 My name is Nigel Aves. I've lived in Longmont since 1992. I'm Jenny, moved here to Longmont, Colorado in 79. My name is Eric. I lived in Longmont for 12 years this time. I spent my time basically doing photography of different ilks, though I'd mainly worked with models. And the rest of my time I love playing video games because I love to see into the minds of the people that write them. I spend my time, a lot of times, going to the mountains. I just absolutely love the mountains here, the Rocky Mountains. I'm always looking at them from my home. And I get up to the mountains where Red Feather Lakes is because there are very few people up there. And I like getting out into nature and into the mountains. I spend my time doing a lot of different things. I'm on two City Council advisory boards. I volunteer at a food bank. I volunteer at Longmont Public Media. I'm learning editing, film editing, using CapCut and iMovie because that's where I am with it right now. I do a podcast with a couple of friends here. I read a lot of books and I see a movie generally every week at the theaters. My favorite thing about Longmont is even though we're growing rather rapidly, it still has a nice small town feel to it. And you can walk up and down the High Street, Main Street, of course, over here and pop into a shop and you can just chat. It's a great place to live. Originally, I am from a little place in England called Ringwood, which is about 100 miles southwest of London. My favorite thing about Longmont probably is my memory of having a business here right on Main Street. Some people may know Longmont, the log cabin. That's where my husband and I had a business for several years. What I like most about Longmont is that it's a growing town. It's much more diverse than I thought it would be at this point since I've lived here before. It's fun. It's lively. It still needs more of a nightlife downtown, but that's okay. We're working on that. And it's close to nature. My favorite flavor of ice cream would have to be chocolate chip. My least favorite flavor of ice cream would take me a long time to come up with. I'm sure it's one of the flavors that has now been disbanded. My favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla. My least favorite flavor of ice cream is chocolate. My favorite flavor of ice cream is strawberry. Not cheap, chemically enhanced strawberry ice cream, but real strawberry ice cream with just sugar, cream, and strawberries. I don't have a least favorite flavor of ice cream. I like all ice cream. I just like some more than others. My favorite food would have to be catfish. I'd never had catfish until I moved to America, and I just love it. It's something about it. I also like, of course, a good rare steak. Still mooing, preferably. My least favorite food has to be the vegetable from hell, better known as broccoli. My favorite food is crab cakes. My least favorite food is, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, but I'm not really big into sushi. My favorite food is probably a good salmon fillet. Wild caught, of course. I grew up with an aversion to chitlins because my mother and her friends would stay in the kitchen for hours preparing them. And I figure you really don't have to prepare it that much if it's not nasty, and it smells bad. My favorite color would have to be dark blue. My favorite color is red. My favorite color is black because it helps me deal with my existential dread. My favorite movie is Catch-22, which came out in the 60s. It's just an amazing adaptation of the book by Joseph Heller. My favorite movie is, I'll say Top Gun. My favorite movie changes all the time, but the first movie that I fell in love with was The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn, 1938. I still enjoy it so much whenever I watch it. Oh, my favorite book. Interesting would have to, of course, be Catch-22, written by Joseph Heller. I have probably read it, oh, I don't know, seven or eight times now. My favorite book is Think and Grow Rich because it's got so much good insight, so much good knowledge. My favorite book changes all the time, but I recently became reacquainted with a favorite mystery that would make such a wonderful movie or TV series, and the name of it is Every Dead Thing by John Connolly. The car I would choose to have, rather than going with, say, a Ferrari, which I've always loved, or a Lamborghini, which I've always loved, but I'm very happy with my little Nissan Murano. It's a great little car, works well, takes me from A to B, and it's pretty economical. If I could choose to have any car, it would be a Lexus, and I went and got one. If I could have any car, it would be a 1964 Jaguar E-Type. There's one in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and it's because it's such a perfectly distilled example of the automotive art, still the most beautiful car ever made. I think my favorite place to go to lunch that I've never been to would have to be in London, the Ritz Carlton, because I just think it would be fascinating sitting there with the knobs of England looking down their noses at you going, and I say, oh boy, because they drive me insane. If I could have lunch anywhere in the world, I would choose to be on top of a mountain with a beautiful view and a deck with silverware, have the nice setting of wine, and a great waiter. If I could have lunch anywhere in the world, it would be on a terrace overlooking the ocean, and it wouldn't even have to be far away. It could be in San Diego at the Hotel Del Coronado. Having dinner, who would I want as my guest? I think the person I would like to meet would be Lewis Hamilton, who is a Formula One driver. I have always been into motor racing, I have always loved motor racing, and I think he would have some incredible behind the scenes stories that have never been published, which would be absolutely fascinating. The second person I think I'd like to have lunch with, believe it or not, would have to be good old Donald the Trump, purely because every 30 seconds I could call him a liar and be right. If I could have dinner with anyone in the world, I'm still looking for that perfect person. If I could have dinner with anyone in the world, I would like to have dinner with former President Obama. My family has a connection with him. He knew some members of my family in Chicago, and I would just like to talk to him about his experience being a community organizer there. What would I take to a desert island? Oh my goodness. I think the first thing I would want to take, I've got two things. Suntan lotion. I think that would be rather important because I don't want to get burnt to a crisp. I've done that before. So, suntan lotion and I think a speargun because I think that I have more chance catching a fish with a speargun than any other way. I'm on a deserted island and I can only bring certain things. Number one is going to be sure that I have suntan lotion. I don't want to burn. And an umbrella and I would like to have a flowing dress that I put on after I get out of the water naked. If I were on a desert island and needed to bring things with me, I'd offer survival gear because I've read so many books about how bad things are. And I don't want to be the guy who ends up eating the next guy because we're hungry. Being stuck in an elevator, oh my goodness, let's have a think. It depends on how long we're going to get stuck for. But if we say it's an hour and if we say there are no video surveillance, how about a nice blonde? If I was stuck in an elevator for an hour, I'd like to be stuck with a handsome man that I could have a great conversation with that we could talk about anything and everything and see where it goes from there. If I was stuck in an elevator, I'd like to be stuck with Jeffrey Wright. He's a fascinating character. I just heard an interview with him on NPR and he's up for an Academy Award for his role in American fiction. But he's been around for a while and he's done a lot of good things. Would I prefer to go into the past or the future? I'd like to travel back into the past because I believe there are so many little things in history that we really honestly do not know what happened. We've got no clue. A lot of guesswork but no actual evidence. The two princes in the tower come to mind. Did Jesus really walk this earth? Come to mind, etc, etc. There is a lot in history that we really don't have real answers for and it'd be really nice to get those answers. Choosing whether to go into the past or into the future, I would choose going into the future because I already know the past. I want to know what's out there. To explore and learn about new things. That's fun for me. My choice of going into the past or going into the future, I'll go into the future because I would like to see what it looks like with my son as president. If I had a chance to put a message in a bottle and let's say let's fire it into space just heading out anywhere. It might even overtake the voyagers. I think I'd have three words, help, save me. If I were to put a message in a bottle and shoot it out to outer space, that message would be, come find me. If I put a message in a bottle and shot it into space, the message would say, don't come here. These people are crazy. I have a pet at home called Marbles. He is a cat, though I'm not quite sure what he thinks of himself as. He can be an absolute pain in the ass or he can be an absolute love bucket. You never quite know with him what's going to come next. Do I have a pet? I don't. I have. And I've had a dog. I've had several dogs. The first dog that I had was an Irish setter and I didn't understand dogs at all, but by the time he passed we were really good friends. Then I got to be friends with a Dalmatian and my favorite is a Bijan. And I absolutely love that Bijan because we basically talk to each other. The Bijan had me trained. I do not have a pet, but I like dogs and cats. If I could be any animal, I don't know which animal I'd like to be. I kind of like being a human. I'm going to have to pass on that one because I can't think of an animal I would actually like to be. Except a dog in a good home, a cat in a good home, but that's pretty obvious. If I could be an animal for a day, I would choose to be that Bijan because I had so much fun with that Ginny that the two of us would have a great time together, guaranteed. If I could be any animal for a day, I'd probably be an orca and I would just enjoy it because you could eat an entire seal in a few bites. One time I was physically lost in Venice. I was 12 or 13 years old and my parents had gone on summer vacation. So we were in Venice and my parents stupidly said, OK, Nigel, you can wander off and have a look around. So I wandered off and I found what they call water taxis. So I jumped on a water taxi, got to see all the parts of Venice that most tourists don't get to see. And of course got totally lost in the process, though I did eventually manage to work my way back to St. Peter's Square. Have I ever been physically lost? Oh, yeah. Until I came to Colorado where I know everything, the West is where the mountains are. That's why I love living here. Have I ever been physically lost? Yes. But I eventually wandered my way out of the woods. I think the scariest thing that ever happened to me was just before my open heart surgery when I was 12. Before the days of scanners and MRI machines, they had this machine which is about the size of the living room that you are now in, which was made up of hundreds of X-ray machines, a bit like an aero engine, so they photographed 360 degrees. And when they push the on button, it goes off like a ruddy machine gun and it scared the living daylights out of me. The scariest thing I've ever experienced would be the first time I moved to Florida from Boston. And I didn't know what to expect and yet it was kind of exciting. It was moving there on my own. I didn't have a job. I had to figure out my finances and everything came together really well because I went and got a temporary job so finances were fixed. So I put myself in a scary position and figured out how to solve the problem. I really don't want to go into that. If I had the choice between going to the moon or the bottom of the ocean, I would love to go to the moon because I've always been a space fanatic. I hate the word fanatic by the way. I've always wanted to go into space. I have been following the space program ever since the early Gemini days. It's fascinating stuff. So yeah, I'm more into space than I am into deep ocean. Basically, I'd rather get vacuumed than crushed. Given the choice to go to the moon or go to the bottom of the ocean, I've done scuba diving so I think I would rather go to the moon. I think I'd rather have more air than feel as though I'm claustrophobic in the water and I can't breathe. Given the choice between going to the moon and going to the bottom of the ocean, I would go to the moon because it's more science fiction-y. Have I seen a UFO? Funnily enough, yes I have. In fact, I had the privilege of seeing two or three UFOs. The only thing was Bob had managed to put them onto one of his wonderful landscape photographs, so I'm not sure that really counts. Have I ever seen a UFO? I have. And it was back when I lived in Miami and I was driving up to the middle of Florida around Okeechobee, if anyone knows where that is. I was with my boyfriend at that time. We were driving on a dirt road, remote area. When we saw an object in the sky, at first we thought it was an airplane but it was hovering. Then we turned the car off and the lights off so it was completely dark all the way around us and we watched this object. It looked like it had lots of lights that you could see and then all of a sudden it hovered. It just stayed in one place and then all of a sudden it shot off. So that was the UFO experience. Have I ever seen a UFO? Yes I have but I'm not certain of the mental state that I was in when I saw it. Where would I really like to live? That is an interesting question. I don't think I'd like to live there but if it was just for a couple of months I'd love to go back to New Zealand. It is a wonderful country and I'd love to drive from the tip of the South Island to the tip of the North Island because basically you get to see the whole world in one country and they speak English, sort of. If I could spend a month anywhere in the world, I keep thinking about Italy. Everybody talks about Italy so I think that's where I'd like to go, learn how to cook, be a good Italian cook, chef, explore the different areas there because my understanding is not only is there great history there, the different territories like such as the vineyards in Tuscany, then I'm not even familiar with all the different areas. I just hear wonderful things about it and it just sounds like the ideal trip to spend a month in Italy. If I could live anywhere in the world for a couple of months I'd probably go back to Argentina. I would go during the off season and I would drink coffee every morning, stay up late and dance the tango. I've been lucky. I've had many interesting jobs in my life. However, what I'm doing right now which is video interviewing people up at the Captain's Lounge Studios, I find that fascinating. I get to meet some of the most wonderful people. We have fun sessions, we have ultra serious sessions and it's very interesting sitting there keeping tabs on your guest and asking the right questions. The most interesting job I've had was actually when my husband and I were in business for 24 years. I just loved that business that we were in. I was helping people and my heart is here to help other people. So that was helping other business owners get the letterhead envelopes, business cards that they needed. And a lot of times it was fast turnaround because they were opening right away and they needed it for opening day or they were going to a convention and they needed some flyers printed up for them. That's probably the greatest memories I have. What's the most interesting job I've ever had? I worked for a few years in a rare book and fine art store. And that was fascinating because I learned a lot about rare books and fine art and it's still something, those are still things that I enjoy. The worst job I've ever had would have to have been when I was doing a paper round in the UK. I used to have to do a paper round down the Horton Road and it's a dead straight piece of road. It's about two and a half, three miles I used to have to cover on a push bike with hundreds and hundreds of newspapers. It was not fun especially in winter because you know us Brits, we love our weather. I never had a worse job. I always made every job fun. What was the worst job I ever had? I've had many crappy jobs. But the worst job I've ever had was the first job that I had when I got to Colorado. Left college, came out here, needed a job, got a job at a gas station on the corner of Table Mesa and Broadway in Boulder. It was a job where you had to pump people's gas and guide them into the Car Wash Bay. The first two days I was there, I was hit by cars three times. I quit. My message to Mankind in general is watch the red-green show, an amazing Canadian comic. He had a catchphrase on his show, we're all in this together and I just wish that Mankind would understand that because when you get to meet anybody from around the world, we're all pretty damn similar. We've got to stop this nonsense because we are all in this together. And in a way to say goodbye to Longmont for this interview, I just want to say I love living here, I love the people here and you know what, if you're ever down the speak easy, I'll buy your pint. How about that? Goodbye. My final message to Longmont is this place is fabulous. It's just the right size. There are about 100,000 people here in 2024. You have fabulous people. It's a great place to network. Everyone is easy to talk with and I'd love to meet you. I'd like to say that being 72 is kind of an amazing place to be. I still feel good. I exercise every day and I'm still pretty sharp mentally, so things are okay.