A Story in 150 words – The Last Bottle

In the early morning sun, she walked along the beach alone. The only people around were anchored off the coast in their fancy yachts that she gazed at with covetous eyes. The waves lapped gently on the creamy white sand and the smell of the salty air combined with the sound washed away all her troublesome thoughts. Then she saw something bobbing about at the water’s edge. It was a bottle, tightly sealed, with a rolled-up scroll of paper within. The note read “Help us, please. Pirates have seized our yacht, The Maria Nova. We are being held captive. Call the police”. As she pulled out her phone and called the police, grateful that she had a good signal, despite the loneliness of the beach, she realised that whilst she had envied those yacht owners, wealth sometimes brought other problems and the covetousness of Pirates put hers into stark contrast.

[150 words]

This story was written in response to the following word prompts:

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2022/09/25/covetous/

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2022/09/25/rdp-sunday-bottle/

The Candyman Can.

It’s been some time since I took part in the Song Lyric Sunday Challenge, in fact, it was even longer ago than I realised! I’ve not taken part since the 13th of February. Time flies by, it’s about time I took part again. It’s a fantastic challenge, hosted by Jim Adams.

The Last time I took part, the theme was songs that feature lyrics with the contractions of Can’t, Don’t, Shouldn’t, Won’t. 

Click on the link below to see my post:

https://talesfromthemindofkristian.wordpress.com/2022/02/13/song-lyrics-sunday-dont-let-the-sun-catch-you/

This week the theme is Sweet, Honey, Sugar, Candy, Chocolate suggested by Angie of King Ben’s Grandma. 

Click on the link below to see Jim Adam’s post and to take part in the challenge.

https://jimadamsauthordotcom.wordpress.com/2022/09/24/a-craving-for-sweets/

So, in my usual way, I turn to a golden oldie rather than something that’s been in the charts recently. This one is probably a very obvious one considering the prompt and I probably won’t be the only one to choose this song but I had to choose it. It dates from 1971.

The sone, The Candyman, was written for the film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. Anthony Newley had been a child actor in the UK and had also written songs and released singles and had been in the Rex Harrison version of Dr. Doolittle. He had also been married to the actress of Dynasty fame, Joan Collins. He co-wrote this song but was not happy with the version sung in the film and he released his own version shortly afterwards.

Then the following year, Sammy Davis Junior released his version of this song and it became a huge hit for him.

I tried to find these three versions for you so you can compare and contrast them.

I hope you enjoyed these contrasting versions. Oh, and if you are interested my favourite candy bar is called a Crunchy. I don’t know if that is available in the US, but it’s fantastic.

I hope you enjoy hearing this song again 

I have included these word prompts:

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2022/09/24/crunchy/

A story in 150 words – Cabbages and Memories

I haven’t written anything new in quite a while but decided today was the day to flex those writing muscles again just to see if I still could..

This short story was written in response to the following writing prompts Memento, Float, Gambler, and Cabbages.

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2022/08/21/memento/

https://fivedotoh.com/2022/08/21/fowc-with-fandango-gambler/

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2022/08/21/rdp-sunday-float/

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2022/08/20/cabbages/

She came across it quite by accident, a memento of a different time, a time of youth. When you are young time seems to float by gently but as you get older, as events take over, time rushes past so fast reality becomes a dream until you wake up and everything you ever cherished has gone.

The faded photograph was a picture of that time when she’d lived in grandeur and had servants to wait upon her. There she stood on her family’s front porch, dressed in white lace for her wedding day, her husband beside her looking young and vital with that roguish grin. How she had loved him, but he’d been a gambler and now she was reduced to her current state. When once she had eaten steak and caviar, now she had nothing but cabbages to look forward to. Cabbages and memories were all that were left.

[150 words]

I hope you enjoyed this story, my first in a long while 🙂

Multiple Word Prompt Story – A Body In Victorian London.

His body lay in the gutter. He could feel the hard cobblestones, but the discomfort they caused was nothing next to the pain of the wound in his side. Stabbed by a Knife. It was Ironic he should end this way, bleeding to death in the street. The rain washed the blood away and with it, his life ebbed.

He took one last look at the London street, lit by the gas lamps that produced a flickering uneven light.

It was the last thing he saw. His London.

Under the Jubilee Flight Path

I was lucky to be out with my Mum having lunch in a local restaurant and we were told that the planes that were going to be flying to London to do a formation flypast for the Queen’s Jubilee were actually going to fly over our heads.

Life is full of unexpected surprises, sometimes good and sometimes bad. This time is was so lovely to see the planes fly over in formation and later to watch the news and see the same planes being enjoyed by Her Majesty the Queen on the balcony at Buckingham palace.

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2022/06/04/flight-2/

Rotational Avoidance – An Acrostic Poem

So the Word of the Day is Rotation and this strangely correlates to a recent incident at work where we all came together to discuss the fair distribution of a task that no one seems to want to do. The idea was to reassure reluctant people that others were taking their fair share and you’d let the team down if you didn’t do the same…

I observed that Rota’s are not required when the team pulls together and just gets on with it but become essential when there’s one or two that just don’t want to get involved.

I decided to write an Acrostic poem to put this into words:

Rotating word duties more fairly,

On reflection can cause a psychosis.

To be honest, I’d rather drink my tea,

Avoiding all work in the process.

The trouble with rhymes it that it depends a lot of how you pronounce the words where you are. Where I am, Psychosis and Process, while not technically a rhyme sound similar, but where you are that may not be the case…

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2022/05/07/rotation/

My 4 Year Blogging anniversary!

Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!

You registered on WordPress.com 4 years ago.

Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.

Today I had this message from WordPress.

Has it really been 4 years? Time creeps by like a time traveller with a dual personality seeming both to pass by swiftly and also to take its time.

4 years feels simultaneously like a lifetime and a moment.

I look back at some of the stories and poems i’ve written over the past 4 years with some pride but also some sadness. Did I cover myself with glory, or just waste my time?

If something I’d written entertained or was enjoyed by just one person, then it was worth it.

I will keep on keeping on.

Thank you

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2022/03/09/cover/

Happy Valentines day.

It’s Valentine’s Day again, gosh that comes round quick. I cherish people every day of the year and not just today but it’s hard not to get swept up in the vibe.

I wanted to share a link to a post, a comedy poem I wrote a couple of years ago that hopefully will make you chuckle. 🙂

https://talesfromthemindofkristian.wordpress.com/2020/02/14/the-ballad-of-ted-and-flo-a-raunchier-genre-challenge/

I also thought I would share with you a link to a video of me singing one of my favourite love songs by Johnny Mathis, called Chances Are.

Chances are, I won’t be winning Britain’s Got Talent anytime soon but I enjoyed singing it anyway.

Have a lovely day and I hope that love is all around you today.

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2022/02/14/cherish/

A Multiple Word Prompt Poem – A Letter from Beryl.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I wrote this poem and shared it back in February 2019. It was a different world back then, but I wanted to share it again with you and I hope it makes you laugh.

Terrible Poetry Contest – A Cento Animico.

Chelsea Owens, on her blog, has thrown down the gauntlet in her latest Terrible Poetry contest. Click on the link below to see the post, why not have a go?

https://chelowens.com/2022/02/11/the-terrible-poetry-contest-4/

A cento is a poem made up of fragments of other poems.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cento_(poetry)

I thought I would try my hand at it, but it is a lot more difficult than it may at first appear. Here is my attempt:

The Owl and the Pussycat went to see,

the Elephant (Though all of them were blind),

Like Love, unkindly passing by.

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among

A host of golden daffodils, they dance.

The reprieve papers are not signed, behind.

It was a poignant portrayal of the effects.

A collage of fragments of poetical objects.

I have included fragments from the following poems:

The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear,

The Blind Man And The Elephant by John Godfrey Saxe

The Way It Is, by William Stafford

I wandered lonely as a cloud, by William Wordsworth

Reprieve, by Alison Prince

I have also included the following word prompts:

https://fivedotoh.com/2022/02/13/fowc-with-fandango-reprieve/

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2022/02/13/rdp-sunday-thread/

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2022/02/13/poignant/