Sharing My World Week 24

June 22, 2014 16 comments

It’s time to Share My World again, courtesy of Cee over at her photography blog. Check her blog out for great photos and tips!

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What makes you feel the most secure?
Money. Cash. Moolah. Dosh. Readies. Dough. Nelsons.

Just enough so that I’m not constantly worried about paying the bills.

If you were a shoe, what kind would you be and why?
I’d be a trainer. It’s pretty much all I ever wear, unless I’m going somewhere special. Soft and comfortable. Here are my current trainers. I wear them until they fall to bits, then I buy a new pair.

trainers

Although, thinking about it, would I really want to spend all my time all sweaty and smelly? Maybe a clog would be a safer bet.

How many languages do you speak?
Well, English of course. I’ll add American English to that, as thanks to American TV programmes and books I know a lot of strange American words, such as “elevator”, “sidewalk”, “airplane”, “diaper”, “stroller” and “faucet”. The list goes on and on!

I know enough German to hold a conversation and more or less understand TV and simple books. I can order food and stuff in French, but unless they slow down I can’t understand what they are saying.

What was the largest city you have been to?  What is the one thing you remember most?
I guess that would have to be London. I most remember the parks – little oases of green and peace in a sea of confusion and noise (I apologise for placing an oasis in the middle of a sea there – sloppy I know but this isn’t fiction).

I think I was so traumatised by all the people and noise my mind has blocked it all out, leaving only the parks 🙂

See you again next week!

Categories: About draliman Tags:

Lusty Glaze

June 21, 2014 16 comments

“Lusty Glaze”. Sounds a bit dodgy, right? At least to me.

Turns out it’s a beach! A tiny private beach, where we had this year’s work summer party. A lovely barbecue on a beautifully warm and sunny day last week.

I took these pictures as the sun went down. People (younger, fitter people than I) were playing football (that’s soccer, not handegg) and volleyball while the kids ran about having fun.

Finally my camera phone let me down a little. I can’t mess with the aperture and whatnot and I was facing the setting sun so it used the sun to get the light level.

Categories: Photos Tags: , , ,

Progress

June 21, 2014 21 comments

Here is my story for Adam Ickes’ “Storybook Corner“. This month I am literally down to the final few hours before the deadline! Maybe one month I will get this sorted out a bit earlier.

The idea is to write 300-500 words to a photo prompt. To read the other entries, click Bracken, the little froggy. Coincidentally, this month’s (well May’s) prompt is also of a frog.

(After a bit of Googling I’m adding this disclaimer: all company names used in this story are entirely fictitious and any similarity to actual company names is entirely coincidental.)


ogre-castle

That wasn’t the prompt picture, that was the logo. The prompt picture is below.

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Hoppy jumped up to the brow of the hill to look around.

(Frogs don’t have names as humans understand them, they refer to each other based on description. “Hoppy” is more succinct than “He Who Is Mostly Green With A Little Brown And Lives Next To The Second Lily Pad On The Left”.)

The noise was coming from a series of – Hoppy could hardly believe his buggy little eyes – monsters! Huge beasts of destruction! Great gouts of smoke blew from blow holes, great mashing jaws destroyed everything in sight. Trees exploded into splinters. Small hillocks disintegrated.

They were moving fast, and moving directly towards him!

Hoppy jumped away as fast as he could, his little back legs propelling him high into the air.

Glancing back, he could see the monsters, gaining on him. His little heart pounded faster and faster as he fled. All around him other creatures, some of them his friends, ran past, terror in their eyes. From behind Hoppy heard a voice – “Wait up! Wait for me!” It sounds like “He Who Is Green With A Bit Of Orange And Talks Too Much But Is Generally A Nice Enough Fellow”, thought Hoppy.

The cries suddenly cut off. Hoppy didn’t want to stop and look – he knew the monsters had caught up to his friend. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he raced on with renewed energy.

He knew the monsters were gaining.

Just up ahead he could see a large structure. It was made of the same stuff as trees, but a different colour, and stretched to left and right as far as he could see. If he could only reach it, and slip underneath, surely he would find safety!

The fence (as humans call it) was close, but the monsters were closer, and gaining. Hoppy bounded as fast as he could, but the dreadful maw of one of the monsters caught his back leg and flung him through the air.

His lifeless little body splattered across a sign which proudly proclaimed:

“Coming soon – Woodland Pines! Two hundred environmentally friendly homes for the eco-conscious. 20% already sold. Phone now for details! [Eco-Homes Ltd: protecting the ecosystem so you don’t have to]”

A Morning at Godrevy

June 20, 2014 19 comments

Yesterday I went for a visit to Godrevy, another location owned by the National Trust. In contrast to Trelissick, Godrevy is all cliffs and beaches.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking 🙂

 

Built To Last

June 20, 2014 28 comments

It’s time for Friday Fictioneers! This week our lovely hostess Rochelle is taking a break so the prompt is from long ago – long before my time at Friday Fictioneers as well.

The photo has apparently defied all attempts at enlargement, but appears to be of a house under construction or renovation, and was contributed by Mary Shipman. I managed to resist my first urge, which was to have a body discovered in the wall.

To read all the other stories this week, click on Bracken, the little blue frog.


old-wallpaper-mary-shipman

Copyright Mary Shipman

Work at the construction site was in full swing. Carpenters, plumbers, electricians – all scurried around with planks, pipes and wires.

“Two inch planks here, Frank.” The contractor pointed at a doorway.

“That’s not really up to code…”

“I’m not made of money!” joked the contractor.

“Uh, boss?” asked the plumber. “There’s some mistake, this pipe is lead-lined…”

“Got a great deal on that pipe!” laughed the contractor.

“Ten gauge wire into this fuse box,” the contractor told the electrician.

“Twelve, boss, surely?”

“Ten, Mark.”

The contractor was pleased. The new children’s home would be completed on time, and well under budget.

A Morning at Trelissick Garden

June 18, 2014 21 comments

I took a trip to Trelissick Garden yesterday and took some snaps. The first set are from the “woodland walk” (it goes down to the water before entering the woods) and the second is from inside the garden itself.

Here is the set from the gardens. Please excuse my finger at the top of one of the shots!

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Crooked and Squiggly

June 18, 2014 20 comments

I haven’t done a “Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge” before, but I took a couple of photos yesterday which I thought fit with this one quite well. They’re not great as I am just a “happy snapper” with a camera phone, though I am getting into this photography thing, so a decent camera is now on my list (along with new TV and new bed).

The challenge is “crooked and squiggly”. I took these pictures at Trelissick Garden, which is owned by the National Trust (I’m on holiday for two weeks so I took a wander there yesterday – more photos to follow).

Crooked Tree 1

I’m not sure why the branches grew like this! In search of the sun?

Read more…

False Advertising

June 17, 2014 19 comments

I bought this bottle of Diet Coke yesterday. “Share a Diet Coke with Kirsty”.

Share a coke

I sat there drinking it for an hour. Did the promised “Kirsty” ever show up?

No, she did not.

What a scam.

Categories: Just Silly Tags:

Sharing My World Week 23

June 15, 2014 25 comments

Here is the Sharing of My World, week 23! Wow, week 23 already. We’re almost half-way through the year, and I’m now on 2 weeks annual leave. I have quite a few jobs to do, but I know from past experience that the more time I have, the less I do, so we’ll have to see how it all works out. I’m pretty sure I’ll be using my PS4 a lot, if nothing else.

Share Your World is hosted by Cee over at her photography blog. Head over there for great photos, photography tips and more.

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Would you rather be stuck in a small plane with mild turbulence for 2 hours or be a passenger in a car racing the Daytona 500?
I’ve Googled “Daytona 500” and it appears to be 500 miles of driving round in circles. That’s not for me! The plane trip sounds lovely, even with “mild turbulence”. I could look out the window, maybe have a nap.

Would you rather be alone with nobody in the vicinity for one month or never be alone not even for a minute for one month?
I can’t imagine not being alone at all for a whole month. That sounds like some fresh circle of Hell. Being alone for a whole month sounds idyllic. Maybe the plane ride drops me off somewhere nice and it’ll be back in a month to pick me up.

Would you like to sleep in a human size nest in a tree or be snuggled in a burrowed spot underground?
Tricky. Being up a tree would afford a good view, but it seems too exposed. I’ll go for snuggled underground. It would have to be bug-free, however. I’ll need some surveillance cameras to see what’s going on above-ground, too. The only problem would be lack of natural light. Once of those houses buried in a hill-side would be nice.

In a car would you rather drive or be a passenger?
Generally I would prefer to be a driver. I’m so seldom a passenger I’m not really used to it, and I very seldom have passengers in my car.

The only time I’d rather be a passenger would be when driving in a unfamiliar city. In that circumstance I’d rather be navigator(*) – I’m quite good at looking ahead on the map(**).

Notes for young people

(*) Navigator: a SatNav in human form
(**) Map: a representation of the local area, printed on paper(***)
(***) Paper: made from pulped trees, “paper” was used to record information before hard disks, CDs and the Cloud

 

Categories: About draliman Tags:

Blurred Reality

June 12, 2014 57 comments

Here is my Friday Fictioneers submission for this week, hosted as always by the talented Rochelle. This week’s photo was contributed by Ted Strutz, to which we need to write a story of roughly 100 words.

This week’s photo appears to feature some dentistry tools. Sorry to be a bit obvious in my story, but I’m not passing this one up.

To read this week’s other submissions, click on the little blue froggy (whose name is Bracken).

teds-view

Copyright Ted Strutz

The whirring of the drill rang in Simon’s ears as The Dentist’s leering face loomed before his eyes.

“Pain!” laughed The Dentist, chief “agony technician” of the Vekta Crew. “You shall feel… such pain!” Simon closed his eyes in terror and felt…

… someone shaking his shoulder.

“Wake up, honey! You’re having a bad dream!”

Simon opened his eyes to see his wife looking down at him.

“That was a bad one!” he smiled.

His wife’s eyes grew cold. “Or is this the dream?” she snarled, her face morphing into that of The Dentist.

Simon screamed as the drill bore down into the sensitive pulp of his tooth.