4. What’s your favorite restaurant?<\/em><\/p>\nThe Moroccan Tagine, Golborne Road, London W10.<\/p>\n
5. Last time you swam in a pool?<\/em><\/p>\nCan’t remember, actually. May have been as long ago as 1997, in the sports facilities at my university in Aberystwyth.<\/p>\n
6. Have you ever been in a school play?<\/em><\/p>\nOK … let’s try and remember.<\/p>\n
I was in a play called All’s Well That Ends Well, which wasn’t Shakespeare’s play of that name but something written within the school. That was at Kesgrave in 1991 I think. Then there was a French play at the same school’s prize-giving, in which a customer’s “fly in my soup” complaint was reuffed with “Impossible! Look at the menu – this is a vegetarian resturant”. I was also in a couple of Christian plays in and around Croydon, one of them at the Fairfield Halls.<\/p>\n
7. How many kids do you want?<\/em><\/p>\nDunno. I’m not the one that’s got to give birth to them. Sometimes I think I’d like many, then I remember how difficult bringing up children can be nowadays.<\/p>\n
8. Type of music do you dislike most?<\/em><\/p>\nAny boom-boom house or garage music, particularly those which destroy classic songs (most recent example being a trashing of Steve Winwood’s Valerie<\/em>).<\/p>\n9. Are you registered to vote?<\/em><\/p>\nAs far as I know.<\/p>\n
10. Do you have cable?<\/em><\/p>\nNo. We have digital terrestrial TV here which, for a lot of people (including us) removes any need for the “57 channels and nothing on” cable and satellite TV services. (Also, Rupert Murdoch owns Sky TV which seems to have a monopoly on the service.)<\/p>\n
11. Have you ever ridden on a moped?<\/em><\/p>\nNo. Nor a motorbike.<\/p>\n
12. Ever prank call anybody?<\/em><\/p>\nNo. Why would you want to do that? Why would you admit to it?<\/p>\n
13. Ever get a parking ticket?<\/em><\/p>\nYeah, a few times … I think the last time I got a ticket in my own car was in Kingston in 2003.<\/p>\n
14. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving?<\/em><\/p>\nNo, I don’t think so.<\/p>\n
15. Farthest place you ever traveled?<\/em>
\nMa’adi, a southern suburb of Cairo..<\/p>\n16. Do you have a garden?<\/em>
\nYes, well, I live in my parents’ house, and they have a garden.<\/p>\n17. What’s your favorite comic strip?<\/em>
\nFor all I read them, I’d probably say User Friendly<\/em>. And Steve Bell’s cartoon’s in the Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n18. Do you really know all the words to the national anthem?<\/em><\/p>\nNo, who’d learn the lyrics to God Save the Queen<\/em> anyway? (What was it – God save the Queen, the fascist régime …)<\/p>\n19. Bath or Shower, morning or night?<\/em><\/p>\nShower. Always in the morning.<\/p>\n
20. Best movie you’ve seen in the past month?<\/em><\/p>\nHaven’t seen any in the last month.<\/p>\n
21. Favorite pizza toppings?<\/em><\/p>\nWhenever I do pizza (which is extremely rarely) I make my own. With loads of vegetables, mushrooms, and a bit of meat. I’m not into the deep crust pizza, it’s just air!<\/p>\n
22. Chips or popcorn?<\/em><\/p>\nChips.<\/p>\n
(Update 23:10 – there was me thinking “when would you have to choose?” until someone pointed out that “chips” means what we call crisps. We call fries chips over here. I’d still say chips\/crisps, though, although I rarely eat either. There is a nice brand called Tyrells, which makes crisps out of vegetables other than potatoes, like carrots, beetroot and parsnip.)<\/p>\n
23. What color lipstick do you usually wear?<\/em><\/p>\nNone.<\/p>\n
26. Orange Juice or apple?<\/em><\/p>\nApple. Copella’s apple juice is better than any orange juice you can buy, which has to come from Spain or Florida.<\/p>\n
27. Favorite type of chocolate bar?<\/em><\/p>\nLyme Regis marzipan bar. (Expensive, but de-lish.)<\/p>\n
28 When was the last time you voted at the polls?<\/em><\/p>\nEuropean and London council and mayoral elections, last June.<\/p>\n
29. Last time you ate a homegrown tomato?<\/em><\/p>\nMust have been years ago, the last time my Nan grew tomatoes in her greenhouse. (Though you can’t beat the smell of tomato plants.)<\/p>\n
30. Have you ever won a trophy?<\/em><\/p>\nCan’t remember. I’m pretty sure I have, but it was years ago.<\/p>\n
31. Are you a good cook?<\/em><\/p>\nWell, my flatmates in Aberystwyth liked my cooking.<\/p>\n
32. Do you know how to pump your own gas?<\/em><\/p>\nHardly any filling station has people fill your tank nowadays. It’s all self-service.<\/p>\n
33. Ever order an item from an infomercial?<\/em><\/p>\nDon’t think so.<\/p>\n
34. Sprite or 7-up?<\/em><\/p>\nNeither. (There’s a bottle of Sprite sitting in our garage, and I checked the ingredients the other day and it doesn’t mention fruit juice anywhere<\/strong>. Get fizzy water and add fruit juice if you like fizzy fruit drinks.)<\/p>\n35. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to work?<\/em><\/p>\nUh … last time I remember was Woolworths in Croydon, 1993-4. I was there when they got Jeff Banks from the Clothes Show<\/em> to redesign the uniform to be stylish. It wasn’t.<\/p>\n36. Last thing you bought at a pharmacy?<\/em><\/p>\nMy thyroid medicine. (People who have thyroid deficiency get their drugs free.)<\/p>\n
37. Ever throw up in public?<\/em><\/p>\nMost people have at some time, but I can’t remember my last time.<\/p>\n
38. Would you prefer being a millionaire or to find true love?<\/em><\/p>\nI’m with Umm Zaid on this one. And anyway, how could you possibly be offered this choice? By being offered a million quid or bucks to rat on your “true love”? No thanks.<\/p>\n
39. Do you believe in love at first sight?<\/em><\/p>\nI’m sure it’s possible, but like Scorpion said, pheromones is the most likely explanation.<\/p>\n
40. Ever call a 1-900 number?<\/em><\/p>\nWouldn’t it be expensive calling 1-900 numbers from the UK?<\/p>\n
I can’t remember the last time I called a premium rate number. There are usually ways to get out of it.<\/p>\n
41. Can exes be friends?<\/em><\/p>\nPossibly. It’s possible to not be at each other’s throats, certainly.<\/p>\n
42. Who was the last person you visited in a hospital?<\/em><\/p>\nMy sister, in 2003.<\/p>\n
43. Did you have a lot of hair when you were a baby?<\/em><\/p>\nAsk my Mum.<\/p>\n
44. What message is on your answering machine?<\/em><\/p>\n“Welcome to the T-Mobile voice mail service …”<\/p>\n
45. What is in your backpack?<\/em><\/p>\nA book, an iPod (sometimes), some empty water bottles, and some magazines.<\/p>\n
46. Favorite thing to do before bedtime?<\/em><\/p>\nHave one last look at my blog to see if there’s any spam. (Well, that is<\/em> usually the last thing, it’s not necessarily my favourite.) Coherently finish off a blog entry. Kiss my mum good-night.<\/p>\n47. What is one thing you are grateful for today?<\/em><\/p>\nDoes there have to be only one? I’ve finally found decent blogging software<\/a>.<\/p>\n48. What is the first concert you ever went to?<\/em><\/p>\nSuzanne Vega, Fairfield Halls in Croydon, Surrey, in 1992. (That may not actually have been the first, but it’s the first one I remember and which I actually wanted to go to.)<\/p>\n
Is that it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leila (Scorpion) has filled in the latest survey that’s doing the rounds (she calls it “a mid-Muharram meme” although I’m not sure if it started in Muharram). Umm Zaid has filled in a shorter...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p17bgV-fE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blogistan.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blogistan.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blogistan.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogistan.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogistan.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogistan.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blogistan.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogistan.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogistan.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}