Playtime

Shallow pools of water splashing as raindrops hit.

Birds stand on the edge, with their heads cocked, waiting. Splash! The first jump. Water droplets fly upwards, mingling with the rain. Another bird takes the leap. One in, all in. The birds jump from puddle to puddle, splashing each other.

Tomorrow the puddles will be gone.


** I wrote this after rereading an email I sent to a friend. I was describing what was happening in my backyard after the heavy rains we had last week. So I pinched a couple of the sentences and edited them. **

Merry Christmas

It's 10.45 on Christmas Eve, and I've finished wrapping all my presents. I've spent a couple of hours babysitting my small sisters, and now I have the house to myself, my boy and my brother. We are watching Carol's by Candlelight, commenting on how much older so many of the regular participants are looking and drinking too much red wine. Whenever I can I flicked across to the Edinburgh Tattoo - I'm a sucker for pipes and drums.

Tomorrow morning I'll be given breakfast in bed for my birthday, and then my boy will head off for his family Christmas in rural Victoria :( After that my father and small sister will come over to give me my birthday present, and then he will drive my brother and I across to my mothers to spend Christmas. We really are quite civilised these days.

Lunch will be for my birthday, and I've already put in an order for a chilli and garlic calamari salad, followed by marinated lamb and greek salad. Yum, all my favourite flavours. We will all probably collapse for a couple of hours before going outside to play with whatever demented game my mother bought for Christmas this year - somehow I suspect quoits will have another outing! Then, dinner - ham, chicken, salads, salads, beef, followed by pavlova. I think the only reason my stepbrother and sister in law get invited is for her pavlova :)

Have a safe and happy Christmas everyone! How will you be celebrating it?

25 December

I am in a dim room. I can see vague forms around me, and hear breathing and nervous giggling. I feel the anticipation build. I see a faint glow coming towards me, getting brighter and flickering. I smell recently lit matches. I can hear my family singing; "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you"

****My challenge this week - write everything in the first person, and include as many senses as possible.****

If ... meme

I stole this meme from Mike. I'm not going to tag anyone for it, but if you want to do it, go for it.

If I were a beginning, I would be ... it was a dark and stormy night

If I were a month, I would be ... May
If I were a time of day, I would be ... 5.47 am. A time with soft light, and not many people.
If I were a planet, I would be ... Neptune

If I were a season, I would be ... Autumn, constantly changing.
If I were a sea animal, I would be ... dugong

If I were a direction, I would be ... forwardly
If I were a piece of furniture, I would be ... dusty. Seriously though, I would be a beanbag. Is that furniture, or just a bag full of beans?
If I were a sin, I would be ... deadly

If I were a liquid, I would be ... viscuous
If I were a scare, I would be ... tactics

If I were a gem, I would be ... unpolished.

If I were a flower/plant, I would be ... a daffodil
If I were a kind of weather, I would be ... tropical
If I were a musical instrument, I would be ... a xylophone

If I were an animal, I would be ...a marsupial
If I were an emotion, I would be ... confusion
If I were a vegetable, I would be ... a pumpkin
If I were a sound, I would be ... echoed
If I were an element, I would be ... Pb

If I were a car, I would be ... a Leyland P76
If I were a song, I would be ... Amazing Grace
If I were a food, I would be ... cheese
If I were a place, I would be ... uninhabited

If I were a material, I would be ... silk
If I were a taste, I would be ... savoury
If I were a scent, I would be ... lingering

If I were a religion, I would be ... Om

If I were a sentence, I would be ... disjointed
If I were a facial expression, I would be ... a smirk
If I were a subject in school, I would be ... 19th century history

If I were a color, I would be ... bright red

If I were a thing, I would be ... a volkswagen

If I were a book, I would be ... much read
If I were an artist, I would be ... obscure
If I were a collection of poems, I would be ... studied in school
If I were a landmass, I would be ... an isthmus

If I were a watch, I would be ... 5 minutes fast
If I were God, I would be ... very surprised
If I were a vowel, I would be ... U.

If I were a consonant, I would be ... M

If I were a theory, I would be... Chaos

If I were a famous person, I would be ... checking my Wikipedia page daily
If I were an item of electronic equipment, I would be ... a CB radio

If I were a sport, I would be ... trugo
If I were a movie, I would be ... directed by Alan Smithee
If I were a cartoon, I would be ... Inspector Gadget
If I were an explorer, I would be ... lost
If I were a scientist, I would be ... Isaac Newton. My kind of scientist sits under a tree and waits for an apple to fall on their head.
If I were a relation, I would be ... an aunt
If I were a river, I would be ... murky

If I were intoxication, I would be ... public

If I were alone, I would be .... still in good company

If I were a question, I would be... unanswered
If I were a habit, I would be... bad
If I were in an atom, I would be ... an electron
If I were you, I would be ... my friend

Steal Away

Writing

I've been writing posts for the 55 Flash Fiction Friday blog. I find that the discipline of telling my story in 55 words is a real challenge. I haven't had to be that disciplined in my writing since my first year at uni, when we had a weekly assignment of 50 words. One week we would need to write without using adjectives, another week only in the present tense. I'm wondering what challenges I can come up with to try, to keep myself challenged and thinking.

Sisters are doin' it for themselves

I had fun last night. It was my turn to help out with babysitting my (nearly) five year old sister. There was way more giggling than should be allowed.

We played with the inside ball, and I introduced her to playing tunnelball - possibly not ideal with 2 people, but I didn't hear any complaints. Thank goodness for polished boards.

Arial taught the butterfly to swim, and then the butterfly took Arial for a flight. I followed instructions and took their photo with my phone, and then we had to add clip art. To say she knows exactly what she wants to do is the understatement of the century.

Whenever I babysit I try to do something new and special with her. Last night we put the coins from my purse under a piece of paper and coloured over them wtih her pencils. The look on her face when she saw the numbers and animals appear was priceless. Doing them in colour was fun too - whatever colour I chose, she needed to use shortly afterwards. Luckily her purse had coins that Dad had given her from Singapore, Malaysia and Canada, so we had lots of different patterns and sizes to choose from.

My favourite part though, was her bedtime. Once she had her satiny pink nighty on (did someone say Princess?) it was time to read stories. I read the first Winnie the Pooh book properly, following exactly the words and pictures. I got into big trouble with the second book because I kept adding words to the sentences. When she stopped laughing at me, and telling me off for being silly, I was banished to lie on the floor next to her bed and listen to her read the story for me. I got into more trouble for heckling from the floor. That meant she read the story to me twice.

Last time I babysat, I sat and sang to her after we finished reading. This time, I had to do it again. Christmas songs this time. As all big sisters are required to do, I sang the wrong lyrics to Jingle Bells - "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin flew away etc" Of course, then I had to explain Batman & Robin. Good King Wenceslas went down well, and so did Away in a Manger. I started the 12 Days of Christmas, but had way too many mental blanks for what happened on which day - unfortunately, in my version last night, my true love sent me lots of different chickens. I was okay going backwards from 5 gold rings, but on the way up, I got lots of chickens. Apparently they were a swimming too. If nothing else, she laughed. So did I - I unwound so much.