Savouring Toes and Shiny Knight

Picnic and a blanket fort
Peacocking his building bent
She prepares the mealy banquet

Shoeless in the moment
Twirl on savouring toes
Spontaneous tangos

Falling angels in the
Blanket's wrinkle
Tipping gently bowl

He tames dragon shadows
On a fluttering wall
Her shiny knight tall

Inspired by ABC Wednesday's letter S, Sunday Scribblings' Dragon, the Magpie Tales picture shown above, and Theme Thursday's Wrinkle. Click each to participate and see how these prompts inspired others.

Also inspired by a date a friend of mine had recently where they had a picnic and built a blanket fort. Giggle. Sweet Romance. Love it!

Plenty of Fishes

Plenty of fish
In the sea
Big variety of fishes
Small variety of fishes

Cutle Fish
Octopus
Plenty of fish
In the Sea

This was written in response to this week's Magpie Tales. Visit the Magpie Tales site to participate or visit others who have.

This was also inspired by a sign I saw in Naxos, Greece a few years ago. It made me giggle then. It makes me giggle now.

Quandary

Honey and Lemon
Stir
Tink clink chink

Swirling black
Sip
Ahhh

Rattle
Bone on bone
Glances

Silence blankets
A drone ahead
Blah blah blah

Heads nod
Lulling or agreeing?
It's a mystery

Sip
Hours of minutes
Ladies room beckoning

Shift
Courage swells
Fades

Sigh
Sip
Shift


A very silly response to ABC Wednesday's letter Q: a conference room quandary, Theme Thursday's Mystery, Sunday Scribblings' Courage, and Magpie Tale's photo of a saucer (bone china?). Click each link to see other creative juices flowing.

Pink

Chewing it up
Spreading it out
Just right
Blow
Blow harder
Tongue pushing
Cheeks swelling
Bubble expanding
Pink growing
Pride swelling
Pop!

**************************

Pink is for girls
Blue is for boys
Red light stop
Delightfully color blind

Green is the new black

In response to Theme Thursday's prompt: PINK! and ABC Wednesday's prompt: P is for... Check each out to participate.

Bicycle

I’m proud to say that I want to be like my mother when I grow up. Ha; when I grow up. My mother has always been the youngest person I know: so full of life and ready for the next adventure. She taught me that life is truly what you make it. It can be about the picket fences and the nine to five or it can be about doing what you really want to. Don’t get me wrong, I think picket fences are cute and I’ve done my time but I wanted and still want more.

My friend Anna had moved to Japan, after living in England and Lithuania for some time. Working in youth hostels and mission fields she’s a gypsy I admire. I traveled during my time off, while she lived the travel and has the mud stains to prove it.

She was teaching English to a small school in Osaka and invited me to visit for the nth time. “I don’t know. It’s so far, costs a fortune, and honestly Japan has never been on my list.”

Never been on my list? What was wrong with me? I decided I needed to go, to be reckless, to do something frivolous because quitting my job to go on a six week trip to the Philippines wasn’t reckless enough. I needed to get out of my not-so-comfortable cubical and mundane every day.

So, I bought a ticket and found myself on a 13 hour flight to Japan. Hour six is the hardest. It’s when you realize that you no longer want to be in that can and know there is nowhere to go. Burdened with many forms of entertainment, forced sleep is what got me through it.

Anna met me at the airport, chauffeured by Maki, a now dear to me friend and Geisha. Excited to see someone from home, Anna was anxious to show me her Osaka, which of course meant playing Russian roulette with Octopus.

We hopped on her wicker basket adorned bicycle and started to pedal up the street. Wind in my hair, ass falling asleep from the metal bag holder over the rear wheel. I was on top of the world and thought I was Rose in that iconic scene from Titanic. Swerving here and there, off balance, the air tasted like frivolity, recklessness, and pollution.

I was grinning from ear to ear in my bliss.

Anna turned to me after we veered into traffic a second time and said, “Um, can you put your feet in? I’m trying to pedal here.”

An excerpt from my novel in progress, in response to this week's Theme Thursday's prompt.

Dawn of the Dreadfuls

Somehow this title seems very appropriate this morning.

I've had the recent pleasure, and I do mean pleasure, of reading an advanced review copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. A prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies this book is equally as funny and charming. Steve Hockensmith does a wonderful job of taking Jane Austin's characters out of Pride and Prejudice and imagining what they might have been like prior. At times I found the description of the characters to be missing the subtly of Jane's doing, I still found most characters held true to their selves. A few were altered with the understanding that this is how they came to be the reserved, excitable, proud individuals we have known them as. I loved the new characters he introduced and I was appropriately disgusted and laughing with each one.

Quirk classics, the publisher, is holding a competition for you the blog reader. Go to their site and tell them where you read the review and you will be eligible to win prizes.

Do pick this book up and have a read.

The Face Behind the Voice

After much delay I safely arrived at the Dulles airport. I immediately let Ward know I was safe. I then called Tommy and was greeted with a hearty "Welcome to the USA Tammy". We made arrangements to meet at the airport and he would chauffeur me to dinner, wine, and finally the hotel.

While waiting I was entertained by the free H1N1 Vaccine clinic at the baggage claim. With them hollering "free H1N1" it's not a wonder nobody signed up. I also witnessed a gentleman have a very lively conversation with a vending machine, telling the dispenser that whatever it did was not acceptable. I say good for him for saying something. Giggle.

Dinner was fantastic as was the company. It was nice to finally put a face behind a voice I had worked with for so long. A dear friend who I was only just meeting. We laughed, we ate, we enjoyed a bottle of Innocent Bystander and were invited to join the electric slide happening at the bar.

All in all an enjoyable day one. Today is full of meetings but I'm sure I'll find some adventure in it somewhere.