This is a picture of Ginevra Molly ‘Ginny’ Weasley as played by Bonnie Wright in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Because I can.
OK, this is my first time so please be patient with me! Some of these questions may have been asked before, I which case feel free to ignore/berate me… There’s no obvious theme this week, except all these questions came up in a conversation I had yesterday.
I know I’m getting in a little early, but that’s kind of in keeping with my loose theme. Having spent an inordinate amount of my time around issues relating to the new Drive-By Truckers album, various time-related or opportunities seized/missed thoughts ran through my head.
1. What do you wait for pointlessly?
It doesn’t matter how long I sit there hitting ‘Refresh’, I’m making no difference to whether or not I get any response to my Amazon reviews. Why the hell am I so flippin’ needy on the subject? (That bit’s not an official question, by the way!)
Whilst I’m at my desk with nothing happening on Amazon/ RR / The ‘Spill, I should get through more work than I actually do.
THIS little blighter is partly responsible! So -
2. What’s your favourite way to waste time?
One of the things I used to do almost automatically during the day was go make a(n instant) coffee whilst waiting for the PC to finish tasks, but since being poorly at Christmas, I’ve gone right off instant. I’ve turned it into a sort of New Year Resolution to drink less-but-better-quality coffee, and so far I’ve not had a single granule of instant in 2011. We’ve had this question before, but the other way round: mine to you is -
3. What drink or foodstuff did you used to love, but can’t stand now?
And the strange connections a brain makes … I thought back to an American friend who just never did understand how anyone could stomach instant coffee. And then I realized just how long it is since we spoke to him, or in fact even got so much as a Christmas card from him. So -
4. Who have you lost touch with? How long has it been? Why haven’t you done anything about it?
In Tyler’s case, it’s been so long since we saw him, that we still had the Jeep Wrangler – I remember that because I went looking for some accessories for it when we last stayed with him in Ohio. THAT thought then led me to a cold-sweat memory I’d long-since buried. In 2001, when Julie was 7 months pregnant with Jess, and big with it, she was commuting in the Wrangler. One morning it just conked out and flat refused to restart – IN THE MIDDLE LANE OF THE M621 DURING LEEDS RUSH-HOUR!! She rang me when the AA said it would be over an hour before they got to her (in spite of her condition), but I was over an hour away too. I told her to ring the Police, but those bastards said until she actually caused an accident, she wasn’t a high enough priority to come out to.
She sat there, mostly on the phone to me, both of us panicking, with cars swerving around her for over half-an-hour. Finally, when we were both completely frazzled, a car pulled up across lanes 1&2, put its hazards on, and three apparently HUGE security guards first stopped the traffic, then escorted Julie to the embankment, then pushed the dead weight of the Jeep up onto the hard shoulder. They checked she was OK, asked if she wanted to use their phone, and when satisfied she was sorted, promptly got in their car and drove away. Julie was so freaked by this time, and I (on the phone miles away) was so enraged at the lack of response from the official services, that neither of us even thanked them properly, let alone found out who they were. So -
5. What random act of kindness has someone shown you, that you never got to thank them for?
Here’s your chance to shout it to the world. You never know: this is the internet … they may see this and recognize themselves!
1. Sometimes I have very realistic dreams where I’m a character in a tv show that i’ve been watching a lot of (very convincing scripting too, it’s always great to get that extra unique episode) but if you had to live in a TV show for a month, which one would it be, and why?
2. My wife always stops me from buying hideous and grim things for the house (crows, stinky african masks with real hair on, bizarre scary wooden horses) but what thing have you managed to sneak in, against much opposition – or what item of homeware used to freak you out a bit when you were a child?
3. Two legs up and two legs down, soft in the middle and hard all around. Mini McF now knows all the answers to them but do you have a favourite riddle, (that you may well torment youngsters with)?
4. Gordon Brown got caught on the mic, with him rightly calling a voter “bigoted”, but have you ever had one of those “he’s behind me, isn’t me moments?” – My colleague and I did manage to refer to a client as “barking mad” over an internet broadcast, realising he was listening just seconds later….
5. Any small ways in which you stick it to “the man”?
Wow! The end of the week already?! Oh yes, it’s here my friends, lovers, ‘Spillers – and that means it’s time for some vaguely themed QUESTIONS!
1. Volcano ash cloud grounds Europe; but what’s the closest you’ve ever come to what some people are calling “an act of God”?
2. Is there a food you associate with being on holiday as a kid? For some reason toast burnt at a very specific char just makes me think of childhood holidays, not any particular one mind, but still. Or maybe it’s not a food?
3. Well, you went on holiday there – but never again!! Personally speaking, I don;t want another precious summer holiday destroyed by the West Coast of Scotland, thanks very much.
4. When the sun comes out, as it has been doing a bit here in the UK of late, what’s the first thing that springs to your mind that you want to do? Pass the beer garden and the cold pint please!
5. I know that EOTWQs are supposed to have music questions, but I made the goddamn rules, so – what with all my talk of balaeric music of late – what’s your most favouritest endless summer sandy long days warm breeze beautiful sunny tall grass type song? I may go for “Today” by the Smashing Pumpkins just now and have a ponder…
This song is called “Go Outside” and is about this week’s questions:
Download: y58olme
This song is some balearic, it’s as if shoegaze bands went on nice sunny holidays abroad, rather than staying in perfecting their fringe and distortion pedals:
X x X
