The Friday Five on a Monday

1. If you could go back and relive one moment or day from your life, without changing anything, what would you re-experience?


I’m probably supposed to say something about kids here, but if I’m being honest it would be the day Sputnik and Telstar arrived in our lives as tiny kittens. It was such a joyous afternoon (and also I wasn't in pain and exhausted).


2. If you could witness a moment in history, again without changing anything, what would you want to see?


Just a random day in the time when there were dinosaurs and giant insects. I'd want to be in a protective bubble though, so I'd be safe whilst wandering around gawping at stuff.


3. f you could talk to a younger version of yourself, what age would you visit and what message would you give?


I'd visit me while my maternal grandparents were alive and I lived with them, and tell me to write in my diary every day. I have strong individual memories of that period in my life but Older!Me wishes I had a more complete record.


4. If you could choose one moment that would be guaranteed to happen in your future, what would it be and when would it happen?


Becoming a full professor. I’d be happy if it happened any time now, although obviously I have to have enough evidence to make it plausible and then write my promotion case. I won't be too happy if it takes more than five years, though.


5. Pretend you left a time capsule for yourself 5, 10, 15, 20 or more years ago. You just opened it. What three things from your past are you now holding and what age were you when you buried them?


As a child I'm likely to have buried a pretty shell or a shark's tooth that I found on the beach. As a young adult, probably a graduation photo. As a middle-aged adult, something both my kids wore, like the NASA astronaut costume I brought Humuhumu from the Smithsonian when she was about three.