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A Little Bit of Me
This week’s end of season finale on Prompts for the Promptless is all about the Johari Window.
The Johari Window is a method of representing information (regarding feelings, experiences, motivations, intentions, attitudes, etc) – from 4 specific perspectives. It is a technique to help you understand how you are perceived by others, and how you see yourself. The perspectives are as follows:
- Open area: The things that you about yourself, that others also know about you.
- Blind area: The things you don’t know about yourself, but others know.
- Hidden area: The things you know about yourself that others do not know.
- Unknown self: The things no one knows about you.
Let’s take these one at a time.
Creative? Me?
There’s a new award in town! This award – the Imagine Award – was, I am reliably informed, created by Jenny over at My Fibrotastic Life – pop over and say hi! It was created in October this year, no less.
That’s last year if you’re reading this next year :-).
I’m in on the ground floor with this one. And look how cool it is – it’s got a unicorn and a rainbow in it!
It has been awarded to me by Teepee12 (Marilyn) over at Serendipity, and I have to admit I was deeply touched by her kind description of my blog – thank you! Let me tell you a bit about her blog, if you haven’t already found it. We’re talking amazing photos (sometimes aided by her other half), social commentary, light-hearted rants, all the time accompanied by a most wicked sense of humour. She manages to see the light side of many not-so-light situations. It is a most amazing blog – do visit!
The description of this award states that it was “made in order to recognize the bloggers who express their passion and dedication towards their blogs through their creativity”. Teepee has listed some qualities which make a blog “creative”.
- Words – my blog contains no end of words. They’re everywhere on my blog. Poems, fiction, musings and whatnot.
- Graphics – I have photos, doodles (both hand and computer drawn) and cartoons.
- Video – I’ve included one video. It was sort of a “Blair Witch Project” type of affair, except that mine was shot on my phone in a darkened bathroom while wearing a coat and sunglasses, illuminating my face with a torch (that’s “flashlight” if you’re in the US) and affecting a Scottish accent (and calling myself “Angus MacScotland”).
- Layout – hmm, moving on.
- Community – I have a little bunch of treasured bloggy friends plus some very welcome visitors!
Birthday Yay!
Yes, it’s my birthday again. It came around so quickly! It seems like only a year ago that I last had one.
Here’s a freaky thing. I opened my Chrome browser (Google’s browser) this morning and clicked on the little animation to “view today’s doodle” (for those of you who don’t know, Google do doodles for famous events, birthdays and so on) and this is what appeared:
Holy crivens! A doodle just for me! I knew signing up to Google+ was giving one of the world’s biggest corporations too much information. Am I supposed to write a thank you note, do you think?
I haven’t been posting much recently, apart from trying to keep up with the Friday Fictioneers challenge, and there’s a good reason (and this time it’s not laziness!).
I’m house hunting. This isn’t taking up a huge amount of actual physical time (“physical time?” – you know what I mean). It’s taking up a huge amount of mental time. Even when I’m not actually looking at house websites or talking to the bank, I’m thinking about it. My little brain doesn’t have room for anything else.
Why am I looking to buy a house (let’s say it like it is – why am I trying to persuade the bank to buy me a house)? I hate change, big time. I like my routine. I hate making phone calls. I hate taking risks. I hate suddenly having no money. This doesn’t sound like the correct mind-set for such an endeavour.
I’m getting older, fast. My pension, as it stands, will barely keep me in cheese and pizzas, let alone pay rent. So I need to get a house and pay it off before I retire. Otherwise I’m going to be living in my car.
So I’m just going to have to suck it up, take it one step at a time and let the cards fall as they may.
I’ve also learned some great estate agent terms!
- cozy – not even enough room to swing a cat
- compact – see cozy
- low maintenance garden – no grass
- green views – if you go upstairs, hang dangerously out of the window and squint a bit you may catch sight of a distant field
- parking for 2 cars – parking for 2 Smart Cars or 1 human-sized car
- 2 bedrooms – house built pre-90s, 2 bedrooms. House built 90s onwards – 1 small bedroom and 1 “bedroom” too small to actually get a bed in
- in need of modernisation – falling to bits
Wish me luck!
An Unexpected Day Off!
I had a wonderful surprise this week. On Tuesday myself and a colleague reached ten years at our job. I was thinking maybe there might be cake, but no, way better than that!
First off, we get a day off to celebrate! Here’s the proof, copied from the holiday calendar.
Yay! (I’m “Ali” by the way).
At this point I’d just like to mention that in those ten years, I haven’t had a single day off sick. Not one! How healthy am I?
This is the best bit. After the speech we were each handed a little package. I was thinking box of chocolates but no, way better than that. Turns out the managers had been in contact with our contract illustrator and had sent a full specification for a great drawing, including all our favourite stuff. I’m even shown wearing my fluffy blue jacket (first worn by me as a PhD student in the early 90s – they don’t make ’em like that any more!).
Here it is. The ladies on the couch are the girls from the band Alisha’s Attic, one of my favourites, as they might appear today! Nice of them to come visit.
Look, there’s even a DraliDoodle on the wall!
My box sets are there, my X-Files mug, my Sophie Ellis Bextor CD! It’s a high quality print in a lovely frame.
How great is that!
Please Let Me Go Home
Weekly Writing Challenge – Your earliest memory. Capture every detail. Document the quality of the memory — is it as sharp as HDTV or hazy and ethereal, enveloped in fog? Write for 10 minutes. Go.
I must have been around four years old. We were living at the first house I ever lived in and we left when I was five so that sounds about right.
Mum left my little brother and I with a good friend of hers to play, as she occasionally did. I’m sure we’d been there before, though everything from so long ago is pretty hazy.
I don’t remember anything about that visit apart from the very end – that is etched into my memory as if carved in stone.
My memory tells me that Mum’s friend held a cup of tea – it could have been coffee but I think it was tea – out to each of us. She said “Drink this or you can’t go home.” I was terrified. I wanted to go home to Mum.
I drank the tea. It was foul. I was only a toddler. Toddlers don’t drink tea. Toddlers drink juice or milk (I never drank milk and still don’t – it makes me sick).
We never went back to that house. Not ever.
“Cup of tea, little boy?” by DraliDoodles
It’s a witch’s hat, OK? Shut Up. I don’t do hats.
Is this how it really happened? Probably not. This woman was a kind woman, a friend of the family. More than likely she said “Have some tea to drink before you go home.” I misconstrued.
Only now, as I write this, do I feel terribly guilty for the poor woman. Imagine inadvertently scaring a toddler so much that they refused to see you ever again?
Memories are tricky things. Although I am convinced that “I heard what I heard”, I have been similarly convinced that a film ended this way, or a book ended that way only to watch or read it decades later and discover that my mind has altered the ending. In my mind it ended the way I always wanted it to – now that I’ve rediscovered it I find that the ending is completely different. Disappointingly different.
My mind very probably twisted this innocent encounter into something sinister.
What can we trust if not our own minds?
Stop the clock…
Time to write: 8 minutes.
Proof-reading/editing: 4 minutes.
Draw/scan/format/upload doodle: 5 minutes.
Confession: I didn’t let this sit for a day as per the instructions. I didn’t want to spoil the thoughtless spontaneity.
D I Why
Prompts for the Promptless – Do It Yourself (DIY) is the method of building, modifying or repairing something without the aid or experts or professionals.
I have to be honest – DIY and me don’t mix. I’d love to be one of those chaps who can put up a shelf at a moment’s notice or fix a leaky tap at the drop of a hat, but sadly this is not the case.
If I try anything so much as cutting the tag off a new t-shirt, I always ensure that the first aid box is close at hand. Stick me anywhere near a power tool and I’m likely to have one of those hard-to-believe hilarious yet tragic accidents.
“Cornish man accidentally falls on own chainsaw while hanging picture.”
“Chainsaw Disaster” by DraliDoodles
So Far So Good
Daily Prompt: State of Your Year – Write up a mid-year “State of My Year” post.
I’m a couple of days late with this but (as well as having no time at all on a Monday) I realised that some stuff has actually happened to me this year.
Since stuff happening to me is quite a big deal I felt I couldn’t let this prompt go unanswered, regardless of my slight tardiness.
Three, yes three whole things have happened and they’ve all been good :-).
After a three month wait, at the end of January my new car finally rolled off the assembly line. This is the first new car I’ve ever owned! Well, I say “owned”. The bank currently owns most of it. Here’s a picture (it’s a Ford Fiesta Zetec S Ecoboost thingumy, if anyone’s interested).
It’s a lovely car to drive! Since I had to wait so long for it I ended up having to sell my old car so the dealer gave me a courtesy car to knock around in (for free!). It was a SportKa with go faster stripes and sporty trim. Unfortunately, it looked like it would go a lot faster than it actually did. Here it is in all its sporty glory. It’s not really me!
Courtesy car with ironic “go faster” stripes
Next up we skip forward to the middle of February, when I was given this:
This is my AA “10 year long service medal” :-). It’s a bit tarnished-looking – it’s a sad fact that the higher the year, the longer they sit in the box waiting on a recipient. Maybe I can chuck it in some Coke or something. Apparently that’s good for cleaning coins.
And finally in June I had my little Wales holiday. Going away by myself was quite a big deal for me (I sound like a 10 year old!) and I had an amazing time. If you want to vicariously relive the experience, the photos are here, here and here.
So all in all, not a bad start to the year. And, of course, this was also the début year of DraliDoodles :-).
I hope your year is going well too!
Clone Awards!
The lovely aliciabenton over at Imperfectly Perfect has nominated me for an award! Yay! And she was very flattering about DraliDoodles to boot!
It looks kinda familiar – the last time I saw it, it was going under the name “The 3-in-1 Award”, but this time it has a much more romantic name – “The Bouquet of Three Award”. How cool is that?
Here is a picture of the award.
As I’ve had one which looks like this before (and handed it around) I’m going to break the rules (again) just a bit. However, I will attempt to think up some more “interesting things” about myself.
Here are the rules anyway.
1. Proudly display the Award Certificate on your blog page!
2. Announce your win with a post. Be sure to link your post back to me as a “thank you” for the nomination.
3. Present up to 15 awards to fellow deserving bloggers.
4. Let them know you’ve nominated them for this awesome award.
5. Post 7 interesting things about yourself.
Okay, (1) done, (2) yup, (3) um, (4) see (3), (5) here goes:
1) It’s interesting to note that the last time I tried to think up interesting facts about myself I had real trouble.
2) I have no big toenails due to an unfortunate ingrowing toenail episode followed by a chiropodist with a big vial of acid.
3) Number (2) wan’t interesting, it was just gross.
4) I have a PhD in laser physics and I’ve worked in IT for the last 10 years.
5) Number (4) makes me a real hoot at parties. Not.
7) I have a problem with simple maths.
Sorted. So, “Clone Awards”? I reckoned that since this is three awards in one it would need three dralimans (dralimen?) to pick them up. Although it didn’t go so well last time I thought I’d try a bit of cloning again. Here’s the result!
“Clone Awards” by DraliDoodles
That’s me in the middle.
The clone on the left (“#77856-B2/Batch 7”) appears to be eating the trophy. And something’s gone wrong with his legs. Also, upon closer inspection, his head doesn’t appear to be attached to his body.
I don’t know what’s up with the clone on the right (“Frank”). He’s run off.
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.
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!
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Woohoo!
I totally didn't win!
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