miss_grimwood | Entries tagged with friday five

Ok so it may have been a few months since I was last online at the right time to answer the friday five and it feels like fate because the theme is pretty relevant to me right now

1. How far back can you trace your family tree?
I'm currently working on my family tree again, and the furthest I've got as of right now is my 5th great-grandparents according to ancestry. Early 19th century

2. What is the most interesting (or strange) thing you've heard about one of your relatives?
My paternal great-great grandmother was arrested 12 times and imprisoned twice for drunkenness, which was not particularly surprising given the current generations, but we were surprised that it was from my nana's side and not my grandad's

3. How do you feel about legacy names like John Henry Smith IV or naming children after other relatives?
In theory I like it and I think its very sweet. Especially middle names honouring grandparents. That being said, it's a NIGHTMARE when it comes to finding people on ancestry

4. Would you consider yourself and/or your family to be traditional?
I do think traditional can be a bit of a loaded word in some cases. But in a way, yes. generally through the lines and going on to now, it's always been nuclear families, closeness to cousins, things like that. But half of my generation of cousins (on both sides) are queer now, so I imagine families will be at least a little different going forward. But then looking back into the family tree, there are a lot of step families and half siblings, back when that wasn't very common
5. What is one tradition you have passed on to your children and/or plan to pass on to them?
I don't particularly plan on having children of my own, but if I were to it would definitely be the big-ish family get togethers. My maternal side all gets together on the last sunday before christmas eve, and even though we're all adults now we still insist on it. In fact I think it even started specifically because the music charts used to come out on a sunday so we'd all stay at my granny's house to find out the christmas number one, but now that happens on a friday instead.

1. Do you celebrate or observe Halloween? How?
I decorate! cute pumpkins and my spooky women gallery (black and white images of my favourite horror film girls in diy frames). Sometimes I'll watch a spooky (not scary) film, but this year I forgot

2. What is your favorite Halloween candy?
Specifically Halloween candy I'm saying a mars bar because a full size one can be too rich for me but the half size halloween ones are the perfect size

3. Do you get trick-or-treaters on Halloween?
We used to! But now my dog is terrified of strangers at the door so we keep the lights low and people tend not to come. We do invite the small neighbours to come and get some sweeties though

4. Do you enjoy dressing up in costumes?
I prefer to dress my dog up! I even splashed out on a new costume for her this year after making her be a dinosaur for the past 4 in a row:

She quite likes this one because she wears something similar to keep her clean on walks, so she was happy to trot around the street in it yesterday until she got spooked by a black cat

5. What is your favorite Halloween memory?
Me and a group of friends got together to watch Kill Bill. the film wasn't amazing but I haven't seen most of them in almost a decade, so it's more my favourite for nostalgia reasons

1. What's a song you'd enjoy screaming along to as you drove down the highway?
I have a whole playlist for this! But anything by Whitney Houston or Pink will always get me screaming
2. What is your favorite place/type of environment to relax?
My favourite specifically is my bedroom. It’s my safe space, it’s pink and soft and cosy. But outside of that I really feel peaceful at the beach, I like to hear the waves and feel the sand and collect shells and rocks
3. What are the best kind of dreams?
Nice ones! I take medication that can cause nightmares and vivid dreams, so anything that isn’t either of those is very nice for me.
4. What do you look for in a mate?
This reminded me of Doctor Who ‘you just want to mate?’. If we mean mate as in pal I like someone with similar interests to me, who doesn’t mind the fact I am shocking with my phone. The same goes for a partner I suppose. Patience.
5. If you were a crayon color, what color would you be and why?
Baby pink! Because it’s my favourite

1. Most everyone will recommend a book or two to read, but are there any you would tell people to avoid?
I tell anyone with a dog to avoid The Last Family in England by Matt Haig. I love the book, but its not the kind of thing I think you should read when you have a dog, for spoilery reasons. My mum wanted to take it on holiday when she was rooting through my collection and I had to say absolutely do not

2. If you take a book on vacation, are you more likely to take something you haven't read yet or an old favorite?
Always a new one! Its the best time to get reading done

3. Do you read any genres by the season? Like horror around Halloween? Cozy Mysteries in the Winter? Romance in the Summer?
I avoid by the season, if that counts. I don't read horror or mystery or murder vibes in autumn/winter - I can only read them when we have late sunsets because I get frightened by them particularly in the dark, so as long as I'm reading in the daytime and I'm safe in bed by dark I can read them (particularly annoying because I do enjoy murder mysteries)

4. If you read a lot of Fiction do you prefer an author that has a series with the same character(s), or do you prefer stand-alone stories?
At the minute I'm leaning towards stand-alone stories, but I will cycle through as much as I can by the same author until I need a break

5. Is there a book that you wish you could read again, but experience it like it was the first time?
I wish I could reread Lady Chatterley's Lover again. I read it for the first time when I was quite young, I wish I could go into it from an adult perspective

1) Who are you appreciating in your life right now?
My friend Ella, who is also writing her dissertation right now, and who has the same supervisor as me, is keeping me sane when it comes to his terrible email response time and general lack of supervision (he told us the wrong word count)

2) What's something you've done this year that other people appreciated?
I met Ella at uni and it turned out we live only 5 minutes away from each other, so when we had classes together I'd drive her home. I know she appreciated that

3) What's a good way to show gratitude?
I think a bunch of flowers goes a long way. I love giving them to people so they know I appreciate them

4) Do you write thank you notes?
I do! In fact, I wrote and posted one up to Scotland this afternoon

5) What can you use help with these days?
I'm on a fitness ~journey~, and I was never any good at sports as a child so I gave up on PE and learning how to exercise, so I really appreciate the people who have given me tips and answered my clueless questions (and I welcome any more tips/ fun and somewhat easy workout videos from anyone who also started a journey from relatively sedentary)

1. Are you good at fixing things?
It depends on the type of fixing! I can repair clothes, and I have revived my decades old kindle from the brink of death a few times, but when it comes to the car I'm useless

2. What kinds of things can you fix?
See above! I love repairing holes in my clothes and blankets

3. Is there anyone in your family who is good at fixing things?
My grandad can do all of the fixing stuff that I can't do, like cars and belts and hoovers and all of that, and my grandad on my dad's side has fixed our plumbing so many times

4. Has anyone ever taught you how to fix things?
The lovely people of youtube have saved me on many occasions

5. What was the last thing that broke in your home?
our shower pressure fucked up last week but it righted itself, and our kitchen tap is currently leaking but I think that's been stuck for a while

1. Have you gotten everything done that you had hoped to do during the first half of 2024?
I have NOT and I'm SO annoyed about it. I'm so far behind

2. Did anything exciting or unexpected happen to you during the first half of 2024?
None of the unexpected things have been particularly nice tbh. I did however start carpooling with a friend from some of my classes who has lived in the same small town as me for our whole lives, and we only met this year, and that's been a nice new part of my life

3. What big plans do you have for the second half of 2024?
I will hand in my dissertation and graduate! I'll also ideally get a job

4. Have you taken, or are you planning, a vacation this year?
Last weekend I went to the seaside. I'll hopefully go again later in the summer, but it all depends on how disciplined I can be re diss writing

5. Have you ever wanted to be one of the people writing and posting these questions?
I am sooo uncreative when it comes to questions so as fun as it would be I would so not come up with anything exciting

Slightly late, because I've been away

1) What's an area where you're not perfect, but trying your best?
uni I think. I don't think I've ever tried as hard in school as I have this year

2) Who are you proud of?
My wee cousin (I say wee, she's 17), she's very disciplined when it comes to schoolwork, she's very confident in herself, and it's just so nice to see the person she's becoming. I was 7 when she was born so I've properly watched her grow up

3) What makes you feel appreciated?
I like something written, I always get very sentimental on the times that my mum has sent me 'I'm proud of you' texts and things like that

4) What would you like to make more time for?
reading! I used to read every day before bed, in lockdown I read constantly, and now aside from uni stuff I rarely get to read for pleasure

5) What can you re-arrange?
I'm not sure if I'm supposed to take this literally or figuratively but I'd like to rearrange my bookshelves. I have too many books and a couple of second-hand ones coming in soon, but I don't quite have the space for a second bookcase

I think they skipped last week, or maybe every few weeks there's a break/amnesty, I'm not sure, but we're back!

1. What is the oldest object you own?
For my 21st birthday my grandparents bought me an art deco brooch. I'm sure the exact year came with the paperwork, but its from some point in the 1920s

2. What object have you owned the longest?
My baby blanket! Bought for me the day I was born. I was also given a bunny on the same day, but the original was lost when I was wee and replaced, so technically I've not owned that specific one for as long

3. What is the newest object you own?
Last week I bought two jersey dresses (I call them house dresses)

4. Who is your oldest living relative?
My great nana turned 90 last month! My only surviving great grandparent

5. Who is your youngest living relative?
There's a side of the family that we don't really speak to any more, and I think I have a few very young cousins, but I can't be sure, so for certain, my cousin on the other side had a baby boy a couple of years ago. I'm not sure what that makes me to him. 1st cousin once removed maybe? For non-humans, my new kitten cousins are 8 weeks old

1. What are three things you refuse to live without?
-skechers trainers (the only shoes that don't tear my feet to shreds)
-my ipad
-bread

2. What are your three favorite items of clothing?
-my skechers trainers lol
-a long black jersey skirt i've had for YEARS
-a long black jersey dress i've had probably longer than the skirt

3. What are your three favorite books?
-Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
-The Offing (Benjamin Myers)
-A Room With a View (E.M. Forster) (but this one is here because of recency bias)

4. What are three things you'd grab if you had to evacuate your house quickly?
I'm presuming all people and pets are safe:
-I have a stack of emergency cash in my bedside drawer which would be useful in that situation
-My childhood teddy and blanket (funny bunny and blankety)
-my little memory trunk

5. What are your three favorite songs or musical works?
My favourites change on a daily basis. Hourly even. Right now, my three most repeated are So High School, The Tortured Poets Department and The Black Dog from TTPD

I'm putting everything but the first question under a cut tag for this, with a cw that I talk about my not so great relationship with my father. I'm not great at superlatives, I get very hung up on if the thing I'm about to list as the best really is the best

1. What's the happiest thing to ever happen to you?
I think it was getting my dog. I was 19 and going through a not so great time, and then this little ball of fluff barrelled into our lives, and I loved her so much (I still do)
( Read more... )

1) Is summer a break for you, or is it busier?
It depends! This year it's a bit of both - I have no more classes, but I'm researching and writing my MA dissertation. So not quite a break, but also not as busy as I have been

2) What's next for your travel plans?
I don't travel often, but we try and go to the seaside for a long weekend in the summer

3) What have you spontaneously done lately?
I made a deviantart profile and started posting! I'm keeping it a secret because my art isn't great, but I'm enjoying the semi-anonymity and the freedom to post things without so much pressure to be Good

4) What's your favorite way to unwind after a long day?
Getting into bed under the blankets, faffing about on the ipad for an hour or so, and then snozing

5) What's in your pockets?
I don't have any pockets on me right now, but in my regular coat pockets I have a hand sanitiser, a couple of coins, a dog poop bag, and my car keys

I'm going to start answering the

thefridayfive !

1) What are your five favorite birds?
-PIGEONS, sparrows, if owls count then specifically the owl that lives by our house, swallows, and cockatiels (my great grandad had a whole aviary of them)

2) What are your five favorite pet-type animals?
-Dogs, cats, rats, ferrets, rabbits

3) What are your five favorite wild animals that live in your locale?
(I live in the countryside, so) foxes, rats, bats, toads, ducks

4) What are your five favorite zoo animals that you always want to visit?
-meerkats (my favs ever), elephants, prairie dogs, giraffes, penguins

5) What are your five favorite cryptids that may or may not be extinct, may or may not exist in this world?
NESSIE!!! (if nessie could take up all five spots she would) the beast of exmoor, dragons (do they count?), unicorns, and cerberus (three heads to pet)