Share a photo of your pet and tell us one thing that makes them uniquely them.
For some reason this failed to upload on the required day…your task is to get my pet…
Her name is Spoog, well actually her name is Maggie, but for some reason she has become, Boog, Poog, The Spoog.. Drop It, what have you stolen. Stop it, Get Off… And ow when using tender parts of ones body as a launch pad!
She didn’t have the best start in life, but she seems way more settled now. Getting better with power tools but absolutely detests hard hats and high Vis.
I can’t really think of anything, but I remember, as a kid of about eight or nine, trying to work out how old I would be in the year 2000… What…How ancient?
Yeah 34! Ancient and over the hill.
I used to have a really huge dislike of seaweed… I think Jaws has something to do with that, similar fear of dark water.
I have gone sea kayaking in the dark which funnily enough meant I had to deal with the both of them… Sadly I cannot find the photos….
If you had to give one life-changing tip, what would it be?
What tip could I give that wouldn’t sound like some form of life coach guru…
So digging deeply as I can I have come up with a little gem.
‘Be Yourself and don’t be a shithead.’
If you ever worry that you are not doing things right…Just remember ‘Not Everyone could have been Kung Fu Fighting!’ it’s a lie that has become famous. I mean even if they were, extremely unlikely, were they all using expert timing? Hmmmm. What no beginners at all?
What’s a song lyric that has stuck with you forever?
Well I used songs to give to my younger self I. An earlier prompt… At least it wasn’t an expressive dance!
So ever since I heard these they have stuck with me…
Those who feel the breath of sadness Sit down next to me Those who find they’re touched by madness Sit down next to me Those who find themselves ridiculous Sit down next to me
And if we want to go back a bit to my younger days…
Streets of London
Have you seen the old man Outside the seaman’s mission Memory fading with The medal ribbons that he wears? In our winter city The rain cries a little pity For one more forgotten hero And a world that doesn’t care
Funnily enough, it was originally going to be the Streets of Paris.
This verse is the one I can’t sing without having a little wobble in my voice.🥹
If you could rewrite any book’s ending, which one would you choose?
You know this is actually quite hard, there are a few books that bug me. Maybe not so much of the ending, but recurring, nemesis, characters in a series. I am thinking of Obadiah Hakeswill in the Sharp series here. I don’t know why but his reappearance bugs me.
But in reality what right do I have to change someone else’s story. I wouldn’t change things, but I might like to see another few chapters…
I have just finished Jurrassic Park… There could have been other survivors… What happened when the military arrived. Oh and why did the film kill off Muldoon? How long were Grant and Saddler kept against their will…etc, etc,etc.
Talking of Jurrassic Park, the one thing that really, really bugs me is Michael Criton’s overuse of the word ‘said’!
I was teaching six and seven year olds to use words instead of ‘said’…
I actually read a few other people’s ideas and I did like this rewrite…
So maybe write my own additional chapters, or possibly write my own book. Twenty or so years ago I started doing so accidentally. I set homework for my kids in my class to write the start of a story and said to make it fair I would do the same. The kids loved mine so much that it became my homework every weekend to carry it on.
I have a hard copy of about 20,000 of the 40 odd thousand words that I wrote. One day, ha ha, I will get it finished!
What’s a movie or book that inspired you to travel?
Well if I honestly had to choose a book that would make me want to head across the pond then it would have to be “The Last of the Mohicans”. Never managed it yet but it is Definitely on my bucket list to visit Fort William Henry and into the great lakes.
The film with Daniel Dat Lewis, definitely helped me want to visit more.
Maybe one day…
I love “Carry on up the Khyber” and have held that gate against the imaginary Burpa Horde.
Bogenwald 