Interviewing Peter

It is interview time again but with a little difference. The interviewer is Cuckoo and Interviewee is Peter, a recently retired Swedish living in Paris whose blog is an amazing place to see the real beauty of Paris. Even if you can not go there, you can see Paris through his lens and expressive detailed description of the place. I always end up comparing his descriptions with what I saw in Paris.
Since it would have been a bit off topic for him to publish this interview on his blog, we decided to publish it here on my blog. A few things before I start interviewing him.

This is the ninth interview being published in the series of interviews. Harpreet and Pravin are taking time to publish theirs. That will make it eleven.

Rest all are anxiously, curiously, nervously and happily waiting for their questions to be delivered. Keep waiting patiently, these days I am not able to take out much time to dig into your blogs. Some of the interviews are half-done. Thank you so much for putting up with me. :-)

Now the interview..

Cuckoo - Bonjour Peter, comment allez-vous ? Oh, Je vais très bien, merci beaucoup. Aujourd'hui je suis heureux de vous voir ici. Thank you for joining us here, please have a seat. Can I fix you a drink whilst I introduce you to my pet Tiger ? Why Tiger ? Oh well, he always accompanies me and is always hungry. No, he doesn't understand you but it would be nice if you be just a little careful.
Also, you have to remain seated calmly without questioning my questions or no. of questions. C'est d'accord avec vous ?
OK, so Peter, there are going to be five main questions with some sub-questions. Being a gentleman that you are, you are expected to be as detailed as possible. Shall we start now, bonny lad ? Deep breaths now –

Peter- Hello Cuckoo, hello Tiger. Thank you Cuckoo for taking my interview, what a lovely chance I got to sit near you. Hmm.. You have a beautiful bo...

Tiger growls..

Oh sorry sorry, but Cuckoo you said this wild cat doesn’t understand anything ? Then ?

Cuckoo- Gosh ! You are so much excited !! Well, he doesn’t understand spoken language but he can very well judge your body language. Let me start the interview before it gets into something else. OK, Q1 for you. You have started blogging very recently, only six months have passed. What was your main purpose of coming into the field of blogging ? Were you scared of boredom in your retired life ? Has blogging brought any positive changes in you ? How do you manage so many posts on daily basis? Are you always out on the road?

Peter- Actually I got a contact with an old friend after many years of any news. She (yes it’s a “she”), a blogger incited me to give it a try, especially as she thought I would have the time. This happened just around my retirement, early this year. I was actually not at all worried about boredom, had so many ideas of how to spend my days, including doing “nothing”, but I thought why not give it a try. What was the next question? ... OK.…

Blogging has made me more curious, has taught me to look at things with different eyes. I’m also learning a lot from other blogs and take great pleasure in the comments part. My still alive curiosity makes me interested in not only seeing a nice picture; I wish also to understand something behind the picture, so sometimes I have some more or less intelligent questions. Often, not always, there are answers given. …and your next question was about how I manage to find the time for an almost daily blogging?

Actually, I try to make a break during weekends now, as many others. It’s true that certain days are more or less 90% blogging days (sometimes you also have to eat something). These are the days, when I go out “hunting”, to take pictures, to find something interesting, for myself and hopefully for some others.
Other days, I just use what I may have in reserve. You know, to have Paris as a major subject makes things rather easy when it comes to finding something to say or show! On the other hand, so much has already been said about Paris by so many ….When I’m “on the road”, I use my feet – and sometimes a bike, the metro, the bus or the tram. For me it’s a pure pleasure to stroll around in Paris. When I was still working, had family obligations etc. there was not so much time to explore. Now and then I stop at a bar terrace for a glass of red wine or a coffee. Those are nice moments!…

I’m talking too much! Your next question?

Cuckoo- Thank you, that was quite an elaborate answer. I hope it has nothing to do with my Tiger. Are you scared of him? No, that’s good. Yeah, try to smile a little more. I am pretty sure you have made many blogger friends because of your this activity and have met some of them. I saw their pictures in one of the posts. How are they different from your real friends or are they the same ? Do you think meeting in person is necessary to give it more meaning ? For example do you think meeting me in real would bring some more changes to your views about me ?

Peter- I have actually met only a few, some French colleagues. We had a very nice day together and will hopefully meet again! Somehow, I believe you can already guess the personality from what you read and see from people’s blogs, but you can of course also get some good – or bad – surprises, which is part of the charm and is a risk worth taking!

I would be happy to meet a lot of bloggers and I always repeat that whoever visits Paris must not forget to contact me – champagne will be offered! I have also established direct email contact with a few bloggers and have done some chatting. …About meeting you? Now we met, didn’t we, too briefly of course and with this cat around! As an understatement I can tell you that I’m not disappointed! BTW, What are you doing after this interview? (Sorry, don’t record this!)

Cuckoo- Shhhh… the interview is still on !! And don’t forget that Tiger is my bodyguard as well. He has just had a bucketful of Rum and now waiting for some nice food if you know what I mean. My dear Tiger, you be here near me and keep an eye on this gentleman. Anyway, that was a wonderful answer. Coming onto the third question, tell us something about your pre-retirement life in Sweden.
Peter- It’s so far away…You know, I moved to France some 33 years ago. Actually, I spent most of my adult life in France. I was in southern France for a year already in 1968-69 and met my future wife. The poor girl was brave enough to move from Provence to a much colder Sweden. When I found a job opportunity some five years later, we were both happy to move southwards! Of course I like my native country, but I believe I now prefer the continental life style.

Cuckoo- You are doing very well Peter. Oh, is it because of the Tiger ? No no, he won't do any harm to you if you keep answering my questions. Peter, I understand that you have children and grand children (Oh that beautiful Paloma and all...), but we never hear anything about a partner in your life? Are you hiding somebody from us ? About your grand daughter Paloma.. how often do you meet her ? Doesn't she ask questions when you keep clicking photos all the time ? Does your family know about your habit ? How do they take it ?

Peter- You said the tiger is ALWAYS hungry?...OK, I will try to answer.
Well, I can understand that you may ask this question about the absence of a partner. Actually, there is no partner as I lost my wife some six years ago. Unfortunately I’m not ”hiding” anybody – at least for the moment! In the meantime, I’m happy to have my two now adult children and their partners living quite close. You referred to Paloma – a “bird” like you. Yes she is clearly a charming little lady and I have somehow made her a “star” on my blog. She is now close to five and has got a little brother, Mattias, who just had his first birthday. So far, she is not too aware about her “stardom”, but now and then she has seen herself on my blog – together with her parents. She may not yet quite have understood everything about blogging, but she has at least understood that some other people know about her and her activities. I wonder when she will start her own blog and maybe tell some odd stories about this “old man”?

Cuckoo- Oh Peter, I am sorry to hear about your wife. And I appreciate how wonderfully you have adapted to life after her loss. Let me pep you up a little bit. First tell me about your first love-kiss. How & when it happened ? How old were you ? What exactly you felt at that time ? Don't be shy. Come on ! Tell us all about it. Also can you please tell us one of the most memorable time spent with your beautiful wife ?
Peter- My first love-kiss, I remember it very well! I was so much in love with a neighbour and class-mate when I was seven! Once I managed to kiss her, but there were some witnesses and soon “everybody” knew that “Peter has kissed X”. I think she was embarrassed, so that was the first and only kiss with that young lady. :-( But I will never forget that kiss; it was strongly felt – at least by me!

With my wife, maybe I can here also refer to a “first kiss”, which took place at a very romantic place, on the famous “Pont d’Avignon”. I met her in France during a traineeship. For sure, I will never forget that one! It led somehow to more than 30 years of more kisses etc.

Cuckoo- Wow ! That was THE answer ! Pont d’Avignon is quite a romantic place; I too wish to go there at least once. Thank you Peter for patiently answering the questions. I am pleased to say, as expected, you have passed with flying colours, now for goodness sake, stop shivering.. Interview is over ! I am going to take the Tiger away.

Peter- Thanks for this! The questions were not too nasty and the cat behaved well! Quite nice cat by the way!

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