Question Time: Everything is Temporary

I wanted to write a blog this week that was fun and light-hearted, but I couldn’t quite decide where to go with it.

I thought I could do a sort of “get to know me” type piece, but going down that road felt like sitting in one of those icebreaker sessions where everyone has to go around and say a fun fact about themselves. One is hard enough to come up with, let alone a whole blog’s worth.

Luckily, I came across an article online entitled “255 (Not Boring) Questions To Ask To Get To Know Someone Better”, and with that I’d found my answer.

Don’t worry, I haven’t answered all 255. In total I chose 24 questions that I liked the look of, so I’ve split them into three parts. What follows is the first eight of those questions. This was super fun to write, and I hope you enjoy reading my answers. I’d love to know yours too, so please let me know in the comments!

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What’s your favourite way to spend a day off?

This is a hard question for me to answer because it’s very rare that I would have a day off without it being for a holiday or for a specific purpose. With an allocation of 20 days annual leave a year here in NZ, I often find myself needing to be strategic about it. I simply can’t relate to anyone who complains about having too much annual leave to take.

Anyway! If I were to have a random day off with nowhere to be, it would likely involve the following…waking up without an alarm. Reading my book. Going somewhere new (or somewhere I haven’t been in a while), whether that’s something outdoors like a beach or trying a new restaurant for a long lunch. For dinner I’d probably finally cook a recipe that I’d been wanting to try for a long time but was always too time consuming to do after work.

It would be simple, relaxing and definitely involve good food.

What would be the first thing you'd do if you won the lottery?

Ironically, Gareth and I had this conversation recently. The first thing I’d do is book a holiday, quickly followed by paying off our mortgage, and then I’d be headed to the airport to get comfy in my first class seat.

What was the last thing you read?

Almost without fail I tend to have one fiction and one non-fiction book on the go at all times.

The last non-fiction book I read was called The First Rule of Mastery by Michael Gervais. I had the privilege of reading this book in order to do a review for a magazine, and it was excellent.

The last fiction book I read was Wartime at Bletchley Park by Molly Green; an enjoyable and easy read. I’m relatively open to the type of fiction books that I read, but my go-to does tend to be anything that is set at a monumental time in history (such as the World Wars) or any book that is set abroad.

What’s the best piece of advice a family member has given you?

This one would have to go to my Dad: “You’re not late if you don’t look at the time.”

(He’s actually given me thousands more pearls of wisdom over the years, but that one always makes me laugh).

What was the best vacation you ever took and why?

There are so many that I could easily talk about here, but I think the one that always stands out to me was a trip to Iceland that Gareth and I took in January 2019.

It’s a place I’d always wanted to visit, and we truly got the perfect few days away.

They’d just had a fresh dumping of snow, so already it looked postcard-perfect. We got to see the Northern Lights, swim in the Blue Lagoon, explore Reykjavik, and we hired a car to do a day-trip to the southern-most point of the country, stopping at the most incredible waterfalls along the way. (I have to mention here that the rental car we were given was a Suzuki Swift, which isn’t the obvious choice in the snow, but it turns out even the smallest of cars can handle the snow with winter tyres on!).

Do you live by any piece of advice or motto?

I always like to remind myself that everything is temporary.

A bad situation won’t last forever so don’t get too bogged down by it. The good times will also come to an end, and while that can be a sobering thought, remembering that helps me to stay present and enjoy the situation.

What are your hobbies, and how did you get into them?

Aside from settling down with a good book, I think my main hobby would have to be cooking/baking. There isn’t much I love more than spending an afternoon or even a day in the kitchen creating good food.

Much like how I have a never-ending pile of books that I want to read, I also have an endless list of recipes that I want to try. I love to cook and bake for other people, and I really enjoy sitting down to enjoy good food in the company of wonderful people.

As for when I first got into cooking, I expect like many people I started to cook out of necessity when I moved out of home and was in my first university flat. But I truly started to find joy in cooking and baking after Gareth and I moved in together in 2017. I couldn’t say why, perhaps it’s something to do with creating food for the one I love, but over time I found myself enjoying being in the kitchen more and more.

Then, when Covid hit, I was one of millions who spent their spare time in lockdown churning out dish after dish. With the shortages of so many ingredients at this time I loved the challenge of trying to make the thing I wanted out of what was available, and this is where I really began to learn about the art of cooking and baking and start to experiment instead of always relying on a recipe.

I’m no MasterChef, but being in the kitchen is one of my greatest joys in life.

What activities did you love to do with your family growing up?

Camping trips were one of my favourite family activities.

For a long time we would go camping every summer and we created the best lifelong memories. It instilled in me from a very young age just how little you really need in life to find joy (though some days I’d do well to remember that!).

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I hope you've enjoyed this little window into my soul. Stay tuned for the next round of questions coming to you in a few weeks.

That's all for now,

Jordyn

"You're not late if you don't look at the time." - Stuart Aitken