Dropping in for a Quick Chat with Patrice

Am I late on your porch again, Patrice? I'm going to get straight to your questions so as not to keep you even longer :)


1. What's the last big gathering you attended? (wedding, funeral, graduation, party, riot, etc)


We were at a very unusual wedding recently, and you can see photos from it here. It was nice to meet folks there who I hadn't seen for ages, and have a good ol' blether.

Here I am with a fellow-guest, who's reading from a school notebook she'd written in Primary 3.

"Last night my friend and I went for a walk. We saw a lady looking out of her window. I think she was a witch. I had nightmares through the night."

Can you tell we found the whole thing hilarious?!

Oh, and Patrice, I love that you threw 'riot' into your question, as though it'd be as normal for me to attend a riot as a wedding.


Oh, hang on.... maybe it's because you really do know me!


2. Do you switch over your seasonal wardrobe, wear the same things year round, have a huge closet to put it all in, or throw everything out and buy new each season (I threw the last one in there to see if you're paying attention ;) ?


Aye, Patrice, you threw that last part in just for me. I like to renew my clothes every year to keep up with the latest fashions.


"Isn't that right, girls?"


Er...for some reason, silence was the loud reply...


Of course, as you know, our weather varies so little from season to season that there are staple items of clothing we wear all year round. For example, ahem, My Boots. In summer, I normally need a cardigan or jumper of some description (remember, you Americans, a jumper is a sweater), and in winter, we seldom have conditions that are colder than a degree or two below zero.


Oh, and I never use an umbrella, because the wind would turn it inside out within seconds, meaning I'd be just as wet as I would have been had I never taken the unruly instrument out of the house. 


Wet and fighting with the misbehaving contraption versus Wet. No contest.


3. What sweetener do you use most often?


Er, is this a trick question?


Sugar. I don't take sugar in my tea; it's demerara sugar in my coffee; syrup and castor sugar in the pancakes; I don't eat breakfast cereal often, but if I do, I don't add any sugar. The Builder has porridge in the mornings, but doesn't add anything to sweeten it. If I had to eat porridge, I'd smother it in demerara sugar.


4. Slippers, socks, or barefoot?


I always used to be barefoot, but since I have, er, how shall I say it?.... er, 'grown more advanced in years', I feel the cold so much. I now wear socks and slippers in the house. And it aint just one pair of socks either. Oh no... two or three (though I'm pushing it to call them 'pairs'. I blame the washing machine for that, but my feet don't seem to mind non-matching socks.) Catherine is always barefoot, and I catch myself time and time again saying, 'Oh, Catherine, go and put something on your feet. I'm freezing.'


I'm very logical.


5. What questions would you like me to ask the group over the next few weeks?


Och, Patrice, I'll leave this one to the more imaginative ones. They always come up with really good questions. My only question at the moment is, 'What's for dinner?'.