Proust

I have to thank Ric for this, the infamous Proust questionnaire:

• What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
  To be continually confronted with the past.
  
• Where would you like to live?
  Malta - they're in the EU and speak English. I'm lazy.
  
• What is your idea of earthly happiness?
  To be with the people I love and to be able to enjoy the arts.
  
• To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
  Laziness, and that alone. I'm too lazy to list any others.
  
• Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
  Peter Pan, a male who refuses to conform to society's demands of adulthood, and Martin Benson from Sucking Sherbet Lemons.
  
• Who are your favorite characters in history?
  Jim Callaghan, Pocahontus and Edward II of England.
  
• Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
  Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft.
  
• Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
  Rapunzel because she didn't give up and Little Red Riding Hood for facing up to the wolf!
  
• Your favorite painter?
  Lucien Freud.
  
• Your favorite musician?
  Dolly Parton.
  
• The quality you most admire in a man?
  Modesty.
  
• The quality you most admire in a woman?
  Flamboyance.
  
• Your favorite virtue?
  Peculiarity or individuality - can't decide.
  
• Your favorite occupation?
  Sleeping or blogging - again, can't decide.
  
• Who would you have liked to be?
  Margaret Thatcher.
• Your most marked characteristic?
A craving to be loved, or, to be more precise, to be caressed and spoiled rather than to be admired.
• The quality you most like in a man?
  Candour.
  
• The quality you most like in a woman?
  Affability.
  
• What do you most value in your friends?
  Honesty. I don't like people who play games.
  
• What is your principle defect?
  Empathy. It is a defect. It drags one down. People who go through life with no understanding of the hardships of others, live their lives, relatively speaking, without a care in the world.
  
• What is your favorite occupation?
  As I said before, sleeping or blogging.
  
• What is your dream of happiness?
  To live without fear or regret. Both, sadly, are impossible.
  
• What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
  To have lost my Mother before I was able to form a memory of her.
  
• What would you like to be?
  Myself, but the myself that I feel I am, not the one I display.
  
• In what country would you like to live?
As I said before, Malta. I haven't changed my mind. I adore the sun and the fact that it's not too far away from the UK.

• What is your favorite color?
  Mauve.
  
• What is your favorite flower?
  The poppy. Its beauty is superlative.
  
• What is your favorite bird?
  The Blackbird.
  
• Who are your favorite prose writers?
  Brian and Moncrief.
  
• Who are your favoite poets?
  William Barnes and Michael Rosen.
  
• Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
  Peter Pan - I haven't changed my mind.
  
• Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
  Again, as before, Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood.
  
• Who are your favorite composers?
  Neil Tennant and Christopher Lowe.
  
• Who are your favorite painters?
  Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon.
  
• Who are your heroes in real life?
  Cleopatra, Judy Garland and Eleanor Roosevelt.
  
• Who are your favorite heroines of history?
  Cleopatra, Judy Garland and Eleanor Roosevelt.
• What are your favorite names?
  Celeste, Dagmar and Beethoven.
  
• What is it you most dislike?
  Offal.
  
• What historical figures do you most despise?
  Napoleon, Cromwell and Saint Paul.
  
• What event in military history do you most admire?
  Whenever peace or a ceasefire is declared.
  
• What reform do you most admire?
  Reform of the House Of Lords. Let's hope and pray that it goes far enough. I'd like to live in a democracy!
  
• What natural gift would you most like to possess?
  The ability to be a credible portrait painter.
  
• How would you like to die?
  In my sleep, without my knowledge.
  
• What is your present state of mind?
  Paranoia.
  
• To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
  Laziness.
  
• What is your motto?
  Don't shake me, don't turn me upside down. Just treat me nicely, then eat me.

Incidentally, this is my 666th blog entry. Scary, innit!? Notice anything Satanic, dear reader? Phew, neither did I.