Wednesday 11 April 2012

Everyone Loves a Meme: 11 things!

It's been ages since I've done a meme and this one came from my long-time blogging pal LX. This meme has slightly odd rules. You answer the questions asked by the blogger and then you ask 11 different questions and tag 11 blogging pals.

  1. Swedish or Hollywood The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo? - neither. I just couldn't make myself read the books or watch the films. I understand I've missed out and life isn't worth living. I'm okay with that.
  2. Paper or plastic? Paper. I prefer the texture of paper. Though I suspect I should have asked 'paper or plastic - what?'
  3. What was your favorite year? Spring! Now! I love the taste of promise in the air. I'm a big, big fan of Spring flowers. Plus, it's coming up to my birthday! Yay!
  4. What book would you insist that I read? I wouldn't. Having done a Creative Writing Degree and been at the mercy of the literati who believe that only Literature should be read...I take the view that if you're an adult, you read what you enjoy. Whatever it is.
  5. What was the least favorite automobile that you've driven? That's easy. The Toyota Aygo. It was the smallest, most ridiculous car I've ever had the misfortune to drive. It was so small the driver only needed a button for the electric window on their side i.e. it was easier to reach over and put the passenger's window down using their button. The boot would only fit a brief case. I could go shopping for my weekly food shop, but I couldn't take my teenager with me. I hated/loathed/detested it.
  6. Place you would most like to visit? New Zealand. I read Gerald Durrell when I was a child and that's the only place I really have a hankering to visit.
  7. What are your eleven favorite songs? Oh boy. That changes depending on my mood. To prove I am really a culture vulture, not just a common oik, I'll give you 11 of my favourite classical tunes: O Fortuna, Carl Orff. Fanfare for the Common Man, Aaron Copeland. Beethoven's 5th. Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor (I think that's the right one...there are too many to choose from and I do get them mixed up). The Moonlight Sonata, Beethoven. The Flower Duet, Leo Delibes. Montagues and Cappulets, Dance of the Knights, Prokofiev. Spring, Vivaldi. Piano Concerto 1, Tchaikovsky. Beethoven's 9th. Blue Danube, Johann Strauss II (cheesy I know, I still love it). And finally, Henry Manchini's Pink Panther Theme...just because! :-) 
  8. If you could live in a different time/place, which? Good grief. No way. I like the present. It's got it's flaws, but this is probably the easiest time for people to find a place for themselves, if they're not normal. Though obviously, this can only apply here and now in the UK. Discrimination, prejudice and -isms are much worse in other places.
  9. Favorite meal? Comfort Pie! Leek, sweetcorn, bacon, shed load of cheese, mixed in with mashed potatoes made with butter and cream. Baked until top is golden.
  10. What place makes you feel most at peace? My gran's porch, when I was growing up. 
  11. Do you have a joke for me? I murder joke telling. I could never be a stand-up. I'd be pelted off the stage for sure. Have this one liner that Boy loves: a blonde, an Englishman and an alien walk into the bar. The barman looks up and say 'what is this? Some kind of joke?'
Given everyone's really busy and I know how difficult it is to find the time, I won't tag 11 bloggers. But that doesn't let you off the hook. Here are 11 questions for you to answer. Come back and let me know if you've decided to play.

1.   What are the 11 things you couldn't possible live without?
2.   What's your favourite quote?
3.   What's your favourite time of day?
4.   Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?
5.   Which Hollywood remake was better than the original?
6.   Where's your most favourite place in the World to eat?
7.   Do you have a favourite poem?
8.   What's your favourite put-down?
9.   In your list of 11 favourite tunes to relax to, what's number 5?
10. Cats, dogs or chickens? What's your pet of choice?
11. Where is the place you prefer to unwind?

Go on, let's play!

16 comments:

  1. Super! Excellent answers and even better new questions!

    PS: I think I would like that Comfort Pie, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LX darling, there'll be Comfort Pie over here for you, any time you want. Just let me know you're coming.

      Glad you like the questions! I had fun thinking them up!

      Delete
    2. PS: #4 Not even something from World Book Night?

      Delete
    3. No honey, I'd never foist my reading choices on you.

      I would say that I'm reading such and such book, and I'm enjoying it. Or if you were looking for a book to read, I would make a recommendation, but I'd never insist you'd read anything.

      Delete
  2. I don't have time to make a post for this but I'll take the challenge right here, if you don't mind.

    1) Ultra Soft Toilet Paper (the fact it comes first to my mind kinda bothers me!), my friends, nature, sunrises, snow, the autumn colors, chocolate, maple syrup, a piano (I don't have one right now and I know this is why I'm so edgy), the recording of Mahler's Song of the Earth with Jessye Norman and Colin Davis, silence!

    2) I hate quotes!

    3) the crack of dawn!

    4) DARK!!!!! 80% cocoa and + (with a glass of white porto...)

    5) I don't really watch movies nor any tv!

    6) Home!

    7) Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (I have become lost to the world (bad translation, I know!)) by Friedrich Rückert

    8) Even after looking in many on-line French-English dictionnaries, I'm not sure the real meaning of "put-down" as a noun. I see it as "humiliation" but I don't know how does "favorite" goes with that.

    9) HA! It changes all the time between Im Abendrot (Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs) or der Abschied (Mahler's Song of the Earth) both with J. Norman.

    10) Horses!

    11) In nature, far from civilization (and preferably riding a horse!)

    VOILÀ! :¬D
    Have a grrreat day, ma chère.
    Hugs
    Jon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jon, what great answers! Though, I am disturbed that toilet paper is on your list even before friends.

      A put-down...it's a humorous insult. For example, my favourite, which I saw on a poster once:

      Oh look! The Fuck-Up Fairy has once again visited us.

      Boy's favourite in response to dodgy driving: Did they get their driving permits in a cereal box?

      Thanks so much for playing! xxxx

      Delete
  3. I love memes! Trouble is I do them in my head and never get round to writing the answers!!
    Memo to self... must do meme....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well? Where's your meme?

      :-)

      Quite frankly, with what you've got on your plate, I'm not surprised you've not got around to it.

      Delete
  4. Great answers to LX's fabulous questions. There really is something called comfort pie? I thought that was a box of cookies. I'd love to visit New Zealand too. But I've been told many parts of it look just like where I live. Hmmmm.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much.

      Well, I made up the pie, so I got to name it. I called it Comfort Pie...because that what it always does for me.

      In fact, given the awful weather at the moment...I think I just might be doing one for lunch.

      Delete
  5. I'll answer it here too, darling.

    1) Books, outdoor space (even if I lived in a flat it would have to have a balcony), a dog (even though I am dogless at present), sex (sorry to raise the tone so, darling), wine (though cider, beer or whisky make reasonable substitutes), blogging, asparagus (in season), a comfortable pillow, music, emotional honesty, my family (saved the most important until the last).
    2) "She was small and delicately put together, but she looked durable" - I haven't checked, hope it's accurate. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler. "Durable" just cracks me up.
    3) Evening. I wake up and get happy by the time evening comes. You think I'm exuberant in the day? Heh.
    4) Dark. Bendicks Bittermints and Montezuma's Orange and Geranium for preference. Or just good quality plain chocolate.
    5) I daresay one was but I can't think at the moment. Pass.
    6) Having just made piggywig of self for the last fortnight, I'll have to say India.
    7) Yes.
    8) When I was a child my father got very annoyed when held up at a junction by a cyclist freewheeling over the bridge and growled "pedal the bloody thing!" sub voce. I took it on as a thing to mutter when someone was tootling along too slowly in a car. Eloise took it a stage further and to anyone slow she'll say "pedal it!". I'm not sure if this counts as a put-down, but then I don't really use put-downs, being the kind sort.
    9) You think I have a list in an order? Oh darling, how likely is that? The album I'm listening to at present is Schubert Piano Duets played by Sviatoslav Richter and Benjamin Britten and the fifth track is Variations in A flat major, D813. I. Tema - Allegretto.
    10) I like them all, but a dog is best.
    11) In my greenhouse potting up baby plants.

    When did Gerald Durrell write about New Zealand? I thought I read all his books as a child and I don't remember that one.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you for playing and I love it when you raise the tone! You're so cheeky!

    You sent me into a panic and to wikipedia. Gerald Durrell wrote about New Zealand in his book Two in the Bush. Phew.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The name sounds familiar but I remember nothing about it. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember being completely perplexed about his explanation of the lunchtime drinking laws and how the New Zealanders drank copious amounts of beer, very quickly.

      Delete
  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome. Pull up a chair, have a cup of coffee, make yourself at home.