Our local cinema. Our local cinema cat.

Mez sent me Q's as a surprise this morning, so I thought "why not?"
Why not indeed?

Thanks, dued xxx

1) What are your views on leaf blowers?
I haven't actually thought about them before. I like leaves. I have to like them. I have great big heaps of them outside the house in the autumn - from mine and other people's trees. They just seem to blow in and gather haphazardly in front of the house. Crackly dry leaves are good and could be blown away quite nicely, but that would be such a shame as half the fun of the crunchy autumn leaf lies in being able to kick it about and fall down on the piles, much as I might do with snow, but without the cold and wet, if you see what I mean.
And talking of cold and wet, which I wasn't, I was talking about leaves: leaves hit their kamikaze peak in November, which is when this place dresses up in a full zentai of mist. I kid you not - nor do I exaggerate for the purpose of hyperbole; the entire area becomes cloaked in damp, white stuff for the month. All thirty days of it. I think it is joining the nation in celebrating the dead. This would not make the use of a leaf blower very much fun. Just think of half-heartedly blowing damp, claggy vine and fig leaves around the garden. And for what? To disturb the slugs and hedgehogs that have settled in for the winter? I leave my leaves alone. I will say it is out of respect for the local fauna, when it is in fact mainly sheer laziness and a not-really-seeing-the-point-of-leaf-removalness. I won't be getting a leaf blower any time soon, I shouldn't think; garden implements at the hovel consist of: a rake, sans handle; a shovel to dig one's way out of 9 feet of snow; a strimmer thing and of course, a bloody great chain saw in case the leaf piles should be the preferred hiding place of zombies waiting for the invasion...

2) Have you ever worn a bandana?
A' la Silvio? Santo cielo! What do you take me for?
I usually have a headscarf, worn as a band. It keeps the unruly hair, which does its own thing the second I am out of a 3-feet radius of the hairdresser (who has spent an hour trying to tame it into some kind of submission), stuck in some semblance of order on my head. If I don't bother then my bad hair life - no, I don't have the kind of hair that can stick to days or even weeks - gets even worse. It may not be the height of fashion, but then again, nor am I.

3) Can you waltz?
Each of my two left feet is sending out a resounding negative. I am not a born dancer. I can swing my pants in one of those child-shaming ways, which I am of course perfecting for The Child as she gets older, but organised, choreographed stuff? No. I think the closest I have come has been those in-the-dark clench-shuffle moments at the excruciating but necessary school discos of my long-gone youth. *Breathes a sigh of relief that those days are long gone, but considers learning waltzes, polkas and tangos for future child-shaming purposes...*

4) The time is ripe and so are the bananas. Carpe Bananum! Discuss.
I am not and never have been enamoured of the overly ripe banana. The slightest bruising or softness will put me off. I like my bananas underripe and firm. I shall be Carpeing my Bananum while it is still quite hard and ever-so-slightly green.

5) Which emotion/smiley/whatever do you use most frequently on IM?
The usual. :) But without nose; I like the nose-less ones more. I also like the skype ones: the headbanger (headbang), the smoking smiley (smoking) and the mooning one (mooning).
Ones you won't find me using: the heart. Not on any IM client!

Tune?