any good on Survivor?

I had to look this up and the answer is that I would almost certainly not be any good. I would be okay with puzzles but anything else would be dreadful. So no – I wouldn’t bother even considering it.

4) What's a safety rule that's very important to you?

Don’t dive into anything without knowing what the consequences might be. Mrs PM is quite impulsive and she feels her life is better for it – but I am the opposite. Mrs PM accuses me of being indecisive but I feel that is a good thing. I have to weigh up the pros and cons and then I know I will be fine whereas impulsive people sometimes get stung. 

It works for me anyway.

Also if you have two black cats, always have the torch on your smartphone ready to use when you get up in the middle of the night to answer a call of nature. 

5) What would you like to say to people in the future?

Don’t blame me for the consequences of Brexit. I didn’t vote for it.

I’m sorry that we were too selfish to look after the planet.

I hope it’s not too hot.

Boris Johnson really was a complete arse and electing him as Prime Minister was the stupidest thing the UK ever did (apart from Brexit).

And don’t get me started on Donald Trump …

6) What's your favourite dish to bring to a summer cookout?

I guess by “summer cookout” you mean a barbecue. The obvious answer is sausages, burgers and steaks – and of course beer because you would only have a barbecue on a hot day.

7) How much time have you spent outdoors this week?

I always start my day with a three to four mile walk at about 6:20 am and it takes me an hour or so and I really enjoy it because it is quiet. Sadly this week it has rained a fair amount and I have had to work so from Monday to Friday not a lot of extra time was spent outdoors. However, yesterday I spent the whole day at an outdoor music festival in north Manchester so I was outside from about 10am to 11pm. I may well pop out for another stroll this afternoon as it is quite pleasant outside.

8) Where do you set your thermostat?

I don’t set the thermostat – I leave that to Mrs PM. I just adapt to the temperature that she wants to. It makes life easier for me. Happy wife, happy life.

9) How did you learn to swim?

I took lessons when I was about five years old back in Walsall, the town where I grew up. I’m not the world’s greatest swimmer but I do like to dabble when I go on holiday.

10) How do you avoid overheating?

A couple of weeks ago we had a three-day heatwave in the UK that shattered all previous records all over the country. In the south of England, we recorded 40.2 degrees Celsius (104.4 Fahrenheit). In Manchester the previous record was 33.9 degrees Celsius (93.0 Fahrenheit) but last Tuesday we reached 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit).

As you can imagine, the weather in Manchester isn’t usually extreme so we don’t normally need air conditioning and we don’t have swimming pools. We just had to open all the windows and try to drink lots of fluids. We are lucky because we live in a house that was built in 1903 and the sun is omnipresent at the front of the house, leaving the back of house cooler. The garden gets a lot of sun though but we weren’t stupid enough to go out into the blazing heat. 

While I like high temperatures abroad, here in the UK we aren’t really prepared for such extremes – and I hope that is something that we rectify soon. 

Of course, when I am on holiday in a hot climate, I either jump in the pool or switch on the air-conditioning. It’s easy.

The highest temperature I have ever had to endure was in Muscat, Oman where the peak was 46 degrees Celsius  (115 Fahrenheit). 

I just stayed inside with the air-con.

11). What are you going to do this weekend?

This weekend is almost over. Next weekend, however, we are driving across the country to the small seaside town of Whitby. Whitby is famous because Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, lived there and wrote his famous novel, inspired by the small port.

Consequently Whitby has taken on board the Dracula themes and as well as, supposedly, having the best fish and chips in the UK, there are lots of vampire related memorabilia and Goths descend on the place in late October. 

You can even stay in a vampire themed hotel. We won’t be doing that.

Dracula Experience Whitby

Goths in Whitby

12) What’s your favourite way to spend time?

Travelling and exploring new places, spending time with friends, writing nonsense like this, listening to music, watching football, trying to teach myself the piano, reading and many other things. 

The football season started yesterday and my team, Walsall, won 4-0! Great start.

13) What’s the most useless thing you own that you would never get rid of?

I regard all my possessions as being wonderful and not useless at all. I am in a constant battle with Mrs PM who thinks I am a hoarder but at least she does let me keep my old crap.

14) Have you started planning your next vacation?

We have booked a trip to Greece in September but we are also considering going to a new country in October – a city break in Copenhagen, Denmark. We will start talking about this next week I reckon. 

We are also considering a longer trip to another new country, Malaysia either next year or the year after – but the plans are very much in their infancy. We will of course pop to Hong Kong on the way home too.

15) Are you very active, or do you prefer to just relax in your free time or is it one and the same to you?

Physically I am fairly active. As I said above, I like to go for a fairly big walk every day and we like to have some kind of activity at the weekend – even if that means relaxing. Personally I like to relax too and I unleash the introvert within me at least a couple of hours a day to simply spend time on my own and enjoy my own company.