Suuuurveeeyyy! in Hot town, summery in the city - 2017

Do you put ketchup on hot dogs?
It’s one of the few things I have ketchup on as I don’t really like any sauces. One of my first jobs was in a restaurant and each day I had to put the sauces into the little silver dishes that constituted medium-posh in the 90s. It was a small room that contained huge bottles of each kind of sauce: Tartar, ketchup, mustard, mayo, Horseradish etc. the smell of all this sauce in such a small space was overwhelming and 30 years later I still don’t like sauces!

Choice of pop?
Diet Coke. It’s evil and terrible for me but I tend to drink a few a week.

Do you put salt on your watermelon?
I hadn’t heard of that concept, I may try it!

Can you swim?
I was a relatively late swimmer (about 8) because I refused to believe that water would hold me up. I mean, I drank it, splashed in it, bathed in it. Then one day I had gone to the pool with my friend Emma. Emma could swim and some of her other friends, who I didn’t know, were there. She went off with them (and was very nice about it) because they could swim too. So I took off my arm bands and I swam. I swam an entire length of the little pool then went into the big pool and swam a width. By the end of the session I was swimming with all the big kids. Emma and I walked home (this was the 70s, of course non swimming kids could go to the pool without an adult 🤣 ) and told my mum I could swim now. She didn’t believe me, dropped everything and took me back to the pool to prove it. That summer you couldn’t keep me out of the pool.

Hot dogs or burgers?
Either, although not both.

Favourite type of food?
My eldest often asks me, “what’s your favourite….?” Naming different subjects. I can’t answer as it totally depends on my mood. Just never serve up liver, turnip mash and sprouts because, right there are my three least favourite foods!

Do you believe in ghosts?
Well, I believe in Ghosts….

What do you drink in the morning?
Sainsburys Fairtrade Kenyan coffee. We were out of filters the other day so I got a coffee at McDonald’s. They effed up the order (How you can mess up, “one black coffee and one white americano,” I really don’t know but it had no milk!) and it was such a disappointment! 🤣🤣

Can you do 100 push ups?
Can I pretend to be my 14 year old who can do push ups like a champion! Me, on the other hand, I cannot do one pushup.

Favourite season?
spring n summer.

Your favourite animal?
One’s on my lap, the other has just been kicked of husband’s bedside table. 🐈‍⬛ 🐈

Tattoos?
🐈, 🌸, ☯️, 🦎, 🌹

Do you wear glasses?
I’m resisting varifocals but that means I have glasses all over the place. Reading glasses both upstairs and downstairs, driving glasses both downstairs and in the car (one of which has transition lenses so can be worn on walks that go in and out of trees) and prescription sunglasses which tend to move around the house and car. I’m sure it would be cheaper to just buy the bloody varifocals!

Do you have a phobia?
Not really. When the kids were little it was more about something terrible happening to them. Now they’re older I have to relax the grip and trust.

Do you have a nickname?
Yes, Ermentrude 🤣🤣

First car?
Ahh, my 1986 Ford Fiesta XR2. Oh how I loved that car, bombing around the country lanes of Yorkshire with Rock music blasting out of the tape deck 😍

Favourite movie?
Fried Green Tomatoes, Fisher King, Edward Scissorhands, Donny Darko, Monsters Inc… shall I keep going..?

Rain or Snow?
It has been royally pissing down here for the past 48 hours. There’s flooding in certain areas. Yeah, I’ll have snow thanks!

Can you change a tire?
Yes. I usually struggle to loosen the nuts but once that’s done we’re away!

Favourite flower?
Daisies and sunflowers

Can you drive a stick?
In the U.K. it’s normal to drive a manual car. In fact, if you take your test in an automatic you’re not allowed to drive a manual. I was horrified when i was in Florida because my host mom drove the dad’s manual soooooo badly!!!

Ever go sky diving?
Yes, a few times and I loved it!

Pets?
As mentioned earlier, my favourite animals 🐈‍⬛ 🐈

Favourite colour?
I like colour combos over specific colours but at the moment I do seem to be drawn to mustard yellow (as long as it doesn’t smell like that vile sauce room at the restaurant!)

Favourite restaurant?
I like trying new places, new foods.

Can you whistle?
Yes, I practiced and practiced when I was a kid until I could. I’m pretty damn good at it too. Then, when hubby and I were first together we were at a rock gig and someone said something, I thought they were talking to me (they weren’t) and I turned my head just as I was going to take a swig of beer. The bottle hit my tooth and chipped the teeniest bit off the corner. I’ve been able to whistle with my fingers since then (approx 23 years ago).

Where were you born?
In the same place as my morning coffee: in the foothills of Mount Kenya.

Surgeries?
Two manual removal of placenta.

Favourite vacation?
Oh man, I don’t know. So many happy times in so many places! Dancing as the sun rises in Ibiza, hiking up Glastonbury Tor, paddling in Lake Michigan and visiting Chicago Museum of Art, cycling along the sea front in California, evening Lake swimming in Andalucía, eating carrot cake on top of the Jungfraujoch…

Shower or bath?
Shower to be quick, bath to wallow.

Last song you heard?
One of Taytay’s new ones from Midnights. Not sure which, hubby had it playing on his phone.

Broken bones?
My toe. Both broken and dislocated after slamming it into eldest’s bedroom door when i went to open it and storm in there (not a proud moment) but eldest’s pile of crap on the floor stopped it from opening.

How many TV’s in you house?
Just one. Although we all have the ability to watch on ours devices.

Worst pain?
You forget birth don’t you? And that pain has a positive ending so I would say toothache, early 90s. It took over my entire being and soul!

Do you like to sing?
Love to sing, sing all the time. Not great at singing 🤣🤣

Are your parents still alive?
My dad is although he has dementia which I think is a knock on from the concussion he had following the car accident he and my mum were in, in which my mum died.

Do you like to go camping?
As a child, in Scotland in the rain? Not so much. Dad was stressed about putting the tent up and wobbling camping tables, sleeping bags with sleeping bag sheets were soooo uncomfortable and it rained. A lot. As an adult, camping on the south coast, in Somerset and South Wales have all been wonderful.

What do you binge watch?

During the lockdowns I really got into old (from my early adult days not old old) American sitcoms so Friends, New Girl, Frasier, Seinfeld etc. I’ve also done Brooklyn 99 and I’m currently going through The Goldbergs. I need to see if I can find the Wonder Years anywhere which was The Goldbergs of the 80s. I’ve also binged a lot of Spanish programmes so I can keep up Spanish practice.

Pumpkin or Pecan Pie?
Neither are staples of the English diet but we’re had both when I lived in Florida and I did like the pecan best but both were insanely sweet!

A photo of yourself?
Most of the photos I take of myself are post-run, sweaty and pink faced. I found one from a couple of weeks ago that’s a little more glam 🤣 😎

<a