I have tried to keep up with the writing prompts and challenges hosted by other bloggers – but I will admit, I think I am missing out on a lot more than I am participating in. I am very grateful to other bloggers who take the time to provide all sorts of interesting prompts for us. I am lagging way behind I know.
Life is busy here! A lot has happened. It certainly will give me more to write about in the future. But right now, it is affecting the time I have to write. I am still enjoying reading posts from other bloggers – and there are a lot of posts! I will mostly read and like – I know my comments on other bloggers posts are becoming rarer – SORRY! Just so hard keeping up with you all!
I saw a question and answer post from Rory, aka A Guy Called Bloke today and thought I would work on a post. I have not done one of these before, so I hope I have understood the instructions from Rory correctly:
https://aguycalledbloke.blog/2019/01/24/oh-no-way-oh-so-way-4/
It reads like a long list of confessions! I think for each question from Rory, we are supposed to write OH NO WAY if we have never done it or OH SO WAY if we have done it.
Questions from Rory
Smoked a joint
OH NO WAY
Never smoked anything in my life. Never remotely interested.
There were a couple of lads smoking some kind of noxious tuna fish gunja at the end of my road a couple of weeks ago – out in the open on the public pavement. I gave them a wide berth because the smell from the fumes was foul. I was texting Goldfinch at the time I was passing and I heard one of them say to the other, “she is filming us”. My old battered Nokia does not even have a camera. But I have been nervous every time I walk that way.
Gone commando [underwear free]
OH SO WAY
I am not going to supply any detail.
It was Goldfinch’s idea – not mine.
He had some interesting ideas at times.
But the British weather is so different from Australia. I think I complained so much that he realized it was quite a big ask of me!
Attended a naughty film at the cinema
OH NO WAY
I like family friendly entertainment. I once went with a group of friends to watch a film that we thought was a family movie. It was rated a “12” so I expected there to be one or two scenes or swear words that I would not particularly enjoy. But there was so much distasteful innuendo in the first half an hour that I decided I would leave. I didn’t say anything to my friends. I went to use the ladies and then I went to the foyer of the cinema where I bought myself a soft-drink and sat on the sofas.
Within about fifteen minutes one of my sisters and another friend appeared. They said they were not enjoying the film at all. So the three of us sat and chatted and waited for our other friends. It did not take long for the others to appear. They said it seemed to get worse and worse. We decided to go over to “Frankies & Bennies” and have drinks instead.
Skipped school when younger/now
OH SO WAY
Around the age of fourteen, I did skip school a number of times. The first time I skipped school was with my best friend. We met in Wigan and then caught the train into Manchester. I changed my clothes into a pair of jeans and a top. I was tall enough for most people to walk past me without questioning whether I should be at school.
But my best friend obviously did not think she could get away with it. She wore her uniform all day and carried her flute case around with her. She said if anyone asked her why she was not at school, she would tell them she had come into Manchester for a music exam. There was a famous music collage called Chetham’s School of Music. We did not do anything particularly exciting. We wandered around the shops in the city center. It must have been before the bomb that destroyed the city center back in 1996? I remember us trying on shoes on a shoe-shop named “Shellys”. We also walked around the “House of Fraser” which is a large department store.
Made a prank call
OH SO WAY
As a child there were a group of us who went through a short spell of making prank calls from the public phone box at the end of our road. We were daft. We used to ring our own families. One of my friends told me to ring her parents and tell them that I was delivering their pizza order and we had the thirty six pizzas they ordered but we did not have enough fries to fulfil their order so we were sending baked beans instead. I was so hopeless, I was caught out of course. My Dad did not become too cross. But he did ask us if we had nothing better to do. He also strongly warned us not to call any emergency services.
When mobile phones first started to appear, I remember after walking up a mountain, some of the lads thought it was funny to try to ring a pizza delivery company and ask them if they could deliver a pizza to the top of Ben Nevis.
Kissed the corner of a pillow
OH SO WAY
I went through a brief spell of liking a boy band named Take That. I had ignored them for a long time. But then they released this song named “Pray” and the video featured the boys on the beach in their swimwear. What I can say? I was just about entering puberty and the hormones were all excited by these lovely boys.
I am sure I hugged my pillow imagining it to be Mark Owen – as I think many teenage girls did so. When I watch the video now it makes me cringe. But I know I am not the only woman in her thirties who has a very soft spot for the Manchester boy-band.
Been Drunk with your parents
OH NO WAY
I have had a glass of wine with my parents – but neither they nor I do “drunk”. One of my relatives was an alcoholic and my Dad was always quite strict about alcohol. We were allowed to buy one bottle and share it as a family. But there was never a store of alcohol in the house. He would not approve of heavy drinking.
Drunkenness has never been acceptable to my parents. A little alcohol in moderation was their standard.
Sexted
WELL…HARD TO DEFINE
I have received text messages from Goldfinch indicating a little of what he was looking forward to when he visited me in London. I have definitely responded indicating I was very much looking forward to his arrival. But I think they were tame really. But those messages would definitely make me blush!
Within a relationship I think it makes sense to receive a flirty text message from your partner. What I find bizarre is when men who I am not involved with send a rather risque message to indicate their interest. Some of those messages make me want to run a mile! I have had a few of these recently, and I am baffled by them.
Relationship with a work colleague
KIND OF
My teenage sweetheart – we became close friends by working together on the same projects as volunteers. We courted for several years. I ended the relationship at the age of 24 – I keep meaning to write about him. He was a special part of my life, and I am sure he kept me safe during a time that could have been turbulent for me.
After that, there were other workmates who either I had a bit of a crush on, or in other cases a workmate indicated their interest in me. I have a lot of embarrassing stories about workmates, some of which already published in posts:
Then there was a really nice man I worked with. he seemed so decent, so clean-cut, so kindly, humble, intelligent, conversational. He didn’t smoke or swear. I liked working with him and he seemed to like working with me. He used to make sure he took his breaks at the same time and we would fall into deep conversation. He asked if he could meet me outside work and take me for a drink. I was very happy.
He shared a house with two other people who worked for the same company. One of them came to me one day and said she knew her housemate liked me a lot, but he was struggling to tell me that he was married. His wife was overseas with their son and he sent her money from his wages. She told me they are are in a loveless marriage and he had worked overseas for around ten years sending money to her, so she could provide for their son. Once I knew, I could not go through with going for a drink with him outside work. I briefly spoke to him about it during one of our tea-breaks, explaining that I couldn’t let anything develop while he was legally married. He seemed disappointed, but I sensed he respected me even more. I was truly very fond of him.
Then when I came to London…I had a lot of single male workmates. There were very few of us single women compared to men, so it does not surprise me that so much attention came my way. I went out for drinks, meals, to see films and music events with a number of them, but I didn’t feel anything other than friendship.
Then along came Jack. I did not work directly with Jack, but we worked for the same charities and we were team-mates on some projects.
Been robbed, burgled, hussled or scammed
OH SO WAY
When we were teenagers, somebody broke into our garden and shed and stole our bikes.
We were gutted because we loved going out on our bikes with our friends and sometimes with my Dad and riding for miles.
Having our garden shed broken into was a real shock to the system – who would do that? We felt very shaken. It wasn’t even anything of high value – they were all second-hand bikes to begin with, but we could not afford to replace them. I am sure anyone who has been the victim of a theft will relate to that feeling.
Placed a bet – as in gambling
OH NO WAY – but only after the lesson I learnt over a phone in radio competition
Dad had bought me my own little radio.
Oh how I loved my radio! There was a daily competition which captured my youthful excitement and enthusiasm. I think if you heard three specific songs in a row you had to call the number advertised and if you were caller 252 you won. You would win £1000. They gave away £1000 everyday. I never did win, but when the phone bill came…OUCH OUCH OUCH!
Dad showed me the phone bill…I could not believe my eyes. Pages and pages of me ringing the same phone number at a premium rate over and over. I spent a lot of money on trying to win…around £400.
What did Dadda do? What do you think he did? I had to pay it back effectively by not receiving my pocket money for many many months. I was pretty fed-up to have no pocket money for all that time, but Dad was very effective in helping me to understand the cost of gambling in any form.
This experience taught me never to gamble. I still pull a face when anyone talks to me about buying lottery tickets, or playing bingo, or having a flutter…Nooooope!!! Never liked the taste of any form of gambling since my bitter experience as a 13 year old.
Which is what Dad wanted. He had big money troubles as a young man. He became engrossed in horse-racing and other sports. Lost a lot…won next to nothing. He stopped gambling before he married my mum, but he still found it difficult to be strict with his pennies. However, he managed, and I take my hat off to him for how well he did.
Gotten lost going around a corner
OH SO WAY
I have worked in many locations and venues up and down the country. For example the Manchester Arena, the London Arena, sports stadiums, conference centres and theatres of all shapes and sizes. There are all sorts of corridors, some kind of bleak, passages, stairwells, that you work your way through during the installation and dismantling of a major event. I have definitely found myself very lost in some of those venues.
Stuck my chewing gum anywhere except the bin
OH NO WAY
I always thought it was disgusting to find other people’s chewing gum under the desks when I started high school. Some noggin had put their chewing gum on a radiator in our music classroom. I sat next to the radiator and the chewing gum ended up in my hair. Grrrrr! I have also had the privilage of scraping chewing gum from the seats at public arenas and stadiums – nice!
Caramel 