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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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| Brian, the young blacksmith in the village of Yap, worked hard each and every day. He was struggling though to keep his business thriving after his father’s death. The villagers were dubious to hire Brian, as they didn’t think he had the craftsmanship of his old man. This was a shame as Brian prided himself on his talents . One day feeling deeply sorry for himself, because it was as if he had let the memory of his father down. He wandered through the forest contemplating his future. He had planned to ask his girlfriend, Maddie, to marry him in the spring, but the lack of business and so the lack of money, stopped him from asking her. The sun was trying to break through the morning fog. As he walked, he wondered what he ought to do to regain the trust of the villagers. There could be a gimmick he hadn’t yet thought of which would stop his customers leaving the village and taking their business to ‘Jacob’s Ironmongery’ in the next town. He walked, head hung low, eyes to the winding path until he saw a bright white stone. Even in the gloom it shone. He bent down to pick it up but soon noticed it wasn’t a stone but an egg. It was nothing like any other egg he had ever seen before. The shell felt tough, not fragile like the eggs he used to collect in the spring from nests high in trees when he a boy. He shook it, there was something in there. He tucked into his pocket and took it home. Putting it on to a south facing window ledge, where it would get the most sunshine, he promptly forgot all about it. One morning he heard a cheeping noise coming from the kitchen and saw to his disbelief a tiny dragon, complete with wings. The dragon whispered to Brian and told him he was magic and asked if there was anything he could do to help. Brian was agog, thought he was having a nervous breakdown. The dragon told him his name was Alf and sent by Brian’s father to help. He suggested that he could be the gimmick Brian had been searching for. He could breathe fire instead of using the forge. People could come and watch as the pair manufactured beautiful objects using Alf’s fire and Brian’s skill. And it came to reality that Brian advertised his new apprentice, Alf the fire eating dragon. Alf grew bigger each day and his fire blowing ability grew with him. People had to shield themselves from the heat. Brian’s business grew exponentially and before long he and Maddie could afford to get married. Of course, Alf was the best man at the wedding. |
At where you live, what are your neighbors like? What do you think makes a good neighbor? Do you have any dramatic, funny, or annoying incidents about your neighbors that you'd like to share? We have lived in the same neighbourhood for over twenty five years. We know most of our neighbours, some more than others. At the bottom of our long driveway we have our friend Margaret. She is 92. She lives with her unmarried daughter, Alison. They have a funny relationship, loving but feisty. I love Margaret, even though she’s only twelve years older than me, I think of her as my mother. There is another neighbour who I have been meeting up with for coffee for almost as long as I’ve lived there. We have walked several of my dogs and put the world to rights whilst we walk for years! Of course there are the cranky ones, Mrs Ball for instance, she must be nice in some way because she puts water out in the park for the birds. She has a couple of cats, but doesn’t like humans very much. Her son lives next door to her and is a Batchelor. He is just as grumpy as his mother. However we all muck along together. Tolerating some and loving others. |
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Prompt 3. Sept 3. You can achieve all the things you want to do, but it's much better to do it with loved ones around you; family and friends, people that you care about that can help you on the way and can celebrate you, and you can enjoy the journey. ~John Lasseter Your most significant other(s) is/are....! Write about your loved ones (furry or not). My most significant other is my husband. We have been married for 59 years. We were engaged for three years before getting wed and we met three years before then! So we’ve actually been together for 65 years, so how can he be anything other than significant? We had three children who are scattered across Australia. One daughter stayed in Perth where we are, and has recently been living with us with her husband whilst they wait for their new house to be available. Those three months have been fine, we have all got on well. They are moving out this weekend and it’ll be strange to be just me and hubby alone again. One son lives in the tropical rainforest in Far North Queensland. We miss seeing him, his wife and little boy on a regular basis but it’s an amazing place to visit. Our other daughter moved to Queensland after her marriage breakdown and we talk to her most days on the phone. The other treasures in our life are our six grandchildren and six great grandchildren. We don’t get to see them often as everyone seems to have such busy lives these days. I try to keep abreast of all their activities and progress though. I can’t leave this blog without talking about my dog. She is nearly twelve, a Weinmarana called Lucy, and is the love of our lives. She’s slowing down these days, as are we. We’ve had a few health scares with her recently but she has bounced back each time we think she’s leaving us. At eighty years of age we look back at all the highs and lows life has thrown at us. There have been plenty of each. We left our homeland when our oldest daughter was just three years old. It was a very difficult transition as we left all our families behind. I felt bad for the kids that they had no extended family and grandparents. However, as the years have passed and the grandchildren were born they know nothing about those difficult times. They have always had grandparents and great grandparents and a wonderful lifestyle. When I look at them I know we made the right decision to leave the UK. My parents eventually came out here to live for their last years too. Family is everything to me. |
Words 511 Prompt 2. Sept 2. Tell us about an earthshaking Life-or-Death situation in your life. What happened, how did it change you, if at all? My husband and I were travelling in the Philippines. We’d spent time in the capital Manila and were going to take a short flight to the island of Cebu. There had been talk of a Hurricane approaching for several days, but when I called the airport on the morning of our flight I was told there had been few cancellations and our flight was definitely departing on time. When we entered the terminal it was obvious many flights had in fact been cancelled but ours wasn’t one of them. So we checked in and waited nervously as the light outside darkened to almost black. People were leaving in droves and yet the light on the departure board was still lit up and saying ‘Cebu departure. On Time.’ We queued up to board the plane. By this time the wind was at a fever pitch, the rain almost horizontal. The big glass door to the tarmac was being manned by two people attempting to stop it flinging open in the wind. We were escorted to the small plane in twos and threes by the airport staff. The rain was torrential. At last the plane was full and we nervously awaited take off. Some passengers were praying. Other than whispered prayers there was no sound. We asked the stewards if it was safe to fly in this weather and they simply smiled serenely. At last the captain made the wise call to abandon ship, so to speak, and we all traipsed off and made the treacherous return to the terminal. By this time it was obvious we were in danger if we made an attempt to leave the terminal, but soon there were very few people left. We were given a ticket to fly for the following day, so we left our luggage at the airport and left. My husband, John, went looking for a taxi, I sheltered in a shop outside the airport terminal attempting to keep out of the way of flying missiles and sheets of tin, which were threatening to slice off my head. At last John turned up with a driver. We asked him to take us to a place of safety. We were dropped off at what seemed to be a hotel and we breathed a sigh of relief. The place had no power or water because of the storm and were given a candle to take to our windowless room. There we stayed, hunkered down whilst a hurricane roared overhead. We learned later, the place was actually a brothel. The following morning we left after a nightmare night and taxied to the airport. The destruction was mind blowing. Huge billboards lay across cars, power lines were down and roads flooded. Our flight was rescheduled for later that day and eventually we made it out to Cebu. There had been hundreds of deaths we later heard on the news and we were very lucky not to be one of the statistics. |
Prompt 1. Sept 1. It's the site's 24th Anniversary. Tell us about your love or fondness of Writing.com. What makes this a wonderful place for writers? Why are you (still) here? I visit WdC almost every day and have since the day I joined in 2018. I had been looking for an on line writing group for some time when I discovered this site. I had started to write when I turned seventy. I wrote a little book for the family which I called ‘Always look on the bright side.’ It was a bit of a struggle as I had little computing skills and had to learn how to incorporate photos as well as trying to remember the chronological order of my life. However it gave me a taste of writing. When I first began my WdC journey I found it difficult to navigate and I am sure I’d have given up if it wasn’t for all the help I received from Hannah. She showed me so many things but best of all she showed me how to review the work of others in a kindly but helpful way. During Covid time, WdC was my saviour in lockdown. I think it was then I began to write more and enter more contests. The first time I placed in an official Writing contest and won 500,000 points it was as if I’d won the world. 😂 As for why I stay around? I think I’m actually addicted to WdC. There are so many other worse things I could be addicted to so I’m happy with my addiction. I have met so many people here. It’s like having hundreds of pen pals from all over the world. I enjoy the fact that one never knows where someone actually lives, its as if we’re all in the same comfortable room. I am from Australia and one of a handful I think but what I’ve discovered is that no matter where we live, we think, do and act the same way. There are few differences but they are all surface ones. I have found little judgment. I have only had one nasty review and that was years ago. However from that experience, and yes, that one sticks in my memory despite the many positive reviews I’ve received it reminds me to be kind. One vindictive, negative review, or comment can stop someone from writing ever again, so that person taught me a valuable lesson. Just be kind, we all started once. Thank you WdC for being a place where I can visit anytime, anywhere I might be. |
| Prompt 1. Sept 1. It's the site's 24th Anniversary. Tell us about your love or fondness of Writing.com. What makes this a wonderful place for writers? Why are you (still) here? I visit WdC almost every day and have since the day I joined in 2018. I had been looking for an on line writing group for some time when I discovered this site. I had started to write when I turned seventy. I wrote a little book for the family which I called ‘Always look on the bright side.’ It was a bit of a struggle as I had little computing skills and had to learn how to incorporate photos as well as trying to remember the chronological order of my life. However it gave me a taste of writing. When I first began my WdC journey I found it difficult to navigate. I am sure I’d have given up if it wasn’t for all the help I received from Hannah. She showed me so many things but best of all she showed me how to review the work of others in a kindly but helpful way. Covid time, WdC was my saviour in lockdown. I think it was then I wrote more and entered more contests. The first time I placed in an official Writing contest and won 500,000 points it was as if I’d won the world. 😂 As for why I stay around? I think I’m actually addicted to WdC. There are so many other worse things I could be addicted to so I’m happy with my addiction. I have met so many people here. It’s like having hundreds of pen pals from all over the world. I enjoy the fact that one never knows where someone actually lives, its as if we’re all in the same comfortable room. Thank you WdC for being a place where I can visit anytime, anywhere I might be. |
Have fun with these words: random, interception, ingredients, cookies, guys or girls, trees, bear, and berries. These are a selection of very random words today, Lyn. But perhaps they hold the ingredients for an interesting post. I have just this minute returned from having coffee at a friend’s house and she had made some cookies. They were straight out of the oven and the house smelled of chocolate and berries. I’ve completed my story for the What a Character Contest. Hopefully I have followed the rules this time. It’s about a plane crash through the heavily treed jungle. The character is the only survivor. She battles the odds and hopes for rescue maybe from her favourite survivalist, Bear Grylls. She wonders why the plane suddenly fell from the sky and thinks there might have been an interception to the mayday call which the pilot surely made before the crash. She waits to be rescued by the guys or girls from the army search and rescue helicopter. |
What's the one thing you feel you're good at? Explain why? There aren’t many things that I can say, hand on heart, that I have mastered. I’m no good at anything at all crafty or using hand tools. I suppose I’m an okay cook but never follow a recipe so therefore if I have a success I can never repeat it. I can write a story. Does that count? I’m pretty good at making people feel better about any situation and can empathise. I can always make someone laugh or at least see the bright side. (There is usually one.) I’m good at making people feel comfortable when the ice needs breaking. I’m good with small children and can usually amuse them with some silly game. (Perhaps I never grew up😂) I’m a people person. |
Fun words on a Saturday: cooking, frying, silence, potato chips, restaurant, chef and salt. There's a connection to the date and these words, can you guess what? I’m unsure of the connection with today’s date. Maybe it’s a special day in the USA which we in Australia don’t observe. Anyhow the words made me think of fish and chips and how hungry I am right now. I love salty potato chips but they must be sprinkled liberally in vinegar. I love to go to our famous seafood restaurant in Fremantle and to watch the chef frying mounds of chips and then as he lifts golden pieces of battered fish out of the hot oil. The chatter at the table stops and silence reigns as every begins to eat. However I hate the lingering smell the next day when I’ve been cooking fish and chips at home. |
| Use these random words in your entry: detector, proclaim, rotten, memory, suggest, mill, creed, wound, and ivory. Is it wound (I have a wound)? It might be wound(I’m so wound up today? I think I’ll choose wound as I’m really wound up today! I’ve been through the proverbial mill. I don’t know whether that’s an expression in general use in the US, but it suggests feeling as if you’ve been chewed up and spat out, leaving a person feeling rotten. I hereby proclaim that grown up (supposedly adult) children should from this day forth not upset their parents. That is my creed from now on. One should wake up with access to a detector which warns the day is one for staying in bed and to just rely on your memory of when that child who upset me today was just born with perfect ivory skin and gazed at me with her big blue eyes and all was well.😂 |
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I can just see you on a plane, train, or whatever, sketching those sleeping people.
