Well, I’d been toying with starting a blog for a while, and since Aphra Behn very kindly took the time to ask me 5 Questions, that seemed like the kick up the backside I needed to get going.  So, here we go then:

 1) What is the girliest outfit you have ever worn, what was the event you wore it for, and does whoever made you wear it still bear the scars?

Hmm, the girliest? My first thought was the dress I wore to my 6th form leavers ball, but thinking about it I’m not sure a long black and red velvet dress is girly. I wanted to wear a tux, but sadly the narrow minded masters organising the ball decided that was a no-no.

Oh, I know, a floaty pale blue skirt and matching top with frilly bits (I’m scowling just thinking about it).

I wore it to the pub one evening because the other half was whining pathetically about never seeing me in girly clothes. It lasted about an hour before I had to go home and at least get the damn’ skirt off. I told him if he wanted to see skirts he could bloody well wear them his sen.

I really dislike wearing skirts. Girly tops I can tolerate, but skirts don’t allow me to move and settle in the way I find natural. Actually, I tell a lie: they don’t stop me moving or sitting down sprawling at all, but if I do behave as if I’m wearing trousers then certain modesty conventions disappear over the horizon!

2) You are very clear about your opinions without trying to persuade others to your point of view; what are you uncertain about?

Immigration, specifically whether it’s overall a positive or negative thing. I’ve seen immigrants fill vital roles that would not otherwise be filled, but at the same time I’ve seen unemployed natives pushed out of medium skilled areas of the workplace by a large influx of immigrants to an area – I’ve also seen the demoralising effect it has on the bottom end of working class society when job agencies stop putting up their job adverts in English and letting agencies take out full page adverts in local papers in Polish alone.

I think immigration is a very difficult subject for anyone to get a comprehensive view on: It’s easy for those at the top of the food chain to see the economic benefits when the only immediate impact it tends to have on their lives is their plumber is now more likely to be Polish and their doctor more likely to be Asian. Equally, it’s easier for those at the bottom to focus on the negatives when they are the ones in direct competition with the immigrants for jobs and homes. It would take a special sort of person to get a complete view of immigration into this country and give an unbiased opinion as to its worth – and I’m not that person!

3) You frequently come across as more mature than people the same age as you. What made you / helped you grow up quickly?

Simple answer: I was a weird kid with very few friends my own age but a lot of friends in their 40s and 50s whom I’d met through my big hobby of rock climbing.

So from the age of about 12 up I was spending my evenings and weekends climbing walking and going down the pub with people that age.

Not particularly mature people that age, it has to be said – it takes a special sort of lunatic to still be doing serious climbing into your 50s and 60s, but adults none the less, and importantly, adults that didn’t know what the Hell to do with a child on their jollies so they pretended there wasn’t one. Which led to a lot of underage drinking and no being talked down to for yours truly. Eventually it got to the stage where I struggled to connect with people my own age, something I still suffer from now. My peers want to go clubbing – I don’t see the point in socialising in a place you can’t actually talk to each other in, drinking drinks you’d never normally allow into your system, and pay for the privilege while you’re at it. I welcomed the relaxed licensing laws with open arms – being able to stay in the pub until 2 if I want to rather than have to go to club if I want to continue socialising is wonderful.

4) You’ve covered a lot of ground in the last few years and are in many ways at a stage in life that people older than you have not yet reached, what’s on your list of things to do in the next 10 years?

Concentrate harder on my career; I am well aware that I’ve spent the last couple of years largely coasting at work – I’ve had opportunities that I’ve let slip by purely because at heart I’m an idle sod. I’ve relied on my ability to pick things up very quickly and learn without formal qualifications. My goal for the next 10 years or so is to concentrate on actually getting little bits of paper to say I can do those things, while at the same time continuing to pick things up as I go along. I’ve got a fantastic memory (she said, modestly) and it’s time I put that to better use rather than relying on it to give me an easy life.

I’m also in the process of moving house, and once that completed I’ll be looking to make more of an effort to settle into the new place as a home, rather than somewhere to kip and keep stuff, which if I’m honest is what I did with the last one.

So, ‘grow up a bit more but still stay silly’, I suppose.

5) You are something of a SciFi Geek – if you could choose one particular fictional universe to inhabit for the rest of your life, which one would it be and what would your role be in it?

One fictional society I’d like to live in is the People’s dysonsphere, which is a rather obscure answer. Way back in the mists of time before Doctor Who was once again must-see BBC1 viewing, there was a series of books called ‘Doctor Who: The New Adventures’, which were published by Virgin Books (licensed by the BBC) and were in essence the continuing adventures of the seventh Doctor after the original BBC TV show finished, they kept fandom alive through the dark years, but that’s by the by. Anyway, for this series an author called Ben Aaronovitch (David Aaronovitch’s brother, incidentally) created a culture who called themselves ‘the People’. It was rather obviously a rip-off  homage to Iain Banks’ the Culture, yet with enough changes to a) keep the lawyers happy, and b) make the place sound like a rather pleasant place to live, unlike the Culture which I always thought would be a terribly dull place to live. The People first appeared in a book called The Also People, and went on to be major players in the series. In essence it’s a society so technologically advanced they have a non-aggression treaty with the Timelords, which, as with the Culture, is a mix of biologic humanoids and machines. In appearance, said humanoids differ only from humans by having square nipples (no, I don’t know why either), biologically they are very different, for example they can swap sex at will, and ovulation is a conscious decision (wouldn’t that be nice, ladies?) Such a degree of technological advancement has led to a society that has a lot in common with pre-industrial society – extended families and social groupings are the norm and cottage industries thrive.

My role? The delight in such a society is in not having a fixed role. Fancy being a mechanic hobbyist for a while? Fine. Bored with that, want to teach unarmed combat in the Barbarian Special Interest Group? Fine. I like that idea.

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