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 |   The simplicity of my day to day. |
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This is where I write my thoughts, feelings and my daily trials, tribulations and happy things
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| PROMPT November 18th Write about origins. You can take this literally as in where your family originated from (your history, culture, traditions), or you can focus on your own origins as a person. When I read this prompt my first thought was the origin of ideas. Where do they come from? How does the brain come up with an original thought? Does anyone else see the wonder in this? There is a fascination this days for people to find out where they came from. Television programmes are made with celebrities being taken back in time, sometimes over several hundred years. It makes for interesting watching, although why, I can't really say. After all why should we care if so and so's great, great, grandfather stole a loaf of bread and was transported to Australia? Yet we do. Then there's your country of origin. I have to answer that question all the time when filling in forms. Really they mean the country of nationality. So I may be an Australian Citizen now but I'll always be of British Nationality. I don't mind, I'll always be a Pom at heart. |
| PROMPT November 16th Write about the biggest risk you ever took. What was the result? I’ve written about this prompt before. Still the answer is the same. The biggest risk we took as a little family was to leave everything we knew behind and go to a place where we knew absolutely no one. 1972, my husband, three year old daughter and myself sold our home, two businesses, everything we owned and left our families in England and flew to Australia. No direct flights in those days. It took 2 days of flying to get to Perth in the middle of a very cold rainy night. To say I was scared and homesick is the least of it. My daughter was missing home, her grandparents whom used to live next door and I thought we’d made the worst decision of our lives. It worked out fine! |
| PROMPT November 15th What does “a good life” mean to you? A good life, doesn’t have to mean one where you achieve financial successes, or one in which nothing terrible happened. To me it means a life in which I brought joy or comfort to others I cared for. It’s a deep question. People say at funerals “he had a good life.” What do they mean? They could say, “he had a hard life.” Maybe “he” was a farmer, he lost his crops or went through drought, floods, or financial hardship. Yet when he left this earth he left behind a family who thought of this man as someone who’d been there for them all their lives. Someone trustworthy, a person they could depend on. Yes, it was a hard life but it was a good life too. That’s how I want to be remembered, as someone people could depend on. Then I will have had a good life. |
| PROMPT November 14th Describe an epiphany or "a moment when you suddenly feel that you understand, or suddenly become conscious of, something that is very important to you" that had a profound effect on your life and/or personal opinions. I can’t do better than this. #1 After loving my parents, my siblings, my spouse, my children, my friends, now I have started loving myself. #2 I just realized that I am not “Atlas”. The world does not rest on my shoulders. #3 I now stopped bargaining with vegetables & fruits vendors. A few pennies more is not going to burn a hole in my pocket but it might help the poor fellow save for his daughter’s school fees. #4 I pay my waitress a big tip. The extra money might bring a smile to her face. She is toiling much harder for a living than me #5 I stopped telling the elderly that they've already narrated that story many times. The story makes them walk down the memory lane & relive the past. #6 I have learned not to correct people even when I know they are wrong. The onus of making everyone perfect is not on me. Peace is more precious than perfection. #7 I give compliments freely & generously. Compliments are a mood enhancer not only for the recipient, but also for me. And a small tip for the recipient of a compliment, never, NEVER turn it down, just say "Thank You" #8 I have learned not to bother about a crease or a spot on my shirt. Personality speaks louder than appearances. #9 I walk away from people who don't value me. They might not know my worth, but I do. #10 I remain cool when someone plays dirty to outrun me in the rat race. I am not a rat & neither am I in any race. #11 I am learning not to be embarrassed by my emotions. It’s my emotions that make me human. #12 I have learned that it's better to drop the ego than to break a relationship. My ego will keep me aloof, whereas with relationships I will never be alone. #13 I have learned to live each day as if it's the last. After all, it might be the last. #14 I am doing what makes me happy. I am responsible for my happiness, and I owe it to myself. Happiness is a choice. You can be happy at any time, just choose to be! Number two was an epiphany when I suddenly realised that I couldn’t fix everything for anyone. Good to share |
| PROMPT November 13th Write about a disagreement you had with someone. What happened? Was the conflict resolved? My husband and I disagree all the time! We don’t usually resolve it, we agree to disagree. I don’t know how we’ve managed to stay married for 55 years! It’s funny how people see things from a different perspective. Each convinced they’re right. I mean look at how the folks in America have voted. 70 odd million for Trump and not a great deal more than that for Biden. Each side believe they are right. Go figure. I suppose respect for the other’s opinion is the way to go. |
| PROMPT November 12th Imagine you are invited to a party celebrating your favorite book. The dress code asks you to dress up as your favorite character. Who or what do you dress up as? My imagination doesn’t stretch to being invited to a dress up party. The books I read are all about real people, dressed in day to day clothes. Nothing outlandish. My Granddaughter went to a hen’s night last weekend. The bride-to-be is obsessed with Harry Potter. The stripper, organised for the festivities, was dressed like Harry. Although I can’t imagine a stripping Harry, he apparently cut quite the figure, not a skinny character at all. Perhaps all he really needed was a pair of owl like glasses. The rest of the bridal party were instructed to arrive dressed as either a witch or a wizard. I think even I could manage that. If I could think of a hospital drama book, that would suit me. I could go dressed in scrubs, flat shoes and borrow my daughter’s stethoscope and simply hang it around my neck. Where’s Wally? That would be pretty easy too. I’ve spent countless hours searching for him with my Grandkids. |
| PROMPT November 11th What is your favorite meal to make when you are really hungry? I cook every day. After raising a large family I still find cooking for just my husband and myself difficult portion wise. So I make too much and freeze portions for later. If I was absolutely starving I’d have beans on toast. When my husband worked away for eight months and I lived alone for the first time in my life, I lived on Subways. I’d buy a foot long at lunchtime and eat half and eat the rest at dinner time! Yes I did lose a lot of weight. We don’t eat much meat these days, lots of vegetables and fruit though. So I search for vegetarian recipes mostly. |
| PROMPT November 10th What is your blogging style? In your response, consider the following questions: What is your process of writing a blog entry - do you plan it out in advance, or just start writing? Who is your ideal reader? How did your unique blogging style emerge? Has your blog changed over time? I don't have a blogging style as such. I just start writing. It's as if I'm writing in answer to someone who wants to know more about me. Usually it's myself who discovers things I didn't realise as I answer the prompt. If I had to ponder on my reply in great depth, then I'd be procrastinating all day. My reader is anyone and everyone, I have no target audience. I enjoy putting names to imaginary faces. I have images of you all in my head. I'm sure none of you look the least like my imaginary perception. Sometimes I even get the sex wrong! I have never blogged before joining the 30 day blogging challenge. I've enjoyed reading the blogs of others and it has given me the confidence to just go with the flow. It's just the same as having a chat to someone but without them being able to interrupt! There are amongst us here on the Challenge who are absolute masters of the art. It's as if they are allowing their readers into their heads. Their thoughts flow as they entertain and inform, opening themselves up to scrutiny, derision, disagreement but mostly to empathy and attachment. Blogging is an art form unto itself. It probably can be learnt but can never be forced or be ingenuous. |
| PROMPT November 9th Write about something you own that is weird, wacky, or downright silly. Where did you get it and what significance does it hold for you? I cant think of anything off hand, except maybe my crazy dog, Lucy. My husband has his old Royal Enfield motorbike. I class that as Wacky because he never rides it anymore. I suggest selling it and putting the cash toward something else but he says that he'll get it out of the shed one day. At 77 I can't see it happening. He used to be such a daredevil, now he thinks the road users of today can't see motorbikes until they knock the rider off. I still have the head of a concrete Donald Duck my son made at school nearly forty years ago! I suppose that really is wacky. Don't know where the rest of the ornament went to. It used to be a doorstop, now it's a lump of grey concrete. Junk jewellery my mother left me when she died. My grandchildren have played dress ups with it and most of it is broken and yet I can't throw it away.That's silly.  |
| PROMPT November 8th Tell us about the most memorable adventure you've ever been on. Did everything go according to plan, or did anything unexpected happen? Our backpacking holiday to India when we were in our 60s was quite the adventure. Nothing really went to plan, although we hadn’t much of a plan to start with. Fly to Mumbai, find somewhere to stay for the night, get our bearings and off we go. That was the sum total of our planning. I lost about 14 lbs in weight over the two months we were there. Missing by a day, the only first class sleeper we had treated ourselves to, turned out to be pretty grim. Instead we found ourselves sharing a cabin with 4 very inebriated Indians who played cards half the night and snored loudly for the rest. The chai walla calling everyone to wake up at four am for sweet tea, was a welcome sound. Our next holiday was to the Philippines where we got caught in a Hurricane. Over 500 people died in Manila that night where we took shelter in a brothel. No power or water. A very long night. I suppose you could call that an adventure. Over five years after we retired, we backpacked all through Thailand, Vietnam, India and the Philippines. So many misadventures, but some great times too. |
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Though I hear there are amazing waterfalls in Australia.