That friendly dog, Titus, sent me a meme over on the Starlight Barking. So here are my answers...
1. Why did you start blogging?
Back at the beginning of 2007 Mark (hi-tech man who has the misfortune to be my love'n'life partner) said 'lots of writers have blogs, you know'. Ever up with the avant-garde, I said 'what's a blog?' and this led to the format (his choice... must get round to changing it now I think about it...especially now you're all onto the new designs with more space and everything...). My first post is here (it's very minimal). I sometimes wonder if Mark would have pointed me in the blog direction if he'd known how much of my life and time it would take up. And then there's those days when I say 'someone's coming to stay at the weekend' and he says 'who?' and I say 'oh, just someone I know from the blog'...
2. If you could travel anywhere in the world with no restriction of costs, where would it be and why?
I'd like to see Chile...and I'd like to see non-Soviet Russia (have been to Russia but not since 1989)...but really I'm interested in most places in some way or other. Well, as long as I don't have to drive to them. And I'd quite like a private jet.
3. Did you have a teacher in school that had a great influence on your life? If so, what?
I suppose the teacher who influenced the way things turned out for me the most was the Spanish teacher I had at high school. I was the only 11 year old in a group with lots of sixth formers (it was an after school class) and she kept me involved in the group even though I was really a bit out of place (bringing me sweets helped). I went on to live in Spain and major in Spanish at Uni so it was a big part of my life for a while.
4. If you could spend the day with a famous person, who would it be, and what would you do?
Famous people..hmm. I really had to think about this one partly because one of the things about famous people is that we hear about them all the time and so who needs to spend more time hearing about them! And most of them, I think, are nothing like as fascinating up close as they seem from a distance. Isn't it the distance that breeds the fascination partly? Then there's the whole 'them and us' business (famous people=aristocrats of pre-revolutionary France, the mob=us...). In the end I honestly couldn't think of a famous living person I wanted to choose (I'm quite happy when Mark and I get a day to do stuff just the two of us) but there are a lot of dead people I'd like to meet and spend time with. I've got a few questions for William Shakespeare for a start...
5. Toilet paper – over or under?
This question got me in all kinds of trouble at Titus' place. I'm just ignoring it now. It is also, if I may be so bold, the kind of thing that gets blogs a bad name.
6. Name one thing in your life that you would do over if possible.
Just one! Actually I'm not sure I can think of any. Maybe I'd be a bit nicer to people when I was younger but I can't think of any particular incident. Sorry - dullness.
7. Tell about your pets – if any.
We have one 2 year old Border Terrier dog called Zoe (photo at top of post – she likes to dig on the beach and hide her front legs). We've only ever had dogs. I can't be doing with any pet that you have to keep in a cage or similar. And cats...never saw one I wanted to share a house with.
8. Do you live in a small town or a large town?
We live in a village that is very (very!) close to a small town (Montrose)... so really it feels half suburb, half village. And we're near the sea... which makes up for anything negative I might have to say about suburbia, anti-English sentiments and small town syndrome (well, for now). And just because I can't bore you enough with how lovely Montrose is - here's another picture of it – a William Lamb sculpture down by the seafront.
Poetry Bus poem is in the previous post by the way. And I never pass these memes on but if you haven't done it and you want a go... you know what to do.
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16 comments:
Love the latest dog photo - Tess has chewed my walking shoes to destruction this morning (and we are walking in Amsterdam shortly so have had to go and buy a new pair!).
Feel like you about chatting to anybody famous - how boring it would be. The farmer and I are happy just chatting to each other.
The photo of Zoe was taken by a friend back in June of this year.
I liked your farmer too...maybe I'll choose him. He must be sort of famous via your blog!
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love the dog in the sand...
interesting answers ;-)
Dogs are such show-offs aren't they really?
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I think my aversion to meeting the famous is also connected to the time i spent interviewing them for papers/magazines (more on that back here).
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I can hardly read the answers because I keep going back to the photo! We're rolling about laughing here.
Yes, interesting, especially Chile.
And what kicked you off on the Spanish in the first place - why did you choose the class?
And I love that first post.
I had the same problem with the "famous person" question....first person who popped into my head was Mark Twain.
Then of course I went with you famous poets I know in Scotland. :)
No matter why you began blogging, I'm just so glad you DID!
"I'm quite happy when Mark and I get a day to do stuff just the two of us" aaww, that's so sweet! That pic is hilarious.
I chose the Spanish class, T, because I'd been to a hothouse primary school and we'd already done 3 years of French but my new secondary school only did beginners French and Mum thought I would be bored. I still had to go to French classes of course (and really annoy the teachers by already knowing everything...) but I had Spanish after school and before tea (thus missing smoking and shoplifting time for at least 2 years). The Spanish teacher lived practically next door to the school and I guess that's why it was an option. I did the o level at 14 or so and just kept going after that. It is an easy language to learn really (compared to many others) and then of course once I went to Spain I loved it even more (the late nights, the sunshine, the effusive people... remind me again why I live in the UK...).
And yes, all, Zoe is quite the subject!
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Oh I see that not only were you at Cambridge like me but you studied Spanish there like me! I expect, and hope, that it was a bit better structured by the time you were there. Did you also suffer from the teaching of the very famous and deeply uninspiring author of the then dominant Spanish-English dictionary? He's probably the only person I remember with deep dislike rather than bemused exasperation. Maybe he would have retired by your time - or possibly even, who knows, become less demeaning in his low expectations of women students...
Prof Colin Smith? I went to St Catharine's partly thinking it would be good to be where the Spanish prof was...big mistake! I too found him uninspiring in the extreme...but then I was very interested in the modern and the South American and he was ALL about the Spanish Golden Age. I think he kind of lived there... I see he's moved on now (obituary here).
The main thing Cambridge did for me was finish me off academically speaking. It just didn't stimulate me at all (all the post-modern stuff was in fashion when I was there...hated it...talk about going round in linguistic circles!) and I ended up getting involved in more political activities. And then I left. That was a good day.
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HA - love the loo roll avoidance - the question that is...
...going to do my meme now...well, soon...
A meme now and then is a nice break from all the poetry and writing talk really, isn't it? It's like recess/playtime then...ding, ding, ding... back to work!
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Yup, that's the man - I was trying not be nasty about him by name, but I guess his posthumous reputation can stand a few dissaffected ex students :-) I got very into politics at Cambridge also, Rachel - arrived ashamed of my working class origins and left a died-in-the-wool socialist. A number of the deeply scary bastions of Cambridge Conservatism in my day went on to work for Margaret Thatcher. Also the women's movement. And also gave up on myself as having any academic potential - perhaps a shame, but ah well.... But, like you, I don't regret having studied languages and thus discovered wonderful parts of the world.
I was Women's Officer for the central Student Union (under my real name of course...ever so slightly different to the one I use here). It was quite a lot of fun just annoying all the old stick-in-the-muds who thought women shouldn't be there at all!
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My other language there was Russian, by the way. I only started it at uni and didn't give it the attention it deserved (had a couple of good Moscow/Leningrad trips though). One of the best things about CU was all the travel grants on offer!
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