Remembering Happy Times

This challenge brought a smile to my face. I didn’t have a lot of pictures as a kid but pure, happy times tend to stick around longer. Remember the movie Inside Out?

Memories from Childhood

I enjoyed drawing / designing dresses for a time and bringing paper dolls wherever I went instead of plushies or the bigger ones. Receiving crayons or jars of paint and sorting them out were more preferable to expensive toys I’d receive as gifts.

One of my aunties would bring me to work a lot and she was in concert production for years. This exposed me to music of all kinds, genres and decades. I’ d use money I saved from my allowance or weekend ‘work’ to buy cassette tapes back then (Thank God for Spotify nowadays).

I remember writing a horror/suspense story after reading my first few horror novels (not exactly by choice, just my brother’s books lying around). This started a pile of notebooks from a few years of journaling.

I realized a lot of the stuff I enjoyed like reading comics, assembling toy robots and wrestling were more because I spent time enjoying them with my brother or friends more than anything else.

Working on the weekends was also a lot of fun as this helped me earn some coins for my piggy bank.

Back in University, languages (Spanish and Japanese) put me right or at least took away the stress from STEM coursework or extra-curriculars.

Some weekend classes are for creating.

They say working with your hands is good for the brain. Duh.

Someone said it is never too late to have a happy childhood. I luckily have some memories of a happy childhood, albeit a short one. Pre-covid, exploring/ slow traveling (as part of self-discovery, growth/soul work, looking outward) and self-education healed me from some painful or hurtful experiences in adulthood and some part of childhood. These efforts paid off and helped me rediscover or restore my joy. Nowadays writing, reading and cooking brings me joy, or at least calms me down. Not everything can be right all the time but looking inward and working on my self help me cope with challenging times and whatever chaos there is around me.

One spring in Japan

I like flowers on trees than on pots or vases.

Trying local food in a new place may not always satisfy taste but can always satiate in other ways.

Written for Cee’s On the Hunt for Joy Challenge

Fun With Words

It’s Fibbing Friday and this week, some words needed unique or alternative definitions. Have a go at it, it’s fun! Here’s my take on them:

1. Aglet – a young or baby thug or pest
2. Befuzzle – to decorate or personalize with fake bubbles
3. Crapulence – wealth gained from crap
4. Deluge – a crappy refuge
5. Erstwhile – a period of seriousness
6. Flatulence – royally flat
7. Gabardine – a secret society of gossips
8. Heliostat – a) blown up statistics, b) Device from the future that regulates airheads
9. Ignominy – used to label a person’s years wallowing in ignorance
10. Joculator -a) job description for someone who cleans up jocks, b) machine that spouts out jokes.

Something off with my editor, please excuse my lack of indentation.

Traveling In The Dark

She hurriedly grabbed her bag and went out to look for him. She hardly knew him but he has some answers for her, that she’s at least sure of. Besides, he’s the only one who’s traveled the way she did this past year. I have to find him before it’s too late.

She found him just as a curtain of dark clouds covered the skies.

“We have to go,” she said, urgently. “Did you find the way?”

“It should be here any minute now,” he assured her.

He grabbed her hand just as a whooshing sound carried them both to a different time, a different place, not of their choosing, but where the answers are.

For visually challenged writers, the image shows a bank of dark clouds rolling in across a sunny moor, casting its shadow on the hills of the horizon.

This story was written for Sue’s #writephoto challenge.

When The Present Sucks

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Comedy Plus and One-Liner Wednesday.

Employee Review

Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com

“I used to work for this young family just outside the city. They live in a dreamy cottage by the hill, where the birds sing their songs in the morning and cattle with names like Connie Francis lounge by the creek. It was idyllic if not for the…“

“Oh, I know them,” Diana interrupted. “I don’t know how he can stand her rude behavior. It gets me incensed every time.”

Anne nodded in agreement. “And he leaves most of the parenting of their gifted child in the hands of that boorish woman.“

Diana sighed. “I hope that kid could still grow up to be a high-quality person.” Both fell silent with their thoughts.

United in their resolve to leave the town for good, the two women continue with their task to clean the walls outside the house, for the last time.

Written for these prompts: Ragtag Daily Prompt (dreamy), Three Things Challenge (Been, Clean & Wall), The Daily Spur (song), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (boorish), Your Daily World Prompt (incensed), Jibber Jabber (quality), and Word of the Day Challenge (united).

Normality

The Silent Eye

“Normality is a paved road: it is comfortable to walk on, but no flowers grow on it.”
Vincent Van Gogh

There are certain things we learn in order to live as part of a society that has, at least, the potential to live in harmony. There are orderly patterns that make up our lives, dictated by everything from our natural biology and emotions, to societal pressures and the necessities of survival. To live a normal life is to adhere to those patterns.

Yet, it is seldom those who do so who achieve greatness in any field. It is the rule-breakers, the mavericks, the innovators; it is those who use the imagination to create… it is those ordinary people who end up living extraordinary lives who change the world and the way we see it.

Some actively pursue fame and fortune, bringing all their drive to bear upon the task in…

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Share Your World – On Waiting, Options and Leftovers

Linking to Share Your World by sparksfromacombustiblemind

Where Do You Not Mind Waiting?

In a bookstore or library with a cafe and movie room

What Is In Your Fridge Right Now?  (you’re not required to give a comprehensive list)

Juice, Salad Bits, eggs, cheese, leftovers/takeout food, all sorts of condiments and cold meats. Good for a week or two for two.

If You Could Only Speak One Word Today, What Would It Be?

Thanks

Would You Rather Be Trapped In An Elevator Full Of Men With BO Or Three Soaked Dogs?  (this is with the codicil that C-19 doesn’t exist)

Three wet dogs. Haha.

An Attitude of Gratitude

Got to buy a new phone, dine out safely, and made another trip around the sun 😎

Now

Now is not the time to equivocate, but to commit.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

#FOWC

Rare Type of Outing and Welcome Interruptions

Had another excuse to go out yesterday aside from the weekly or so grocery trips. My phone almost fully retired the other day, and my laptop went all moody and just stopped responding weeks back. I had to buy another phone and pick up the laptop from the repair shop (Thankfully there are some open shops for this now). Are even my gadgets getting on with the times..?

After shopping, hubby and I walked by a nearly empty cafe and made a note to dine there later (he also needed a new phone). The silly happiness mixed with a pinch of anxiety I get when dining out (3rd time since the pandemic situation) is still new to me. Who would’ve thought merely dining out would almost feel like living dangerously.

Now my new phone has a built-in health tracker, sending me reminders to drink up or walk/run some distance every day for two days now. For now, I find these notifications welcome breaks to my daily routine, which is mostly writing, cooking, snacking, reading, cleaning, or tending to work/new business. Oh, and there’s the occasional picking a fight with the hubby lol.

What have you done or been doing lately that gives you a small sense of achievement, happiness or wonder?

Photo by Daria Shevtsova on Pexels.com

#threethingschallenge

A Xennial’s Take on Masks

Response to 24hr Blog Question by A Guy Called Bloke

1] Are you currently wearing face masks when you go out into public wherever you are in the world

I always wear a mask whenever I go out the door. These days it’s mostly just the weekly or bi-monthly grocery trips or errands for work or home. Most of the time it’s a surgical mask. Sometimes I put on a face shield especially in potentially ‘crowded’ areas.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

2] what type of masks are you wearing? [As in practical or stylish?]

Most days I just wear the surgical mask. I put on a face shield as needed. I have an unused cloth mask with filter from a local company, a few surgical masks in stock, and an N95 mask (a staff from a pharmacy in Auckland made effort to find me one when she learned I was flying out in a few days, this was back in Feb, bless her). I value function over form but won’t say no if a stylish one is on hand or readily available. The face shield is a bit on the stylish side.

Photo by CDC on Pexels.com

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

How do you feel about the wearing of masks? Do you see it as a protection or an infringement on your civil rights?

I see wearing face covering i.e. mask, face shield as protection not just for me but especially for those around me. I’m fairly healthy and young (elder millennial or xennial bracket or whatever they call us these days) and won’t be able to bear it on my conscience if I inadvertently infected an elderly or immunocompromised someone out there. It’s a very minor inconvenience with a big impact for others.

Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

Suggested readings:

Undecided whether to wear a mask outside? This article might help you out.

Some ideas on how to approach others not wearing a mask when they should here.