In a shameless steal from the excellent blog Song, By Toad, here's five irrelevant friday questions that you may like to answer, in a new regular post that is called "End Of The Week Quintet" or "EOTWQ" from soonish:
1. Like the beard of bees above (that's not me, btw) - what's the closest and scariest run-in with nature you've ever had?
2. What's your fave hangover food?
3. Any Easter traditions in your household?
4. If the 'Spill was to have a mascot, who/what would it be?
5. If you could obliterate one artist and their musical influence from history, who would it be?
Pile in!!
35 comments:
1.an abandoned railway carriage lined with wall to wall wasps. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
2. What hangover?
3. Hayoooge French meal. The. Works. And I always take Terrys chocolate oranges for the young uns. They love them.
4. Brian Speng.
5. Bob Dylan. Sorry about that.
1. A bear in my tent. You know, I had started typing 'while camping' before I realized how utterly redundant that would be.
2. Cold tinned peas. Honest. So cool and refreshing on a ravaged throat.
3. My wife goes to her mum's and does a treasure hunt for all the little kiddies. I am expected to support her. *cough. *cough. Oh my, I think I might be coming down with something.
4. You. Not a clue what you look like, but in my mind it's a sort of Yosemite Sam character.
5. This'll do me in for an invite to treefrog's birthday party next year, but Springsteen. I admire his work ethic, I admire the way he can set a story in 4 or 5 lines, but the man bores me to listen to and he's given licence to too many other boring singers. (Second would be Amy Winehouse. To all those cute young Brit ladies who sorta sound like her: YOU AREN'T AMY; SHUT UP!)
1.A long time ago in an unmentionable country at the eastern end of the Med I was shopping and pulled back the flap of the next box full of beer to find that I'd nearly grabbed hold of a scorpion which was stood on the underside of said flap.......or at about the same time, same place I went out to the fridge to get another beer from the fridge and, as I did so, thought 'what was that shadow I saw down at my (bare) feet just then?' Looked down. It was a (very poisonous) viper.
2. Crispy, fat bacon, brown sauce, white bread. Maybe a fried egg on top. Nothing remotely healthy. Get the picture?
3. We watch 'Jesus Christ Superstar' or Zefferelli's 'Jesus of Nazereth' (with Robert Powell). Very useful nowadays with little tessimmel reaching that questioning age.
4. I'll dond fp (above) - for lack of any original idea myself.
5. Stock Aitken & Waterman and all related artists.
1 Aged nine, at Littlestone in Kent, I swam out to a diving platform (without telling anyone I was going). Exhausted by the time I got there, I found the tide was too low for me to climb up on it. There was no-one around. I held on to one of the posts for a bit. Then I decided there was nothing for it - I had to swim back.
2 Too old and sensible to have hangovers any more.
3 Yes, I eat lots of chocolate.
4 Gotta go with tincanman here...
5 ...but not on this. I say Madonna. Don't see the point of her. Tinny, you can still come to my birthday party any time though. How boring would it be if we all liked the same stuff?
hahahahahah Tincanman:
"exit, pursued by a bear..."
1. safari park, rhino in middle of road decided it didn't like the colour of our car, keepers in landy distracted it as we made a quick exit, eek!
2. Not to drink in the first place.
3. Making an Easter garden on a tray with soil, moss, a jar for flowers and crosses made of lolly sticks, my husband thinks I'm making it up, but I'm not!
4. High Fidelity
5. I'll agree with Bruce Springsteen, not my cup of tea.
Fun idea Blimpy :-)
1. Driving 300 miles from Stockholm to Oland for a New Year's Eve party in the worst blizzard of the (last) century.
2. In England, toasted bacon sandwiches with brown sauce (the bread must be white); in New York, Eggs Benedict and Mimosas.
3. Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday breakfast. Never eat them any other time.
4. Speng
5. Led Zeppelin
1. I'm not sure I've really had any close calls with nature ... sad admission of a townie, I suppose. I've also had an adder crawl over my foot (on Llanbedrog Head), but I was well-booted. I was putting Darcey in the car at Leeds Costco just before Christmas and realised that the reason the grass was rustling on the other side of the car, even though there was no breeze, was that the entire border was crawling with rats - BBBRRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUURRRGGGGHH!! I have been face to face at a distance of under 8ft with a huge tiger, with nothing but very thin wire between me and it. But as that wire was electrified, and this was at Audobon Zoo, I don't suppose that counts. But it was hypnotically beautiful/terrifying nonetheless.
2. Cranberry or Blueberry [mini shredded-]Wheats with loads of ice-cold milk. SERIOUS coffee.
3. Massive table-testing Sunday roast at DarceysGran's, hence my current borrowing of an ancient eMac and a crap Sky Broadband connection.
4. With apologies to Zane, Lola Bee and others, I say either Darcey or Isaac. Those two seem to be the 'Spiller offspring with most to say on the subject of our nominations.
5. Selfishly? John Lennon. I've a lifetime of being fed up with having his 'working class hero' bollocks rammed down my throat. As a gift to humanity's hearing? Cliff Richard post 1970.
It's nothing on Gordonimmel, but--speaking of bees. I was once attacked by a bumble bee. It was a crazy thing, and it kept zooming back at me, It got caught in my hair, down my shirt, I was stung 6-7 times, which everyone says is not possible with a bumble bee, but I tell you, it happened!
Um, I like ginger beer, Reeds extra ginger. And if I'm up to eating, I like potato chips.
We tell our children gruesome stories about people being nailed to crosses. Just kidding. We dye easter eggs and there's usually lots of candy round about easter morning from somewhere or another.
Speng sounds good.
Oh, the Beatles. Sorry everyone.
Hee hee, all these responses are fab already, I love it!
FP - the railway carriage full of wasps really raises more questions than it answers (i laughed my head off at that one), as does tinny's camping buddy (did he have peas the next day too?) ! !
1. A goat ate my ice lolly when I was about 8. I was really upset about that. And once as a child I lay down in some deep snow until I started to feel warm and sleepy. Had I nodded off, I guess that coulda done for me.
2. Dependent on the ferocity of the hangover, I can't even look at food - but sometimes a full scottish can do wonders.
3. We're going to hide eggs and do clues for MiniMcFlah, then it's off to bash painted eggs together whilst saying "Christos Anesti" and eating a big lunch.
4. A cross between Speng, Yosemite Sam, Rob Gordon, and The Spill Monster would be good...
5. I was gonna say the Beatles, but they influenced Nirvana. Mebbe I'll go for Limp Bizkit and all those who hung on their coat-tails.
hmmm, i shouldn't have put in a music question, should I - how did that slip in?
1. Few years ago, me and Mrs J took a trip to Okinawa, to one of the small islands. We followed a trail that wasn't on the map but looked like the ruins of a castle, we went up some steps and along a path as the undergrowth got thicker and more closed in the further we went. We knew there were a lot of snakes in Okinawa so we tread very carefully and looked down the whole time. When I did glance up briefly I saw that my nose was literally centimetres away from the biggest bloody spider I have ever seen in my life (even on TV!) it must have been 10 inches across and it's web was spread across the whole path. We screamed and ran back, on the way back we saw lots more like it and realised we had been inches away from them too! Phew!
2. Gotta be a Full English
3. No
4. hmm...a difficult one.I think we need to invent a whole new one like Super Record Player Head Boy or something similar.....or not!
5. Boyzone. Before them pop music was all about having fun and dancing around your bedroom with a hairbrush as microphone. Boyzone introduced the dreariness of adult-oriented ballads into the lives of teenage girls, robbing them of a proper childhood and bridging the generation gap between teeenagers and parents that exists for very good reason!
re: Q 2 - I am suffering from said ailment at this very moment after a heavy night in Shibuya and am considering going for a jog to shake it off, but i think it'll only make it worse....no Full English ingredients around!
Well since we don't do hangovers or Easter can I have 3 #1's? OK, Good.
1. In about 1961 my wife and I were camping in the high country of Yosemite, we'd turned in for the night and were sleeping in a 2 person tube tent. Around midnight I was awoken by said wife clutching me and frantically saying "There's a bear right outside the tent, he's coming in" sure enough it sounded like one but I said 'That's not a bear, that's a deer, dear". It was crunching away on something very crunchy and taking it's time, this went on for about 30mins only about 2ft from my head with only a bit of skimpy nylon betwixt us. The next morning we discovered that he'd found our ice chest, ripped it open and found a 2lb box of sugar cubes!
2. On another camping trip, this time to Yellowstone in a Citroen ID 19 in Oct when the place was deserted we were heading for our pre-booked campsite, when we found it I dropped Mary off and told her I was going to run back to the small store about a mile back for a couple of items, she could start the dinner. About 1/2 mile down the road I saw a family of 4 bears walking up the road towards me, and consequently towards the campsite where my wife was totally alone; I threw it into reverse and scorched back to the campsite getting there just a couple of minutes before the bears. We sat in the car with all windows and doors locked whilst 4 bears tried to get their claws around the side windows and their snouts about a foot from my head; they left after about half an hour and we slept in the car that night.
3. Best one; I was on top of of a temple in the middle of the jungle in Tikal Guatemala with my mates John and Ron, it was midnight and totally pitchblack.
As we descended coming down hand over hand hanging onto vines we found a couple one of whom was unconscious having been stung by a scorpion, John put him over his shoulder fireman style and we proceeded to continue down. We had a single flashlight which I had, so it was decided that I'd bring up the rear lighting the way for the others. As we stepped gingerly over the paving stones and the fallen rocks of the temple I shone the flashlight on the ground and saw that we were in the midst of literally dozens of huge white scorpions, they were scurrying in and out of crevices in the rocks all around our feet. We had no choice but to walk very carefully stepping to avoid as many as possible. We later learned that they live in rocks that are heated by the sun and only come out to feed at night.
4. I'd have to think about mascots and I don't do obliteration, I use the off switch. Unless of course it could be some of those noisy, nasty punks!
Sorry to steal so much space.
1. Childbirth
2. Beer
3. Back in the day **Hovis Ad music plays** our group of friends would have a treasure hunt on Good Friday, and follow clues to some mystery destination somewhere in the UK, where we would spend the rest of the long holiday weekend. Good times.
4. We get a new one every few weeks - the latest is Feng - underachieving Asian porn marketer.
5. Nothing. Good stuff can grow from manure.
Incredible stories GF!!
Loving this. Blimpy - tee hee - the railway carriage was an unused exhibit at the very fine Beamish museum which will feature in my speshul for TracyK Geordie post. I opened the door out of curiosity...and suddenly wished I hadn't...You remember what my one and only phobia is, don't you???? Shiver. And how on airth can you lot stomach a full English/Scottish on a hangover? I rarely get them as I limit my consumption religiously to 2 glasses (that's an aperitif an one glass of wine to you sah!) But on the odd occasions I've had one I would rather walk over hot coals barefoot than try to get down a fried egg. Slight exaggeration there.
1. I've been chased by most farmyard animals at some point but the scariest encounter was finding a polecat in the tube of my tumble drier one Halloween. The tube was leaping around all over the cellar floor like a thing possessed ...
2. Beans on toast - pure stodge.
3. Me scraping around to find fivers for the kids of the extended family - no one wants Easter Eggs any more (except my 6-year-old).
4. I think it has to be DsD.
5. Morrisey or Meatloaf, I just can't decide.
OOOOh, if DsD doesn't want to be the mascot, can we have Mr Natural instead?
Crikey - GF - it's a wonder you're here to tell the tales!
Seeing as EOTWQ has taken off, let's make it a regular on a Friday. Here's the rules.
1. Anyone can post the 5 questions
2. First come, first served. If the EOTWQ are already up, you have to wait til next week
3. All questions have to be non-music related (i guffed up on that this week)
That sound okay? Or shall we do it alphabetically by 'Spiller?
Excellent idea Blimpy.
And fc,fs sounds OK to me.
@ Japanther, that is a seriously quesy spider story and I speak as a serious arachnaphobe. It does remind me of another frightening encounter with nature that I had (well kinda sort of) although even relating it is a bit of a strain but here goes:-
Back in 1998, frauimmel amd myself were visiting Budapest. We walked past what at first glance was a picture/photography shop but I then realised that the framed pictures in the window were actually 3D holographic images. I thought this was interesting so walked over to the shop to take a closer look. I hadn't noticed the 6 foot wide by 1 foot deep frame at head height at the top of the window but as I got to within a couple of feet of it I suddenly realised that it was a holographic image, head on, of big hairy spider. i.e. I was looking at a six foot spider, a couple of feet infront of my face.
frauimmel says she's never seem me go that colour before or since and I did very nearly pass out. Even writing about it now after 11 years is a bit of a strain.
And to change the subject totally I realise I made a bit of a faux pas with my first answer to question 3. I mean, bringing up religion at Easter!
Tch!
Hope you will all overlook it.
Coming late to this one...
1. Never really had a scary run-in with nature unless you count being perched on a goat-path at the top of a ravine and suddenly realising yes, I AM scared of heights after all. Oh, and Baby Daughter needing open-heart surgery was also TERRIFYING, but not sure that's the kind of nature you're angling for...
2. Hangover? Food? This is a joke, right? Could maybe just about manage some heavily diluted apple juice with a squidge of lemon juice if pushed.
3. Homemade Hot Cross-less Buns with my early morning cuppa, trek to the British Shop for horrendously expensive cream eggs for the kids, and a bottle of Baileys for me - preferably a miniature, as I never touch it the rest of the year (unless in heavy training for point 2.)
Everybody else in Germany dyes eggs with their kids, both as decoration and for eating - the marble-painted ones handed out in shops put me off hardboiled eggs for years - and on Easter Sunday they hide eggs in nests in the garden or nearest park for their little ones to find amidst much squealing. I don't, but in recent years even I have succumbed to hanging a bunch of bright plastic eggs from a branch; it actually looks quite cheerful!
4. Blimpy MacSpeng, who else!
5. Lionel Richie - at least as long as I continue to work with the leader of the Hamburg Lionel Richie Appreciation Society, who would play his velvety croonings in our shop all day and every day if only she could :-(
Gordon - feel free to mention religion at Easter, or Eostre or whatever you wish to call it. I have much more of a problem with those young Philippinos (was it) who actually went ahead and got themselves crucified with a hoard of tourists watching. Oh My Lord. They interviewed a grinning German gentlemen, not at all put out, who informed the cameraman they they 'collect eggs in Germany'. Whatever next? Torture tourism? Public floggings in the market place? The Hostel films are only a step away. It really made me angry to see that. Who on earth authorised it?
1. FP and Steenbeck, that's nothing! I had a hornet (HORNET I tell you!) crawling up my back and then.. towards my throat (this may not be true but I believed it at the time, a hornet's sting in the throat will result in suffocation and slow death), and had to remain still as someone flicked a tea towel across my throat. If he'd missed, that was it, or so I still like to think.
2. I've only had 2 in my life, and was too busy wondering what the hell was happening to me and promising never again to think about a cure.
3. I'm of the church of C & E so service in the morning, usually in the countryside in Normandy, followed by lunch, while some adults go and hide chocolate and stuff in trees, etc, followed by the egg hunt once the church bells ring.
4.I'll go one better with BlimpyMacSpeng'sDad
5.GF and Shoey put it much better than I could.
debbymmm, I am no psychiatrist or anything, so don't fret. But I find it interesting that of all the things you could have developped a phobia of in that situation, you chose heights.
I'd be more worried about getting butted by a goat because the only way I get close enough to the edge of anything is if something - a goat, say - pushes me.
But easy enough for me to say; I've never found myself on a goat trail on a mountain ledge doing open heart surgery on my daughter.
@fp
I'll agree with you. My 'religion' is more cognitive than physical so I look askance at the likes of people crucifying themselves. And I don't have a problem calling it Eostre either. I would include all the spring festivals into one, they're obviously connected. And I don't view the Christian Easter as anything historical either. It's a representation of something taking place each year. Death, rebirth, hope etc.
I once found myself (and a friend too) atop a high cliff, which had a strange sink-hole near the peak. We peered into it, and were amazed by its apparent depths. After chucking a few pebbles in, and hearing no sound reverberating back, we graduated to larger and larger rocks. Still no indication of its apparent depth. After chucking one especially big boulder down the abyss, a goat began charging towards us at speeds I have never seen before. We ran, and then watched as the goat plummeted headfirst down the crevass. To this day, I still can't figure it out....
Was there any open heart surgery involved?
Just back from a weekend at Camber Sands (LittleMissToffee was in a football tournament) where I managed to survive one night in the chalet before shipping out to the nearest Travelodge (actually not that near but I was happy to travel as far as it took to get away from that hell hole). I may share my experiences with the whole class as a kind of sordid antidote to DsD's disgustingly cheerful and upbeat tale of an idyllic holiday but first I need to put some distance between myself and the grime-ridden carpet, the ant-infestation and the smell that will stay in my clothes for weeks to come, wash them as I will.
Great idea for a feature. blimpy - if it's not too late, I'll submit my own thoughts in a bit.
It's never too late on The Spill!
OK - following encouragemnt from my old pal, Anonymous, here goes ...
1. Any encounter with a spider - difficult to single out a particular incident but there was that one time when we had some friends round and we were all in the living room jyst chatting (chilling out, maxing relaxing all cool, if you must know) and I was standing up playing the genial host when ToffeeGirl suddenly pointed at the wall behind me and I looked at her and she looked at me and spoke the never-to-be-forgotten words, "You know what it is!". Friends, I didn't cover myself in glory - I ran out of the room and didn't come back until I was assured by all present that the beast had been dealt with. Apparently it was big...
2. Haven't had a hangover since New Year's Day, 2000 - but buttered toast always used to do it for me.
3. The two MissToffees are now too old for it, but we always used to do an Easter Egg hunt in the garden and the girls would go out with a little basket each and it was a beautiful thing...
4. blimpy
5. fp has already taken Dylan so I'll go for my other pet hate, The Rolling Stones.
EOTWQ is moving to Thursday, as it's occurred to me that Friday is traditionally the busiest time for RR exploits, so any if Spiller feels free to get going in, um, 22 minutes, please do.
If anyone thinks this is a bad idea, as it may contradict the title, please post comment.
Chances are no-one'll read this til friday anyways, or whatever.
Um... cohesive, or what?
Post a Comment