1) Name five things which occupy the focal point in the main living area in your home.
Not sure I can name one!
2) Give me a mantra for today.
No pain, no need for painkillers!
3) Inspired by Geraint’s ‘what goes with chips’ question. Name three sets of foods which, in your opinion, should never be consumed together.
Steak and custard
Baked beans and almost anything (I realise I’m in a minority here), except on toast as a very very occasional comfort-food treat
Fried eggs and marmalade.
4) “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” Share a ‘who’d have thought’ experience with us.
My wife and daughter bumped into one of my nephews and his wife and son, once, in Istanbul, completely by chance. Neither group knew the others would be there.
5) What’s your real name, what does it mean, do you know why it was chosen for you, do you like it and if you could choose an alternative what would it be?
Michael Wallace Ellwood
Michael is supposed to be a Hebrew name, and I believe means “close to god” - the “-el” bit is one of the Hebrew words for god. My devout Catholic parents would have named me after St Michael the Archangel.
Wallace after my father, and he was named after William Wallace (the chap who was played extremely badly by Mel Gibson in a film which I refuse to name.
(My grandfather had pretentions to Scottishness which my father inherited)
Ellwood is supposed to be an Old English name which relates to elves and woods, or possibly wealds. (I wonder what Tolkien would have made of it?)
The Scottish pretension of my father claim that Ellwoods and Elliots are related. I am somewhat sceptical about all this. I think we were English, but with no doubt, several tots of Viking aquavit floating around in our veins. Of course, in our part of England (north-west), Brittonic (or brythonic) Celtic was apparently spoken long after it had died out down south.
Edit: Oops, I forgot question 6, but actually, instead of that, I will add to the “names” question:
I also have a confirmation name, which I don’t think about much, but it’s actually quite significant:
Luke
Now, St Luke was one of the evangelists, but tradition has it that he was a physician.
When I was very young, I fell ill with meningitis. The version of the story that I heard was that (in addition to medical treatment of course), our parish priest (a lovely man) arranged for me to be confirmed, although of course this is not normally done until much much later. I don’t know whose idea “Luke” was, but it was probably the priest’s.
And whether it was the medical treatment or St Luke (I like to think it was a combination of the two), thankfully I recovered.
The NHS started the year before I was born! Thank God for the NHS, thank God for Nye Bevan (and Lord Beveridge) and thank you God and St Luke!