Thursday 12 December 2013

Thankful Thursday

It's getting late.  I'd almost forgotten that it is Thursday.  When one is retired one day is very much like any other.  So what have I got to be thankful for today?  Lots obviously.

I don't usually go with these answering questions things on blogs but Jenny did a very interesting post (all her posts are interesting actually) a few days ago and invited her readers to answer some questions (you'll find out why if you read her post - those of you who haven't already done so).  I thought that I'd share the questions and my answers:

1. If there is one candy left in the box, do  you have to eat it, or can you leave it sitting there all alone for the next few weeks?
A. I'd probably eat it if I was in the mood simply so that I could dispose of the box and have one less thing cluttering the fridge or cupboard.

2. What do you want to remember most of all, if you survive to be very old?
A1. I'm getting to the stage when I'd be very happy to remember anything when I get very old.
A2. I'm really not sure that I want to get very old although my parents both lived full and happy lives into their 90s. They both had excellent memories at the time of their deaths.  I've never had an even half decent memory.

3. Would you enjoy being a very rich and famous celebrity? ( after all you don't HAVE to be like the unedifying Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson and pay someone £1,600 a week to clean your silver and gold collection....)
A. Rich perhaps. Famous definitely not.

4. Which of the photos in this post is your favourite and why do you like it?
A. Learning to ski.  I have no idea why but it touched my heart and my eyes.

5. What piece of music do you personally find most emotionally moving?
A. That is an impossible question to answer.   I listen to music most of the time and what I listen to depends upon the mood I'm in although it's mostly what is referred to as classical.  I can be moved almost to tears by a piece of piano music or by some of Gounod's Mass to St Cecelia: the list is endless.  On the other hand Laura Branigan and Bonnie Tyler also sing songs with great emotion.

6. How do you deal with anxiety, depression and bad times?
A. Once you've been told that you are going to die and that it's likely to be sooner rather than later anxiety, depression and bad times just don't exist any more.  If I wake up in the morning then it's a good day.  It really doesn't matter what shit is delivered it's likely to be small stuff and there's no point in sweating the small stuff.

7. What do you love doing that bores everyone else stiff?
A. Hopefully not blogging.  I've learned not to mention croquet to The Family.

8. Did you ever encounter an inanimate object that seemed to have a will of its own?
A.  Not apart from my croquet mallet.

9. What is your very favourite hotel or restaurant? (This blog does have "travel" in the title, after all)
A.  I've thought long and hard about this and I just can't answer it.  There are just too many I really enjoy or have enjoyed for various reasons: some very expensive and some very simple.  I feel very at home though having coffee or a simple lunch at The Woodlands Centre on Lewis.

10.  Do you think prisoners who have committed particularly vile crimes should be segregated in jail for their own safety?
A. Perhaps many of them should possibly be segregated for the safety of others.  I suspect, though, that you were thinking of vile crimes perpetrated against children and so on.  That's a more difficult question to answer.

11. What do you wish you had known when you were 18? (if you are under 18, ignore this question
A. When I was 16 I was a teenager so I knew everything.  By the time I was 18 I realised that there were things I didn't know. Now at nearly 70 I can't remember what they were.

The funny thing is that looking back I'd answer some of the questions differently even though only a few days have passed since I wrote those answers.

If you feel like answering any of the questions I'd be interested to know your answers.  

So what made me think of this for Thankful Thursday?  Question 6.  I woke up this morning.  It's been a very good day.  For that I'm thankful.

25 comments:

  1. what a lovely post. Certainly makes you think. I agree with you on the the Woodlands, I too enjoy having a coffee there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Carol and as a friendly place for meeting people.

      Delete
  2. The variety of the questions makes my head spin. Like with some of Scriptor's posts, by the time I get to the end I've already forgotten what I wanted to comment on while reading the previous parts... So how am I supposed to remember what I did not know forty years ago?! ... (so much for my "good memory", LOL)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure most of us don't remember that Monica which is why most of the answers are in a similar vein to mine.

      Delete
  3. A lovely post, GB. I wish that before I was eighteen I'd known and understood what it's like to be old, not least because then I would have understood old relatives so much better. At the end of my life, I'd like to remember family, my two husbands and giving birth to my children. As for what moves me, it has to be Bach. Probably the St.Matthew Passion. I loved your answers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Frances. I'm fascinated that the Bach moves you though not surprised. I once listened to almost the entire Bach recordings over a year or so and, very unusually for me, I parted with the boxed set of his works and gave it to CJ who loves Bach. I still have some of his works on separate CDs though. I shall listen to the St Matthew Passion this morning.

      Delete
  4. Replies
    1. Thank you Jaz. That means a lot to me.

      Delete
  5. After Jenny's post, I was already thinking about turning her questions (and my answers, obviously) into a post of my own, and your post has just confirmed my decision to do that. Reading your answers, I have been nodding to many of them, so don't think I have just done a copy-and-paste-job if you'll read something similar on my blog soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would never think that of you Meike. I know that whenever you say something it is what you feel and what you mean.

      Delete
  6. A thought provoking and inspiring post GB and Jenny.
    You hit the nail on the head in your number 1 answer....exactly what I would do. Who wants to have one lonely candy knocking around by itself??
    Loved your answers to these questions...most answers I agree with.
    Like you when I wake up to greet another day, I am happy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Virginia. It can be fun doing things like this occasionally.

      Delete
  7. When one is retired one doesn't get weekends either...one day is just like the other...you're always retired.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Red I follow what you are saying - we are always retired - but in terms of variety of things to do.... I just can't keep up.

      Delete
  8. J'aime beaucoup ton blog! Nice post! Ifollow your publications, now. You can discover my other blog:Cath CH Photography.
    Thank you, à bientôt! Have a lovely weekend!
    Cath.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am a child when it comes to chocolates. I'd eat the last one and open another box. I chain-eat. sigh.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Katherine, as a recovering chocoholic for the last 15 years or so I can quite easily keep chocolate in the fridge for months and just eat a piece or two with my morning coffee. 'Twas not always the case.

      Delete
  10. Just to let you know that I called round to your blog for the first time and read your responses to Katherine's questions. You don't seem like such a bad chap after all! Quite nice in fact but please don't get too excited about "Weekend et coup de brosse" as I had exactly the same comment the other day. I think she must be cunningly attempting to bolster her popularity. By the way, my wife and I visited Napier briefly last year as we drove on to Lake Taupo from Gisborne. It seemed a good place to be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, YP I've seen a similar post on many blogs but at least WECDB is not being anonymous. I originally did a comment saying that I wasn't going to delete the post and then decided just to say nothing but to allow the post to remain.

      Delete
  11. How I deal with anxiety, depression and bad times? I cry. If there is a candy left I would not eat it, it could stay there forever. If it were a chocolate cake then I'd grab it though:) You know, I don't like cuccia either, but in my town in Sicily we were forced to eat it because the legend went that if you didn't eat it, you'd go blind. Santa Lucia is the patron of sight for us Italians. So unwillingly we would it the cuccia for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A, Francesca, the power of superstition: where would we be without it?

      Delete
  12. :^)
    Always nice to stop by and visit your part of the world, if even for just a few minutes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Cynthia. We don't see enough of each other in Blogland these days.

      Delete
  13. I was looking at your answers, and thinking, "how strange, I have read these, and even commented on them - and yet I don't think I have looked at Graham's blog yet this week." And then, slowly the realisation dawned in my slow little brain. Oh, dear, yes, I do agree with you on Q2! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sorry Jenny. I cheated a little bit and repeated it all for those few of my readers who don't read your blog. I hope most soon will read both.

      Delete