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 Birthday Bash Relay. Excited on Second Place! Now for various WDC contests and activities |
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Team Ahimsa ▼ My Turn ▼ For
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Congratulations to 'Team Ahimsa' for your excellent entries earning you the 1st-Runner-Up prize in [Link To Item #1803384] !](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/type-Blogging-2180.gif) "Note: They came, they ran the race, they conquered! ..." "Congratulations November 2021 Winners!"
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For "The Bard's Hall Contest" Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ  StephBee  Coffee Tasting Yesterday I accompanied my friend Maitrayi for a coffee-tasting event. I didn't participate because I'm not a coffee drinker usually (Yes, Sis Lilli ☕ - I confess I'm not a regular coffee drinker  ) but I went along for the ride!So she had to taste these three types of coffee marked A B C. She then had to vote for the one she liked best. She didn't like A at all, liked B quite a lot, but voted for C because that was what she'd like to drink regularly. Then they gave her information about how A was Arabietta, not dark roasted (hey don't ask me what all this means) and due to increase in natural enemies would soon be replaced by B or C. After that we went to her house where we had a lot of tea and some veg puff and some samosa!  It was a good day. Words: 151 |
| For "The Bard's Hall Contest" Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ StephBee Enid Blyton's books As with many Indian kids of my generation, Enid Blyton's books were an integral part of my childhood. When I look back, not only were the tales themselves delightful and exciting, but there was a lot I gleaned about life, many lessons learnt, from those books. Here's a sampling: Family life As in 'Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm' and many other books. The roles played by parents, siblings, cousins, spouses ... how families can live in harmony if members understand one another ... Teamwork How the team matters more than the individual, as in the school stories. Giving up one's place on the team for someone else because individual glory isn't a priority ... Friendship Sticking by each other through thick and thin, being loyal, poining out a friend's faults where necessary ... Responsibility Being responsible for your own actions, and, if in a position of authority, using that authority wisely ... This and a lot more I have understood while all along following the plot of a gripping tale! Thank you Enid Blyton! |
| For "The Bard's Hall Contest" Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ StephBee Meaning no disrespect to Dolly Parton - I love this song! Soap of Many Colours  Now I have a lot of soaps they surround my sink and there is no better fragrance than soap bubbles, I think. They're pink and blue and yellow and they shine against the light and when I wallow in my bathtub My imagination takes flight. I dream I am a princess Bathed in rich perfume And when I'm done bathing I'll don a gold costume I dream I'm in a garden With flowers all around And butterflies a flitting Their wings make not a sound So there's no end to dreaming When there are bubbles in the air and my soap of many colours Leave me without a care! |
| "Note:
48-HOUR CHALLENGE : Media Prompt
Deadl..." The beginning of the song reminded me of the Beatles - Woke up got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head ... The pictures were innovative, a song set to a series of caricatures. The story was the age old girl-boy in love, parental veto, they want to go ahead anyway. Sorry but nothing much to say here. I guess I'm too old for today's music! |
| For "The Bard's Hall Contest" Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ StephBee Long Phone Calls Ever since I can remember, I've made long phone calls. The record was once in my school days (only land lines then) when I phoned my classmate. Her Mom answered and I asked for my friend and her Mom handed over the phone. Thereafter, while we were speaking, her parents went for a movie to the theatre. They watched the movie and returned — my friend and I were still on the same conversation. I just got done with an hour long conversation with my cousin who lives in California. So what do long phone conversations give me? A sense of companionship, a space to really explore what I feel about certain people and situations, a safe space to bounce creative ideas and a safe space to vent when I need to. I know that, before the days of mobiles, 'she hogs up the phone' used to be the standard comic line about any teenage girl int he family. But I think one need not be flippant about long phone conversations. I'm fifty-seven years old and I still have them and value them. |
| Words: 252 For "The Bard's Hall Contest" Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ StephBee Retail Therapy!  My name is Sonali and I am addicted to Harry Potter. There, I said it, and with no intention of detoxing, either. Why I'm proud to be a Potterhead. And I fell hook line and sinker for the marketing gimmick of a pop up Potter sale - visited it three times at the mall. I didn't buy any expensive items - sniffed out the most economical things on offer (fridge magnets and keychains) and bought them. Bought them because I wanted to. No rationalising, it wasn't rational!!  Gifted one 'Hedwig' baby hairbrush to my Potterhead friend for his 11-month old son. Gifted two keychains to the cabbie for his daughters who are Potter fans (he's the regular cab guy I call for my eye check ups since the hospital is some distance from home). Gifted one keychain to my friend's niece for her birthday, gifted one fridge magnet to a Potterhead who is very regular at my meetings ... and gifted a 'love potion' fridge magnet to a core-group Potterhead.(Her husband said I shouldn't have, she might run away with another man upon taking love potion.). Three fridge magnets (one each of the golden trio) are as possible prizes in case I do a Potter event at school. One 'Hedwig' keychain is for my friend's Dad who loves owls. And -- and three fridge magnets and three keychains are for ME. I feel very, very good about this. So while I usually despair of consumerism and whatnot, today I say - viva retail therapy!  |
| Words: 149 For "The Bard's Hall Contest" Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ StephBee School Play!  Topic: Arranged Marriages The play, produced by the Principal as a fundraiser for the school, was done on a large scale. A professional hall was booked and tickets sold. Being an all-girl school, we took the boys' roles as well. I was the younger brother of the bride, always getting into trouble. My 'reward' for getting into trouble? I was the only one who got to eat on stage!! Even the 'bride' and 'groom' didn't have roles where they ate food! There was one scene where I had to hide under a table. The director wanted it to look realistic. During rehearsal I was lying on the floor while every table in school was tried out over me. None of them fit to his satisfaction. So - a carpenter measured me and the table was custom made. Other actresses get measured for costumes. I got measured for furniture. |
| "The Bard's Hall Contest" StephBee Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ This is the beginning of entries entered into the Bard's Hall Blog Contest Family Nostalgia One of the animations on WDC was the pinball machine. It's amazing how many memories came flooding back on seeing that lighting up my screen. On Mom's side of the family, I'm eldest of nine cousins. We sometimes had holidays together - Mom's parents, Mom's three sisters and their husbands and kids, Mom, Dad and I. That makes it nineteen people. Sometimes, I would have a school-friend along as would the next-eldest, so there would be 21. The others were too young to have friends who could be sent with other families. We'd drive to a hill station - seven hours from the city where we resided. We'd spend a couple of weeks together in this sprawling rustic bungalow, with a garden in front and a well at the back. Our bath water was heated on a wood fire, making bathing a most aromatic experience. We went on long walks in the woods, climbed trees, did some birdwatching, and went boating on the lake. There was this ONE 'arcade' there when we wanted artificial entertainment, and it had pinball machines. So we pinballed. If memory serves me right, Dad and I pinballed most of all. Then there was the game where you toss a hoop over an object to win the object. I was considered best in the family at that and often won packets of biscuits or hairclips or stuff like that. Once, when the third-eldest cousin was a year old (which meant that only that many of us had been born yet) I was playing at that game. One of the adults was carrying the kid, who was watching me (age 6) with fascinated eyes. "Hey, Sonali, give your baby cousin one ring to throw, you have 12 more after all." Being the obliging big sister, I handed the kid a ring, thinking, 'Oh well, one wasted out of 13 isn't too much of a loss.' The kid, still in his uncle's arms, looked at the bamboo ring he was holding, restrained himself from chewing it because he wanted to mimic me, and with a joyful yelp, hurled it at the prize-table. It landed neatly around the 'jackpot' marker, farthest away from the boundary and most difficult to reach. I had never even aimed for that one, let alone get there. Remember - this was a rustic hill-station in the India of five decades ago. No, we didn't get a car or a diamond necklace or something extravagant. 'Jackpot' meant - a plastic bucket, the kind we used for bathing. And it was a BIG prize, indeed, and much celebrated. Sonali, age 6, had been dethroned as the champion of the ring toss. Her little cousin was the new hero. Did she mind? Maybe just a little. But the adults took care to emphasise that she had been kind enough to supply the bamboo ring, and make her feel special, too!  Apx 490 Words |
| Looking forward to my Harry Potter meet up today! |
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