Beach or mountains? Which do you prefer? Why?
The scenery of a place has never been as important as who I am with. As long as I am with family, I can take any scenery in my stride. However, the scenery is important to them so I have learned to see the surroundings as an integral part of where we are.
The rest of the family are beach lovers, so I have been content, by and large to go along with the wishes of the majority. For example, last Christmas I was over in Australia and my wife and I wanted to visit a beach pretty much every day. This was not my natural habitat but they were in their elements so I went to the beach with them and tried to take every opportunity to walk along Australia’s coastline.
As I type this I am early morning on my last day in Salzburg. The mountains, or more accurately large hills, around the city are a spectacular backdrop to the holiday, but our focus has been on visiting the old town and experiencing the Christmas Market. We have not ventured up to the hills, apart from going up to the castle that overlooks Salzburg using the funicular railway.
I am much more at home in cities or rolling hills rather than mountains or beaches but the backdrop is only a very minor part of the equation for me. I just enjoy the experience of a new place or revisiting an old favourite place in the company of those I love. With family, any place at any time of the year can be an amazing experience. So, beaches or mountains? Well, take a look at the pictures below and decide for yourself. Happy exploring!
What are your family’s top 3 favorite meals?
As a family we have always had favourite meals. I am a very good home cook and I have always been able to make the most of my ingredients in terms of both taste and cost. When we were struggling somewhat financially, I cooked basic meals from scratch and they went down very well with the children. Even now that we are more comfortable, basic meals, albeit with better quality ingredients still rule the roost.
The favourite meal in our household is Chilli. I make it with Chilli Garlic Sauce in a jar which I buy from the Asian supermarket just off Leicester Square. It is now freely available in any UK supermarket but it’s more expensive. Anyway, it adds so much to the overall taste if you use it instead of the packets with a mix of dry spices. Don’t get me wrong, I used to love those packs but once you have used Chilli Garlic Sauce as we did for the first time in Hong Kong, you never go back.
The next meal that always hits the spot is Spaghetti Bolognese, which is my wife’s speciality. She cooks it a couple of times a month and it’s one of the meals she always makes better than I do. I also leave the bulk of the baking to her as she’s incredible with cakes, buns and desserts.
Out of season, but only just is the final meal of the set, the Christmas dinner! I also cook it for my birthday in March and I have pretty much perfected it to our tastes. For years we had it with salads, Australian style, but after an attempted coup in my kitchen (!!) I added hot side dishes, and I have to admit that it’s made a difference to the overall combination.
So there you have it. Three favourite dishes that my family enjoy. However, that is not the only aspect of cooking. To concentrate too much on old favourites means that you run the risk of your fare becoming boring. I had got to that stage last year as my daughter rightly pointed out. The result was me diving into cookbooks, looking online and experimenting for myself. It’s given me a new lease of life in the kitchen and I now try to cook at least two or three new meals a month. My recent attempts have included a very nice prawn linguine, Home made burrito and a Parsnip Loaf, which will be a new addition to the Christmas table. So, make your favourite meals but always be on the lookout for new meals you can add to your repertoire.
If you could meet a historical figure, who would it be and why?
This prompt is one that I can remember getting in Primary School. What is it about the question that still fascinates so many adults? What would you ask someone who is in the history books?
To be honest I can’t really find any enthusiasm for meeting figures from history that I have read about. If you asked them about incidents that have become historical anecdotes, would they be inclined to tell you something that puts them in a good light? It’s what people in a place of influence do now, so why would they be any different? All our politicians today are liars so surely it was the same in the past. Evil men, and it was almost entirely men, have made inroads into our collective consciousness by being at the head of nations and watching opposing armies of men kill each other and then they take credit. When I was younger I wanted to meet Horatio Nelson, whose sea battles and infidelity were lauded by his contemporaries. Those in power always have and always will work to different rules.
If I had to meet someone now I would meet someone who was not written or spoken about in history. I would want to meet someone who was involved in the construction and use of Stonehenge. The marvellous guide we had freely admitted how much of what we thought about Stonehenge has been proved wrong and how little we still actually know. When I was there we saw modern day ‘druids’ in flowing robes. Apparently the robes were simply based on clerical clothes of the 19th Century so the druids could have been naked and daubed in woad. They could have been women instead of men. As Gaia is female it would make sense. Stonehenge could have been a party venue! We will never know, but it would be great to find out from someone who was there.
Do you trust your instincts?
I would never trust my instincts as they have been wrong on so many occasions. I think that is partly down to being on the Autistic Spectrum. We don’t tend to read people very well, so now my ‘instinct’ is to be incredibly wary of anyone new. We used to be told when I was growing up that if you were nice to other people then they would be nice to you. That’s nonsense. If you are nice to other people they will look for a way to take advantage of you, nine times out of ten. So it’s much easier to assume that this is going to happen and be pleasantly surprised if it doesn’t.
People are generally only interested in, and outwardly nice to, others if it is to their advantage. Unfortunately I have never been able to work like that, at least not effectively. So I don’t assume that anyone has my best interests at heart and that’s a fairly safe basis for life. Freud saw instincts as an expression of the unconscious mind, perhaps spotting Micro reactions or being attuned to body language. I don’t seem to be able to spot either, or if I do I don’t act on it properly. Therefore I ignore them if they tell me that what I see is what I get, and, until proven otherwise, that I have to be very careful not giving hostages to fortune. I suppose this is what lies at the heart of my view that as a species we are basically bad, and that is one thing I do trust my instincts about!
What’s your favorite month of the year? Why?
It will surprise no one who has read this blog, even occasionally, to know that my favourite month of the year is December. As a Christmas fan, how could it not be? It is a month of anticipation and a month of magic.
You have music that’s different from any other time of the year. Now, I realise that not everyone likes Christmas music, but it’s music that is tonally different, both in terms of the instruments and the lyrics. For me, the really special thing about the music is the way it brings memories of Christmas Past flooding back. When I hear Slade or The Wombles I am a kid again, looking forward to the wonder of Christmas morning. When I hear Band Aid or Shakin Stevens I am a teenager who is absolutely obsessed with music and I remember drinking and singing with my friends. Now, as I hear my children word perfect on those same songs I feel like I have done a good job in passing on my enthusiasm.
Advent is a special time of the year too. Opening those doors on the calendar and seeing the pictures was always a massive part of the month for me. I prefer pictures to chocolates. There’s so much more simplicity and beauty to a different picture every day than there is to a piece of chocolate. I am not a huge fan of chocolate in any case, but when you eat it, it’s gone, whereas the picture is still there to look at. It was always special to open that last door on December 24 and know that you were just one day from the big day of the year.
Christmas Day itself can be fun, it can be stressful, it can be sad, but it’s a time to either celebrate or to get off the treadmill and attend to your own needs. Yes, those needs can involve shutting yourself away and trying to reconnect with who you are, but Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and New Year’s Eve can give you that opportunity. Even if you don’t like the festive season, you can take that once a year opportunity to take stock, either to count your blessings or to think of ways in which you might be able to improve things in the year ahead.
There is so much in this world that is bad and getting worse, but Christmas is a time when people around you seem to be more reasonable and more relaxed. Even commuting up to London as I did for 20 years in and around Christmas, you saw more smiles or at least fewer frowns as we all looked forward to the much needed break from work. Here, I want to pay tribute to those people who work during the Christmas season, keeping our hospitals running, keeping us safe and keeping others cared for when they are in mental or physical ill health.
Finally, it is the time of year when we think of others and we donate to charities more often than we do at other times. Any month that opens our hearts and our wallets so readily can’t be all bad, can it?
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 