September Story

Just eight of us one with a cold, one on holiday and one suffering from lack of sleep.

Rosemary got most votes. 

Next month STOOD CLOSE

August

A full house apart from one with four winners with two votes so just one was selected by John which happened to be mine. So here it is.

Back over

If you could live your life back over would you want to? If on dying you were given the opportunity to relive your life as it was or accept the unknowing nothingness of complete oblivion what would you choose. I would take the oblivion. My decision might be different if I had control to change things by using the wisdom that does come with age. We older people are not torn by jealousy or desires We know that whatever we lust after loses it lustre after attaining it.

If it was possible to dip in and out of our life stream to bring peace to an event where there was anger or fear that perhaps might change my mind.

Even then would that be enough to make you want to live it again I doubt as it would be like seeing Shawshank Redemption over and over again. It is the unrolling unknown that brings the life into our existence. And the magical moments that live in our memory.

I mentioned to my neighbour Ted who was a member of the U3A the subject I would be writing about in this month's creative writing. I asked him what would he do to change his life and after reflecting for a moment he said he would change things so that he would be living in Scotland where he was born.

I asked why were the people better or was Edinburgh so nice a city to be attractive enough to want to go back? I told him I would not be offended if he said it was the people.

He said he had a lot of friends there but I pointed out not too unkindly I hope, that they were all dead. He said it is such a beautiful city. He recalled a time during the war in which he was involved, manning a Landing craft support ship. It was just after D Day he returned to Scotland and getting out of the train he walked up the main road from the station with all the historic buildings bathed in sunlight with few people about and the feeling he had was that the whole scene was bathed in a ethereal light it transformed his features at the remembrance.

I did wonder if it was the sunlight being such a rare sight in Scotland. But I didn't say that to him either.

There is a philosophy that suggests we ought to accept what is happening including our thoughts each moment. If adopted it will mean life is no longer a struggle to fight to change what is.

In today's paper the young woman dancer who lost her leg in the roller coaster accident says she would not change what happened to her as it made her a better person.

In my case if I was able to go back in time to reassure my parents when the bombs landed all around us in Gosport that we would all survive the war and there was no need to evacuate to the Isle of Wight it would have changed everything for the better. The IOW experience was good but coming back to the mainland was too much of a sacrifice.

But I know if my mother had the same question put to her when she passed through the gate and had a chat with Gabriel I would not have come into the world in the first place.

Next month    "Be Naughty" 

Meeting at Sue's, Pat declared the winner 
Just Loosen

I'm not sure about you, but I wish this digital age had passed me by. Its difficult to ignore as its integrated into our everyday life.

The young ones have no fear, and therein lies the difference. We ARE afraid we might break something or be unable to return to our starting point.

One evening, watching an interesting programme on the T.V. A button on the remote was pressed in error. Result, black screen. My husband had dropped off clutching the hand control and I woke him up trying to loosen his grip. We tried everything to no avail so took a look in the booklet, which might as well have been written in Klingon. The decision was made to press every button starting at the top. Fortunately the 2^nd and 3^rd buttons restored the picture and sound. Hooray. By then, of course, we had missed all the interesting parts of the story. Now the remote is in a remote place, just in case.

The battery had worn out on my mobile and as it was less expensive to purchase a new phone than a new battery , went ahead. The helpful young sales lady transferred all my contacts onto the new one, or so I thought. However only half of them were there...how annoying was that.

Now, I am not against new technology, just think of the Space Station. Then there’s PokeMon. It apparently means Pocket Monkey. I don't understand how people can spend so much time searching for things that aren’t there! Life is too short for this, and I do wonder if the next generation will be able to tell the difference between the real and the unreal world.

Next month cheznous Back over

June Meeting at John's

Lots of excuses today only seven of us. Joan won with five votes and Jenny had two.


She had Taken

Vera Bench was sat in her kitchen and thought how pleased she was that the days had gone by so quick. She still shuddered when she thought of the risk she had taken two weeks ago. The saga began when she and her best friend June met up with some old school chums they had not seen for ages. They were all sat enjoying their food and drink when Lucy one of the crowd and the youngest at 65  asked what everyone had been doing. Vera could not believe the things the others had done for different charities Jean sky diving Ruth scuba diving Lucy free fall Mary had even gone down in a cage to feed the Sharks. They made her and June feel very inadequate as they had only run the Race for Life. There was a moments silence and then June announced what I was going to do in a few weeks. I should have said then that she was kidding but I fell into her trap once again. I should have said straightaway  that she could risk her life if she wanted to but not me but of course the moment passed. I could not believe that I would actually do it I remembered that I checked my will and made arrangements with my daughter to take care of Masie my dog  if any thing happened of course she said "mother you are being stupid if you are that afraid cancel". I must admit I thought about it but then I saw all the sponsorship money people said they would give and I gave in. The day finally arrived and we made our way to the meeting place there were ten of us. As the instructor put on the straps and safety harness and told us all what to do It finally hit me what I was about to do. Yes,I was about to do a Bungie jump which meant hurling myself of this bridge, me who's afraid to climb a ladder. As I stood on the platform saying a last minute pray the instructor asked if I had removed everything out of my pockets as I had to dive of the stand not jump. My heart was beating so fast I felt as though I was going to pass out so very quickly I closed my eyes and dived into the abyss. As I let out one all mighty scream and opened my eyes I saw to my horror my false teeth falling to the canyon floor. Yes I had not removed them. That's why two weeks later I am still having soup and soft food waiting for my new dentures. Would I do it again yes I tell my friends when Nelson gets his other eye back.


"Just loosen" next month's words

June at Jack and Joan's

June meeting

Despite winning last time I again got most votes mainly because my story made them laugh.

Up to much

Reminds me of him and him Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker

I can picture the two of them leaning on a five bar gate overlooking a lush green field dotted with browsing cows. Ronnie Barker with a straw in his mouth both dressed in rustic clothing of a bygone era. They are talking about Rodney a friend of Ronnie Corbett nicknamed dribble. Dribble was campaigning the local community for support in his attempt to get elected as local parish councillor.

Barker was looking at a leaflet published by Dribble pinned to the gate.

He tapped the photo of dribble with the straw and asked Corbett.

Is he up to much?

What do you mean up to much.

Well you know up to much like he'll never be a school monitor if he isn't up to much.

School monitor you're going back a bit aren't you. You telling me you had school monitors in your school.

We had a milk monitor.

What did he do then.

He monitored the milk of course what do you think he did. No TV monitor them days. He came round with the milk and gave us a half a pint bottle each with a straw. Except Johnny Green cause he had a version.

Version what's that then

You know a version when you don't like something cause it doesn't like you.

Oh you mean aversion

It's the same thing.

No it ain't a version is when you give your version and somebody else gives there's.

Give there's what?

Their version God Blimey.

They both lapsed into silence looking at the bucolic scenery. Then Ronnie Barker broke the silence.

Is he up to much?

You mean is Dribble up to much?

Course I did, is he?

Yes he's up too much at least the missus thinks so.

Why's that then?

Last night when I said to the misses are you up to it she said no as Dribble had came round the night before when I was bringing the cows home.

When was that then.

Late,

How late?

Twelve, I had to rescue daisy bell from the ditch when she tried to get into the next field.

Why did Daisy Bell want to go into the next field then.

Because of Arthur.

Arthur?

Arthur the bull.

Why did your missus say dribble was up to much.

She didn't.

You said she did.

No I said she said he is up too much.

Does he still dribble?

Dunno I'll ask the Missus.

Next month  "She had taken"

April at Pat & Brian's

My story, all true, won this time. Four votes.

In this country

In this country? Which one though?  England perhaps as in my case it's the only one I know apart from my sally into Wales many years ago when I was about twelve. If it is Wales then in this country my first and second impression was not very good. The first visit in 1946 came about when a friend of our family lets call him Tom, took his family there by train to visit his wife’s relatives in Cardiff Don't know why but my parents agreed I could go with them although I don't remember wanting to go. Perhaps they wanted me to go and with luck not come back, who knows.

Again I can't understand why no one knew what the sleeping arrangements would be. As there was no room in the proverbial Inn. I had to go into a neighbouring house and share a bed with a man I had never met. Could that happen 2016 without an uproar but the night passed without me being molested as far as I remember. On the second day I didn't feel that wonderful and when we went out together that is Tom, his wife and their two girls by bus, the conductor, they had them in those days, peered at me I think he said, You're covered in spots, as his accent was as clear as BT Indian help line. Indeed I was covered in spots, subsequently I was told it was the water. Not sure I believe it.

All in all it wasn't a very good holiday. It didn't end that well either A train journey back nobody had cars then and a walk home I found the house locked up. My brother was outside and seeing me he said Mum is next door with Mrs Turner I'll tell her. He left me standing outside with the suitcase while he climbed over the wall separating the two gardens and disappeared inside.

I waited and waited and waited thinking they don't care if I'm back or not and it seemed a very long time when from around the front of the house mum appeared having only just been told that I was home. My dear brother forgot to tell her.

The second bad time was when we took a short break to that bleak cottage with the axe in the outhouse that had rusty stains on the blade that and the constant rain we made the short break even shorter. I've just remembered it was three times not twice when I ventured into this rain swept country

The third time was much better it was when we took our son to St Donat's a medieval castle in the Vale of Glamorgan, overlooking the Bristol Channel. Now an international secondary school called Atlantic College. He wasn't going there to take a baccalaureate but to enjoy the experience for two weeks. The facilities available for those privileged to go there for their education in those glorious settings gave me an impression of something out of this world. It was actually bathed in sunshine too. Maybe Wales isn't so bad after all.

Next month "up to much"

Pat wrote the winning story

Have to be

We were on our way to the airport, and the traffic was stop-go especially on the M25. Where are they all going I wondered, we have to be there by 10 am. At last we arrived at Heathrow. KEEP LEFT for TERMINAL 4 the sign flashed at us. “get over” we chorused. “if you want to drive, take over” our father shouted back. There was silence until we found the correct long term parking. “Now let's all remember where we have parked the car”, he cautioned. We each took our luggage and went down in the crowded lift. What a to do. We all flopped into the only available seats as there was 30 minutes to wait till check in. It was rather exciting watching other travellers staring up at the signs bumping into each other.

The tannoy kept blaring incomprehensible information. What did it say? We were sipping our airport tea when a smartly dressed young man asked our father to watch his suitcase for a while. Of course we would, and off he went. Shortly after there was another announcement that we could actually hear “ DO NOT LEAVE YOUR BAGS UNATTENDED OR THEY MAY BE DESTROYED”. Now this was in the 80's when the Irish were intent on blowing things up. All eyes flew to the suitcase, then to our father. “is it ticking”? My brother asked. No one laughed.As time went on we became more paranoid. Then it was time for us to check in and as we began to gather our belongings the young man reappeared smiling and thanking us for being so kind. We all breathed a sigh of relief and joined the long queue, shuffling our bags along.

Then I spotted him. A gentleman wearing long robes ahead of us. “ he has no luggage” I whispered to my father in a nervous voice. We all watched him as he inched closer to the desk. He boldly walked up and chatted to the attendant, who then directed him to another check in. He had been in the wrong queue all along! Phew!

Finding our seats on the plane, I found myself in between my brother, who had the window seat and a young man. As we taxied out of the airport onto the runway, the engines began to race, I noticed the young man gripping the arms, and stealing a furtive look at his face, noticed beads of perspiration on his forehead. Panic and suspicion was setting in again and I was gripping the armrest too. We took off and he glanced at me “J sis defray” in French (pardon my spelling) then ,in English, “its my first flight” he said with a lovely smile. Mental not to self, stop being suspicious of strangers.