30 questions

by On The Fly Blog

The awesome Bill Fonda from A Silly Place recently wrote this post answering 30 questions and nominating a few other bloggers to do the same. I loved the idea immediately but it took me quite a while to think of the answers. For several days I had the questions in a notes page on my phone and kept plugging away at them whenever I had time. I did find it amusing that it came after a run of several weeks posting blogger interviews, but I actually really enjoyed the chance to answer some questions myself and reveal a little bit about myself. Maybe I should do it more often!

1. What was your favorite childhood book?

“Childhood” is so vague…when I was younger I enjoyed Felicity Wishes and then as I got older I was obsessed with Harry Potter, then the Young Samurai series by Chris Bradford.

2. What was your favourite TV show as a child?

Again, this is a broad question! I actually asked my mum for help here and it ended up with us listing them rather than naming my favourite…this will be a trip down memory lane for some people, while some of you might be rolling your eyes as my age! There were the classics like Tellytubbies, Postman Pat, Noddy; others like Mr Tumble, Fifi and the Flower Tots, Bottle Top Bill, Nina and her Neurons, Jane and the Dragon, Numberjacks, Mister Maker…and does anyone remember Carrie and David’s Pop Shop?? Later on I enjoyed MI High and Wolfblood. When I first posted this I was reminded of the Tweenies too – how did I forget the Tweenies?! The only time I’ve ever seen someone else with my name – albeit a person in a costume for kids’ TV. I remember watching it on video at my Granny’s house.

3. What book did you read in secret as a kid?

I can’t think of one? Sometimes I read in secret when I was supposed to be asleep or getting ready to go out but never secretive about the book.

4. What album and CD do you love and know by heart?

Trench, Blurryface, Vessel by Twenty One Pilots

5. What book did you hate as a student?

Mostly poetry. Get your William Blake away from me. Although I didn’t mind the more contemporary ones.

6. What is your all-time favorite movie?

Crikey I don’t know. From my childhood it has to be Mulan. I wasn’t really into Disney princesses (I know, I know) but I adored her, right down to the costume and action figures.

7. What song always lifts your mood?

MUNA – I Know A Place

8. What is the last book you read?

Soldier Spy by Tom Marcus, currently Unnatural Causes by Dr Richard Shepherd and So Lucky by Dawn O’Porter.

9. Which TV shows have you binge-watched? Why?

Lots, mostly because of Netflix and/or me often being ill. Line of Duty, Luther, Unforgotten, Sex Education, Peaky Blinders…But they were all amazing shows that I would recommend to people, so I guess it’s not just about the ease and availability of TV.

10. If you were an animal, which animal would you be?

Probably a cat. The whole “I want to go out no I want to go home no I want to go out” thing. Also curling up in the least accessible places possible.

11. What was your most embarrassing moment?

SO. MANY. THINGS. I’ve messed up words in embarrassing ways, failed at greeting new people, tripped over in public, and generally butchered basic social interactions. An unfortunate proportion of these things seem to happen at work. So many small embarrassments have kept me awake at night that I can’t (and don’t want to) remember them all!

12. What famous author would you most like to meet?

Maybe Chris Bradford for the sake of my childhood and for closure. He was due to visit my school and I was super excited then it was cancelled for reasons I can’t remember.

13. What in your past would you most like to change?

Often I wish I took advantage of more opportunities or stopped thinking about things and just did them. But these are minor; I don’t really have any proper regrets.

14. Describe your most profound musical experience.

A couple years ago my dad and I plugged in our old family hard drive and found a lot of his recordings on there. That was pretty emotional because I was hearing the sounds I grew up with – some of them I didn’t even know but some part of my brain remembered them and I teared up almost instantly.

15. What important classic book have you never read?

Plenty! I’ve read Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre and I got halfway through The Portrait of Dorian Grey so any other classic I haven’t read.

16. What is your least-favorite food?

Olives. I want to like them but I can’t.

17. What movie, book or music always makes you cry?

A lot of music makes me cry. A song my dad wrote. The TØP cover if I Can’t Help Falling in Love. I See Fire by Ed Sheeran. Sometimes it’s for reasons I don’t understand and sometimes it’s because I associate the song with a sad memory. Some of them might not make me cry anymore, I’m just scared to listen to them so I don’t know. As for films, I don’t really watch any that might make me cry, unless I’m not expecting it! Most recently I did cry at Jojo Rabbit and Little Women, although there have been many others before. And I have definitely cried at plenty of books such as The Fault in Our Stars, Allegiant and Mockingjay.

18. What actor or actress do you have a crush on?

Right now, Cillian Murphy, but it tends to change depending on what I’m watching!

19. Would you rather be a vampire or a zombie? Why?

Definitely a vampire. The whole rotting flesh part doesn’t really do it for me, and vampires are usually faster and stronger and more intelligent.

20. What book at home would you use to squash a bug?

My first instinct would be this huuuge combined dictionary and thesaurus I have, but that seems overkill. Maybe an old exercise book since I have plenty of those lying around. Unless it’s a super-powered flesh-eating alien bug; then the dictionary.

21. Which character would you like to be in “Harry Potter”?

Book Ginny was pretty badass, I always admired her.

22. What song would you most like to sing on stage?

Something as simple as possible?! Twinkle twinkle little star?? Maybe All We Do by Oh Wonder would be a nice one.

23. Do you like your name? What name would you prefer?

I love my name. It’s unique, it’s just me. I’ve never met anyone else with the same name and I couldn’t imagine being called anything different.

24. What do most people not know about you?

Plenty of things. Everyone knows different things I guess, based on what’s relevant to the relationship I have with them. Maybe people don’t know I used to have Perthes disease in my left hip, because it’s not part of my life anymore, maybe people don’t know I’m scared of drowning, which is either very logical or not logical at all given that I’m a lifeguard. Maybe people don’t know that for many years I wanted to be a fast jet pilot in the RAF, that I used to be obsessed with Japanese culture to the point of owning a kimono and learning the language, or that I have a strange interest in all things astronomical and “spacey”.

Most people I know “in real life” (which isn’t the right phrase, since it suggests everyone else isn’t real) don’t know I have a blog, so there’s that.

25. If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

I’d love to live in Spain. But I also love England in all it’s wet and miserable glory. So maybe I’d split my time between Yorkshire and a Spanish city…?

26. If you could go back in time, where would you go?

People say that my current age is one of the best times of your life, and I’m inclined to agree. I don’t want to wish these years away, but I also wouldn’t mind rewinding a few years and return to a time when I had the same fun but with less responsibility.

27. What poems have you memorized? Recite one of them?

Remains by Simon Armitage. I wish it was for a sentimental reason, but actully my English teacher set us homework to memorise it with the promise that he’d have us memorising the whole GCSE anthology, but we never got round to learning the rest, so now I can’t forget this one no matter how hard I try. (Warning- graphic)

On another occasion, we get sent out
to tackle looters raiding a bank
And one of them legs it up the road,
probably armed, possibly not

Well myself and somebody else and somebody else
are all of the same mind
so all three of us open fire
Three of a kind all letting fly, and I swear

I see every round as it rips through its life
I see broad daylight on the other side
So we've hit this looter a dozen times,
and he's there on the ground, sort of inside out

Pain itself, the image of agony
One of my mates goes by
and tosses his guts back into his body,
then he’s carried off in the back of a lorry

End of story, except not really
His blood shadow strays on the street, and out on patrol
I step over it week after week
Then I’m home on leave, but I blink

And he bursts again through the doors of the bank,
Sleep, and he’s probably armed, possibly not
Dream, and he's torn apart by a dozen rounds
And the drink and the drugs won’t flush him out

He's here in my head when I close my eyes,
dug in behind enemy lines,
not left for dead in some distant, sun-stunned, sand-smothered land,
or six feet under in desert sand,

but near to the knuckle, here and now,
his bloody life in my bloody hands.

28. Who in your life has made a strong impression on you?

So many people but my parents have easily made the strongest impression. I’ve learned so much from them and I still am.

29. Do you have a recurring dream? Describe it.

I rarely remember my dreams and I’ve never had a recurring one.

30. What epitaph would you like on your tombstone?

Gosh, it feels like quite a lot of pressure to sum up a whole life in a few words. I’d like it to be something about how I (hopefully) lived life to the full.

Thanks for reading! It was really fun giving these some thought!

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11 comments

Bill Fonda 26/02/2020 - 19:36

Well done!

Reply
On The Fly Blog 26/02/2020 - 19:57

Thank you!

Reply
Rachel Laws 26/02/2020 - 20:38

Aww I was hoping to see Tweenies on your fave childhood TV show! I swear I was the only fan! Loved this post <3 x

Reply
On The Fly Blog 26/02/2020 - 20:54

HOW DID I FORGET THE TWEENIES??? One of them LITERALLY had my name! I used to watch it on video at my granny’s house x

Reply
Hannah Cartwright 27/02/2020 - 17:11

This is such a lovely idea for a blog post!! I really enjoyed reading it!

Hannah | http://www.writtenbyhan.com

Reply
On The Fly Blog 29/02/2020 - 11:05

Thank you! I loved writing it so I’m glad you enjoyed it x

Reply
Dustin Butler 28/02/2020 - 14:42

Good idea for a post. It was an interesting read too.

Reply
On The Fly Blog 28/02/2020 - 15:48

Thank you! God you enjoyed reading

Reply
On The Fly Blog 29/02/2020 - 11:04

Thank you for reading!

Reply
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