Five Questions for Queenie

I asked Myles to ask me five questions, as he was doing the same thing on his blog and the results were interesting. So he obliged and here they are:

Five Questions for Queenie

1. [Literature] What's your favourite book from before you were 18 and why?

Too many to choose from. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, because it made me understand the power of simple language, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, by Alexander Solzhynitzen, because it made me realize that the Soviets were evil, Animal Farm and anything else by George Orwell, because it gave me the tools to analyse inequity, any of Somerset Maugham’s short stories, because they gave me my obsession with travel and new experiences.

2. [Life] What have you done today that you've never done before?

Brought a hot water bottle and a bottle of aspirin to work (see yesterday’s post).

3. [History] Describe one turning point in your life. How would your life be if it had turned out differently?

I decided not to try to be a journalist. I was too scared to try. If I hadn’t, I’d probably be a journalist now. I don’t know if my life would have been any better – just different. Possibly my life would have been better in that I wouldn’t have had to wade through the river of self-pity caused by being a complete wuss at one point in my life to the dry land of ‘stop beating yourself up over it Queenie’.

Which took forever.

But I'm there now, so who cares. And blogging is the new journalism they say.

4. [Embarrassing] Have you had pet names for parts of the body? What were they?
No. I have had pet names for parts of other people’s bodies, but, as John Bruton said once, you didn’t ask me the right question.

Smirk.

5. [Distance] What physical thing do you most miss from home?

The Wicklow Mountains. Specifically, Glendalough Valley.
And my car.