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Mutterings, musings and general brain flatulence. |
Here be mushrooms 
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Challenge: What do you do to improve your mood when you are sad? If you are frustrated or angry, what is your secret to feeling better? Write. Obviously  Well, that is and it isn't true. I've tried keeping diaries and journals over the years - from Dear Diary types to travelogues to bullet journals to blogs on various platforms. And nothing ever seems to stick. Don't get me wrong, I love my bullet journal. When I remember to do it. I love writing up travel adventures. But I give up halfway through the holiday. I quite enjoy pontificating on my thoughts of the day or, on that rarest of things, when something's happened that I think other people will actually want to know about as well. Only that doesn't happen very often, and I sound pompous to boot. That's one of the reasons I signed up to the 30 Day Blogging Challenge; to have some sort of external impetus to sit down and write something every damn day and maybe even force myself into something resembling a habit. Who knows, maybe this time it'll stick. In the past I've had no difficulties writing diary entries on days when I'm in a raging foul temper. It's easy to write when I'm frothing at the mouth, and it's much less painful than punching the wall.* But that's another reason diary-writing and I don't seem to get on. Whenever I've looked back over previous diaries, the entries seem to dry up after a week or two and then there's this big long gap followed by visceral hate-fueled rant followed by another gap until the next phlegm-flecked bust for fury. It makes me sound like an angst-ridden emo, and I'm far to bloody-minded for that lark. My other go-to for anger is the "I'm going for a Walk." Capital W required. This is the I'm-too-angry-to-sit-still shaking-with-adrenaline borderline hysteria anger. Okay, forget the borderline bit. There's something about being able to storm off and just walk and walk and walk until your mind stops fizzing and those ghastly tight bands around your chest start to loosen and you can breath properly again. Admittedly this is all making me sound rather psycho - I promise I'm far too lazy to lose it like this is often. But well, it's like a dam; once it's built up long enough..... As for feeling sad or generally low, unfortunately that's a lot more common for me. Mostly I keep my depression under control, but - particularly during the winter - general moodiness and feeling down isn't all that unusual. If I can, I'll just stay home for the day and keep myself to myself. I can pretty much guarantee that'll re-set me for the next day (did someone say introvert?). But frequently staying home and keeping a low profile isn't an option (I have a public facing full-time job), in which case I'll try and ride it out. Spoiler, it doesn't normally work...... Coffee and chocolate help, but it's normally my lunch break that fixes me; I'll hide away for 30 minutes and read whatever book I have handy, praying that I go back to work at least civil and sensible. Again, I find exercise is a really good therapy for feeling down; I love hiking and swimming, and although I don't feel like doing either when I'm down, if someone coerces me, I feel a lot better afterwards. Funnily enough, writing doesn't seem to help so much with general sadness - it's great to lift me out of a depressive episode if I'm having a series of bad days, but not so good for actual sadness or grief. Reading (which I guess is more passive) seems to help me a lot more. *never a clever idea. You either end up with very sore knuckles or a hole/dent in the wall that means someone else is about to get mad too.  |
Challenge: Write about your earliest memory. Try to describe it in as much detail as possible. My absolutely earliest memory is throwing a tantrum at my mum. Well, actually it's her calmly talking me out of myself afterwards. I can't remember what I said, only that I hated being an only child and having no-one to play with. For context, we lived on a farm several miles from the nearest village and none of the other houses scattered around the immediate area had young children (I think there may have been teenagers further up the road, but I can't be sure).We had an enormous garden and mum was an avid gardener. If it was sunny, or even just not raining, she was out doing something. At the very bottom of the garden was an old Bramley apple orchard. Not the sort with spindly trees you can stretch your hands around or pluck apples from, but ancient old gnarly trees that topped thirty foot and if you wanted the apples you needed a big long stick and a hard hat. Later, we had tire swings hanging from two of the trees and dens galore.There was a sort of no-mans-land between the garden proper and the orchard. Mum had planted a string of tiny little fir trees, that my whole childhood never grew more than a few feet high, as a border. And between our garden and next door was a wall of pine trees that were great for climbing in. But were the pine trees ended and the fir trees started (there was no our-garden, your-garden divide in the orchard, we just didn't play further than certain trees) there as an enormous camellia and a something-else-but-I-don't-know-what. They overhung each other to make a little dead patch of ground underneath where nothing grew. A perfect little den for a sulking toddler.I remember hiding under the camellia and mum (not a petite lady) having to crouch down and peer through the leaves to talk to me. I remember being utterly furious that I didn't have anyone to play with (mum didn't count, because she spent most of her outdoors time either gardening or helping dad on the farm). It may be a phantom memory - but I'm sure I remember mum being quite amused by the whole scenario. This memory was a spring-summertime memory and I'm only two and half years older than my sister, so I must have been either nearly or just turned two. Either mum was pregnant at the time, or she and dad took my tantrum very seriously,* because little sister was born the next February.... *I spent the next six or so years asking if I could go back to being an only child....... |
Challenge: What food or dish have you never eaten but would really like to try? I've been really lucky with both food and travel (and to me, they go very much hand-in-hand). I utterly love trying new foods, and as a result, there aren't many things that I know about that I haven't tried. Whenever I'm faced with a new food I want to taste it (note to self, jellyfish and guinea-pig are definitely-been-there,-done-that,-never-again foodstuffs). Of course every time I travel to a new place I find something on the menu I've never heard of (ahi poke and trout ceviche now make my mouth water just thinking about them). But I guess the only thing that springs to mind for having not tried and would really like to, would be grits. I still haven't (even with the help of Google) quite worked out what grits are (basically porridge made with maize rather than oats?) or how it's pronounced (grits, like tiny bits of gravel/stone, as a plural? Like the French for grey?). And what exactly do you eat it with, or is it on its own? I'm so confused, help me out! |
Challenge: What are your favorite movie genres? Share some recommendations with your readers! As a child, some of my absolute favourite movies were Labyrinth (with David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly), Fern Gully: the Last Rainforest (with Robin Williams), and The Emerald Forest (with Charlie Booth). I guess the big crossover between these three point to my interests - Labyrinth and Fern Gully are both fantasy/adventure, and Fern Gully (for all it has Robin Williams as a rapping lab-escapee bat) and The Emerald Forest are both commentaries on human nature and carry very important messages about nature and the environment. I guess in terms of genre, my tastes are still broadly similar now as they were when I was a child (Avon from Blakes 7 was and still is my weird celebrity crush). I still love the comedy and athletic skill of Jackie Chan (albeit more his Hong Kong action days and less his Hollywood slapstick). James Bond still makes me roll my eyes - but that won't stop me from seeing each new release in the cinema. It was more Disney than Pixar/Dreamworks growing up (I'm a Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King, & Jungle Book era kid), but I'll never turn down a film night with Shrek or the Ice Age crew, and Moana spends more time on my music playlist than a 30-something should ever admit to. |
Challenge: Pretend that you have found a four-leaf clover that will bring you extraordinary good luck for exactly one day. Write about your lucky day. Work has been rather intense recently, so I'll settle for an unexpected day off. But if I were to describe a remarkable day, where everything goes with supernatural perfection, I guess it would look something like this; I'd wake up nice and early - quite naturally and full of energy for a change - but Best Beloved would still be deeply asleep and not stir as I get up (did I mention I get up because I want to....). The sun is just creeping over the horizon and I'm torn between an early morning walk around the village and doing some yoga/pilates/stretches in the living room with some music (I'm fantasising, this would never normally happen). I'd then settle down on the garden sofa with a fresh coffee and my book, it's warm enough to do that today. After a few chapters I'm starting to feel hungry, and wouldn't you believe it - there's bacon in the fridge and I had the foresight buy croissants too.I start to cook breakfast and the aroma awakens Best Beloved who only takes half an aeon in the shower this morning, because wouldn't y'know, he doesn't need yelling down the stairs (we have an upside-down house and our garden is the garage roof). I don't even need to roll my eyes. We breakfast outside and Best Beloved points out the birds at the feeders because today he's interested in nature. He's in one of his infectious, energetic moods and he's thought of a new place for us to go hiking today. It's a longer route than we normally do, but my ankle has been much better recently, so we're going to risk it. BB hands me my book and tells me to read other chapter whilst he clears away breakfast. I suggest making a picnic, but the route he has in mind takes us past a really good gastro-pub (there is no covid, lock-down, or quarantine rules today) and he wants to treat me.* The hike is fabulous. It's a beautiful day; sunny, but cool. My ankle is absolutely fine and although we go over some rough terrain and end up clambering across some boulders and a river (we got a little lost, don't ask), it holds up just fine. We stop at the pub for lunch and the food is great, but by the time we get back to the car we're both thinking about dinner. Best Beloved surprises me with dinner out - apparently he was going to cook, but he's changed his mind and we end up at another pub (full of hikers and people with dogs, so it doesn't matter that we're both a bit hot and sticky after our walk). I've lucked out as the pub has a well stocked gin bar and since it's BB's idea to eat out, he's driving. Oh, and I nearly forgot, the local band that we both love - the one that doesn't play in pubs any more - is just setting up. And since they recognise us (and they should, they played our wedding) they don't just take the usual cover-requests, they play a couple of their own songs. BB and I play their CD at full blast all the way home. * I should probably point out that this isn't actually that unusual; we both like hiking and food. But it's my perfect day, so he's paying  Challenge: If you were hired to show tourists what life is really like where you live, what would you show them or have them do? Best Beloved and I get this a lot anyway - we live in west Cornwall, UK, and it's a very touristy area. You are tripping over beautiful beaches, fishing villages, picturesque coves, and wild moorland. Britain doesn't do seafood very well on the whole, but Cornwall has Newlyn, Falmouth, St Ives, and Padstow - we have celebrity chiefs and award-winning microbreweries and gin distilleries in every direction. My favourite recommendations are a number of the local beaches (along with the ones to avoid) - there's Kynance Cove with its breathtaking rock formations; Godrevy has an island lighthouse and several inaccessible covelets that seals just love; Gwithian looks across the bay to St Ives, and has a fantastic little cafe-surf shop. Cornwall is famous for its pasties (a heavy, but freakin' awesome, pastry meal filled with meat, potato and veg that miners used to eat) and three to the biggest names happen to be our town. The Eden Project is only a few miles up the road for those that want to wander around the biomes; they have a Mediterranean biome where they do weddings and a tropical biome were you can get baobab ice-cream. They do concerts during the summer - we had tickets to see Bryan Adams this summer, but well covid...... and it's one of the best venues I've ever been to because it's so small and laid back. If you drive in the opposite direction, you get to Lands End and you can meander back via the Minack Theatre* which is built into the side of the cliff over. Again, a perfect location of entertainment - I've known artists stop half way through a set because the audience is watching dolphins out to sea and even the singer wanted to watch for a bit! I saw a performance of based on the Titanic and it was truly surreal; it was late at night in October, crystal-clear skies littered with stars, waves crashing against the cliff-face, enough of a chill in the air that you could see your breath. A more fitting setting for the centenary remembrance you could not imagine. *Google it. Words cannot and will not do it justice. |
Challenge: What lesson do you remember most vividly from your childhood? If the electric fence crackles, don't touch it..... |
Challenge: What’s your favorite board game or card game to play with friends? Scrabble - but Best Beloved hates word games (Boggle is a swearword in his opinion), so I don't get to play it all that often except online. My sister and I used to play mahjong with our parents loads as kids, but I don't know anyone who plays now and most of my friends find it too intimidating to sit down and teach. Which is a real pity, because it was a huge part of my childhood (I'm white British, but somehow my parents were given a set back in the 80s) and I've still on the beautifully carved set we used to play with. |
Challenge: In your entry, make a list of your favorite words to say. Then describe why they are your favorites and include a pronunciation guide for your readers. Brownie points if you can use your words in a sentence. I have a number of favourite words and funnily enough I was thinking about this very question a few days ago (as in before the prompt was posted, because I'm late in responding).  Surreptitious; adjective, meaning something being kept secret, in particular something that might not be approved of. Pronounced ser-rup-tish-us. I love that surreptitious sounds secretive. You've got that shhhh sound in the middle and I find (for me) it conjures up both dark alleys and mysterious strangers and dead-drops, and yet also children whispering in pillow forts and sharing sweeties. Danger and innocence. Fear and excitement. Terror and giggles. With a surreptitious motion, the mage twitched his fingers and the box disappeared. Library; if I need to describe that here, the you're on the wrong website. And hopefully I don't need to give a pronunciation guide or explain myself. But hey, it's a damn good word; whether it's a book-nook in your own home, an e-reader in your backpack, a vaulted cavern lined with dusty scrolls, or the more pedestrian and still wonderful public library full of dogeared large print novels, a library is one of the most wondrous places on Earth.That scene, that scene in Beauty & The Beast. You know the one, when he just gives her the most glorious library ever envisioned.  |
Challenge: What traditional ethnic food dishes from your culture does your family still enjoy? Tell us about how the recipe was passed down and what modifications were made over the years. Last night I made Shepherd's Pie for the first time in ages - lamb mince topped with mash potato. Normally it's made with peas and diced carrots and onions; but I didn't have any peas and carrots, so I tried with bell pepper, mushrooms, and onions, with a little bit of chili pepper mixed in for good measure. I always, always pour in a good slug of red wine into the gravy and grate some cheese on top before putting it in the oven. We had the leftovers for dinner tonight, and as is often the case with any mince dish, it tasted much better twenty-four hours later. I think the slight chili twist has cracked it though, I'll definitely do that again. Another mince recipe I love adding chili peppers to, is lasagna - my cousin and I lived together for a year at uni and chili lasagna became our signature dish.I love veggie lasagna, but I'm not too bother by meat lasagna; however, it's one of Katie's fav dishes, so we ended up eating it a lot. One evening we had leftover chili con carne and in true student fashion threw it in the pan. Turns out kidney beans and chili peppers, and paprika and chili spice take lasagna to a whole new level. |
Challenge: Imagine you had to create an art piece for a gallery or museum. What would you create? What is art? I'm not a painter or musician, much as I'd truly love to be. But that doesn't stop me from doodling and scribbling in my journal. I do the occasional #KindnessRocks painted pebble, but that's pretty much it. If I were doing a piece for a gallery or museum though, it would probably be something ceramic based - a pot or mosaic perhaps. Mostly likely either geometric or tribal style, simply because I find them easier to make, although I love botanical art and would love to be able replicate the old-style botanical journals; think Victorian watercolours. |
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