Friday 55 Flash Fiction # 86 Busy, busy......

Running up the stairs he rapped on the door.

"It's past eight o'clock, he shouted through the lock,

"Are you children in bed?" he asked.

"What on earth are you doing in your pyjamas, running all over the town?" the said.

"No idea" said Wee Willie Winkie, "perhaps it's because I'm a nursery rhyme character!"

Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,

Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown,

Tapping at the window and crying through the lock,

Are all the children in their beds, it's past eight o'clock?

Friday 55 Flash Fiction is brought to you by G-man (Mr Knowitall). The idea is you write a story in exactly 55 words. If you want to take part pop over and let G-man know when you've posted your 55.

After the rain.....

all day Tuesday and our trip on the Ffestiniog Railway, Wednesday dawned overcast but warmer, as you can see from the photo above those young ladies were braving the sea!

We decided to take a walk along the beach.....

By the time we stopped for a rest the sky was brightening somewhat and there were a lot of people taking their boats out and making camp on the beach so we thought we'd join them. We went to the shop and bought some supplies for lunch, picked the cool bag, rug and books up from the car and spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach reading.

The following morning, our last full day, we awoke to bright sunshine and it was really warm. After breakfast we took a walk down to the other side of the harbour and sat on the beach. MWM offered to go and get some supplies for lunch and the rest of the paraphanalia ie rug, books etc whilst I enjoyed the sun. We spent the rest of the afternoon sunning ourselves, reading and watching people come and go in their boats, children playing in the sand and dogs splashing about in the water chasing sticks thrown by their owners. It was so hot I burnt my legs which I had inadvertantly forgotton to put suncream on!

All to soon it was time to leave the beach and go back to our B&B to shower the sand of our bodies and out of our hair. We had booked a table at the little Italian Restaurant in the village for dinner and very nice it was too. We retired reasonably early that evening as we wanted to set off home just after 9.30 a.m. the following morning.

Thankfully Friday dawned bright and warm again and after breakfast we popped down to the shop for some supplies for lunch, we intended stopping at Bala again, and we were away by 9.45 a.m. I drove to Bala, where we stopped for lunch, then MWM took over for the rest of the journey home. We arrived home about 1.15 p.m. then once I'd sorted the washing out I popped down to the supermarket to stock up on supplies.

We had a wonderful four days in Abersoch and decided if we win on the Lottery we'll buy a house there overlooking the sea. It will have to be a substantial win though because those houses cost in excess of £1,000,000!

I hope you enjoyed our holiday in Wales?

We're off on another jaunt today, so I'll catch up with you all later and of course I'll be posting about where we're going today.

Partytime............

During our usual fortnightly trip to see Big Granddad (my Dad) with three of the grandchildren, Sam (10), Harry (5) and Gracie (3) the conversation went something like this:

Gracie: I went to my friend's party this week at Planet Play.

Me: That's nice, did you have a good time?

Gracie: Yes, I've been before.

Harry: I've been to Planet Play too, I'm having my birthday party there.

Me:  How lovely.   Are you having your birthday party there too Gracie?

Gracie: No I'm having my party at the pub.

I think she's inherited my genes. LOL

Carrying on the party mood............

The lovely Thom (Thoms Place 4 Well Whatever) received this award recently

and passed it on to me.

Thank you Thom I'm truly honoured that you think my blog is inspirational.

As ever the award comes with rules;

# Write a post about your new award, linking to the person who awarded it to you.
# Award 10 more bloggers who inspire you, and link to them in your post.
# Comment on their blog, directing the blog owner to this post, so they may copy the code and display it on their side bar. Here is the link: http://tiny.cc/BlogItForward541
# Your blog name and link should have been listed in Mister Linky by the person who nominated you.
# Comment here once you have done all of this so we can read your inspirational nominees’ blogs.


My ten are as follows:



Julia (A Piece Of My Mind) for her poetry
Linda (Are We There Yet?) for her history lessons
Cloudia (Comfort Spiral) for her account of life in Hawaii and the history of that beautiful island.
Daryl (Out & About In New York City) - for her fabulous photos out and about in NYC.
G-Man (Mr. Knowitall) - for hosting 55 Flash Fiction and getting me hooked on writing it.
Stephen (Stephen's Thoughts) - for his amazing imagination.
Buff (Opinions & Rectums) - for his inspiring recipes with leftovers.
Spiky (Bit Player Reflects) - for her fantastic writing skills.
Raven (Views from Raven's Nest) - for hosting Saturday Wordzzles thereby encouraging creativity in others.
Mimi (Mimi Writes) - for flooding the blogosphere with Memes which are great when you can't think of anything else to write about!


So thankyou all, you are truly an inspiration to me.

Friday 55 Flash Fiction # 85 Trapped.....

Jack fidgeted, wiping the sweat from his brow.

How long would he be incarcerated?

It was stifling.

He couldn't escape, although the windows were open

there was nowhere to escape to.

He'd have to be patient, he'd just have to sit it out.

Surrounded on all sides

by vehicles stuck in the same traffic jam.

Friday 55 Flash Fiction is brought to you by G-man (Mr Knowitall). The idea is you write a story in exactly 55 words. If you want to take part pop over and let G-man know when you've posted your 55.

Blaenau Ffestiniog.....

This was our destination for Tuesday.

The day dawned cloudy, windy and rain! Undettered we went for a walk to a different part of the beach before breakfast to blow away the cobwebs. The beach was deserted apart from the little boats that had been left on it and the only sound was from the seagulls, the sea and the ropes slapping against the masts of the boats.

After a hearty breakfast (of which I had too many and am now on a strict diet) we retrieved the car from the car park and MWM drove the 20miles to Porthmadog to the The Ffestiniog Railway and the trip w(h)e'd been looking forward to since we booked the holiday. This is a narrowguage railway which was built as a gravity and horse drawn line to transport slate from the quarries in the mountains around Blaenau Ffestiniog. We bought our tickets, deciding to travel first class as the carriages are so small and were lucky enough to get a little carriage for 4 all to ourselves. The journey is a round trip of about 3 hours for the 13 1/2 mile journey, with one or two stops on the way where one can get off and explore and wait for the next train to come along. As it was pouring down with rain we decided to stay on the train and just enjoy the views.

Here's a slide show of all the photos we took on the journey.

We really enjoyed the trip on the train then I drove back to Abersoch where we had a late lunch and a couple of drinks in the pub, well we had to shelter from the rain didn't we? Our meal on day two was at the Sandpiper restaurant where we had pub grub consisting of steak and ale pie with chunky chips and peas - another reason I'm dieting now!

Day three coming soon.

Southport......

(Click on photos to bigify)

As you know we took our five grandchildren to Southport (Lancashire) last Thursday and what a great day we had!

We loaded the children into the people carrier and all the food, drinks and games (cricket set, kite, football, frisbees, buckets and spades) and set off at 10 a.m. The route was motorway most of the way so MWM did the driving (you know I don't 'do' motorways).

Half an hour into the journey Harry asks "Are we there yet?" LOL

Southport is only about 40 miles from where we live and should take a little over an hour but the traffic was really heavy and slow on the motorway so it was 11.30 when we arrived. You can actually drive straight onto the beach and stay there all day for £3.50 which is quite reasonable and with all the 'stuff' we had to unload we needed to be right there where we could just drag it out of the boot and dump it on the sand.

Before we unloaded anything we marched over the main road to the toilets as the children all needed to 'go' by this time. Once back at the beach we put the rug down and had our picnic before getting down to the business of enjoying ourselves.

First the buckets and spades came out with all the children showing their skills at making sandcastles, before they decided they needed water to make the sandcastle stick together -

then the long trek to the sea. The tide goes out for miles at Southport, in fact sometimes it goes out that far that you can't even see it! Granddad rounded them all up with their buckets and off they trotted. Look how far out the sea was.....

They were having a great time in the shallow water, Nate liked it so much he sat in it! They collected shells and managed to carry some water back then Granddad got the kite out, much to the children's delight. They ran up and down and did manage to get it flying but it's a big kite and they didn't have much control over it so it kept crashing.

Next the big boys - Granddad, Sam and Kai had a game of cricket whilst Harry used the frisbee as a steering wheel pretending he was a formula one racing driver. Gracie decided she was hungry again so had another picnic, whilst Nate tried to pinch the stumps to cries of

"Nate get out of the way".

The football had a good kicking before Kai said he wanted to build a huge sandcastle with little ones all around it - a task all the grandchildren wanted a hand in. Of course Nanna had to get involved. Granddad decided he'd done enough and lay down on the rug. He was enjoying a little rest until Nate decided to throw a whole bucket full of sand all over his head so that put paid to his snooze!

Here's the sandcastle and the proud builders.

The next task was creating some roads in the sand for a village, Granddad helped with that.

We'd been on the beach for about 3 hours now and the children were getting a little tired, so it was ice-cream time before we set off home. There are ice-cream vans driving slowly up and down the beach all day so we hailed one and the children all chose an ice cream, of course Granddad had to have one too! Whilst they were enjoying their ice-creams I started loading everything into the various bags and into the back of the carrier, then as they finished eating we dusted the sand of their feet, put their shoes back on and secured them in their car seats.

Nate was asleep within minutes of us setting off home but the others were still excited and chattered all the way home. They were very tired but very happy and we were exhausted and ready for bed! We had a great day and they children wanted to know "when can we go again?"

Mmmmm, we'll see .........

Croeso i Gymru......

As MWM and I are not having a holiday abroad this year, due to saving up for our Carribean Cruise in January next year, we decided to revisit a place we haven't seen for approximately 28 years! You may remember I blogged about what a lasting memory this place gave us and the boys some time back, you can read about it here and see the photos from way back then.

The place was Abersoch on the Llyn Peninsula in Wales.

We booked the Angorfa B&B in the centre of Abersoch and MWM planned the route as we decided to drive there again, the only difference being I offered to drive some of the way this time, I couldn't drive the last time we visited.

We set off around 9.30am with MWM driving the first leg as we had to go on the motorway - I don't 'do' motorways! The rain was lashing down until we came off the motorway and actually saw the sign telling us we were in Wales.

I've done a little slide show to show you where we stopped for our picnic lunch, which we ate in the car because although the rain had stopped it was overcast and very windy.

After lunch I took over the driving all the way to Abersoch. The scenery is just like the slide show above and the traffic was very light so I was able to enjoy it as well even though I was driving.

The traffic built up as went through Porthmadog and almost came to a standstill on the road over the Glaslyn Estuary into Porthmadog. This used to be a toll road until March 2003. MWM took the following picture as we were 'crawling' into Porthmadog.

The Ffestiniog Railway is a big tourist attraction in Porthmadog and I'll tell you more about that in my next post, as you know we're big railway fans so couldn't miss out on the chance to go on this famous railway.

The next town we went through was Criccieth where we enjoyed a weekend in March 2003, that was when we visited Portmerrion the village used in the filming of 'The Prisoner', you can read about our visit here. We then went through Pwllheli, then Llanbedrog (where we stayed for our first experience of Abersoch) then into Abersoch itself.

We arrived around 2.15 pm, found the B&B no problem and a little car park nearby where we were able to leave the car for a small fee. The Angorfa operates a self check in system where we had to punch in a code on a little box to get the front door key, which then had to be returned to the box, our room on the top floor was open and the keys were on the bed. We knew it was an attic room with very low beams when we booked it but it promised a sea view and that's what we got.

By this time the sun was shining and it was a beautiful afternoon so after unpacking the few things we'd taken with us we headed down the street to the pub for a drink.

Actually we had a couple of drinks then went for a walk down to the harbour and the beach. I'll leave you with the photos from the rest of the afternoon. We had a great meal that first night in a Balti House, followed by a few drinks and a reasonably early night ready for the trip on thetrain the following day.

Cooooeeeeee..........

I'M HOME!

Got back from Wales on Friday afternoon and have been busy catching up with shopping, washing, ironing and visiting family.   There are over 300 posts in my reader, so it's going to take me a while to get round to you all but I will, have no fear!

I've taken load of photos and hopefuly I will do a post about our little holiday by the end of the week, or maybe next week, as we are hoping to take all five grandchildren to Southport for a day on the beach on Thursday.  Obviously this trip is dependent on the weather but the weather forecast is good for Thursday so hopefully the trip will happen.

Anyway I've started working my way through my reader so you can expect a visit from me soon.

Who won....

the Great Imagination Award?

As you know, I posted all the entries last week and you voted in your hundreds tens, deciding that this was the entry you liked best.



Dolly continued to work at the diner, waiting for Geoff to return. He sent her an occasional letter, which she cherished. She wrote him back, and sent letters much more frequently than she received them. He spoke about the strange places he was visiting, and about how much he missed her. She spoke about how nice it was to hear about such things, places and customs that she never dreamed existed, and told him about life there in the hills and about how much she missed him.


Although he had said he would be back in a short time, months passed and then years, and still she waited. The hill people were starting to feel sorry for her, she knew, but she still kept waiting. She even turned down the men who wanted to date her. As time passed, her brothers and sisters grew up and all got married. Still she waited. Finally a man came in, a stranger, who still looked somehow familiar. Then she realized it was Geoff, years older, his hair streaked with gray.


"I'm sorry it took so long," he said. "I meant to come back earlier, and almost did several times, but I was afraid that if I did I couldn't bear to leave again. I was trying to save up enough money so that I could retire and stay here with you. We could still travel sometimes, but then it would be for fun, and we could go wherever we wanted."


She looked at him, wanting to hug him, wanting to throw her arms around him and never let him go, but somehow reluctant to make any move toward him. She said, softly and with a little sadness, "Did it really have to be so long? Couldn't you have come back at least sometimes? You did get vacations, you know."

He looked back at her, then turned his face to the side. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't. I couldn't bear to come back and then have to leave again. I thought of you almost constantly, though." He turned his head toward her again, fear and pain showing in his eyes. "There isn't someone else, is there? Someone who has taken my place?"

Several seconds of silence passed between them. She almost started to say something, but then stopped. Her face was unreadable.

Then she finally said, "There is someone else, but he has not taken your place. Come in Tommy, and meet your father." A little boy came in, who looked like both of them, and they all hugged each other, tears of happiness running down their faces. He had come home, and he would never leave them again.

And the winner is............
 
 

Stephen (Stephen's Thoughts)

 
for the second time!    Stephen's ending was almost as long as the story I'd written.  You can read the story here. 
 
You will notice the Award says #2 - it is not an award to be passed on and can only be awarded by me, so it's very exclusive SwitSwoo!
 
 
Well done STEPHEN and to everyone else who entered the competition - all the endings were brilliant!   I hope you'll all play again next time, whenever that is, and thanks to all those who voted.
 
 

The Queen's Meme #2......

The Mission Impossible Meme

Okey Dokey here's the second Queen's Meme from Mimi Queen Of Memes, where every Tuesday she will put up a new meme for us serfs to participate in with the threat of being thrown in the dungeon if we don't do it!

1. You are a guest on the space shuttle. You just arrived on the moon and realize you forgot something back home that you can't live without. What is it and how do you convince them to go back and fetch it?

Well I am very organised and I NEVER, EVER forget anything!  Oh wait a minute there was that ONE time. I remember when the kids were young we were on our way to Abersoch, Wales,  we were halfway there, it had been raining for two hours and we stopped for a bathroom break.  It was then I discovered I'd forgotten to put any coats in the car and the petrol tank was leaking!   We didn't have much money and I was convinced that the little we did have would be spent on fixing the petrol tank and buying Kagools because it would be raining for the whole week.   The Universe smiled on us though and the leaking petrol tank was just the floater guage not screwed in right (or something like that, I'm not very technical) and the garage didn't charge us for putting it right.   As we arrived at our destination the sun came out and never went back in again (well apart from at night) for the whole week!  

Anyway where was I before I remembered that one lapse?   Ah yes, if, I say IF, I was to forget somethng it definitely wouldn't be something I couldn't live without, all those items would have been on my list (I'm a great one for lists) and in the suitcase so there would be no need to go back.  Anyway by the time I get to the moon there will be a shopping mall!



2. Pretend you are a teacher in a rough public school for one day. You have been assigned to teach Manners 101. You have the "challenging bad butt kids" class (remember this is a pretend school and anyway I can't say ass on my blog 'cause it's so unQueenly and I might get fined or something).


They are jumping up and down, cursing, and throwing things at you.


What is the first thing you would write on the board?

I work in a school (no I'm not a teacher) and believe me the kids I come into contact with do NOT misbehave with me!    I'm a scary m*********er if they try - you just ask my boys!   One look and they sit down and behave.   If they're good though I'm a pussycat.

3. Someone in your family or a friend has started a blog. They think it is anonymous but you have figured it out. They are saying derogatory things about you. Do you tell them or do you read it for awhile?


How would you handle it?

LOL I would read for a while then drop the BOMBSHELL.    A comment on the lines of...

"I've been reading for a while and I don't like what you're saying!" Akelamalu

would suffice methinks.



4. If you had one dollar left in your pocket, what would you spend it on?

I'd buy a lottery ticket hoping to win.    Hopefully I would never be down to my last dollar because I would be working so there'd be more money coming in.  

5. President Obama and the First Lady are coming over for dinner. What do you serve?

Well they'd be coming for traditional Sunday lunch to my house so they'd get Roast Beef, Yorkshire Pudding, Roast Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, Carrots, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Green Beans and my famous (well it's famous to all the people that have tasted it) Gravy.  For afters I would give them Apple Crumble and Custard or Cream.   


6. You walk in on your lover. They are trying on your clothes. What do you do?

I'd smack him one - no-one tries my clothes without my permission!



7. Every astronaut must have shots! Choose your vaccination: You only get one and you can't enjoy any of the attributes of the other choices. You choose either: (1) The fountain of eternal youth and sexual vigor but only for 10 years (2) perfect health for a lifetime (3) eternal mind-numbing nirvana and peace of mind (4) unlimited hedonism for one year with no negative consequences

Of course it would have to be #2.

#1 is contradictory - you can't have eternal youth that only lasts for 10 years can you?
#3 what would be the point of mind-numbing nirvana?   You only appreciate the ups in life if you have the downs don't you?
#4 I like a bit of hedonism and if I was blessed with perfect health for a lifetime I could indulge without fear that the second part 'no negative consequences' might not be true!



This is your mission should you choose to accept it. And remember, don't end up in the dungeon.

I accepted the Queen's challenge so I'm not going in the dungeon this week.

If you want to accept the Queen's challenge then go here and put your name on Mr. Linky.


I won't be doing a 55 Flash Fiction or a Wordzzle this week or next, I'm off to Wales on Monday so am busy getting ready.   

I'll post the winner of the Great Imagination Award on Sunday - if you haven't done so already, do go to the previous post and read the entries, then vote for your favourite.    I'll still be visiting you until Sunday then that's me - out of the blogosphere for a week.

Pick a winner.......

Okay here's your chance to vote again on who gets this award........

If you read my last Portrait Of Words you will know that I made it a competition to win the above award by writing the ending to my story.    Well here are the entries and you can read the story for which they wrote the endings here, so you know what's gone before.

In the order they were in the comments...

Thom (Thom's Place 4 Well Whatever)

Geoff goes back home. Three weeks later he gets his okay from National Geographic to be settle in the hills. After getting all his ends tied up a week later, off he goes. All his wordly possessions with him, he arrives in the mountains and goes driectly to the diner. L'il Dolly Duke is no where to be found.

A voice from behind says, "May I help you"

"I'm looking for L'il Dolly?"

"Why she done moved after she married her childhood sweetheart. His dad decided to pick up and start a new business in the mountains just east of here. Cow herding is better there." Betty Sue said.
Heartbroken, Geoff starts to saunter out. Betty Sue continues, "Well Sugar, I remember you. I was one of those mud wrestling girls you saw the day you met L'il Dolly."

Geoff eyes lit up. Well I'm here so why not. Off the two went and Geoff thought, the hills would come alive yet again.



Dr.John (Dr.John's Fortress)

Several days later L'il Dolly Duke pays the diner owner for letting her play hillbilly girl waitress. Takes the one taxi out to what passes as an airport and flys her plane back to New York where she ceases to be L'il Dolly Duke and become Maggie O'Toole the author. She starts work on her new book "Hillbilly Murder".


As she writes she wonders if she can get that Geoff guy to sell her some of his pictures for the book.


bettygram (Betty's News)

Letters came on a regular bases, with tales of Geoff's travels. One day a package arrived with a copy of the National Geographic. The Photo were beautiful of their little community.


Dolly had a jar where she put away a little each pay check, hoping for Geoff return. As the sum grew she put it in the bank.


A few years passed and the letters grew fewer and fewer. The bank account grew, and Dolly found she could attend college. College or Geoff? She still cared for Geoff but a college education would prepare her more for a life of travel.


Dolly left her family and the diner. Geoff became a memory but he was the inspiration for her.



Daryl (Out and About in New York City)

While driving off Geoff thought of nothing but Dolly ... his mind focused solely on her and when he would be able to return.
So involved was he that he wasnt paying attention to the road and he lost control of the car, driving off a cliff .. his last words were Dolly, oh my Dolly.....


Mimi Lenox (Mimi Writes)

Geoff ran away with the next floosie he met on the street.


Pam (Finding Pam)

Geoff had kept all of his promises to Dolly. After the latest edition of National Geographic was printed, Dolly became a national treasure from all the exposure. She became an apprentice to Geoff and they traveled the world together taking photos of one adventure after another. Life was good. Dolly was happy and that was all that really mattered to Geoff because he was a man in love.


Stephen (Stephen's Thoughts)

Dolly continued to work at the diner, waiting for Geoff to return. He sent her an occasional letter, which she cherished. She wrote him back, and sent letters much more frequently than she received them. He spoke about the strange places he was visiting, and about how much he missed her. She spoke about how nice it was to hear about such things, places and customs that she never dreamed existed, and told him about life there in the hills and about how much she missed him.


Although he had said he would be back in a short time, months passed and then years, and still she waited. The hill people were starting to feel sorry for her, she knew, but she still kept waiting. She even turned down the men who wanted to date her. As time passed, her brothers and sisters grew up and all got married. Still she waited. Finally a man came in, a stranger, who still looked somehow familiar. Then she realized it was Geoff, years older, his hair streaked with gray.


"I'm sorry it took so long," he said. "I meant to come back earlier, and almost did several times, but I was afraid that if I did I couldn't bear to leave again. I was trying to save up enough money so that I could retire and stay here with you. We could still travel sometimes, but then it would be for fun, and we could go wherever we wanted."


She looked at him, wanting to hug him, wanting to throw her arms around him and never let him go, but somehow reluctant to make any move toward him. She said, softly and with a little sadness, "Did it really have to be so long? Couldn't you have come back at least sometimes? You did get vacations, you know."


He looked back at her, then turned his face to the side. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't. I couldn't bear to come back and then have to leave again. I thought of you almost constantly, though." He turned his head toward her again, fear and pain showing in his eyes. "There isn't someone else, is there? Someone who has taken my place?"


Several seconds of silence passed between them. She almost started to say something, but then stopped. Her face was unreadable.


Then she finally said, "There is someone else, but he has not taken your place. Come in Tommy, and meet your father." A little boy came in, who looked like both of them, and they all hugged each other, tears of happiness running down their faces. He had come home, and he would never leave them again.



OK so there you have the entries.   Stephen won the very first Great Imagination Award, will he do it again?  It's up to you.
Leave a comment to vote for who you want to win.  In the event of a tie we'll have another vote.