Around mid-morning small son came up to me and said,
"I'm hungry."
I gave my stock reply to this statement,
"Did you eat ALL your breakfast?"
"Yup! But I'm still very hungry. Can I have a snack?"
"OK. What kind of snack were you thinking about?"
"Uuuum... Not sure... Shall I have a look at what's there?"
This roughly translates as "I know exactly what I want and I know that you don't want me to have it, so I'm playing for time and I'm hoping if I get it myself, so you don't have to leave your laptop, you'll just let me have it." I know this, but I'm on a roll writing-wise and I know if I get up, the moment will pass - so I say:
"OK - but bring it up and show me before you tuck in so I can see if it's OK."
He seems happy enough with this and takes off to the kitchen. I hear the stepping stool being pulled across the floor so I'm guessing that he's going for the biscuits which are in a tin on the highest shelf. Moments later he appears by my side. In his hand is a can of Coke.
I give him my best poker look. "I'm not sure that Coke is going to take the hungry feeling away."
He looks at the can in his hand then looks straight at me and replies,
"Maybe. But I'd like to check."
Of course I folded.
Friday, 31 July 2009
Friday, 24 July 2009
I'm Baaaaack!
At LAST. At. Long. Bloody. Last. It's the summer break. I have six weeks of no school. I would say I haven't felt like this since I was a seventeen except that I used to get 3 months off when I was in High School and 8 weeks off in primary. The British education system is a tad stingier with vacation time. Still I'm not going anywhere near this gift-horse's gob. I'm just pleased that my jammies and I can get reacquainted with the daylight hours.
Now if I can just convince my children to stop expecting me to drive them everywhere I'd be a very happy bejammied bunny.
So to the news.
Big trumpet fanfare!
I officially returned to writing mode at the beginning of the month when at the very last hour (actually I think I had about 3 hours to spare) I sent an entry into Jason Evan's Clarity of Night flash fiction competition. The prompt was a photograph of a crystal glass filled with red wine and the title was "In Vino Veritas". Truth in Wine. Jason had a co-host for this competition - Jaye Wells, author of Red-Headed Stepchild, who herself was a former entrant of a Clarity of Night competition. I have a huge soft spot for Jason's blog and his competitions as it is the place where I took my first tentative steps into the world of writing and it is through him I have come to know so many of you. How Jason holds down a full time job, writes so much incredible poetry and fiction, manages several blogs (although alas the Book Roast is no more), takes breathtaking photos AND runs these competitions at regular intervals, is beyond me. (Rumour has it that he's a damn fine husband and father too). I can only assume he has wizard magic or he has learned how to bend time.
This is the fourth competition of Jason's I've entered and with each one I have gained insight and learned so much from the other entrants. And with each one I got better. In the last competition, Ascension, I got an honourable mention which for me felt like being shortlisted for the Booker!!! This time around my excitement went into the red zone when I diligently tuned in at 5pm yesterday (local time - noon EST) to find that I got 4th place in the competition. Theeeeen I read further down and blow me if I didn't win the Reader's Choice Award. Oh My Giddy Aunt! I immediately went into "Oscar" mode and started thanking the world. I almost went into Sally Field "YOU LIKE ME" mode, (as we share a birthday I have to blame the stars for that impulse) but 20 years of living in England has taught me something about restraint. Instead I went on Facebook and screamed OMG!OMG!OMG! at the world. Much classier.
So to say I'm a tad stoked is a bit like saying the sun's a tad warm. I'm beaming. But the truly fantastic thing about the competition is the company you get to keep. And I have to offer my warm and hearty congratulations to JR Thumbprints (Jim Tomlinson) whose entry,The Sober Truth About Tyler & Zachary on Bickerstaff Street, won the day. I urge you all to have a read because it's just excellent. The Honorable Mentions list included our beloved blogging buddies - (that our means 'belonging to us collectively' - I didn't mean to sound like the queen) - WHIRLOCHRE with A Full Bodied Red, STEPHEN PARRISH with Through a Wine Glass, Darkly and AERIN with Presage. I'd also like to point out that Absolute Vanilla, Sandra Cormier, Peter Dudley, Sarah Laurenson, J.C. Montgomery, Aniket Thakkar, Catherine Vibert and Sylvia Spruck Wrigley all were inducted into the 40's club (which means that they scored over 40 out of the possible 45 points in Jason's marking system) as well as many many more fantastic entries. I hope that new friends will be made this time too. On top of that, in the reader's choice award Peter Dudley took second place with Judgement Day and Chris Eldin took third place with Brotherly Advice. So can I get a big YEEEEEHAW! And say Well Done Us.
There I'll put my trumpet down now.
I do just want to say a massive big THANK YOU to Jason and Jaye for being so incredibly generous and taking the time to sift through 158 entries. It was an amazing contest and I really appreciate your hard work. I also want to say thank you to everyone who gave me their vote for the reader's choice. I'm gobsmacked and thrilled to bits.
And in case I forget my entry is here.*
*Contains lots of non-PG words of the ear-melting variety.
Now if I can just convince my children to stop expecting me to drive them everywhere I'd be a very happy bejammied bunny.
So to the news.
Big trumpet fanfare!
I officially returned to writing mode at the beginning of the month when at the very last hour (actually I think I had about 3 hours to spare) I sent an entry into Jason Evan's Clarity of Night flash fiction competition. The prompt was a photograph of a crystal glass filled with red wine and the title was "In Vino Veritas". Truth in Wine. Jason had a co-host for this competition - Jaye Wells, author of Red-Headed Stepchild, who herself was a former entrant of a Clarity of Night competition. I have a huge soft spot for Jason's blog and his competitions as it is the place where I took my first tentative steps into the world of writing and it is through him I have come to know so many of you. How Jason holds down a full time job, writes so much incredible poetry and fiction, manages several blogs (although alas the Book Roast is no more), takes breathtaking photos AND runs these competitions at regular intervals, is beyond me. (Rumour has it that he's a damn fine husband and father too). I can only assume he has wizard magic or he has learned how to bend time.
This is the fourth competition of Jason's I've entered and with each one I have gained insight and learned so much from the other entrants. And with each one I got better. In the last competition, Ascension, I got an honourable mention which for me felt like being shortlisted for the Booker!!! This time around my excitement went into the red zone when I diligently tuned in at 5pm yesterday (local time - noon EST) to find that I got 4th place in the competition. Theeeeen I read further down and blow me if I didn't win the Reader's Choice Award. Oh My Giddy Aunt! I immediately went into "Oscar" mode and started thanking the world. I almost went into Sally Field "YOU LIKE ME" mode, (as we share a birthday I have to blame the stars for that impulse) but 20 years of living in England has taught me something about restraint. Instead I went on Facebook and screamed OMG!OMG!OMG! at the world. Much classier.
So to say I'm a tad stoked is a bit like saying the sun's a tad warm. I'm beaming. But the truly fantastic thing about the competition is the company you get to keep. And I have to offer my warm and hearty congratulations to JR Thumbprints (Jim Tomlinson) whose entry,The Sober Truth About Tyler & Zachary on Bickerstaff Street, won the day. I urge you all to have a read because it's just excellent. The Honorable Mentions list included our beloved blogging buddies - (that our means 'belonging to us collectively' - I didn't mean to sound like the queen) - WHIRLOCHRE with A Full Bodied Red, STEPHEN PARRISH with Through a Wine Glass, Darkly and AERIN with Presage. I'd also like to point out that Absolute Vanilla, Sandra Cormier, Peter Dudley, Sarah Laurenson, J.C. Montgomery, Aniket Thakkar, Catherine Vibert and Sylvia Spruck Wrigley all were inducted into the 40's club (which means that they scored over 40 out of the possible 45 points in Jason's marking system) as well as many many more fantastic entries. I hope that new friends will be made this time too. On top of that, in the reader's choice award Peter Dudley took second place with Judgement Day and Chris Eldin took third place with Brotherly Advice. So can I get a big YEEEEEHAW! And say Well Done Us.
There I'll put my trumpet down now.
I do just want to say a massive big THANK YOU to Jason and Jaye for being so incredibly generous and taking the time to sift through 158 entries. It was an amazing contest and I really appreciate your hard work. I also want to say thank you to everyone who gave me their vote for the reader's choice. I'm gobsmacked and thrilled to bits.
And in case I forget my entry is here.*
*Contains lots of non-PG words of the ear-melting variety.
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