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.