FFfAW Challenge – 178th

This is my effort for this week’s challenge
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/33797404/posts/1959104995

Our photo prompt is provided by Ted Strutz.

It was the same every day, always too late to catch the first ferry and had to wait in line for the next. The crossing took twenty minutes, loading and unloading another twenty each, so that was an hour.
How he wished there was some other route he could take instead of just sitting here waiting with the rest of the regular crowd.
Hello? What’s this?
The guy in the HGV had opened the back of his truck and was handing out free sodas!
‘It’s OK,’ he said cheerfully. ‘I got the OK from management to do this. Good PR they said.
Sorry I can’t offer spirits, but a cool drink on a hot day has surely got to lift ours. Cheers everyone!’

123 words

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Photo Challenge #226

This week our photo is by Anka Zhuravleva

It was like Time stood still, and she was the only one in the world.
No witnesses, no-one to see her succumb to temptation.
What was a few pennies for this indulgence?
Who would know she had slipped a notch in her diet?
As a gentle breeze rustled her hair, she looked at what she held in her hand.
Was it mocking her, taunting her to let it melt before she had satisfied her craving?
The aroma tantalised her senses, her mouth beginning to water at the thought of sampling the forbidden fruit of No-No Land and calorie values.
Raising it to her lips, she put out her tongue, delicately licking the cold ice……..
and promptly threw it on the ground in disgust.
Another tasteless lie of promise.

Written for https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/19271780/posts/1959380516

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Toys

Frank’s challenge this week:

“For this week’s challenge, share some of your favorite toys, whether they are found in everyday objects or true expressions of a creative mind.”

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/43011194/posts/1959812027

Photo: Grandad and Rembrandt before Grandad’s surgery

As a kid, I had the usual teddy (Grandad above) and dollies, a pram and a tricycle (both second hand), a toy piano which only played the white notes as the black ones for just for show (I carved my name on that and regretted it as soon as I’d finished), but I didn’t have a toy box as such.
Our dollies were the best dressed in the street thanks to my great grandmother, a seamstress, who made my sister and I frocks when she came for holidays and kitted our dollies out with a new wardrobe from the scraps.

Do you count board games or packs of cards as toys? I remember our Christmas stockings had things like that and torches, pencil sets, colouring books, magic bubbles, novelty gifts like a bird you filled with water and blew down the spout to make it sing, or a plastic submarine that sank as it filled with water in the bath, as well as fruit and nuts in them.

I had LEGO until it came out of my ears, a total misunderstanding as it was actually Meccano I wanted, but it got lost in translation. I made money boxes with it, some with compartments for notes (nearly always empty), slots for pennies, and windows to see how much was in there. (How many years did I spend in banking? Let’s see, about 20!)

But I guess the most toys, and most definite toy box, belonged to Maggie.
She had umpteen squeaky toys of varying volume and size, soft animal toys, balls, tug ropes, a Kong and her favourite was a yellow cow with blue legs and a permanent surprised expression. It was actually meant to be a sheep, but it did indeed look like a cow, and tell her to get it, she knew which one it was.
In the Great Sort Out her box of toys got mislaid, so when we bought the boat, she had none at all. We bought her a new ‘baby’, and currently she has three, two of which squeak.

Oh please, No.

We’ve been without a TV for over 11 years now, and whilst it is a novelty to watch someone else’s when we’ve been visiting, what I read today has made me even more adamant and determined not to have one.

One of the major reasons we gave it up was the cost of the licence for the drivel that was broadcast, mostly being talent shows like X Factor, The Voice and Britain’s Got Talent to reality garbage like Big Brother and I’m a Celebrity for the wannabes and hasbeens of the entertainment world.
Now we have the knock off Celebrity Big Brother and forgive me, but I want to puke.

The line up has just been revealed, and I don’t know any of them…… save Kirstie Alley from Cheers.
There is a hairdresser who looks like a cross between a toby jug and a member of ZZ Top, a porn star and some guy who boasts being the human plastic Ken whilst another contestant is a Barbie pout-a-like (I can already anticipate the script) plus heaven knows who else. But please don’t let the rumour be true………………….
that Samantha Grant AKA Markle the Mouth’s daughter and step sister to our new Duchess, is waiting in the wings to take part. Bet her Dad is kicking himself for not volunteering, but then maybe he’ll be a surprise guest. He is now saying he never got a wedding invite, as he has done previously when looking for the sympathy vote and before his staged photoshoot and “heart attack/heart surgery”.

If we did have TV, I am likely to Kung Fu the screen and put my fist or foot through it.
Still, put Markle and Marklette on a desert Island for I’m a Celebrity and leave them there. I promise I won’t laugh when it turns out to be the wrong one.

FOWC with Fandango — Substance

Substance: one of those words that can be used when describing something of matter, or in the instance below, a character trait of being significant or important.
I remember watching a TV drama called A Woman Of Substance starring Jenny Seagrove. The book was by Barbara Taylor Bradford I believe.  I didn’t read the book, and honestly can’t remember much about the programme, apart from Ms Seagrove in the lead role.

As kids we would often come in from playing covered in some unwanted substance, like mud!
Then of course dogs love to roll in suspect substances don’t they, the smellier the better. Kiz found a nice fresh cowpat and rolled contentedly until practically every inch of her was covered. We were camping at the time and had to give her a shower from the stand-pipe on site. She was not impressed and we got soaked. No, she did not sleep in the tent, which was only just big enough for the two of us (pup tent as Hubby called it, no pun intended) as her bed was made up in the back of the car.

Written for https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/79388113/posts/1959626390

 

Random Acts of Kindness Award: Take 2

Thank you Michelle for nominating me for this, one of your own special awards.
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/85554229/posts/1958615839

I’ve been lucky to have been nominated for this award twice

The rules are simple.

1. Tell who you nominate and why.

2. Copy and share the picture that shows the award, posted above.

3. Share  a paragraph of something that impacted your own life in the way of receiving kindness or how you extended kindness to someone else.

4. Nominate anyone or share to your own page. If you so choose to Participate. Tag or pingback to the original person who nominated you, or the original post.

 https://mwsrwritings.com/2018/07/30/random-acts-of-kindness-award-ka/

I have so many friends in the blogging community, this is for you all. I hope I can be as supportive and compassionate as you have been to me.
Kindness comes in many forms to people and animals alike.
When we were so anxious about Maggie last year, MSM stepped up and looked after her overnight rather than us have to rehome her. Then when it came to selling the boat, she took us in until we found a new home. Other friends chipped in and helped in the move and furnishing. We are privileged to know such wonderful people. Thank you for being You and there for us.

How do you like it……….. filled or naked?

We’ve had rain for more than twenty four hours and it’s wonderful.
The roses have recovered and their cindered petals fallen off with new growth coming.
The grass is beginning to revert to green, pavements are cooling, the dog isn’t so restless and we are sleeping better at night.

The tomatoes are turning on the vine, and I have visions of them all doing so at once and my freezer being stocked with little else!
The next time I cook with onions I shall be using our own, and the beans are providing sufficient for a meal every other day.
Today we had the second part of my two-fer chilli, this time with a jacket potato and veg.

Hubby’s dinner is on the left, mine on the right. Can you see a difference?