New paintings and regular art updates.
What is one thing you would change about yourself?
My eyes are going fuzzy round the edges… My central vision is OK. I’m allowed to drive but I’m wearing sunglasses at night when I drive because it limits the glare from other cars headlights. My optician is monitoring them as eventually I should be able to have an operation to remove them. It’s making fine details difficult to see and it’s getting very frustrating.
What are your feelings about eating meat?
I know I should eat less meat and more vegetables. I realise that the amount of CO2 and Methane created by meat farming is a major contributor to global warming.
The problem is I was bought up eating meat. Some of it was poor cuts of it, my parents could not afford much, so we had some very strange things on our plates. I’m not going to go into detail, suffice to say most of them had odd shaped bones.
I have tried to eat vegetarian food. But it’s hard to find a supplier of good imitation meat that isn’t too expensive. Suddenly vegetarian foods have become fashionable and therefore costly. With the cost of living crisis even tins of baked beans from some suppliers have trebled or quadrupled in price. So I guess the way to go is to cook from scratch.
Thinking about the prompt, I will try and eat less meat.
What are your two favorite things to wear?
My old jeans must be ten or fifteen years old. I used to be bigger so I’ve taken them in several times. I also like my moss green, cable knit jumper. It has a big turtle neck collar, and at this time of year they both keep me warm.
I love painting and I have to be careful not to get the paint on the jumper. The jeans don’t matter as much. I’ve used them for painting in for years.
I think clothes should last, they don’t need replacing every few months, they should be made to have a good lifetime, so that we don’t waste material and harm the environment more than we need to. I believe in make do and mend.
If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?
Yawn, I need some rest!
I think I would use the extra time to relax and try and relieve stress. Otherwise if I was to stay awake I would try and do too much, use up all my energy and end up exhausted.
It’s a strange concept to think about being happy not to sleep. As someone who suffers from insomnia (typing this at 1am), the thought of not needing to sleep both enchants and worries me. I enjoy dreams and would miss them. But if I could survive without sleep I could also be more creative. Perhaps meditate on art and different styles.
If people could stay awake indefinitely what would they get up to? How many more Police and security staff would we need. Would pollution go up if staff were expected to work 24/7 or would they have time to pursue leisure activities? I think it would be a strange, busy and manic world.
Name your top three pet peeves.
MY THREE PET PEEVES….
TV adverts
Musac (especially Christmas musac) in stores in July….
Stressful situations at home (that don’t have to be)
So I wrote this poem:
Take a seat
Take a seat
Brush off the leaves
Wipe away the rain
Sit down and breathe….
Who are your current most favorite people?
It could be anyone.
It depends on what you are like?
Are you pleasant?
Do you care about others?
There are so many people
With different traits
Fantastic ideas
Idealistic behaviours.
Do you have to be perfect?
No, humans aren’t,
But if you try….
You could be a current favourite.
What are your favorite animals?
He looks small, but the floral print is really big.
I love all cats, that includes Tigers and Lions, cheetahs, snow leopards, ocelots, domestic cats, or any other form of feline. I don’t think I’d like to meet a real big cat, I wish they could be left alone in the wild. I read somewhere that there are more big cats in captivity, or kept as pets, in America, than in the wild. Our obsession with them is causing massive decline in their populations. And yet domestic cats have become pests in some countries. They have decimated wildlife and are sometimes hunted to try and eradicate them. We live in such an upside down world. Too many people pursuing too few wild animals.
Beach or mountains? Which do you prefer? Why?
Only because I’m not good at climbing. The worst walk I ever went on was a steep hill in the pennines. First the sole of one of my boots came unglued and started flapping around. We were only halfway up the hill. I solved it by tying it back on with my laces, but that made the bit round my ankle loose!
Then when we got to the top it was raining sideways and foggy. We sheltered behind the trig point at the top. This was two walls in a cross shape, so whatever direction the wind was blowing you could get out of it. When we decided to walk down we walked over the plateau at the top, only to find it was another side of the hill with a twenty foot drop and no path down!
Luckily we managed to find our way back across the top. By the time we started down the rain was making puddles on my glasses, the water was seeping through my coat, I was freezing cold and my boot sole was flapping about again….
That’s why I prefer beaches. Not lying on them, but exploring rock pools and caves. Visiting seaside cafes, and walking along coastal paths, as long as they aren’t at the top of cliffs!
What are your family’s top 3 favorite meals?
We were introduced to more exotic food at quite an early age. My mother and father would take us out for meals to local restaurants. Mostly Chinese, but sometimes Indian eateries. It was there we learnt to use chopsticks. We ate tandoori or baltis. We never really ate anything too hot or spicy though. My favourite Indian meal had orange flavours in it, very mild, a house speciality of a local restaurant.
Then a few years ago I discovered a Japanese Restaurant near us. I had not really understood the difference between Chinese and Japanese food so it was a revelation. I soon got other family and friends to try the cuisine there. We sometimes have birthday meals there. I don’t think I have really explored world foods, but at least we have tried some.
If you could meet a historical figure, who would it be and why?
I would not pretend to be able to understand the Physics of the general and special theories of relativity, but Einstein has always seemed to be an interesting person. I think I know a bit about him, like he worked in a patent office. But I don’t know much. I think he regretted his research bringing about the atomic bomb, and about quantum mechanics. I think I remember him saying ‘God doesn’t play dice’, meaning he didn’t believe in quantum theory.
Recently Einstein has been depicted on British TV in an advert trying to persuade people to have smart meters installed in their homes. Given that 3G signals are being cut off and about 8 million smart meters run on 3G and are about to be turned off? I would ask him if he approved and also would he laugh at the awful makeup the ad makers have used to depict him!
From what I have seen it looks like Einstein had a sense of humour as well as a tremendous intellect. I would just like to have a general conversation with him, and if he was alive now, what would he think of our crazy world?
Mallaband-Brown