Five minutes with Daniel
Daniel tells us why he would love to still be 28 and why living in Barcelona was the best 12 years of his life 🙌 Find out which question you should never ask him 🙅♂️ and what he recommends everyone should do at least once in their life.
Which age do you wish you could permanently be and why? I would say about 28 because that is when I went travelling around South America. I got made redundant from a tech job so I took the money and went for eight months ✈️ It was such an exciting year, I went to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. I learnt fluent Spanish because they all spoke the same language 🇪🇸
What are you most interested in that people haven’t heard of? Gilbert and Sullivan, they are Victorian-era comic opera writers. Gilbert wrote the lyrics and Sullivan makes the music. It is very surreal humour like Monty Python of the Victorian age, a lot of people have never heard of them there is a great film called Topsy Turvy which was written about them. I grew up with them as my dad was a massive fan, he took me when I was six to go and watch them. I tried to introduce them to my dutch wife as she had no idea about them.
Where is the best place you have lived? Definitely Barcelona, I lived there for 12 years. I had lived in London my whole life so when I turned 30 I thought I would go and live there just for the summer. I was freelancing at the time so it was for easy for me to do, I loved it and ended up staying. I met my best friend there within a week and it took me four months to find out what he did. In Barcelona they work to live rather than live to work, they define themselves by their own life and not their career, it is a completely different culture to London. There was sun ☀️ constant street parties 🎉 good public health care and good transport 🚈 I moved back because I fell in love 💕and we felt it would be better to bring up a family one day in the UK.
What is the best birthday you have ever had? For my 40th, my wife organised a surprise party. It was three months after my birthday so I definitely had no idea about it. She teamed up with the wife of my friend who also turned 40, they arranged to meet for lunch and when we arrived everyone was there. It was in Barcelona in a tapas bar, there was live music and everyone I knew was there, it was a great night 🕺 What do you like most about working at Ocasta? Definitely the people, I love how authentic and genuine everyone is. Everyone is friendly and they all have a life outside of work which is nice. We've been out a couple of times and everyone outside of the office is exactly the same as they are during working hours so there aren't any 'work personalities'.
What is the most annoying question that people ask you? Why are you vegetarian, I hate having to justify it to people 👊 I feel like they should justify themselves for eating meat 🙅♂️ 🍖
What is one thing you think everyone should do at least once in their life? Live in a different country where they speak a different language. It changed my mind about who I am and I realised how much of an island Britain is when I moved to Spain. There are things that are headline news in Spain which are happening across the world that we've never heard of.
Is there anything you have always been meaning to try but never got round to it? Producing music or being a DJ 🎧 I have never tried it but I always thought I would be quite good at it, it looks quite easy. I would play 90s indie, 60s blues, pop rock and easy listening as this is the kind of music I played in my band which I had in Barcelona where I sang and played guitar 🎸. Or I would become a jazz singer and sing Frank Sinatra type stuff. I need to start a band in Brighton but I haven't got round to it yet.
Which movie title best describes your life? Volver (pedro almodovar 2006) it's Spanish for 'to return' it's appropriate because I did the Spanish thing and then came back, it's also a really good film 🎥
What are you most talented at? I'm good at coming up with the crazy idea that solves the problem often good with wordplay or where to go for dinner 🍽 The downside to this is always coming up with crazy ideas that don't solve the problem 🤣
What do you usually do at the weekend? Mostly have chill time with my wife, we go out for dinner and watch Netflix I like crime procedurals and classic movies, my wife enjoys stupid comedies or anything with vampires. I used to be a party animal 😜 but I'm boring now 😴 We like to travel a lot when we can.
