That was my summer of love. Wrapped up in your arms, my heart was spreading wings and soaring into the blue skies above. My hand nestled in yours trusting you wholly, as you led me through gardens of fragrant blooms. Embraced by you, I was in a safer place than I have ever known.
The scent of sweet roses will bring back thoughts of you. Memories that excite a joy that fills up my belly. I can breathe in that joy and fill my lungs with the aroma your left behind. Until summer comes, I bury my face in my pillow and can just about detect faint traces of you.
There is no fragrance as sweet to me as you Goldfinch.
Even though I am rather tired of travelling after these last couple of weeks…I am on the verge of booking yet another train ticket so that I can go and see my lovely Goldfinch on Sunday.
Photo Credit: ejaugsburg @ pixabay.com
I miss him so much!!! He was working in the North East of England today and because he could not speak on the phone, we sent a string of texts to each other about the weekend – our plans are not concrete yet, as we both have a lot we need to do. I have to work Saturday and I am supposed to be spending time with some friends here in London who I have not seen for a long while. But, I am longing to be with Goldfinch again. It is much too long!
But in a very romantic moment, one of my text messages to Goldfinch was rather mushy:
YOU KNOW ME…IF YOU WANT ME TO BE WITH YOU, I WILL DROP ANYTHING AND ANYONE, I WILL REARRANGE EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE. TRAIN, COACH, PLANE, BICYCLE…I WILL GET TO YOU WHENEVER YOU TELL ME TO. MISS YOU SO MUCH IT ACHES. CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU AND SHOW YOU HOW MUCH I HAVE NEEDED YOU.
I mean, goodness, I had no idea I had it in me to be so very soppy. In reality, it would be a train that would take me to him. There is no way I am cycling 102 miles – I would have one majorly sore behind if I did.
Missing Goldfinch, feeling overly romantic, inspired by the photo prompt from  The Haunted Wordsmith…I am going to throw in one of my favourite train scenes. How incredibly romantic a railway setting can be! We watched “North and South” when I went to see a very dear friend up north who has cancer. Her husband arranged an afternoon tea-party for us, and then he disappeared to watch football with some friends so we could watch chick flicks together. He is a good one.
Kristian, the creator of Life Lessons From Around the Dinner Table, has tagged me to take part in The TELL THE STORY Challenge. As far as I understand I am able to think up any fictional story in response to the photo prompt that Kristian has sent me. Have a look at Kristian’s post below to see her own story:
So that left Lauren and her fourteen year old daughter Rachael, and Joanne and her eleven year old son Toby. We had to make sure that every venue we went to was suitable for children, but we still found some fantastic places to have a dance, compete in team quizzes, and Lauren was even called up onto the stage by a ventriloquist to take part in his act.
But the last night of the holiday, we did not have time to go out anywhere. Our bus to the airport was due to arrive at the hotel at 10pm. So we just chose to have dinner within the hotel and then lollop in the lounge area with a suitcases nearby.
All of a sudden we heard a man’s voice announcing the start of a karaoke contest to be held in the stage near the swimming pool area that evening. Then came a few beats of a familiar tune, made famous by the British band Right Said Fred. You may recognize the song:
We looked out over the balcony towards the pool area and viewed the hotel manager on stage. His dire droning was almost disturbing to listen to, but in another sense, I wanted to cheer him for his bravery. However, there were only a few people sitting at tables around the pool and they looked as if they were dismayed at his singing and were going to leave.
Joanne whispered to me, “This is your fault!”
She was right. The hotel manager had joined us for a drink one evening and he had asked what we thought of the entertainment the hotel provided. My reply was “diabolical”. I explained that it was not suitable for families with children, and there was nothing that encouraged the holiday makers to join in the fun. I had made a few suggestions that I was convinced British holiday makers would enjoy and I told him that karaoke would probably be the best option. So he had taken my word and advertised a karaoke contest.
Some of the waiters approached us and asked us to go and support the karaoke. Lauren and Joanne said I was obligated to, since this was my suggestion. Two of the waiters even grabbed my hands and started to pull me towards the staircase that led down to the pool area.
Once the microphone was in my hand, all my reservations and reluctance, all my insecurities and inhibitions – they all melted away. I was loving every moment! There is something about a karaoke microphone that makes all my worries fade far from my mind.
I started the night with my favourite karaoke song:
As every karaoke enthusiast will confirm, it’s not the quality of your voice that matters when you take the microphone into your hands – it is the enjoyment level that matters. How much are you enjoying yourself? Are your audience enjoying watching you?
That was the perfect way to end our dream summer holiday in Mexico. The entire pool area packed with crowds of holiday makers all cheering me on, as I warbled and shrieked for the rest of the evening. After I had finished one song they would erupt into celebrations, and then start stamping their feet and chanting: “More, more, more, more.”
How could I fail to oblige their requests? I sang and sang until my voice was quite hoarse, but I was still enjoying myself, swinging my hips and waving my arms and getting the crowds to join in for each chorus. They forgave all of my off-tune moments and rejoiced when I tried to hold my breath long enough to match the note in the song.
It all ended when my friends started waving urgently from the balcony, and the hotel manager yelled to me that the bus to the airport had arrived. The crowds moaned as I made my way off the stage and ran towards the stairs up to the balcony and foyer area.
“Party’s over Senorita!” the hotel manager called out into the microphone, “please come back next summer!”
__________
Now I believe I am supposed to supply a photograph and tag three bloggers to write a story based on the picture???
Well, here is the photo:
Who should I tag??? Oooooooh decisions, decisions!!! This is the part so many of us find hard.
There are so many great story-tellers out there, so I am going to tag three bloggers, but if anyone else wants to tell a story, please feel free to do so 🙂
Here I am chilling out with a scrummy breakfast and catching up on the last episode of “Poldark” which somehow I missed…don’t worry I won’t say a word about what happened just in case you are planning to watch it at some point.
The photo prompt from Meet The Bloggers just popped up on my screen and I thought I would take a closer look at the photo.
Share photos or stories of how you chill out
There is no doubt that for me water definitely helps me to chill out. I am a total water baby! My sisters and I were competition swimmers…but for the most part now swimming helps me to relax. I had a taste of scuba diving in Turkey – extraordinary! I would love to have the opportunity to try that again…and again and again!
I love boats. Any kind of boat really. Some of my friends own narrow boats which they keep moored on nearby canals. Many a blissfully peaceful afternoon has been spent on the canal. Other friends have sailing boats which which we have used on holidays up in the Lake District. Or I love just hiring a rowing boat with a friend and relaxing in the middle of a lake.
Dream of a life-time: building a boat with my husband (who as of yet is an enigma and does not know I exist) and then sailing around the whole world as slowly as possible so we can get to know everyone along the way.
When I zoomed in on the middle of the photo I spotted a pelican…which sent my mind down this direction:
At the moment circumstances do not allow me to build a boat…but I still make sure I spend plenty of time near water and boats. One of my top films of all time is “Finding Nemo” (I may have mentioned this once or twice before, but how could I resist giving it another mention with a photo prompt like this?)
Apparently, an oyster catcher is sitting on top of the boat in the photo above. But when I first looked at it I thought it was a seagull. Which again brought me back to “Finding Nemo“.
Seagulls are one of the few animals that I am not on the friendliest terms with. I always found them a bit intimidating on trips to the seaside…but after we were mugged in Llandudno (in North Wales) by a gang of seagulls – they are really in my bad books.
Alright, maybe “mugged” is a bit of an exaggeration. But they were flying into us and trying to seize our sandwiches out of hands while we were eating lunch. We have a video of a seagull who glided in and snatched a chicken drumstick out of the hand of a friend of ours and flew down to the wooden boards of the pier and tucked into it, just a few feet away from where we were sitting.
Ha – feathered friend indeed! More like feathered foe! So yes…I feel totally chillaxed when I am near water…until any seagulls appear that is!
Caramel 