The Friday Five

Happy Friday!

Today’s blog post is a return to an idea that I thought I might do a lot more regularly back in August last year, and then totally didn’t.

The Friday Five is a Live Journal thing that I first found out about via Forever Amber, because I never had a Live Journal. I thought it was a lovely idea, I did one in August last year, then promptly completely forgot about it because there was Cocktail Week, and then Christmas. Today I remembered and went to look what this weeks Friday Five were, and they’re all about hanging out with dead Actors, which I don’t really want to do, so I once again decided to cheat and cherry pick myself a set of questions from December last year.

Feel free to answer the questions yourself in the comments, as this is supposed to be a fun way for us all to find out completely irrelevant bits of information about each other, like the internet used to be before it was about flat lays and having a million apps to edit photos with.

1. Are you easily intimidated by people in some sort of power position, like say your boss or a former teacher, when you meet them on the street?

This is an interesting question, for me at least. I’ve always been a well-behaved gal, and I mostly do what I’m told and toe the line, following chains of authority.

Mr Chick has always been of the type who will march up to the Company Director and tell them where they are going wrong, where as I have always been the type that will send a politely worded memo of suggestions to my immediate superior and then watch in horror as they all get implemented and my boss gets promoted for their wonderful ideas.

All that way of thinking ever got me was a pat on the head from my old boss who used to call me “his little star” for running an entire department while earning £12k a year so they could then employ some men to run the department, ask me to train them, and then pay them £35k. And that was the best outcome.

I’m a very different person now, however I still have a bit of a fear of authority and I’m obsessed with following the correct procedures. I don’t think I would be intimidated by my former teachers if I met them on the street, or by most of my former bosses. There is one former boss I would rather not bump into, but I don’t think that would be intimidation, I would either punch her, or end up crying out of frustration (because I wanted to punch her).

So, in about a million words, I think, no, I would not be intimidated by people in a power position if I met them on the street. I think I can still be intimidated by people in a power position when they’re in the environment where they hold power though, and that annoys me.

2. Do you like pants pockets and what do you tend to put in them?

I am guessing this is American and they mean trousers. I don’t have pockets in my pants.

Do I like trouser pockets?

No, actually. I love dresses and skirts with pockets, but on trousers I find they add extra bulk to my hips, which is the last place I need it. When I do have pockets on my trousers the only thing that goes in them is my hands.

If it’s a pocket on a SKIRT then it could contain loose change, my phone and any number of other random things that I can’t carry right now.

3. Do you believe the saying, ‘Everything old is new again?’

Well, I’m a fan of vintage, so I guess I must.

(This is “vintage” Roller Derby, by the way!)

I do believe that many things seem to be cyclical. If you are even a casual student of history you will spot themes coming up again and again.

In July 1859 the following was published in the Scientific American

chess is a mere amusement of a very inferior character, which robs the mind of valuable time that might be devoted to nobler acquirements, while it affords no benefit whatever to the body.

They could very easily be talking about the latest Call of Duty game.

I don’t think that means there is never anything new. New things must often build on things that have come before, but that doesn’t make them old or unoriginal.

4. Do you believe in serendipity?

Yes, but I wasn’t sure that serendipity was a thing that needed me to believe in it. I always thought serendipity was a happy coincidence. A thing that you didn’t expect to happen, but that had consequences that were good. There’s no denying that those things happen, whether you believe in them or not.

I think when people ask if you believe in serendipity, they mean what I think of as “fate” or “destiny”. Do you believe that things happen for a reason to take you to the place you are meant to be in life?

I’m torn on this one. The cynical and down to earth side of me says no. I think you make your own decisions in life. Good things and bad things happen and how you deal with them is entirely up to you and you make your own chances. Sometimes we are lucky and things turn out just how we hope, and other times things don’t go our way, the key is your attitude to dealing with these things and how you move onto the next challenge.

There is, of course, the other side of me. The side that likes unicorns and sparkly things and secretly still believes in the Loch Ness Monster. That side of me likes to think that the universe is looking out for us, and that even when things seem at their darkest we are exactly where we are supposed to be and things will work out in the end.

5. Did you have to look up serendipity before answering Question 4?

Yes, but only because I wasn’t sure if it meant what I thought it meant.  I thought it meant “Happy Coincidence” and I wasn’t sure how I could believe in happy coincidences as they obviously happened. I would, for instance, be invited to go to a party that I didn’t really want to go to, and while on my way home find a huge cache of gold that meant I never had to work again and say “That was serendipitous”. (Dear universe, I promise to go to lots of things I don’t want to go to if you can arrange a large cache of gold).

So I looked it up and discovered some nuance on the fate/destiny side.

And there you have my ramblings on some random things this Friday!

Have an awesome weekend, and feel free to share your thoughts on any or all of these 5 things in the comments!