Meme: get to know you questions

[igenlode]

Procrastinating (I'm not even sure what from any more, other than the overwhelming knowledge that I ought to be doing So Many Other Things) by filling out a set of meme question prompts from fred_mouse.

1. Have you ever been fooled by an 'April Fool's Day' joke?
   Yes. April Fool's Day, like Father's Day, was never a 'thing' in our household when I was growing up, so I never expect it to happen and am a prime target for any slightly eyebrow-raising announcement; the world is a weird enough place nowadays and people get up to some strange things.
   (In fact I'd assumed that the photo of a Hot Wheels blister-pack model of the Beast of Turin on the shelf in the supermarket that was uploaded on April 2nd *was* an April Fool -- but apparently it's actually a genuine new toy car release!)
2. Do you prefer sweet things or savoury things to eat?
   Sweet, unless I've had 'a sickener of' them recently, in which case I crave savoury things instead.
3. Do other people shorten your given name? Do you shorten your own name?
   No, never (if you can't handle three syllables that's your own problem), and I strongly dislike it when people try to come up with an abbreviation of some sort.
4. Are there opportunities to go walking where you live? Do you take advantage of that?
   When I 'go walking' it tends to be for writing purposes these days (or, currently, Russian vocabulary exercises, as I'm not writing anything and it seems a good use of what would otherwise be 'down-time' :-D) And it's just along the streets; I'm not fussy about landscape views, or, conversely, terrified of 'being out alone after dark' in the wicked urban environment.
   There are places where you can go for more picturesque walks, but the additional effort required to simply *get* there by bike or foot before you do any 'fun' walking is a big disincentive. And there isn't really all that much point walking a couple of miles to a botanic garden, walking the short distance around it, and then walking all the way home again...
5. Pineapple on a pizza -- yes, or no?
   Yes, definitely, although it's not something I get offered very often (and given that I do almost all my own cooking it isn't something that's very practical to make for myself).

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Reading: the last thing I read was a slightly sleazy WW2 thriller, Hellfire by Leo Kessler.

Last series watched: "Marie Antoinette", catch-up on iPlayer as I missed the broadcast.

Last film: the last thing I saw at the cinema was The Garden of Eden (1928). The last film I saw overall was probably my recent re-watch of Elsa's Land -- I was watching a YouTube video of a performance of the original stage version of that this morning and had just reached what I suspect to be the end of the first act, but I don't think that counts!

Last song: thanks to ysabetwordsmith, that would be the anti-Trump "Not For Sale" from the Greenland Defense Front :-D Otherwise, as it happens, it would be Maria Callas singing Casta Diva from "Norma", which is not exactly typical of my listening habits -- and before *that* it was Mikhail Boyarsky singing the disco/novelty Robinson (as in Crusoe), which I listened to out of curiosity but didn't enjoy.

Coffee or tea: yuck, neither. Coffee tastes burnt (and yes, I've been given *expensive* coffee in an attempt to prove that it can be tasty, just as I've been given all sorts of alcohol to prove that I can't possibly dislike *all* of it -- I do, even fruity-flavoured alcohol, because it still has that burning/decayed undertaste). Tea tastes of leaves in water.
I've been known to drink mint tea for medicinal purposes, but I don't *like* it -- it's tolerable with a hefty dose of sugar.

Working on: I've been semi-seriously asked to make someone a crochet waistcoat out of scrap wool to match the one that I made for myself over twenty years ago, but that would involve reverse-engineering the latter as well as finding enough main background-coloured wool to hold the whole design together. And I've just been given a shortish length of tartan wool on the grounds that I might be able to make something out of it; again, possibly a waistcoat... But realistically neither of those things is likely to happen any time soon, if ever.
I'm not currently writing anything. I'd sort of like to look at making out a translation (though not necessarily in verse!) of Boyarsky's "Ballad of the Lovelorn Brig", and I told myself I would complete my translation of E.M.K.81's "Gefangene der Angst" once I had finished writing my own fiction, which I suppose I have for the moment -- although I'm sure nobody is awaiting that with bated breath, since it hasn't been updated since 2017.... Of course my German is now thoroughly overlaid with Russian verbs etc.