21 June 2007

Queries

Check out this entry at Pseudostoops' site for the origins of this interview-meme. If you want me to interview you, leave a comment.
1. I always get a kick out of the pseudonyms you use in your blog (Grumpy, the Burp, etc.) Any method to the madness?

Why thank you.

Grumpy and Bloody Ern were known by those names before I even had a blog, and I can’t really remember how those names got started, particularly since Grumpy is such a sociable, affable chap and old Ern was so mild-mannered and peace-lovin’. The Burp sells Plasticware™ so she started out life as The Patented Burp and transformed into The Burp. I refer to my grandfather as The Fuehrer but that isn’t original: that’s what Bloody Ern called him. And one of my uncles and I have been calling my grandmother Don Mary for years. Plug Chopper into Wikipedia for an explanation of that name.

Names of other people are either references to some aspect of their lives or plays on their real name or even a private joke that I’ve forgotten. You know, just like you’d expect.

New Girl has talked about having a cast of characters on her blog and maybe I should do the same.

2. You live in Australia. You have many readers (ahem, me) who have never been to Australia and in fact live in America, a place fond of making gross generalizations and wild mischaracterizations of other places (“throw another shrimp on the barby,” anyone?) What is your favorite thing about living where you live that is perhaps different from the impression an American might get by watching tv/movies/drinking Fosters?

With our references to whinging Poms and the like, I don’t think we’re immune from g.g.’s and w.m.’s of other places and their people. “Wrong!” cries Grumpy. “'Whinging Pom’ is based on empirical evidence!”

That Grumpy!

Well, we’re just like you, only different.

When Grumpy and I lived in Canberra and would take endless looping drives around the lake and out past Tidbinbilla, we would dream and dream of the day we’d be living back in Perth and we’d be near the beach and the river and the sunny openness and we promised each other that every day we’d love it. We’re here and we do. Really, I can say no more.

3. If you were forced to choose one, would you choose to give up forever: salty snacks (chips, pretzels, popcorn, etc), desserts, or coffee?

I don’t drink coffee, so that narrows it down to two. I’m partial to popcorn (particularly when it is pressed into a scoop of vanilla icecream), but I think to answer this I’ll let Kramer speak for me:

“Is it the salty snacks you crave? No no no no. Yours is a sweet tooth. Oh, you may stray, but you'll always return to your dark master – the cocoa bean!”

4. What’s your favorite way to spend a Saturday morning?

Alive. That’s always a bonus. I wanted to say something about kayaking but that just sounded like bragging (so instead I’m trying to get away with mentioning it and not sound like I’m bragging). How did I do?

k, who is always lower cased to make up for the wretched lack of imagination I showed with her blog name, will be horrified but I do have to say that a breakfast at the Dome is always high on my list. Their poached eggs are so yummy and I’m utterly addicted to those Espreski drinks of theirs. And, might I add, that Michael Fitzsimmons just doesn’t seem like the barbecue type!

5. You have a crafty site too- peppermint crisp. Do you tend to fall in love with one kind of project and make it over and over for different people, or are you constantly wanting to try some new thing?

Thank you for the free plug! I always want to try some new thing, but if chocolate is my dark master then time is my cruel mistress. So that does mean a hell of a lot of repetition. But I don’t think I ever make anything (apart from invitations and Christmas cards) exactly the same. Each iteration involves something new so that the last version can look nothing like the first version, even though they’re the same thing in my mind. I made The Burp and her sister-in-law, Bette Midler, a necklace each. They were pretty much the same design but by the time I’d fiddled around with different-coloured and -sized beads they looked quite different.

3 comments:

ps said...

yes a cast of characters that would be dandy

Ranzige Bunzing said...

As to question nr. 2, yecch, does anyone really drink Fosters? Some of the fluids my camel passes taste better

ranzigebunzing.blogspot.com

mind you, I really like Freo's, especially the 2 Lizzie's bookstores which are like 1 block apart...

Anonymous said...

Jessie Mo says:

HB, have you just committed one of your own pet crimes?
g.g.’s and w.m.’s

maybe you should tell the Yank that The Dome is a Western Australian cafe chain. and then again, maybe not.