What is your favorite restaurant?
For those who understand inaccurate French you might already have guessed my answer. My favourite restaurant is my own house. I very rarely go out for a meal and when I do I always think, ‘I could have cooked this at home for a fraction of the price and it would have tasted just as good if not better!’ I am not being boastful either, just realistic. A meal out will often cost the equivalent of 2 weeks food shopping so what’s the point?
We have never had much money especially since we became parents so restaurant visits were pretty much out of the question apart from McDonald’s or similar with child friendly low quality food. That was fine when the children were younger but now they are adults I really don’t want to go to places like that, although my wife does so I still have to suffer through it! I’m not a fan of salt and sugar in my food, because we use so little in our own. So many cooks on TV say you need to add extra salt to add taste, but with respect to their excellence, and I love to adapt their recipes, that’s nonsense because judicious use of herbs and spices will give you more than enough flavour.
So, if you enjoy restaurant dining and have the money for it then good luck to you, but I will carry on producing excellence in my own kitchen!
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Well, that bought me up with a jolt! 2036, assuming we are still here having not been blown to pieces by an Orange madman or other would be dictator, will see me turn 71! It’s getting to the stage where I am looking two or three years ahead not a decade.
However, I would hope to be healthy in both body and mind. We cook as many meals as possible from scratch at home, make our own bread, jam and cakes with no additives and less sugar. We have cut down on salt and fat as well, but with herbs and spices, both savoury and sweet our diet is full of flavour. So, we are doing our best to put good food into our bodies. We still walk as much as possible and I have been exercising and meditating over the last few months to benefit body and brain. Of course, that doesn’t mean I am guaranteed to be free from illness and medical issues. That is what frightens me about my later years, but all I can do is my best to give my body the best chance to stay fit and well. Everything stems from this and that’s all I can look at. The rest either does or doesn’t take care of itself based on that so fingers crossed for good luck and good health.
What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?
This weekend has been a really enjoyable one and through this post I will touch on at least five things that bring me pleasure. On Friday night we went to a music quiz night in aid of a charity for Autism. I was there with my children and two of their partners to make up a team of six. I hadn’t been to a quiz night in over 30 years but I instantly refound my competitive spirit! Between the six of us we managed to cover music knowledge from seven decades and we just had so much fun. It was great to see how much the three children still enjoy each other’s company. We are a really close family on the quiet, but it isn’t something that they would willingly admit to 🤣🤣. At the end of the quiz our extremely consistent scoring meant that we won by three points and we celebrated our win with enthusiasm, me being the most enthusiastic!
The following morning I woke up quite early and took some time to read. It’s a great start to the day and I find it helps me no end not to be going straight onto my phone. My phone is effectively blocked from 10.30pm until 7.30am and it has definitely improved my mood and my overall mental health. My wife volunteers at a local charity shop twice a month so she was out for most of the morning and afternoon and my youngest daughter was collecting her new car so she was out pretty much all morning. I spent a lot of time trying to tidy up the house, with some success and I then prepared a meal for the family because our victorious trio were with us for dinner along with our older daughter’s partner. I cooked a really nice pasta dish and we then settled down to play The Traitors board game which was great fun. There’s still another day of the weekend remaining but it has already been one of the best in a quiet way. Quizzing, having time together as a family, reading, cooking for everyone and playing board games. Those are my five everyday things that bring me happiness and I was lucky enough to have all of them in 24 hours 😊😊
Describe something you learned in high school.
Secondary school was a very bad experience for me. It was a grammar school, called the Maths School, and it was hellish. I was bullied pretty much every day for seven years and hated going to school pretty much every day. I had Asperger’s and dyspraxia which made me enough of a target but I also had been at a lovely private school so that made it even easier for my tormentors, both fellow students and many teachers. Even my ‘friends’ were quite happy to make fun of me, so even in their company I never felt completely comfortable. What did I learn? That people were basically unpleasant unless they were guided or forced to be nice. That if you are different you will get bullied because it makes bullies feel better about themselves. That bullies never change. A school bully is a bully for life and they become bullies in every area they infect. Finally I learnt that I would never be a teacher like the ones who made my life a misery. School for me was definitely not the ‘best days of my life’ and I doubt it was for anyone other than the bullies.
Describe one positive change you have made in your life.
I have to admit that the positive thinking of the title is very much comparative! As people who know me will attest, the idea of me and positivity really doesn’t go together. I have generally got a negative view of human nature, a negative view of my own abilities and achievements and a negative view of the ebbs and flows of life. It comes from an upbringing where inside and outside the house negativity was the default setting. Over the last few years this had got worse and when I decided that I was going to finish full time work I realised that this had to change. I couldn’t go into a completely new stage of life expecting things to get worse. That would defeat the whole object of the early semi-retirement because I would have been subjecting myself to a narrowed approach to life which would have ended up making me miserable. So, I decided to look for new things to do, new approaches to take and new skills to develop. Am I finding each day a new and wonderful experience? No, I am not 😂😂! Am I looking forward to the future with more optimism? Generally yes. I have given regular updates on life after full time work on this blog and the reflection on my month just gone has been very useful in pinpointing areas that are improving and those that still need to improve. I am a work in progress and I always will be, but I feel like that progress is better now than it has been for many years in terms of my attitude to life.
That was the long answer. The short answer is that the most positive change I ever made was to marry Janet 35 years ago. Everything good in my life has come from that decision and I will never stop being grateful even if I don’t always express it in my approach to life!
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 