Truly A Winter Wonderland

Today’s question reminded me of the best holiday I ever had and a very special moment that really moved me:

What is your favourite winter memory?

My favourite winter memory is without doubt our holiday in Sweden. It was truly the holiday of a life time! Although we had no idea how much fun we were going to have. We just flew out there to visit a friend named Jan (pronounced Yan) without having any idea what he had in store for us.

We did so many things that we had never dreamed of. Our friend Jan surprised us every day with something special. I have never had a holiday quite like it.

We went husky sledging up a mountain and warmed our cockles in a hotel at the top which had no electricity, but a huge open fire.

We went go-carting on a frozen lake in Northern Sweden…I ended up skidding way off the track and then driving the wrong way round the track. I just spent the whole time laughing and screaming.

The snow-mobiles our friends took us on in the middle of the night in Northern Sweden – WOW! At midnight he told us we were going to go and empty the bins.  He told us to all get dressed in our ski wear.  We all traipsed outside and stood in the middle of the snow waiting for Jan who had disappeared when suddenly a mighty roar erupted and bright lights. Jan’s friends appeared on their snow mobiles and gave us two hours of the most fun I have ever had in the snow.  The mountain was empty of tourists at night, so they rode all over.  I was screaming with excitement while clinging to the driver with all my might.

I mentioned in a post recently our adventure with the herd of reindeer:

“You Cannot See Because Of The Ice On The Window”

That holiday was amazing.  Our friends gave us the time of our lives.  It was a complete adventure to all of us, especially because all we did was book our flights and arrive, our friend Jan arranged everything for us, all our accommodation, the hospitality we received from his friends and all of the amazing adventures.

But there was one moment I will never ever forget. One of the highlights of our week was the day our friend totally surprised us by arranging for us to go sledging with husky dogs – that was an incredible experience. I keep meaning to write a post about it because there were a couple of very funny things that happened that day. I must remember to start a post so that is in my drafts folder.

The moment that stands out in my mind as spectacular, was when the sun started to rise at around 10am. It is hard to explain how dazzlingly and breath-takingly beautiful the scenery became. Can you use your imagination to picture the snowy landscape starting to sparkle with gold and glitter, and then every colour of the rainbow? I have never seen anything so magnificent in all my life.

I was sitting on the sledge with the sister of our friend who organized our trip. She did not speak English and I did not speak Swedish. But the incredible coincidence that at the same moment we both started to sing in our own language the same song. It is a beautiful song that my mum used to sing to me, about how the skies full of stars and the sun and moon bring glory to the one that made them and reveal His incredible mind. It came into my head, and I sang the words in English because the melody is so lovely. She knew the same melody, but she was singing the words in Swedish. We both started to cry, because although we could not speak with one another, we had the most extraordinary glimpse into each other’s heart at that moment. We hugged each other tightly.

That was a very moving moment. It taught me a lesson I would never forget. Despite speaking and thinking and dreaming and praying in a completely different language – there was the something very special in our hearts and we understood each other perfectly well.

My Weakness For School Supplies

I am careful with my money – well, I have so little I have to be careful. But I realize I have one particular weakness that I need to watch myself with.

It would appear I have an addiction to stationery.

It started back in my school days. Before we went back to school after the holidays, my Mumma would buy us new pens and pencils for the schoolyear to come. It stirred our enthusiasm for rolling up our sleeves and cracking on with comprehension exercises.

I love the feeling of paperwork being organized and so I have always taken pride in having snazzy files and dividers. I love a well-stocked and tidy stationery supply drawer.

Near to where I work, there are two posh stationery shops….and their window displays are so eye-catching. I am going to try to close my eyes while I walk past them so they don’t put images of gorgeous stationery into my mind that I cannot forget.

There’s Got To Be So Much I Don’t Know

Jim Adams, aka Newepicauthor, the creator of A Unique Title For Me, is hosting SONG-LYRIC-SUNDAY and this week he has chosen the theme: SCHOOL/COLLEGE/EDUCATION/CLASS/DEGREE

I am sorry but I realized last night I had scheduled the wrong post for the wrong week. It totally flummoxed me having to re-jig my schedule at the last moment. I was also grumpier than it is possible to imagine because someone was shrieking and wailing like….well, like a very drunken karaoke singer next door until late late later than it is polite to keep your next door neighbour awake!

So I really struggled to get into my head into gear. The song I have chosen – at the last minute – does not mention any of the words Jim gave us, but it is essentially about getting an education in life itself – learning about what life really means.

This was a song from my schooldays – and it stuck. Echobelly are the band. There is a video at the bottom of this post showing a live performance of this track. But I have included here the song “Great Things” from their album “On” which I must have listened to hundreds of times. Oh how I loved this album. The girls in my class and I, we sang it and I am sure it fired up our bellies to go out there and live!

Now about offering the sozzled midnight crooner next door some singing lessons.

I wanna do great things
I don't wanna compromise
I wanna know what life is
I wanna know everything
I wanna do great things
I don't wanna compromise
I wanna know what love is
Is it something I do to myself

All is fair in love and war
Or so they say and so the saying goes
But I've seen more broken hearts
Than you can count the bullets in the war

Oh what do I know
There's gotta be so much I don't know

I wanna do great things
I don't wanna compromise
I wanna know what life is
I wanna try everything
I wanna do great things
I don't wanna compromise
I wanna know what love is
Is it something I do to myself, something I do to myself

What is life apart from memories of dreams
And friendships we have known
And it smells of childhood tales
And contemplating clothes that you have worn

Oh what do I know
There's got to be so much I don't know

I wanna do great things
I don't wanna compromise
I wanna know what life is
Is it something I do to myself, something I do to myself

Never wanted many things
Except the chance to learn from my mistakes
Funny how you never learn but
Know them when they come around again

Oh what do I know
There's got to be so much I don't know

I wanna do great things
I don't wanna compromise
I wanna know what life is
I wanna try everything
I wanna do great things
I don't wanna compromise
I wanna know what love is
Is it something I do to myself, something I do to myself
Something you do to yourself

Written by: Sonya Madan and Glen Johansson

I Wonder Where It Is Now

What is your favourite game or memory involving a game?

My one word reply to today’s prompt is: MONOPOLY!

Why do I like monopoly? It seems contradictory to who I am as a person. In real life, I have no fond feelings at all for the economic system existing today. Greed is disgusting. I profoundly disagree with real-life monopolies and extremes in economic circumstances.

I do not think people should be allowed to become super-rich, while there are super poor people struggling to provide a meagre amount of food for their families. I think the whole economic system is bonkers and grossly inadequate and immoral. And as for all of the pollution and devastation to our planet that big business is responsible for…ugh, it makes me sick.

But I have always enjoyed a game of monopoly. It goes on for hours and there is so much opportunity for banter. We have had many hilarious nights with great characters during monopoly games over the years. I relish the chance for a monopoly night with close friends and family, but I do have to be careful who I play with, because over the years I have learnt that some people (including the likes of Goldfinch) take board-games very seriously. In fact I reckon if I played my style with Goldfinch he would end our relationship permanently!! I wrote about this subject in the post below:

Nobody Will Play With Me!

I think one of my favourites was in The Isle Of Man. I had recently purchased a travel min-monopoly set. We turned up at the ferry terminal in Douglas only to find that the sea was just too rocky for the Sea-Cat to sail back to Liverpool. Several hours after our scheduled departure, we would all be loaded onto a bigger ferry (The Ben-Me-Cree) that seemed to bob up and down like a cork and made us all feel extremely ill.

During the time we were waiting in the ferry terminal listening out for announcements about how we were going to get back to Liverpool, I decided it could be an opportunity to produce my mini-monopoly set. It drew some interesting characters indeed! There was a young boy who was a brilliant player and kept on rolling the numbers he wanted on the dice (I think he was about eight years, his name I can’t recall – was it Joe? I don’t know). There was my good friend Rick, who had taught me how to cheat. There was a married couple who were very posh, but turned out to be a riot! There was a mother and daughter who decided they would be a team rather than play against each other. We also had an older lady (she was in her seventies who was giggling throughout the game.

That game was so much fun. There was lots of banter and teasing throughout. Rick kept on trying to get Joe to sell him property at scandalous prices. Joe was as hard as steel. Everyone revealed a great humoured personality. I loved it! Because it was clear we were having a great time, we ended up drawing a crowd of spectators, who were clearly wanting either our eight year old or our seventy year old player to win.  Playing monopoly with a group of fellow travellers, some of whom we had only just met – so much fun! I would highly recommend travelling with a mini-game or a pack of cards and being willing to play with strangers if your flight/boat/train is delayed. It definitely makes the time go more quickly.

I wonder where on earth my mini-monopoly set is now?

Sleep Wins

I have so much work to do today….so….forgive me, I am going to choose sleep over writing, because I need to be bright for tomorrow.

With A Glow Of Hope In Her Heart

When you have a dream and your blood boils with determination, it is hard to foresee the number of hurdles you will face on the course ahead. Hope is such a dynamic force. Like a ship opening up it’s sails with confidence, a naive young woman can unwittingly sail into fierce storms she never imagined.

When Luciana Ranallo boarded her flight at Bucharest, all she saw was a dazzling future. Her father believed in her. His email to her at Christmas breathed even more confidence and conviction that she could do anything she dreamt of, she could conquer the world. Her mother was not quite as enthusiastic about little her Lucia departing from her home. It was clear that Dorota was full of anxiety about her twenty-one year old daughter, who was as stubborn and strong-willed as her Italian father Marco, who had only been in the same room as his daughter nine times in her life. But Dorota Luciana would never settle until she left Brașov and went to explore the world for herself, starting with London.

For her sake I am glad that Luciana’s hopes were so vibrant that when arrived at the block of flats in Dalston where a friend of her father’s lived, she hardly noticed the yellow stained walls and ceiling, overflowing ashtrays and recycling boxes full of beer cans and empty sardine tins, and the obnoxious stench floating out of the bathroom.

Luciana was thrilled that she had made it. Tommaso spoke to her in Italian at a pace she was unable to comprehend. She had grown up hearing Romanian and Hungarian, and although she could understand her father’s mother tongue, she missed half of what Tommaso was telling her. She did catch that he was going out and would be back later. He had pushed a pile of takeaway menus in front of her before departing. Luciana was not hungry. She had left her home over eighteen hours earlier, and now all she wanted to do was close her eyes and sleep.

She sent a text message to her sister asking to tell her mama that she had arrived in London and would call her the next morning. Ten minutes later, she was fast asleep. She slept through the music blaring from the flat above. She slept through the screaming from across the road. She slept through Tommaso slamming the front door when he returned home at half past one in the morning. Sirens from police cars and ambulances did not wake her. Her first night in London was a peaceful one. She slumbered obliviously to the frantic buzz of one of the cities in this world that is never really asleep.

A Winter’s Tale

Last night, at five o’clock – five o”clock!!! – it was dark. That curtain of darkness just makes me want to hibernate.

Dark evenings are going to be here for months ahead. I think I need something to look forward to on nights Jack is not with me. Maybe I could set aside time to work on my next fictional series. I have a character who wants to tell her story so much. I loved writing Annabelle’s story in posts published on my blog, it was such a great way to write. I want to do that again. I want to do that with the a character who has been in my mind for years already.

It’s just, it’s a much grittier story. My character is inspired by the real life stories and experiences of some of my friends who moved to London, full of hopes and dreams, from other lands. I want to weave in some of their challenges into the story line. I just hardly know where to begin.

What I have really is a bunch of quite shocking experiences. I guess I have a beginning – a young woman arriving in London full of excitement. I even have dramatic twists – Brexit and The Pandemic – to throw into the mix. The ending I have in mind is a little vague, and I need help with that. But until I concentrate on shaping all of the content I already have in my drafts folder, I am never going to work out that ending.

Perhaps this winter, I will find the time and motivation to let my character’s tale formulate.

Shoe Overload

I need to sort out my shoes. I have been saying that for ages, but really, really I do. The collection of shoes under my bed, at the bottom of my wardrobe, in boxes in my utility room, in boxes in my storage room. It is just ridiculous.

How did I ever acquire so many shoes? Most of them I was given by friends. Others were treasures I found in charity shops. I just don’t know how I managed to lose all sense and self-control when it came to these acquisitions.

Jack keeps telling me I could sell them on one of these websites where you sell stuff. But that is a bit too complicated for me. I have told him he is welcome to sell my shoes on t’internet, but I cannot face it. I would prefer to donate them to charity shops. Which is perhaps ironic since so many of them came from charity shops.

This is a subject I have written about before I am sure. I just feel so overwhelmed by the task I keep on procrastinating it. My shoe collection is still there, still not shrinking, still full of shoes I have not worn in over a year (which goes against my principles: if you don’t use it in a year, give it away).

It’s a chronic condition – shoe overload syndrome. I don’t know when or how I will be cured. But I imagine eventually it is going to be brutal and dramatic.

And…Breathe!

I can process a lot of secular stuff. I have to. So much work to do!!! But I also have to switch off. And I don’t just mean sleep. I need to let my heart breathe.

I find work very satisfying and enjoyable. Even when it is stressful, there is also a sense of reward.

There are certain things which really lift my heart (besides Julie Andrews films) and I need to schedule more time for them. At the moment much of my truly free time is spent curling up next to Jack. It feels good, it feels wonderful.

Maybe because of the Pandemic, and maybe because of a general sense of wellbeing, I am just not making enough time to get out and do the things that refresh me.

But there is time ahead. There is. I am looking forward to spring and summer – that’s the time when my heart breathes most. Until then….curling up with Jack is very sweet.

No Matter How Big The Shark Is

Jim Adams, aka Newepicauthor, the creator of A Unique Title For Me, is hosting SONG-LYRIC-SUNDAY and this week he has chosen the theme: LION/TIGER/BEAR/EAGLE/SHARK

So this is a fun theme! I need fun! So much work on my plate….I need to make some time for something to dance to.

Jim has given me a great opportunity with this them. I have chosen the cover of “Car Wash” by Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliot recorded for the animated film “Shark Tale”. In case you have not seen the film, there is a trailer at the bottom of this post.

Enjoy your Sunday!!!

Y'all small tuna fish, I'm one big catch
(This is a Shark Tale exclusive)
Y'all small tuna fish, I'm one big catch
(Here we go again)
Y'all small tuna fish, I'm one big catch
(Say what, say what, yeah)
Y'all small tuna fish, I'm one big catch

Ooh, do do do do do do do
Car wash, car wash
Ooh, do do do do do do do
Car wash, car wash

(Yeah, let's drop it on 'em like this)

Ooh, do do do do do do, na na na ah, ooh
Ooh, do do do do do do, na na na ah, ooh

You might not ever get rich, ha
Let me tell you it's better than digging a ditch
There ain't no telling who you might meet
A movie star or maybe a common thief

Working at the car wash (oh oh, yeah yeah)
At the car wash, yeah (ooh, yeah yeah)
At the car wash (sing it with me now)
Working at the car wash, yeah

(Oh, oh)

Come summer the work gets kind of hard
This ain't no place to be if you're planning on being a star
Let me tell you it's always cool
And the boss don't mind sometimes if you're acting like a fool

Working at the car wash (oh oh, yeah yeah)
At the car wash, yeah (ooh ooh ooh)
At the car wash (ow said, now come and work it with me now, yeah)
Working at the car wash, yeah

Said, said, said, sing

(Work and work)
Well those cars never stop coming
(Work and work)
Keep those rags and machines humming
(Work and work)
My fingers to the bone
(Work and work)
Keep on and can't wait till it's time to go home

Hey, get your car washed today
Fill up and you don't have to pay
Hey, get your car washed today
Fill it up, right away

[Missy Elliott:]
Work at the, car wash
Sharks in the water make they jaws lock
When I swim through the grim, I'm too hot
Y'all can make y'all bets
Y'all small tuna fish, I'm one big catch
Shark slayer, bow down playa
'Cause this right here will be your worst nightmare (nightmare)
Work that, work that, pop back, hurt that
Turn this up and bang it all up in the surface

(Work and work)
9 to 5 I got to keep that fat stack coming
(Work and work)
No matter how big the shark is, the right keep running
(Work and work)
Washing cars ain't no place to be a superstar man
(Work and work)
That's why I work, and work

Working at the car wash (ohhh, yeah)
At the car wash, yeah (come on work, baby work it, say now)
At the car wash (ahh)
Working at the car wash, yeah

So come on, come on, come on, come on, come on

Ooh, do do do do do do, na na na ah, ooh
(Now keep it coming)
Ooh, do do do do do do (woo, so), na na na ah, ooh
(You may not ever get rich, but hey)

Hey, get your car washed today (hey)
Hey, get your car washed today
Hey, get your car washed today (phenomenal hit)

Written by: Norman Whitfield, Christina Aguilera, Melissa Elliott, and Teraike Crawford