Owing to only being able to dive into the blogosphere every so often over the last two weeks, I only just noticed that my sister (magnusmog.blogspot.com) had tagged me with this new task. So I will try to dig out some ideas out of my miasma of jetlag.
What were you doing 10 years ago?
Working very hard to get out of Swindon, where I throughly hated living. I had moved there as it was the only way to get my much deserved promotion from BT. This working very hard involved much traveling back to Scotland for job interviews and also much traveling to Ireland for job interviews too - Ireland being my other Celtic country I fancied living in. Goodness knows how I managed to take so much time out of what was not an easy job I was doing at the time. It eventually paid off with a move to West of Scotland Water in Glasgow in 1998. Just goes to show you that if you work hard enough at something for long enough that things tend to work out.
What were you doing 1 year ago?
Getting acclimatised to a new life in California, beginning to get used to the place and to quite like it. Probably spending a load of time driving between San Jose and San Francisco, to do loads of events with www.bayarealinkup.com in 'Frisco.
Five snacks you enjoy:
I'm not tremendously interested in snacks, much to the mystification of other people I spend time with. I think not eating between meals was pretty much drummed into me when I was young, so I never got into the habit. But here are a few things from the top of my head.
1. Cheese biscuits
2. Chocolate digestive biscuits, especially the chocolate orange ones
3. Crisps
4. Black olives
5. Cheese
Five songs that you know all the lyrics to: I don't think I can answer this one, as remembering song lyrics is one of my special powers and there are probably around 5000 songs that I know all the lyrics of. OK, instead I'll do five songs that have the lyrics that are most likely to pop into my head at any given moment. These pop into my head either because they express a thought that I have often, or are just soooo good:
1. Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World
2. The Only Ones - Oh Lucinda (Love Becomes a Habit)
3. Van Der Graaf Generator - Lemmings
4. Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett) - Mathilda Mother
5. The Beatles (John Lennon) - I'm So Tired
Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
I'm not really a very materialistic person. I think the bulk of consumption, especially in this country, is a capitalist con. I've probably got enough money just now to have most things I actually want, which is not much really, but if we are in fantasy land, then:
1. Donate to KALX. They can be found at kalx.berkeley.edu and are by far the best student / volenteer run college radio station in this area. They are on just now and are normally the soundtrack of my Sunday mornings.
2. I was always very sad that I never got to know my grandmother on my fathers side. She was born within a year or two of my grandmother on my mothers side who I was very close to until her death at the age of 84 in 1995. My grandmother on my fathers side died of cancer in the 1950's. It seemed so unfair that one grandmother had half the lifespan of the other, so I'd donate a ton of money to cancer research and hope that one day we can find a cure and /or better treatments. I also had a friend who died of a brain tumor at the age of 35 in 2002. What a waste.
3. I'd buy a house overlooking a loch in Sutherland and have a spare room full of recording equipment. I'd quit my job, move there and finally have enough time to play instruments properly and write and record all the songs that are just ideas in my head at the moment.
4. I'd donate money to help people with depression. One of my best friends died through suicide caused by depression in 1992. I think of him a lot and it's still impossible for me to really understand how he could find life so unbearable at the age of 26 that he was driven to end his own life. I've had such a great life and want it to go on and on and I think what he could have done and achieved from the age of 26 onwards. He should have had the chance. He was one of the guys who I had the best time of my life with in the summer of 1985, which was the time in my life that inspired me to create by creating www.kirkcaldybands.com. It seemed that by 1992 the party was truly over.
5. I'd have a big party and form a band with my mates and play a long set of my own songs. I think I would only have an audience for a live set if I bought people free drink to watch it!
Five bad habits:
1. Starting books and never finishing them. My sister had much better reading habits than me when we were growing up and I think I never got into the habit.
2. Not answering the phone, I hate the phone.
3. Not cleaning the bathroom often enough.
4. Being nasty to the cold calling people when I do answer the phone. It's annoying have someone try to sell you something when you are not at work and you are a professional Buyer, but I'm sure no one is a cold calling professional out of choice.
5. Being grumpy with the flight attendants on long flights when I feel like shit.
Five things you like doing:
1. Writing my blog
2. Listening to loads of good music on Mr Pod when going down to the Mission Ale house on the little train and then having a beer at the Mission.
3. Writing songs
4. Taking photos
5. Watching Doctor Who
Five things you would never wear again:
1. Black raincoat. There were many clothes in my late teens and early 20's that I wore and wore and wore as I had no money to buy any more.
2. Knackered old shoes. I wore the same shoes for so long between 1989 and 1990 that when I got new ones, my mate Andy named his band after my new shoes.
I can't think of anything else here. I don't think that much about clothes. Is this survey designed for girls?
Five favorite toys:
1. Lieca D-Lux 3 digital camera
2. Video iPod
3. Sony Ericsson camera phone
4. Apple iBook. Its so well used that it's track pad is getting shiny. Its batteries go on forever on long airplane journeys and it is so rugged that it seems unbreakable.
5. 20" iMac, lovely big screen, I'm using it right now!
Is blog writing a cure for jetlag? Maybe!
Having spent loads of $ on "airbourne", that American preventative for getting germs off your fellow economy class travelers, I have come back from India with the thing I least expected - a cold!
