Those Questions

Time for me to answer the questions submitted to mark the first birthday of this blog, most of them from Portuguese Nova.
Both she and Tony asked what I did for a living.
'I have had wide-ranging experience in both the private and public sectors, dealing with people at all levels and developing a broad range of skills....'
Well, I don't want to be too specific.
But I've already revealed here that I once worked at the Savoy Hotel. And that I worked in London theatres. The latter job, if you want to be pretentious, was as a 'stage technician' but more commonly known as a 'stagehand'. My actual job description on the contract I still have a copy of, from Stoll Moss Theatres, was 'showman'. This meant you just worked on shows (i.e. part-time), as opposed to a 'Dayman' who was a full-time member of staff but who also worked on the evening shows. I wonder if that traditional terminology has survived in the West End. Probably not.

I spent many years in an office job in London and also spent many years in local government. I've also done some freelance journalism.
I once worked for one day in a London pub. I must write about why it was only one day on another occasion.
I did some part-time teaching for a year as well.
There are a number of things I nearly did but either didn't get or else backed out when sense prevailed. These include becoming a postman, teaching at a Prep School and running a stately home.
As you can see, I've never had a 'career' but have just careered around from one opportunity and expedient to another.
My childhood ambitions were to be (in order) a coach driver, a zoo keeper, a librarian and a novelist. My grandmother always mispronounced 'librarian' and told everyone I wanted to be a 'Liberian'. People were too polite to ask why a young boy would wish to change his nationality.

PN also asked:
If you did want to make your own muesli, would you know how?
No, but I'd do what I always do. Look up a recipe on the internet, print it out, put it in my Recipes Folder, and then never make it.
Have you ever been to the US?
No and probably never will. I cannot travel by plane so would have to book one of Cunard's State Rooms which would be very expensive. I was invited to San Francisco in 1970 by an American I met in a London pub. He gave me his address but if I turned up now he probably wouldn't remember me, despite me having retained my boyish good looks.
If I were ever to make it out of Portugal while on your continent, and we were to meet for a drink, what would I order for you to celebrate your blogiversary?
That's a tricky one. I stopped drinking a few years' ago so my tolerance to alcohol is now very low. So, to avoid any embarrassing scenes in the Rod and Mullet, I would just have a weak shandy and sip it slowly. Anyway, I would be sufficiently intoxicated by the excitement of meeting you.