Saturday, April 24, 2010
Up up and away!
Friday, April 23, 2010
To the good folk of England
By tradition, 23 April is the day for a red rose in the button hole, the national flower of England. However, unlike other countries, most English subjects choose not celebrate the day dedicated to their patron saint. In fact, we are more likely to take part in a St. Patrick Day parade marking Ireland's National Day than we are to join in a St. Georges Day celebration.
One of the best-known stories about Saint George concerns his fight with a dragon. But it is highly unlikely that he ever fought a dragon, and even less likely that he ever actually visited England at all. Despite this, St George is known throughout the world as the dragon-slaying patron saint of England.
Sadly for most people in England St George's Day is just another ordinary working day.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Sunday Scribblings - 'Wonder'
Little Jimmy went to stay with Granny and Grandpa. He always had fun when he went there. Grandpa had false teeth! Jimmy was fascinated by them because they seemed to move around in a different direction from his gums! Granny said that they’d never fitted properly and sometimes when he dozed off in his chair they fell out completely!
Well, the other morning when Jimmy came down for breakfast, Grandpa had lost his teeth! He was having great difficulty chewing his toast and had to dip it in his cup of tea to make it soft enough to swallow! 'I wonder where they've gone?' said Grandpa scratching his shiny bald head. But he had a huge toothless smile on his face which made Jimmy suspect that Grandpa was about to have a laugh at his expense!
On the table was a new pack of Jimmy’s favourite breakfast cereal, Chocolate Puffs which Jimmy always called rabbit droppings! There was a big bright splash on the box which said ‘Surprise Gift Inside’ so Jimmy plunged his hand into the cereal to dig it out. 'I wonder what it is?' he laughed. 'I love a a surprise!'
Suddenly he yelped! ‘Ouch’ he shrieked, and when he pulled his hand out Grandpa’s set of false teeth were attached to his middle finger. Jimmy shook his hand and the teeth flew across the room then bounced off the wall and fell to the floor.
‘There they are’ said Grandpa with a huge gummy grin on his face. He bent down to pick them up and suddenly they started to scurry across the carpet. Jimmy, Granny and Grandpa’s eyes popped out! The teeth were alive. Casper the cat looked on terrified. As the teeth rat-a-tatted towards him he turned round and fled, but the teeth were too quick for him and all of a sudden they shot across the floor and bit into Casper’s tail! Casper was not impressed and he spun round and round until the teeth let go and went flying up and up and up into the air.
Jimmy, Granny and Grandpa looked up in amazement, their eyes bulging, wondering where they were going to land next! Then down and down and down they fell, straight into Grandpas open mouth! Plop!
Jimmy decided to have a boiled egg and soldiers instead of rabbit droppings. Hopefully there would be nothing unusual lurking deep inside the yolk!
Don't forget to take part in this weeks Carry On Tuesday. Click HERE!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
One two one two testing.....
Most little children strut around the kitchen wooden spoon in hand, miming to the latest pop song. Every teenager has at some time stood in front of a bedroom mirror singing into their hair brush. Mike was no exception. It was obvious from his very early years that the microphone was a natural extension of his arm. Trouble was, when miming changed to singing things went rapidly downhill. He looked the part, but oh dear, the sounds he produced upset every dog in the district! As he grew older the dream he had of becoming a performer became more and more distant.
Mike was watching a stand up comedian on television one day, and then it came to him. You don’t need to be a singer to use a microphone.
As soon as he was old enough he started visiting local pubs when they held open mike nights. Would-be comedians would scamper up onto the podium, grab the microphone, tell a couple of poor jokes and get booed off again. And our Mike was no exception. But he was determined not to give up. Something inside told him over and over again that one day people would want to listen to him. It would just be a matter of time.
Fast forward three years. Mike has achieved his ambition; he is now the king of the microphone. He spends a few hours each afternoon adjusting and perfecting his words making sure he meets his daily deadline. Every evening hundreds of folk eagerly await his voice and today is no exception. Unseen he checks the time on his watch, clears his throat, takes a sip of water then slides the switch on the microphone to on. The speakers crackle into life and the assembled hoard falls silent in fervent anticipation.
‘Good evening ladies and gentlemen’ shouts Mike. ‘The train now standing at platform three is the eighteen ten service to London Waterloo.’
Don't forget to join in with this weeks Carry On Tuesday theme. Click HERE!
Sunday, April 04, 2010
http://carryontuesdayprompt.blogspot.com/
Friday, April 02, 2010
The Easter story re-told
This week our prompt at Sunday Scribblings is Mentor. Let me tell you about Jez...
Jez wanted to take his mind off what was to happen the next day! So that Thursday night he gathered together a bunch of his friends for a meal at his local pub, The Cross Inn; the last supper he jokingly called it! Vast quantities of food were consumed along with far more beer and wine than would normally have been drunk on a Thursday night! But with good reason.
Jez would never knowingly hurt a soul. He was affectionately known as the Good Samaritan. Jez was their mentor, the person they would turn to when life threw problems at them. He always put everybody before himself. Unfortunately, an act of kindness he'd carried out a few weeks earlier had been misconstrued and as a result he was to be hauled up before the local magistrates to answer for a misdemeanour he’d not committed.
His friends were in no doubt that the case against him would be thrown out of court, but nonetheless they wanted him to know that they were behind him whatever happened. At least that’s what they thought. But on Friday morning at ten o’clock as they looked on from the public gallery things began to go in a very different direction from that they’d expected. Not only was he found guilty of a crime he’d not carried out, but he was ordered to be taken down and held in custody for six months.
It was not a good Friday and what happened that day would remain in the memories of his friends for the rest of their lives. The shock was too much for Jez to bear and as he was led from the dock his legs gave way beneath him. Even as he lay there he whispered that it was not the fault of the magistrate, he forgave him because he simply hadn't know what actually happened. But something was seriously wrong with Jez. An ambulance was called but he died before it reached the hospital.
On Sunday morning Jez’s special friend Martha was given permission to visit the funeral home and bid him farewell. She was shown into a room where the coffin sat on a bench surrounded by flowers and candles. She walked slowly forward, in her hand a silver cross which she was to place in the coffin for Jez to take with him into the next life. But to her shock and horror the coffin was empty. It was as if he'd risen from the dead. The room seemed to spin and she passed out on the floor. Everyone including the funeral director said that she’d imagined it, that the traumatic events of the past few days had played tricks with her mind.
The next morning she was lying in her bed unable to get up and face the day. She thought she heard a mans voice say her name from somewhere in the darkened room.'Why are you crying Martha?' he asked. She said that they'd taken Jez and she didn't know where he was. Then then in the gloom she saw the figure of a man. The figure of Jez. She watched as he waved to her.'Tell them I'm ok' he said then he faded away and once again she was all alone.
Martha was never the same again. Whatever happened that morning whether real or imaginary, changed her life. At Jez's funeral she started smiling, certain in the knowledge that the coffin contained nothing more than a small silver cross. She couldn’t stop smiling and she’s smiled ever since!
Jez wanted to take his mind off what was to happen the next day! So that Thursday night he gathered together a bunch of his friends for a meal at his local pub, The Cross Inn; the last supper he jokingly called it! Vast quantities of food were consumed along with far more beer and wine than would normally have been drunk on a Thursday night! But with good reason.
Jez would never knowingly hurt a soul. He was affectionately known as the Good Samaritan. Jez was their mentor, the person they would turn to when life threw problems at them. He always put everybody before himself. Unfortunately, an act of kindness he'd carried out a few weeks earlier had been misconstrued and as a result he was to be hauled up before the local magistrates to answer for a misdemeanour he’d not committed.
His friends were in no doubt that the case against him would be thrown out of court, but nonetheless they wanted him to know that they were behind him whatever happened. At least that’s what they thought. But on Friday morning at ten o’clock as they looked on from the public gallery things began to go in a very different direction from that they’d expected. Not only was he found guilty of a crime he’d not carried out, but he was ordered to be taken down and held in custody for six months.
It was not a good Friday and what happened that day would remain in the memories of his friends for the rest of their lives. The shock was too much for Jez to bear and as he was led from the dock his legs gave way beneath him. Even as he lay there he whispered that it was not the fault of the magistrate, he forgave him because he simply hadn't know what actually happened. But something was seriously wrong with Jez. An ambulance was called but he died before it reached the hospital.
On Sunday morning Jez’s special friend Martha was given permission to visit the funeral home and bid him farewell. She was shown into a room where the coffin sat on a bench surrounded by flowers and candles. She walked slowly forward, in her hand a silver cross which she was to place in the coffin for Jez to take with him into the next life. But to her shock and horror the coffin was empty. It was as if he'd risen from the dead. The room seemed to spin and she passed out on the floor. Everyone including the funeral director said that she’d imagined it, that the traumatic events of the past few days had played tricks with her mind.
The next morning she was lying in her bed unable to get up and face the day. She thought she heard a mans voice say her name from somewhere in the darkened room.'Why are you crying Martha?' he asked. She said that they'd taken Jez and she didn't know where he was. Then then in the gloom she saw the figure of a man. The figure of Jez. She watched as he waved to her.'Tell them I'm ok' he said then he faded away and once again she was all alone.
Martha was never the same again. Whatever happened that morning whether real or imaginary, changed her life. At Jez's funeral she started smiling, certain in the knowledge that the coffin contained nothing more than a small silver cross. She couldn’t stop smiling and she’s smiled ever since!
Thursday, April 01, 2010
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