FF – Inheritance

April 27, 2016 90 comments

Here is my story for this week’s Friday Fictioneers, hosted by Rochelle. This week’s photo was contributed by Mary Shipman. Thanks, Mary!

Click on the blue froggy for this week’s other stories.

Copyright Mary Shipman

Copyright Mary Shipman

 

“Wow, Dad sure did sell a lot of old trash.”

“Yeah. How much d’ya think we can get for this place?”

“Not a lot. Off the beaten track, and his stock? Well. We’ll sell it somehow.”

“Hey, here’s where you carved your initials.”

“Yeah, I got a telling-off that day! And those… what did he call them… ‘quality vintage undergarments’? Still not sold. I remember when he bought them. Family outing to that antiques fair outside Brighton, remember?”

The brothers fell silent, each lost in his own memories.

“So… you take the counter and I’ll welcome customers?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

 

Sharing Your World 2016 Week 16

April 24, 2016 47 comments

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World.

share-your-world2

If you had to have your vision corrected would you rather: glasses or contacts?  Or what do you use if you need to have your vision corrected?
I’ve been wearing glasses since I was a little ‘un. I started off with the chunky free NHS glasses.

Me and Roland

I’m on the right (1985), taken in Germany.
Photo copyright BBC I would assume.

Later I had some money and got better glasses, and later still I decided to try contact lenses. They were annoying, scratchy and a big hassle. And I kept falling asleep in lectures. They stuck to my eyeballs :-(. You do NOT want to fall asleep with contacts in.

I’m back to glasses now after a run-in with conjunctivitis in the 90s. And recently I got my first pair of varifocals. Because I’m old and so are my eyes.

If you had to describe your day as a traffic sign, what would it be?
Maybe, road works/under construction.

RoadWorks

When I was little I used to think this was a bloke with an infeasibly large shovel, rather than a chap with a regular shovel stuck in a mound of dirt.

Was school easy or difficult for you? How so?
Well, I hated it. Whoever said “school days are the best days of your life” was a dirty rotten liar. I was quite good academically and it had its moments, but by and large I wouldn’t go through school again for anything.

Now university… that was a different kettle of fish entirely! Now, those really are the best days of your life 🙂

Would you rather take a 1 or 2 week vacation with an organized tour or take a cruise of your choice?
That’s a tricky one. On the one hand, the idea of having a holiday where everything is organised and I don’t have to worry about anything sounds quite appealing. On the other, I’ve never been on a cruise and it sounds quite fun. My parents go on cruises now they’re retired and thoroughly enjoy themselves, and cruises are pretty well organised too, so I think I’ll take the cruise, please!

Categories: About draliman Tags:

FF – Night of Terror

April 20, 2016 94 comments

Here is my story for Friday Fictioneers, hosted by Rochelle. This week’s photo was contributed by Madison Woods.

To read this week’s other stories, click on the blue froggy.

Copyright Madison Woods

Copyright Madison Woods

 

“Hurry, they’re coming, string the barbed wire!”

(twang)

“Connect it to the generator and flip the switch!”

(crackle bzzzzzzz)

“I can see them now, freaks, horns, demons! They’ll take everything, nothing is safe, no-one is safe. Inside, quickly! Close the door, lock it. We have seconds, scant seconds! Turn out the light.”

(click)

“Behind the sofa, everyone. They mustn’t see us, they mustn’t see us… they’re here, oh God, they’re here… shhhhh…”

(clomp clomp clomp…)

“TRICK OR TREAT!”

 

Sharing My World 2016 Week 15

April 17, 2016 35 comments

Here is my post for Cee’s Share Your World.

share-your-world2

Name one thing not many people know about you.
Ooh. Potentially if I mention something not many people now about me on here, 6 billion people will know it. Not that I have the many followers.

Yet (bwahahaha).

Okay then. In my mid-teens I had both big toenails permanently removed as they were massively in-growing and infected. I’ll spare you the gory details, but as it turns out big toenails are optional. So that’s one thing you really did not want to know about me.

If a distant uncle dies and you were always his favourite and leaves you $50,000 (any currency) in his will, what would you do?

MoneyMoneyMoney

Copyright some music company probably


It would be nice to say “pay off my mortgage” but I’d need more than a fifth of that inheritance to pay off even 1 year :-(. So let’s go cray-cray with it!

Let’s have a Ford Focus RS for starters. And that’s pretty much it. Turns out $50,000 isn’t that much after all. Though owning a car outright would give me £300 a month more disposable income, so the car’s an investment really :-).  I’ll use the rest for a little holiday to New Zealand to see the Hobbits.

Where do you hide junk when people come over?
In my bedroom of course. Unfortunately when my parents came over the other week they wanted to see my new bed and I ended up with a minor ear-bashing regarding “piles of stuff everywhere”. Remember the Golden Rule – mothers go everywhere.

Complete this sentence:  I want to learn more about…
Me! Who am I really? What makes me tick? What do I really want under the surface?

I know. It’s a can of worms.

Categories: About draliman Tags:

Limerick Challenge – Dark

April 14, 2016 38 comments

Here is my Limerick for Mind and Life Matters’ weekly Limerick challenge. I had a hard time with this one but have thought of something at the last minute :-).

This week’s word is “Dark“.

I once was afraid of the night
Vampires gave me such a fright
Now dark tunnels I tread
As I hunt the undead
With my matches I’ll set them alight!

FF – A Costly Mix-Up

April 13, 2016 103 comments

Here is my story for Friday Fictioneers, hosted by Rochelle. This week’s photo was contributed by Kent Bonham, and you read the other stories by clicking on the blue froggy.

Copyright Kent Bonham

Copyright Kent Bonham

 

“I don’t understand, Michaelson. We’ve tried every glyph in this damnable book to no avail, by Gods!” snapped Trenchart in exasperation.

Michaelson regarded the book suspiciously. “Are you sure this book is the genuine article, old man? Three weeks we’ve been at this. Three damnable weeks!”

“Got it off some chappie in the market, cost a fortune. Swore it was the genuine article, what?” said Trenchart. “Same time as I purchased that colouring book I shipped home to my daughter…” He tailed off, and the intrepid explorers looked at the book in horror.

“Damn it all, Trenchart!” yelled Michaelson.

 

Sharing My World 2016 Week 14

April 10, 2016 34 comments

Here are my answers to Cee’s questions for her Share Your World series.

share-your-world2

If you could hire someone to help you, would it be with cleaning, cooking, or yard work?
I don’t really need a cook, it’s the just the one of me :-(. I’ve never been exactly sure what “yard work” is, but I’m thinking it’s what we call “gardening”? If so, I only have a dinky garden so no help needed there either (though it’s never really particularly trim and tidy to be honest).

So I’ll have a cleaner, please. It would be nice if someone could dig out the vacuum cleaner from under whatever pile of stuff it’s buried in :-).

Ooh, ooh, there it is!

Ooh, ooh, there it is!

What makes you laugh the most?
Either comedy TV or over-the-top gory TV/video games. I re-watched “Resident Evil – Afterlife” last night and I did enjoy watching zombie brains explode. “Planet Terror” is a real laugh-a-thon. And yesterday afternoon I was playing Fallout 4 and got caught underground with a bunch of ghouls and my automatic combat shotgun. You can imagine how that went heh heh 🙂

What was your favourite food when you were a child?
The only thing I can remember is chocolate, if that counts as a food. I ate loads. I was huge.

List at least five favourite flowers or plants.
Five? I don’t know many flower or plant names. Here goes.

  • The big bush with the sort of clumps of little petals. I want to say rhododendron. Or hydrangea.
  • That tree which is all big and has loads of green stuff on. You know the one.
  • Lavender.
  • Gorse in bloom. I love seeing it all over the moors and whatnot.
  • Those little blue flowers. That look like bells. Can’t think of the name. Bell blues?

That’s all for this week!

Categories: About draliman Tags:

FFftPP – Something Wicked This Way Comes

April 9, 2016 40 comments

Here is my story for Roger’s Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner. We get a phrase to use – “What is the peculiar smell?” and a photo, along with 200 words.

To read this week’s other stories, click on the blue froggy.

Photo from pixabay.com

Photo from pixabay.com

 

“What is that peculiar smell?”

‘tis the stench of death, come for us on wings of deepest black. Forsooth.”

“What? What? What’s he saying?” The other meerkats shook their heads. “Ever since that tourist safari chap dropped The Complete Works of Shakespeare he’s been insufferable.” The other meerkats nodded.

For ’tis the cruel arrows of fate which approacheth or mayhap a harbinger of doom which cometh on paws of death. Forsooth.”

“Paws of death? I suppose he could mean… a lion’s coming?” The other meerkats looked around, panicking.

And here he cometh as ‘twere Hades himself risen from the circles of ever fiery Hell our souls to claim, forsooth, our broken bodies…”

ROAAAAR! SNAP!

… to rip aaaaargh!”

“Well, lads, that comes as a bit of a relief, quite frankly.” The other meerkats, eyes wide as saucers, nodded. “Okay, chaps, RUN!”

 

Categories: Fiction Tags: ,

FF – Treatment Failed

April 6, 2016 72 comments

Here is my story for this week’s Friday Fictioneers, hosted by Rochelle. The picture this week was contributed by J Hardy Carroll.

To read this week’s other stories, click on the blue froggy.

Copyright J Hardy Carroll

Copyright J Hardy Carroll

 

Josie looked up at the burned out windows as she huddled in the shadow of the broken building. The other kids thought this place depressing but she liked it here. Sometimes she fancied that if she looked hard enough, she could see the ghost of her mother staring down. It made her feel safe.

Her mother had been a “resident” here at Saint Joseph’s Home for the Feeble of Mind until the Great Fire of 1972. They’d been trying to cure her of her compulsion towards arson.

Josie shook her head sadly. Guess it didn’t take.

 

Sharing My World 2016 Week 13

April 3, 2016 30 comments

Here we are again for Cee’s Share Your World.

share-your-world2

Are you left or right handed?
I’m right handed. Very right handed. My left hand can do stuff but it needs to be trained.

This is the main reason I’m glad we drive on the left hand side of the road over here. I don’t like to take my right hand off the wheel, and since the wheel is on the right hand side of the car I don’t have to as I change gear with my left hand. If I ever rent a car abroad I’d be tempted to rent an automatic. They’re not as rare as they used to be so I expect most companies would have one!

If you had only one TV, would you prefer the TV in the living room or another room?
I do only have one TV (which is plugged in)! It’s in the living room. When did I last use it as a TV? Um, never. Everything I watch is recorded, catch-up or streamed. Here it is!

Entertainment Corner

Entertainment Corner

Have you ever participated in a distance walking, swimming, running, or biking event? Tell your story.
Ha, no! It would place an unnecessary strain on the emergency services, having to airlift me to hospital after the first 2 miles.

Complete this sentence: Love is…
I’ve sat here for a while thinking about this. And I still have nothing to say. Love just is.

And with that cop-out of an answer I’ll leave you with this exciting discovery – it’s impossible to over-boil a hard-boiled egg! Last week I popped two eggs on to boil and went off to play Fallout 4. Two hours later I went back into the kitchen and saw to my horror the eggs still boiling away in the remaining two centimetres of water. They taste fine :-).

Categories: About draliman Tags: