It’s Easter and my sister just asked me if I have had an easter egg as a treat. I haven’t, I had a rice crispy easter cake with a couple of mini eggs on it. I’m trying to lose weight and improve my diet.
But high percentage chocolate is supposed to be good for you so I sometimes buy 85 % dark chocolate. I recently found out that it’s good for your magnesium levels. I will only eat one square a day so I don’t increase my sugar levels.
I try and buy fair trade chocolate to make sure the cocoa farmers get a fair price for their crops, but I really ought to research it more to check this is correct.
What place in the world do you never want to visit? Why?
I know it’s an awful thing to say, because as with all countries there are good and bad people in all of them. It’s not so much the population as the behaviour of some of them that I find so frightening. Just writing this on social media could see me detained and deported because it could be read as criticism.
But I am afraid of flying, and there have been too many crashes lately. My health is poor, and I could not afford the exorbitant costs of the treatment I might need.
I also would not be comfortable in a country that is so happy to allow it’s population to freely carry guns. When I read of the school shootings that happen on an almost weekly basis I cry inside for the loss of the children.
More fears grip me, the lack of safety because vaccination is not encouraged. The levels of measles and bird flu are increasing, but you cannot find out what is happening because many government websites have been deleted or distorted to remove useful information. How can this continue?
No, I don’t think I would dare to visit. It’s strange and threatening to outsiders. It’s not for me, sorry.
What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?
Are these everyday things? They are to me…
Art Groups I go to regularly. Being creative keeps my mind calm. When I’m painting or drawing I can put other feelings behind me. An art education improves creativity.
Having clean water to drink and use for washing. I realise many places don’t have the luxury of clean water. Even here there is a problem with some water companies, but at least it is clean and delivered by pipes to almost every dwelling.
Media, again the luxury aspect. TV, radio, Internet. We mainly have all these in the UK although some are more hit and miss in more rural areas where mountains and hills can block transmissions. We possibly take it for granted.
Our health service. Free at the point of use. Yes it is overworked and underfunded. But you don’t have to pay unless you go private and no one goes bankrupt paying exorbitant fees. I hope it survives all the problems going on in the country.
Finally Education. We are lucky that most pupils stay on till senior school and beyond to college and degree level. The pandemic had a detrimental effect on attendance and some children are being home schooled. I think that’s a mistake but as long as they get a good widespread education then hopefully they will be OK.
So this post is a bit random but all these things mean a lot to me. Art is my main one though.
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?
Now that a woman has played Dr Who on TV I would love to play the character. I’ve watched the television series over decades, from the 1960’s. The doctor was always my hero and was one of the things that got me into science fiction.
Suddenly when the doctor regenerated as a female I think it gave young girls the opportunity to imagine themselves fighting daleks and cyber men, having to tackle technical problems and fix mechanical issues. It made her a choice of hero to play as they are growing up. And that makes the show greater than it was although there was a lot of antagonism from some fans. Life changes and why should characters stay the same?
When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Celtic Cat
I must have been about five when I realised I wanted to do art. I would make patterns on graph paper, draw and doodle and sketch. I know my mother started to collect some of my drawings. As I got older I put them on my walls. I even strung them across my bedroom held on by pegs because I didn’t have enough wall space.
When I was in my teens one of my paintings was sent to our twin town in Germany to be exhibited. My headmistress was given a drawing I did of my fellow pupils as a leaving present and I knew I wanted to be an artist as I told my careers teacher, not a nurse as she tried to persuade me. On to Art school to do a degree, and even 40 years later an MA in illustration. Now. I’m struggling. But iooking at different methods and skills. I’m not giving up!
We are all unique, even twins have their own traits. Their fingerprints are different, their hair follicles are not identical. Faces vary because of our genetics but also our physical lives. How external circumstances affect body and mind. We may have doppelgangers but they won’t be exactly the same. We should revel in our differences, appreciate our odd ways, enjoy knowledge and learn from each other.
Some people excel at science, others in the arts. Why not a bit of both, with other skills added to the mix. Unique ideas and resources to make the world a more interesting place?
Our voices are unique but can be copied. Mimics try and speak celebrity words, but a voice print would clarify who was really talking. It’s only things like AI that could truly copy. And that would be a loss to humanity. I think us all being unique is best.
I wanted to find an image to represent Monty Pythons Flying Circus, but WordPress doesn’t have any pictures of it and I couldn’t find an image I was able to share from Google.
So I made my own up!
Monty Python was on British TV from 1969 to 1974. I wasn’t allowed to watch it when it was first shown because I was too young. But I saw and enjoyed it later on.
It’s cast, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, John Cleese and Graham Chapman, together with other actors and comedians created an anarchic, silly and surreal brand of humour, consisting of a series of sketches, often with a running joke threaded through them. Often the sketch would peter out and a cartoon foot would come down from a precenium arch and squash the characters. That is what my illustration is about.
Notable sketches included the dead parrot sketch about a pet shop selling a Norwegian blue parrot which was actually dead, also a dance where two men dressed in uniform take it in turns to slap each other in the face with fish, one eventually falls into the sea. Hells grannies was about a gang of frightening grandmother’s who terrorise a town. They all made me howl with laughter.
Once the TV series stopped the pythons made films like The Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life, and Monty python and the Holy Grail. The cast aso made their own separate films for instance a Fish Called Wanda and Time bandits among others.
As this is a long time ago you might not of heard of them. Go look them up. It’s worth it!
There’s a lot about astronomy I don’t know. There is a branch of science known as astrophysics for instance that is about light speed and gravity, red shifts, dark matter, black holes, dark energy, pulsars , neutron stars, the list is enormous.
I do try and understand some of this, there has been a TV programme on the BBC for decades called the Sky at Night. I’ve watched it since childhood. That sparked an interest and we did have a cheap telescope for a while. I’ve seen Jupiters moons through it and Saturns rings.
I’m amazed though at web pages about flat earth believers. Some of the things that they post are very odd and nonsensical. I don’t understand how incredibly silly some of them are! No offence meant but they worry me.
What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?
My digital drawing of David Tennant as Dr Who
I love Dr Who but there have been many actors who have played Dr Who and although I have my favourites I think I would have a picture of the Tardis whirling through space and time. It’s an iconic piece of science fiction history. I’d have a tattoo on my ankle. But it would have to be very small as I don’t like the idea of pain!
Mallaband-Brown 