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The Best Medicine – Never Happy
Weekly Writing Challenge: The Best Medicine – This week, write about whatever topic you’d like, but go for laughs.
Write about whatever I want? I can do that! No bother. Not a problem.
Wait a sec though – “go for laughs”? Well, there’s the rub. Humour is so subjective, and I’m not the funniest fella at the best of times. Tell you what, I’ll shoot for “mildly witty” and we’ll see where we end up.
The title of this post – “Never Happy” – is perhaps not a promising start. I don’t know about you, but to me that doesn’t scream “side-splittingly riotously hilarious” (try saying that three times fast). It sounds more like I’m going to have a rant, or maybe I’m going to wax lyrical about something that’s really getting me down.
So what, I hear you ask, am I going to complain about? I’ll give you a clue – I’m British.
That’s right! It’s the weather. That’s not what you guessed? Pretend you did! I’ll never know.
I’ve complained about the weather before (British, remember?). It’s too cold. It’s icy. It’s too windy. It won’t stop raining. Here’s a new one for you – it’s too hot!
“Never Happy” by DraliDoodles (TM)
Let’s take a quick Haiku-break.
Hostile sun blazing fire
Melting roads and hearts and minds
Air con broken
Hope you enjoyed it.
As I drove home this evening the thermometer informed me that it was 26 degrees C. I’ve just used the marvel which is Google and it informs me that this equals 78.8 Fahrenheit! I know what some of you are thinking. “That’s not very hot!” Well, it is to me. It appears that “too hot” is as subjective as humour.
My office is eco-friendly. We don’t have that planet-destroying toxic chemical-fuelled air con. Oh no! We have some sort of “comfort cooling” air recycling system. Today it managed to get the temperature to a not-so-comfortable 28 degrees C. Way to go, eco-friendly comfort cooling air con.
I didn’t wear shorts, but I did break out my trousers with the detachable legs. Detachable legs! What’ll they think of next? I was going to post a picture of me wearing the trousers with one leg removed so you could see the flexibility, but I thought that some of you might be reading this while eating dinner. I worried that the sight of my pasty-white leg might cause a case of the “tummy upsets”. So, no picture.
I also looked in my drawers for a light-weight T-shirt. It’s been so long since I’ve needed a light-weight T-shirt that it had mould on it from sitting in the drawer for years.
Mould!
And to add very serious insult to injury, it was my Red Dwarf T-shirt!
My poor mouldy T-shirt – please be OK!
I do hope the washing machine can work its magic.
It looks like I’m Never Happy.
Very sad.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Nostalgic
Simpler Times
I don’t remember these photos being taken as such, I was too young (I’m the one on the left in both photos). The other chap is my little brother. I remember the setting on the right – outside our old house in Carnon Downs, Cornwall, where I spent the first 5 years of my life. These were taken in the early 1970s.
The little wooden fort below was made for us by our Dad – in the 70s you didn’t just nip out to the shops for new toys. Your dad would disappear into the garage or shed and emerge a couple of days later with a cool new fort! The drawbridge even went up and down (counterbalanced by a cotton reel my mum had finished with). We got years of use out of this fort. Again, I’m on the left, my brother is on the right.
Don’t I look smart in the photo on the right, ready to start “big” school aged 12?
This was posted in response to the Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge – nostalgic.
The Beast of Drali Moor
Prompts for the Promptless – Cryptozoology is the search for legendary animals, usually in an attempt to evaluate or confirm the possibility of existence. This includes looking for living examples of animals that are considered extinct, such as dinosaurs; animals whose existence lacks physical evidence but which appear in myths, legends, or are reported, such as Bigfoot and Chupacabra; and wild animals dramatically outside their normal geographic ranges, such as phantom cats. The animals cryptozoologists study are often referred to as cryptids, a term coined by John Wall in 1983.
Drali Moor. A wide expanse of moorland, marshes and woodland stretching from the centre of the land across to the small coastal village of Drali-On-Sea. An area of outstanding natural beauty (if you like that sort of thing), it is home to a scattering of farmers, sheep and, some say, the “Beast of Drali Moor”.
Few have caught a glimpse of the beast; no pictures exist. However, those who claim to have seen it swear it is real.
Artist’s impression of the Beast.
It looked way scarier in my head.
Facebook – Friend or Foe?
Weekly Writing Challenge: Mind the Gap – Facebook – to poke or to puke?
So this Facebook thing – a force for good, or an insidious evil? A social network – some may say the social network – in a world in which the inhabitants are increasingly obsessed with sharing every detail of their lives and of course with revelling in the thrills and mishaps of others.
Let’s break it down.
Responsibility – at the end of the day, what I post is down to me
Make no mistake, whether I intend the whole world to read what I write or it’s only intended for “friends”, what I post on any social network, including Facebook, is my responsibility. No-one else’s.
In the heat of the moment it’s easy to post something I may later regret. I rarely post to Facebook using my phone (which is always nearby) – my big clumsy fingers are not phone-friendly. I often find that by the time I’ve fired up the laptop I’ve gone off the boil. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to post that after all?
How many people have found themselves in trouble for posting something “inappropriate”?
Nature, No Question
Daily Prompt: The Natural World – Describe your first memorable experience exploring and spending time in nature. Were you in awe? Or were you not impressed? Would you rather spend time in the forest or the city?
Photographers, artists, and poets: show us NATURE.
I’m the type of chap who prefers being at least reasonably close to nature. That’s fairly easy since I live in Cornwall, in the far South West of England.
Perranporth, Cornwall
I often visit Godrevy when I fancy a nice quiet walk – beaches, cliffs and moorland. It’s only a few miles from my house.
Godrevy, Cornwall
I spent many, many holidays in the North of Scotland.
Somewhere in the North of Scotland
I lived in Cork, Ireland for four years.
This little lake is either in County Cork or County Kerry – I was never sure where the border was
I’ve lived in Cork city, Guildford and Stuttgart – all cities, but I prefer nature, and it was never too far away!
I guess I’ve been pretty lucky.
Until the End of Time
Daily Prompt: No Longer a Mere Mortal – You’ve imbibed a special potion that makes you immortal. Now that you’ve got forever, what changes will you make in your life? How will you live life differently, knowing you’ll always be around to be accountable for your actions?
June 2013
A potion of eternal youth! Can this be true? I drank it, but don’t feel any different. Time will tell.
February 2014
Slipped down the stairs today, felt my neck crack. My body went numb. Seconds later I felt a tingling – my neck has healed. The potion was real! I can’t die.
I can’t die!
I must make plans.
Wales Holiday – The Final Chapter
After my trip to Dolwyddelan Castle and Bodnant Garden, I decided to try some walking. I’m quite keen on forests and whatnot so I headed off to Coed y Brenin, a forest park owned by the Welsh division of the Forestry Commission.
It wasn’t far, though it took a while by the time I’d made my way through the roadworks. At breakfast (bacon and tomato omelette) I’d joked with the waiter that I’d brought three coats with me just in case, but I hadn’t needed my wet weather one. Obviously that put the jinx on the weather and down came the rain. Fortunately, it settled down to a light drizzle as the day progressed.
Anyway, on with the pictures!
I noticed as I walked round that the landscape is very similar to parts of the Highlands in Scotland, even down to the thistle!
My Wales Holiday Part 2 – Bodnant Garden
Welcome back to my little Wales mini-break! In the first part I visited Dolwyddelan Castle. That was actually an unscheduled stop – I saw a sign marked “Castle”, hit the brakes and swung into the car park (rather too fast considering the cattle grid just inside the entrance).
I then continued northwards to my planned destination – a National Trust property called Bodnant Garden. A bit pricey, but since I’m a National Trust member, I got in for free!
It was a lovely day and the place was packed – I was in the overflow overflow car park I think.
I had trouble picking just a few pictures, so there are quite a few here!
Two Days in Wales
I don’t usually prattle on about my largely uninteresting life, but since I just had a holiday (my first in five years!) in Wales I thought I’d share some pictures.
Well, I say a holiday. Two full days is more of a mini-break, I guess, but I lost two days on the road (it’s a six and a half hour drive).
Here’s where I went:
Map courtesy of Google Maps
The area to the north of the arrow is Snowdonia – mountains, forests and whatnot.
The trip up was fine apart from some panic around Birmingham. So many motorways branching off. Why is it that when you’re desperately looking for a turn off, all the road signs are obscured by lorries? Still, I didn’t get lost even once, and when you’re on your own with no navigator, and especially if you’re me, that’s quite a feat!
After arriving in a lovely little Bar/Grill/Restaurant/Hotel (six rooms!) I booked a table for dinner. Quality food! Grilled brie in breadcrumbs for starter followed by a massive home-made burger with onion rings, a mushroom so big it should have had some sort of faerie creature sitting on it and home-made chips (with the skins on!). For my US friends, that’s chips as in “French fries”, or is it “Freedom fries”? In the UK, the term “French fries” is reserved for those rubbish chips you get in fast-food places like MacDonald’s.
So, enough rambling, on with the pictures! I don’t want this post to get too long, so today I’ll show you some pictures I took at Dolwyddelan Castle.
Set on a hilltop (as many good/effective castles are!) it commands a dominant position over the surrounding countryside.
It was manned by Welsh soldiers – at that time Wales consisted of several kingdoms and there was also the threat of Norman/Anglo-Saxon invasion from England.
After visiting the castle, I continued to Bodnant Gardens, a National Trust property to the north. I’ll post some of those pictures later!
Fool on a Bike
Daily Prompt: Trains, Planes, and Automobiles – You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, or car? (Or something else entirely — bike? Hot air balloon?)
Chad was a dreamer. A dreamer and a fool. Everyone knew it. Chad knew everyone knew it. And he didn’t care.
He’d had ideas for this, ideas for that. He thought they’d make him famous. Some great invention, or a feat of daring. Nothing ever came of any of them. In fact, his biggest claim to fame was that he failed at absolutely everything. People often wondered how that could be – out of all of his thousands of hair-brained schemes, surely he would have accidentally succeeded at least once? Read more…
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