Tag Archives: writing prompt

A Pointless Prompt

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Today’s unwelcome writing prompt is timely, bearing in mind my last post. How does death change your perspective?

Well, for one thing, I’d stop buying lottery tickets, and there would be no point in worrying about air quality because I wouldn’t be breathing the stuff anymore. What sort of question is that?

I stopped ironing years ago, as it’s pointless at the best of times, and definitely over the top on the undead. I mean, how many times have you turned on a classic zombie movie (Night of the Living Dead or Cockneys versus Zombies to name but two) to hear someone complain about the rumpled state of the zombie hordes?

Meanwhile, moving back to other matters, I’ve had several culinary mishaps today. A new bottle of ketchup, when opened, proved to have a very tricky action. Squeeze and nothing happens, squeeze a little harder and so much comes out at such speed that you end up comprehensively splattered. Add that to the cream I spilled and the yoghurt drink that misbehaved and it’s clear that if you boiled my jumper in a little water you could produce a passable tomato soup.

You would think that after so many years of producing nozzles for squeezable sauce bottles they would have got it right, but it seems not. You press, nothing happens. You press again, maybe a little less carefully, and nothing happens. Another press, and even though it’s done gingerly, as the conclusion is obvious to all lovers of slapstick, there is a sudden splurge, which ends with too much sauce being dispensed.

The surplus goes anywhere except the intended target, including the front of my jumper and up my sleeve. Even the stuff that goes where it is aimed, is travelling so fast that you can feel the splashback.

The cream merely splashed me as I knocked it off the bottom shelf of the fridge, and the

yoghurt drink missed my mouth in a moment of carelessness. Generally this would have stuck in my beard, but today it run straight over the beard and ended upon my jumper. It is like life hates me today.

Mute Swans at Budby Flash

Ten Things I Learnt This Week

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One, ten point lists are handy things to prompt a blog post. Last week I wrote about ten point lists, but they were already in my mind when I sat down at the keyboard. This week I sat down with a completely empty head and thought ‘What shall I write?’ I then thought ‘What did I learn this week?’ and then ‘Did I learn ten things?’ I’m hoping I did, or I’ll have to change the title.

Two, five hundred words are easy if you start with enough in your head. If you don’t have much to say, they can be a real struggle. I knocked out five 500 word posts on my Wednesday marathon and actually had to cut some to keep it to an average of 500 per post.

Three,sometimes less is better. I couldn’t get a good run at the blog last night and petered out after 250 words. I came close to 500 words twice, but the post was better when it was shortened, so I cut the extras out.

Four, freedom is not always good. The USA, with a tradition of freedom, individualism and pioneering spirit is not finding the Covid situation easy. The Germans and Swiss, who are more regimented and organised, seem to have come through the virus in much better shape. The Brits, as usual, fall between the two extremes and are totally disorganised.

Five, the Americans prefer ‘learned’ to ‘learnt’ and, according to the internet article I read, are irritated by what they see as the mis-spelling ‘learnt’. Users of British English, on the other hand, favour ‘learnt’ and see learned as an acceptable alternative. This is probably not accurate as (a) it’s on the internet and (b) I’m sure there are relaxed Americans an picky Brits about.

Six, it’s fun just relaxing and reading WordPress. There is so much to learn.

Seven, the average person eats 20-30 plant foods in a year. I got that from Helen at Growing out of Chaos. For years now I’ve been trying to keep our diet varied, and if that is the benchmark I seem to be succeeding. Like Helen, we are hovering around 60. That’s without foraging, as I’ve let that slip badly.

Eight, I now know a lot more about Edward VIII, anti-semitism, fascism and royalty medallions of the 1930s than I did at the beginning of the week. You might have guessed this from the photographs. Now isn’t the time to go into all that, as I haven’t yet written it all.

CLB Review 1927
CLB Review 1927

 

Nine, on-line grocery shopping is more difficult than you think. I thought I’d got it all organised but this week I still managed to order frozen spinach instead of fresh and the packs of six cobs instead of four. The big ones that come in the packs of four are good for lunch, but the small one, which come in the packs of six) are only a few bites before they are all gone. That means you have to take four for lunch, and that looks like  you are being greedy.

Ten, saag is not, as I had thought, an Indian word for spinach, but for greens of many sorts. The word for spinach is palak. I got this from Helen too. At this point, I would like to apologise to readers from the Indian sub-continent. I know there is no such language as ‘Indian’ but I am not well up on the differences and nuances of the various languages and decided to keep things simple.

So, that’s it, ten things I learnt this week. I have an uneasy feeling that I learnt more than that but haven’t retained it. That, I’m afraid, is what happens as you get older.

 

Royal Visit to Australia 1920
Royal Visit to Australia 1920