Little Napoleon

Have you ever met a little Napoleon?

Slipping Away

I feel as though bits of me are slipping away. The more I fulfil my dreams, the more my essence fades. Where is the balance between my destiny and my provenance? The journey doesn’t secure a link to both. Though I’ll gladly discard the parts that are unsecured and tangible, the rest I want to retain.

I feel as though bits of me are slipping away. Maybe one day I will awaken to the butterfly and not the caterpillar. Until then, my doubt lingers like the promise of metamorphosis.

Prepping

Uni starts in a few day’s time and I’m trying to wrap my head around all the basics required just to start. The forums are like live snakes swirling and hissing with comments and information of various people’s thoughts. Some have already completed week one and are discussing week two! Eek! What have I signed up for?

While I tackle the demons inside me, I have one over riding emotion: determination. I want to complete this course and learn to hone my writing skills. A writer’s peak is never reached with exploring and extending one’s reach or capabilities. This is my mission. There is every possibility that I will fail or circumstances will force me to quit. Until that obstacle is reached, I’m persevering.

It’s strange to think the year is almost out and I’m make a resolution. I guess the celebration of a year’s death and the new birth of the next year is not the only time we can make resolutions!

If you had the opportunity to make a resolution or pursue your dreams, what would you wish for or do? Let me know in the comments section or send me a message. It’s always good to hear from you.

In the meantime, ill bid you farewell.

My brain is fried and I need to sleep. Librarians don’t make good zombies!

Nightly bye.

Wine o’ clock

I love long lines of traffic, moody children complaining in the back and the scowling sky threatening to cry out to the world below. Love the stress of trying to balance a workday with after school clubs and meetings for four different children preparing for their new year in a new class (two at new schools!). Love the plucky looks of parents eyeing out my dog hanging out the back window as I park because he’s decided to make himself sick and nearly die, and me spending sleepless nights watching over him then going to work.

Yup. It has been fun. 

Suffice it to say, I am declaring it wine o’ clock and all my worries be damned! As I pour my glass of Shiraz and slip into my oversized pjs that don’t match but are the most comfortable clothes I possess, I feel bubbles of excitement fill my body. The thought of a night of relaxation with XXX on Sky (yes, of course I love Vin Diesel but not in the way you would think – I want to be him, not be with him!!) and my secret stash of Turkish Delights just waiting for me, I plan on forgetting the pending appointments for the week ahead, the deadlines on books I still haven’t finished writing and my start with the Open University where I will be studying a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. 

Yes folks, the future may be bright and filled with opportunities, but just for tonight, I’m taking a break. 

Please, be kind and leave reviews for my books. I will try to keep posts flowing on my blog but they will be intermittent (as they have been for the past few weeks). Apologies if I miss your posts. I will try to keep up but a few will fall through the cracks. 

If you need me, send me an email or contact me through my social media sites. I’m still around, just focusing on not drowning under children, work, studies and pets! 

Hugs to you all. 

Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 24 – “Hats”

Hugh has challenged us to share our favourite hats.  I love this challenge as I do tend to wear a hat as often as I can.

  
Recently,
I took a trip to Zimbabwe and found a rather special cap.  It travelled with me on all my adventures and saved me from many embarrassing hair days!
What sort of hat do you enjoy wearing?  

Why not join in the challenge.  

Here are the instructions on how to do it:

1. Take or choose a photo that you’ve taken of a hat or hats.

2. Create a new post on your blog entitled “Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 24 – “Hats”

3. Add the photo(s) you have taken to the post and tell us a little about what you are showing.

4. Create a *pingback to this post or leave a link to your post in the comments section below so that other participants can view the post.

Mel’s Midweek Writing Menagerie #14

Welcome to my weekly writing prompt series. The rules of the challenge are simple. I’ve provided two options below, and there’s a handy link-up button at the end of the post, so you can upload your contribution and share it with others. If you prefer to use the pingback method, I’ll check out each link […]

https://mbarkersimpson.wordpress.com/2015/09/11/mels-midweek-writing-menagerie-14/

RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt Challenge # 54

This week Ronovan has chosen some fantastic words to challenge our haiku abilities:

Free and Think

After some deliberation, I’ve come up with this haiku…

Free to love someone

Hoping to break boundaries

Thinking with our hearts

With all the hatred floating like flotsam in our world, I hope to push it aside with more love and understanding.

Thanks for reading.

777 Writer’s Challenge

Good evening folks!

The dashing Kev has tagged me with a challenge which, judging from his response, evokes amusing results!

“All you’ve got to do is go to the 7th page of you’re work in progress, go to line 7, copy and paste the following 7 sentences into a blog post, and nominate 7 people you want to inflict the same curse upon Er, I mean, nominate for the same wonderful opportunity… How challenging can it be?”

Well, pretty challenging I have to admit!  Just like Kev, I’m working on a few projects at the moment and had to pick very wisely in case I shocked readers out of their seats with teasers from my new books.  Do I go for the sweet children’s books or delve into the darker regions of unmentionable scripts half-baked, half-written and probably unloved by their half-mad creator?!  

Without wanting to disappointment Kev…oh and you, my lovely readers, I’ve gone ahead and chosen from A Tale of Knots.  It hasn’t gained popularity because of its sad cover that is desperately awaiting a makeover, covering a great story hidden within.  So I’m giving my poor little story a little publicity here with the 777 challenge.

“With a gentle nudge, Ash shoved Babylock on his way.  As he closed his tired eyes, he prayed Babylock would find LeBrush in time.”

Knotsville

Once upon a time, there was a rather special town called Knotsville.  Now the people of Knotsville were a lovely bunch. They worked hard together, weaving and plaiting to make beautiful designs. They sold or displayed their work in other towns. 

Unfortunately, their nice nature left them open to attack!”

Excerpt From: Eloise De Sousa. “A Tale of Knots.” Lulu.com, 2013-04-06. iBooks. 
This material is protected by copyright.
Now for the fun.  I need to choose some lovely bloggers as my victims nominations!  *evil grin* 

I choose…

Vashti Quiroz-Vega

Annette Rochelle Aben

Teagan Geneviene

Random (aka Ravyn Whyt)

Lance Greenfield

SC Skillman

Jane Dogherty
Thanks for participating or stopping by to read.  😀

Saturday Night Confessions!

It’s been an interesting week of highs and lows, to’s and fro’s, and I am happy to say the lows are receding like a tide after full moon. I await the second wave of proverbial brown stuff hitting the fan, but hey-ho, that’s life.

My confession for this week is…

Hmmm, let me think…

Fun or serious?

Well I have had way too much serious so I will go with fun.

My confession is that I once managed to scoff up two cans of baked beans all on my own! Not a great feat, but still something I don’t just share with anyone. I go through phases of extreme hunger and can eat anything in front of me, but cravings win over and I tend to over-indulge. Baked beans is pretty tame though.

What are your secret cravings or indulgences? Do you have a sweet tooth or a savoury palate?

Hmm, now I’m thinking of gherkins with ice cream! Yum! Don’t knock it till you try it. 😉

Share your favourite meals with me and let’s see how many people have the same tastes.

Pic credits go to zazzle.co.uk and quickmeme.com

Becoming a Champion

Does anyone watch Man vs Food? It’s an incredibly mouth watering tv show that we follow most weekends whilst having a lie-in, trying to decide what to eat for breakfast. What better way to get inspiration than watching a man challenge himself against delicious dishes laid out before him!

My big brother is in town and has amazingly high threshold to extremely hot food. We decided to take him to our local biltong shop (a South African treat made from dried meat…similar to beef jerky but better!) to sample the various flavours of biltong we get here in the UK. We quickly slipped into excitement mode when we saw a poster advertising their Volcano Bite Challenge. Now this challenge is not for the faint hearted. It requires the challenger to eat 50g of the hottest biltong they have in three minutes! After a little bit of convincing, my brother agreed to take up the challenge. We had to return at 2pm so that they could set up the table, the tablet to record said challenger and of course, milk! Yes, it’s that strong!

Since he had never tasted this type of biltong, we thought it wise to purchase some for him to try before the challenge. So, 50g were purchased and we set off to wander around the local shops until 2pm. I tasted a little of the Volcano bites and nearly threw myself in the nearest water fountain. It was hot and had an after-burn that lasted at least half an hour. I watched him happily munch on the rest of the biltong without a flinch. My hero!

2pm rolled round and we returned to The Biltong Emporium. The lovely lady behind the counter had set a table in the corner and carefully put her gloves on. My brother sat down and the tablet started recording. Another cutomer stood nibbling at a bag of garlic bites and chuckled in amusement. We all felt the tension as the biltong was placed before him. The clock was set and the counter began.

Big B started out slow, pacing his chews as his jaw was a bit sore from the precious 50g he had consumed. The Biltong lady urged him to hurry as time ticked away with flittering feet. 30 seconds were squandered on the first piece and we all became vocal, urging him to chew faster!

“Break them smaller!”
“Chew faster!”
Chuckle!
Munch! Munch!
“Wow, he’s not crying!”
“One minute left!
“CHEW FASTER!”

With only Thirty seconds left on the clock and about three medium sized pieces to go, a sigh of resignation escaped my brother. He made one last spirited attempt to break up a long piece and chew it, but the time ran out faster than his jaw could bite.

We all cheered his attempt and a large glass of milk was provided to quench his thirst and cool his insides after eating so much chilli. We were all pretty impressed at his efforts and though he didn’t beat the challenge, at least he tried and didn’t even break a sweat!

He might not have fought Giants, or broken down a mountain, but he will still remain the Volcano Bite Champion Challenger in my eyes, and that makes another happy memory to add to the many I’m collecting in the short time we have!