At a Loose End ...

 

Welcome to an autumnal South Manchester on the day after I have retired. 

Yes, that’s right; I have finally left the rat race and can now pursue more leisurely activities. 

My only involvement with computers will be for personal use. I aim to step back from writing software to write nonsense posts instead, so look out for more bloggery in future. Whether I return to try my hand at writing code again is something that I haven’t thought about yet. 

For the time being I am bidding a fond “Sayonara” to software, databases and other related activities. I will relate a little bit more about what I did in the coming months, but for now I will answer some silly questions from Sunday Stealing.

1. What takes up too much of your time?

If you had asked me this yesterday, I would have said work. From next week I will have to reevaluate this. I had a few beers with my ex-colleagues last night in my local pub, some of whom are already retired, and I asked them about retirement. The most common answer was that they are so busy that they don’t know how they manage to fit work in at all. 

That’s what I plan to be like. I don’t know how yet but I have enough things to keep me going while I consider new things. Mrs PM is always amazed when the introvert within me takes over because I can always find things to entertain myself on my own. Of course I will be trying to find more sociable pursuits too to satisfy the extrovert within – I’m just not sure what yet. 

2. What do you wish you knew more about?

Lots of things. I would love to know more about the universe for example and I am always fascinated with documentaries about space, the universe etc. I also like weird spooky stuff so I would love to know more about ghosts, aliens etc. I will have more time to investigate such nonsense to find out whether my scepticism is justified.

3. What’s the best way to start the day?

From now on, with a lie in and a lovely cup of tea and a glass of apple juice and orange juice mixed. 

4. What mystery do you wish you knew the answer to?

As I implied in question 2, I would love to know what really happened at Roswell in 1947. I love anything like that. Another example is the Mary Celeste. What did happen to the crew?

And also – what in the name of all that is sane is going on in Donald Trump’s head? Migrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio? Perhaps what is a bigger mystery is why on earth would anybody vote for this nutter? AGAIN???

5. What’s your favourite genre of book or movie?

It’s science fiction. I am a geek and a nerd and I love a good space opera novel or a crazy effects-laden sci-fi epic movie. 

6. What’s the farthest you’ve ever been from home?

That would be when I visited Australia, the farthest place being Sydney which is 10,565 miles away from Manchester. 

7. Where is the most interesting place you’ve been?

All the places I’ve been to are interesting in their own way but I would have to say that Japan is the most interesting because it is so different from anywhere else. And some it is just crazy. Here, for example, is the Robot Restaurant. This is a video that I personally took and if you listen carefully you can hear me chuckling in the background. If you can explain to me what is going on, please do. 

It was brilliant and mad but sadly is no longer there, I heard. 

I have to say that most places in Asia are incredible and this is the reason why Mrs PM and I like to visit there.

Here are a couple of other photos from that amazing night at the Robot Restaurant.

8. When was the last time you climbed a tree for fun?

I have never climbed a tree for fun. I have climbed several trees in the past but it was quite a scary experience, especially when you get too high. 

9. What do you consider to be your best find?

I’ve never really found anything interesting. When I was a kid I found a wallet on a bus and it was full of money. I did the right thing and handed it into the bus driver. I hope the bus driver also did the right thing. 

Of course, I also found Mrs PM so that counts as the best find I would say.

10. What’s special about the place where you grew up?

I grew up in a town called Walsall which is 15 miles away from Birmingham, the second biggest city in the UK. It is 85 miles south of Manchester. 

It is a large market town and the borough has a population of about 250,000 people. Apparently it dates back to at least the year 1000. 

It is the leather capital of the UK and is the world capital of saddle making, which is why the nickname of the football team is “The Saddlers”.  Talking of which, I still support the football team from the town. 

Here are some pictures:

11. What age do you wish you could permanently be?

I guess that would be between 30 and 35 but with my current 61 year old brain. 

12. What fictional place would you most like to go?

I think I’d quite like to go to Jurassic World well before it all turned to utter chaos of course). 

Also I like the Shire in Middle Earth because it reminds me a small tightly-knit country village. 

I’d also be happy visiting the planet Risa from Star Trek because it is known as “the Pleasure Planet”.

13. Where is the most relaxing place you’ve ever been?

There are several candidates. I’ll go for these off the top of my head. 

Phuket in Thailand, Marbella in Spain, Hoi An in Vietnam, Santorini in Greece

14. What’s the most interesting piece of art you’ve seen?

I am not really a fan of art, especially contemporary art, most of which is as mad as it is controversial. I mean who wants to see something that looks like it was painted by a toddler portrayed as if it is “art”? 

Personally I prefer the classic paintings by artists that could reproduce a scene beautifully. The most famous I have seen in probably the Nightwatch by Rembrandt in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

15. Who has impressed you the most with what they have accomplished?

I’m quite impressed with the achievements technical gurus like Elon Musk (despite the fact that he is as mad as a bag of badgers). I am also envious of musicians who have produced truly magnificent music over and over again, for example David Bowie. Some authors have created absolute masterpieces, people like Stephen King. I also admire Tom Cruise as an actor who dedicates himself to his movies so much that he is still producing great movies while performing crazy stunts at the age of 62. He’s just a few months older than I am and I can’t imagine myself doing what he does. Let’s forget Scientology though – that is a massive blemish on him. 

Quirks

Welcome to a warm and sunny South Manchester where the temperature is a very pleasant 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit). We’re going to Chester tomorrow to meet some friends for a barbecue and I think it will be just as pleasant (fingers crossed).

I’ve been a little busy recently with a trip to Nice for Mrs PM’s birthday and also a gig or two so I haven’t had much time for bloggery. 

I’ll put that right now with some silly questions from Sunday Stealing.

1. What shows are you into?

Right now we have a couple of TV shows on the go. 

I have just finished watching "Snowpiercer", which is about a train with over 1000 carriages hurtling across a frozen post-apocalyptic landscape full of the last survivors of humanity. I really enjoyed it.

I am also watching "Stargate SG-1", a show that I have never seen. I tried to watch it back when it came out but TV scheduling at the time meant it was all over the place. It’s a little dated now but enjoyable all the same. 

Mrs PM and I are watching the new version of "Quantum Leap". It’s been cancelled, I know, and I can see why, but we are sticking with it.

We are also watching "Vikings Valhalla", which is the follow up to the brilliant "Vikings". I love a bit of Viking history. 

We’ve also tried out the new series of "Frasier", which bizarrely stars Nicholas Lyndhurst, a well established British comedy actor. The show is just as entertaining as the original series and I like the fact that Nicholas Lyndhurst is playing an eccentric British Harvard professor. I imagine many in America have not heard of him but he was in one of the most famous British sitcoms of all time, called Only Fools and Horses, where he played the younger brother of a dodgy old cockney market dealer who is always walking the line between legality and illegality. 

Here is a clip.

2. What’s your claim to fame?

We have a National Lottery in the UK where you can win several million pounds. We also used to have a football prediction competition called the Football Pools where you could also win a couple of million pounds.

My claim to fame is that I won both of them in the same week.

Sadly, I only won £10 on the lottery and £8 on the Football pools.

3. How often do you play sports?

I used to play sports a lot but as I have got older I have gradually whittled it down to nothing. As a kid, I played rugby, cricket, hockey, badminton, squash, softball, basketball and lots of athletics disciplines. At university I played football, badminton and squash but when I started work, I only continued with football. I finally gave that up when I was about 38 years old and started going to the gym instead. I got bored with the gym at about 42 and gave that up too. I had three years of doing no exercise before I decided to start walking to keep fit and I have been doing that ever since. Now, I walk about 4 miles almost every day.

4. Are you early or late?

I am definitely early. I hate being late and it has caused some friction in the past between Mrs PM and I because she doesn’t mind being late. Now we have compromised and we usually arrive early still, after I persuaded her that it is always better to be early. She moans occasionally though. 

5. What quirks do you have?

I have lots of odd quirks and I am not sure I should tell you what they are to be honest. I am a geek, a nerd and an all-round weirdo so that is quirky in its own way,

Okay – here are a few that you might find odd.

I call out things I don’t understand with the phrase “What’s the point?”. For example, when I see somebody on an electric bike I say “What’s the point of that? Surely you have a bike to keep fit but he is just coasting along and doing nothing.”

I correct Americanisms in American TV programmes. When somebody says “Do the math!”, I say out loudly “It’s MATHS!” even if I am alone. Similarly I will say “It’s ALUMINIUM not ALUMINUM!”. I Particularly I get riled when the actor is British and playing the part of a British person.

I correct the American spellings in Sunday Stealing. For example “favorite” becomes “favourite” and “color” becomes “colour”.

I won’t divulge the weirder ones (even though you may think the above are weird). Well, maybe in future if you ask me nicely. 

6. How often do you people watch?

Not often enough. I love people-watching and have seen and heard some great things just sitting there drinking a decaf coffee in a coffee shop or just walking around. I may have more time for this when I retire (which is very soon). 

7. What’s your favourite drink?

My favourite beverage is decaffeinated tea. I have been known to drink caffeinated tea occasionally (or “full fat tea”) but it is rare.

My favourite soft drink is Sprite. I don’t drink it very often but if I do I will choose Sprite.

My favourite ale is Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. A lovely pint of bitter.

8. What do you hope never changes?

The world is a totally mad place at the moment, including my own country. I need some sanity to counteract the lunacy that is prevailing and that sanity comes with simple things that keep me going during the chaos. 

So I hope that the things that keep me sane don’t ever change.

9. What’s your dream car?

I’m not really a car person at all. I know loads of people (almost all men) who are forever discussing their favourite cars. All I want is a reliable car that gets me from A to B when I need it to.

10.  Where would you rather be from?

I’m quite happy being an Englishman, thank you, although Brexit has challenged that recently, making me think that it would be nice to be from the European Union somewhere; perhaps the Republic of Ireland.

11. What songs have you completely memorised?

I’ve memorised thousands of them over the years. Here’s a song that was a challenge, but I have impressed Mrs PM by singing along to it on a balcony in Spain when on holiday (the full version that is):

12. What would you rate 10/10

I have lots of albums that I rate 10/10. One of them is “Hand. Cannot. Erase.” By Steven Wilson.

Here is my favourite song on the album. Strap in – it’s 13 minutes long.

13. What job would you be terrible at?

Anything that requires manual dexterity. I can do some DIY but there are certain things that I am totally useless at. For example, carpentry, anything to do with cars, building work, plastering or indeed anything that involves constructing or reconstructing things. 

14. What skill would you like to master?

At the moment I would love to master the skill of speaking Spanish and French and playing the piano. 

15. What movie title best describes your life?

Probably “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly” but I think that sounds too negative because really “The Good” is far superior to “The Bad” and “The Ugly” combined.

At this precise moment in time (and ignoring the past) it would be “Life is Beautiful”.