questions about meee

No Doctor Who, no BSG, SPN and The Office finished last week, it's like telly is conspiring to make me watch LESS TELLY. Awfulness. Here are some utterly faskinating answers to questions from violetisblue via that meme:

1. I have this weird fetish for listening to Brits deliver infuriated jeremiads about Margaret Thatcher (perhaps as some sort of corrective to the free-market-goddess worship she still attracts over here). Accordingly, explain one specific way in which Thatcher made your, your family's and/or your hometown's life that much more difficult.

It's a source of CONSTANT HORROR to me that I live in the most Tory-loving part of Scotland. In '01 this was the only Scottish constituency that returned a Tory to the Commons. OH THE SHAMING SHAME. But, yes, Thatcher, who was chucked out when I was but five years old, thank goodness, so I don't actually have Raging Hate, merely Steady Incorruptible Dislike. But I'm Scottish and was alive in the eighties so therefore it is more-or-less a part of my cultural make-up to hate on Thatcher for the Poll Tax. WE WON YOU KNOW. We won because we were right and she was evil and shifting a tax burden from the rich to the poor GEE WHAT A GOOD IDEA THAT IS. An even better one? USING SCOTLAND AS A FUCKING TEST GROUND FOR YOUR CRAZY TAX PLAN. For some reason, Scotland did not approve and there were mass protests and people refused to pay and Thatcher lost and the first thing Major did when he got in was get rid of the fucking Poll Tax.

She probably did something horrible to the public transport system around here too.

Team Cardiff is involved in a tragic boating accident on the Thames, and the surviving remnants thereof come to you and tearfully declare, "Help us, Calapine, you're our last hope!" What would YOU do with the show, what plots and themes would you pursue, who would you cast, what would you chuck into the retconned-from-existence dustbin, etc.?

It'd be season seventeen all over again. Because I'm just obvious like that. (But with added Martha, yes.)

What's a minor cultural thing about the United States that's always struck you as bizarre? (I'm thinking less along the lines of, "Why do you scream hysterically about being the freest and noblest country in the world and then torture prisoners for the Chinese and threaten to 'obliterate' random nations?", and more along the lines of, "Why do you put your ketchup in such weirdly shaped little packets like that?")

You're all weird about cars and go flaily at the sight of a gear stick and act like it's something complicated. "Oh noes! It's a manual! Game over, man, game over!" I remember having to enquire what a manual was only to discover it's a perfectly normal car. Automatics are for... I don't know who they're for actually, I've never seen one here. Cars have gear sticks, it is the normal and proper order of things and I do mock in my head every time someone flails over them. I'M SORRY. (Only, y'know, not really.)

And you eat pumpkins. That's v strange.

What cheesy song are you secretly a bit embarrassed to admit really speaks to you and your mindset/situation in life?

The tricky part there is the "embarrassed" bit, since my entire music collection comes from stuff other people have given or recced to me, so I don't feel like it's really my music, it's just sort of accumulated by osmosis. I don't really go looking for music, I don't listen to music unless I'm doing something else at the same time, I have no strong opinions on music. Bascially, I lose at music Quite A Lot. However, I shall investigate the whatsit and try and find something I'd prefer not to admit to enjoying.... ah, the remake of St Trinian's soundtrack? It contains very much cheese. I seem to have listened to that a worrying amount of times lately. I like it most awfully.

In as much (or little) detail as you like, describe your dream job.

Writing stories about spaceships and swordfights.