Ask a question

[Roses]

I came across this on another forum and thought it might go well on R&E. You ask a question, someone answers it and comes up with a question of their own.

What is your favourite colour? Mine is blue.

[Steve H]

Red. How did you vote in the last general election?

[Roses]

Labour.

Do you object to revealing your age, and have you ever lied about it? My answer is no, I have no problem answering the question truthfully. I am 72 years young.

[Nearly Sane]

Labour.

Do you object to revealing your age, and have you ever lied about it? My answer is no, I have no problem answering the question truthfully. I am 72 years young.

No to the first, yes to the second when I went into pubs, and bought alcohol when underage.


If you could have a drink with any novelist, alive or dead, who would it be?

[Steve H]

George Orwell, my first literary hero.
What is the frthest North, South, East and Wesr you've ever been? Me: N & W, Portree, Skye; S & E, Lake Maggiore, Italy.

[Roses]

Scotland, Guernsey, Austria, Anglesey.


Have you ever been in an emergency situation on the plane in which you were travelling?  I have, I was  flying back to the UK from Guernsey where I had been on holiday when we flew into the eye of a storm. The small plane was rocking all over the place. The staff were obviously scared stiff, and the pilot told us to put on our seat belts and hope for the best. Fortunately we landed safely. 

[Gordon]

If you could have a drink with any novelist, alive or dead, who would it be?

D H Lawrence - I remember, in my late teens, I came across 'Sons and Lovers', which made a huge impressions on me at that time. I must re-read it to see if it still does.

In terms of travel - planes or boats (planes for me)?

[Steve H]

D H Lawrence - I remember, in my late teens, I came across 'Sons and Lovers', which made a huge impressions on me at that time. I must re-read it to see if it still does.

In terms of travel - planes or boats (planes for me)?

Boats: never flown, don't particularly want to.
What are you reading atm? Me - Adam Bede by George Eliot, The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin, Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and The Poet's Tale by Paul Strohm.

[Gordon]

Boats: never flown, don't particularly want to.
What are you reading atm? Me - Adam Bede by George Eliot, The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin, Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and The Poet's Tale by Paul Strohm.

I hate boats: had a rough crossing of the Irish Sea in 1958 (I was 6) and it still haunts me to this day. I'm re-reading Great Expectations right now.

BBC News, ITV News, C4 News or Sky News?

[Steve H]

I hate boats: had a rough crossing of the Irish Sea in 1958 (I was 6) and it still haunts me to this day. I'm re-reading Great Expectations right now.

BBC News, ITV News, C4 News or Sky News?

BBC.
Beer or cider?

[Gordon]

BBC.
Beer or cider?

Definitely beer - don't care for cider.

Beatles or Stones?

[Nearly Sane]

Definitely beer - don't care for cider.

Beatles or Stones?

Beatles.


What's the first pop song you can remember listening to?

[Steve H]

Beatles.


What's the first pop song you can remember listening to?

Softly, softly, turn the key, by Ruby Murray. I was four.

[Roses]

Beatles.


What's the first pop song you can remember listening to?

My Dad liked Perry Como. I remember 'Magic Moments'.

Have you ever had in your possession something really weird?

When I was a kid in the early 60s a small plane crashed into one of our fields, my father and his staff went to see what they could do to help. Sadly the pilot and co-pilot were dead, the passengers were alive, but hurt. When my sisters and I got home from school we went to look at the crash site, the policeman guarding the site let us through the cordon when we explained our father owned the field.  He didn't object to us taking some pieces of wreckage as souvenirs!  That would be not permitted today!

[Gordon]

My maternal grandmother died in 1973 and when we were clearing out her stuff we came across a couple of wartime gasmasks that were specifically for children - in this case my mother and her sister, Jenny. Although the gasmasks themselves weren't unusual the weirdness, for me anyway, was that the risk of children being poisoned by gas was a given in the west of Scotland when my mother and aunt were schoolgirls.

Sauce-wise - HP or Tomato?

[Roses]

Neither of them.

Have you ever been one a zipwire? I did a few years ago.

[Steve H]

Yes, at a local adventure park, when my kids were small.
Have you ever seen the current prime minister in the flesh? Back in 1964, when I turned 13, Sir Alec Douglas-Home came to Stockport and urged the crowd to vote Tory. Happily, not enough people did, and he became one of the shortest-serving P.M.s in history, at just under a year. (We also got Wislon, but I missed him.)

[ad_orientem]

Neither of them.

Have you ever been one a zipwire? I did a few years ago.

As a kid, yeah. When I was in the scouts, I think.

Has anyone here done military service? I moved to Finland so I could do my national service. Spent a year in the army and became an NCO. Now I'm a reservist. There were times when I thought "what have I got myself into, I wish I was back home" but it was one of the best years of my life and got me out of a rut.

[Nearly Sane]

Yes, at a local adventure park, when my kids were small.
Have you ever seen the current prime minister in the flesh? Back in 1964, when I turned 13, Sir Alec Douglas-Home came to Stockport and urged the crowd to vote Tory. Happily, not enough people did, and he became one of the shortest-serving P.M.s in history, at just under a year. (We also got Wislon, but I missed him.)

Seen him, talked to him, multiple times 35 years ago. Dangerous narcissistic prick then and now.

When were you happiest?

[Steve H]

Seen him, talked to him, multiple times 35 years ago. Dangerous narcissistic prick then and now.

When were you happiest?

I take it you mean Johnson. Apologies - my question was ambiguous. I meant the person who was pm at the time that you saw them.
In the early 70s, when I was in love and in lust* with my future (now, sadly, late) wife. I got a huge buzz from walking down the street with her holding my arm for guidance, her white cane in her other hand, and describing what was going on around us.
*(c) Sue Townsend, in one of her Adrian Mole books.
Have you ever been injured in a road accident?
I was knocked off my bike by a motorcyclist in 2014, and spent nine weeks in hospital, with a broken left collarbone and right heel bone, but the £20,000 I eventually got as compensation made it almost worth it!

[Roses]

No I have never been injured in a road accident.

Do you spend more on your children than yourself? Apart from essentials my husband and I don't need to spend much on ourselves so prefer to help our kids out. It is now that they need it not waiting until we kick the bucket.

[Steve H]

No.
Islay or Speyside? Me - Islay, especially Laphroaig

[Roses]

No.
Islay or Speyside? Me - Islay, especially Laphroaig

Water

Do you have a smart TV and is it fixed to the wall or on a table? Ours is on a coffee table and 42" long we wouldn't want it any larger.

[Steve H]

No. I haven't even got a scruffy tv. What little tv I watch, I watch on iplayer on my laptop.

[Roses]

Steve you forgot to ask a question!

Do you have a dishwasher, or do you wash the dishes by hand? When our dishwasher packed up l decided not to bother buying another, it only takes me a couple of minutes or so to wash up nowadays.