Writing or not?

 



A garden view to brighten up this blog

As it's late September and Winter looms I decided to get back some balance between gardening and writing and activities elsewhere e.g. dancing so here I am getting back into this writing blog.
A couple of years ago I read that short stories that had been on the internet in whatever form e.g. blogs were not eligible for competition entries. I then deleted all my short stories from this blog.
Now I do not enter competitions I shall up load all my short stories to this blog. I may then at some future date self publish a book of short stories.

Two More Women on Whose Shoulders We Stand

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

               

 

 

Sarah Moore Grimké (1792–1873) and Angelina Emily Grimké (1805–1879), known as the Grimké sisters, were 19th-century Southern American Quakers, educators and writers who were early advocates of abolitionism and women's rights.
They were born in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. Sarah Moore Grimke was born on November 26, 1792 and Angelina Emily Grimke was born on February 20, 1805. Throughout their lives, they travelled throughout the North, lecturing about their first hand experiences with slavery on their family's plantation. Among the American first women to act publicly in social reform movements, they received abuse and ridicule for their abolitionist activity. They both realized that women would have to create a safe space in the public arena to be effective reformers. They became early activists in the women's rights movement

We must appreciate these women who laid the early foundations for the lives we live now. Remember they lived over TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO. It has been and still is a long hard battle.

Women We Should Remember

I decided to write about women writers and campaigners on whose shoulders we stand.
The first one  is Olive Schreiner.
Olive Schreiner (24 March 1855 – 11 December 1920) was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her ...novel The Story of an African Farm which has been highly acclaimed ever since its first publication in 1883 for the bold manner in which it dealt with some of the burning issues of the day, including agnosticism, existential independence, individualism and the professional aspirations of women; as well as its portrayal of the elemental nature of life on the colonial frontier. In more recent studies she has also been foregrounded as an apologist for those side-lined by the forces of British Imperialism, such as the Afrikaners, and later other South African groups like Blacks, Jews and Indians - to name but a few. Although she showed interest in socialism, pacifism, vegetarianism and feminism amongst other things, her true views escape restrictive categorisations. Her published works and other surviving writings promote implicit values like moderation, friendship and understanding amongst all peoples, avoiding the pitfalls of political radicalism which she consciously eschewed. Although she may be called a lifelong freethinker in terms of her Victorian background - as opposed to mainstream Christianity - she always remained true to the spirit of the Christian Bible and developed a secular version of the worldview of her missionary parents, with mystical elements.

Biography - Books by Olive Schreiner - Books about Olive Schreiner - See also

Olympic story

This story was written by my niece and included some superb photos, but I haven't worked out how to copy them from adobe. Help.

                                                                                  Oh Wow!!!

Before I even start my story, I must give my utmost thanks to Imad for letting me take a couple of

hours holiday, and to Bren for getting the tickets in the first place, and making one of my all time

dreams come true!!!!!

Mmmmmmm……….How to start?

Well, as you may know………………and if you didn’t before, you do now……….. I was born on 29

th February,

Leap Year, and as you are all aware 29th

Feb only occurs once every four years, as does the Olympic

games. Putting this together (I was only quite young at the time) I worked it out that if the Olympic

games were only held every 4 years and that was in MY real birthday year then they must have been

put on just for me. Perfectly logical when you think about it! Anyway, as this year (2012) is both my

real birthday year and the 

Olympic games are also being held; you see I am right!!!!!!!

Thursday morning, I dragged myself out of bed and after showering and dressing drove to work for

yet another long day at the office! Well, it should have been a long day at the office, but after

pleading with the boss I managed to prevail on his good nature and get him to let me take a couple of

hours holiday and so leave early for the day. Didn’t go quite as I’d planned but I did get home earlier

than usual, and after getting ready I drove round to Bren’s house to pick her up, for that evening we

were on our way for the

BIG adventure…………………..we were going to London 2012 to watch the

Olympics!!!!!

Stuffing the car full of pillows rugs and other bits and pieces, we started our drive down to London

to meet with Bren’s nephew to pick the tickets up. We made good time and at obout 9 o’clock arrived

at Notting Hill for our meet. We did have look around whilst waiting for the nephew to arrive but

didn’t meet up with Julia Roberts nor Hugh Grant. We stood outside a church in the dark waiting for

the meet, two shady looking characters we must have looked. “I recognise that walk”, Bren suddenly

piped up…….we walked towards the man walking towards us……………..Nope………..it wasn’t the nephew,

but it was male, so at least she’d got that bit right! A couple of minutes later, out of the dark haze

of the night (poetic license here!) we saw another figure looming out of the smog (OK so it was a

beautiful summers evening, it was in old London town!) Déjà vu……….” I recognise that walk” says a

voice beside me and all of a sudden, this young man with definite shades of the Williams gene walked

into view, an envelope in hand.

Hugs, introductions, more hugs and goodbyes and me, Bren and the tickets were on our way

Ohhhhhh Yes!……….…Tickets!……………

We made our way out of London and on to the M4 where we found the Heston Services. We had a

drink and some supper, whilst having supper, I made the most of the Free Wi-Fi and did a search to

see if we could find any Olympic Park tickets up for grabs. No such luck, but with tickets already

clutched in our grubby little mitts we didn’t really mind too much. By now it was gone midnight and so

with a very early start in the morning, we made our way back to the car to get some sleep. Yes, we

could have stayed at the Travelodge at the service station, yes, we could have stayed at any other

B&B, hotel or anywhere with friends or family……………….but Hey……..where’s the excitement in that,

when the alternative is to stretch out on reclining seats in the comfort of your own car! I always

sleep well in my car………………Hmmmmmpf……..not this time though! My restless legs were practising

for the Olympic high jump or long jump…….in fact, more like the triple jump! But eventually I got

comfortable and just started to doze off when a particularly spectacular ‘jump’ on the part of my left

leg started the car alarm off. Well Damn me…….I honestly never knew I had a car alarm…………..but at

least I know now! After a few minutes fumbling with the car keys, I managed to switch the thing off

and so settled down again for a night's sleep………………I would just like to say, that I know Bren said

she heard the alarm, but believe me, she never even twitched when it went off, same steady snoring

throughout!!!

A couple of hours later it was time to get up and start the BIG adventure of the day. We nipped

back into the service station and got a quick wash and then, with the excitement building, we drove on

to the start of our Olympic journey, Upton Court Park and Ride!

There were only about 50 cars in front of us so parking up was quite easy, we then got what we

wanted to take with us and made our way to the buses ready to take us to

for the Rowing.

After a short bus ride, one which when looking out of the side windows took us past Windsor Castle,

I did try to photo the castle, but not timing it very well I managed to photo clumps of trees…..well, I

never did claim to be a photographer!.........we arrived at Windsor Racecourse which was to be the

start of our walk to the Olympic grandstands.

The walk from the buses along the racecourse was our longest walk, but it was such a well organised

walk with volunteers cheerily calling good morning and thoroughly enjoying themselves it didn’t feel

long, and in the lovely early morning sun we wandered happily along seeing boats moored on the river,

and other bits and pieces including Wenlock, arguably he worst Olympic mascot ever designed!

Guess which was Wenlock?!?!?!?

We got to the food area about half an hour before the gates to the stands were opened (races

started at 9:30) so joined in with the huge queue and stood in line for breakfast baps.

Feeling much refreshed after our breakfast and with the gates now having opened, we made our way

into the viewing area, a short walk away. Here there were lots to see and do with more food and

drink stands, souvenir stands and other interesting things to look at, buy or do. I also feel it’s worth

a mention of how clean the whole site was/is and more importantly, the unbelievably clean loos. 10 out

of 10 there! Here are a few images of what we could see before we took our seats in the stands

We took our seats in the Grandstand…………………and what seats…………..we were overlooking the finish

line! Better seats just couldn’t have been found.

And then it was the start of the races. First up battling for 31

st 32nd and 33rd place in the single

sculls were Niger, Cameroon and Tunisia. Niger came in last by over a minute and a half, but the

cheers that went up for him you’d think he’d won the gold medal. By the way, the diagonal line

running across the water is the finish line.

The next couple of heats for the single sculling went on, but then a cross wind got up, so they decided

to put a hold on the racing for half an hour, so we thought we’d stretch our legs a bit and go for a

walk along the whole course. Some of the races did take place whilst we were walking but we were

back in our seats for the Team GB Medals.

Our first medal came with a Bronze in the Men's Pairs, our men just being pipped into third place

It was now time for the BIG race of the day……….well, the BIG race of the day for Team GB anyway.

I can honestly say, that after this race, I wasn’t sure whether I’d just lost my voice from the

shouting, or whether I’d gone deaf from the cheering! What cheering there was. It was

amazing, if

You can imagine a 2 kilometres line made up of thousands of people and at the far end is the race

start, as the boats get under way, the cheering starts, it then works its way along the line rather like

a Mexican wave, until all of a sudden, the boats are in sight and are racing hell for leather to the

finish line, the cheering has now reached us, and the crescendo is phenomenal. What an experience,

if cheering and willpower alone were enough, every race would have been a gold medal for Team GB!!!

But for the big race to the victor goes the spoils and these girls deserved every bit of their gold

medals!

And then, the very last race, the last heat of the mens single sculls, Team GB got another Bronze

medal. This time, I’m sure the cheering and shouting carried Alan Campbell over that line into third

place.

What an absolutely fantastic, magnificent……..words totally fail me to describe the experience of the

day. Why, oh why, did I decide when the tickets first came on sale, that they were too expensive

and that I didn’t want to spend that amount of money when I probably wouldn’t see anything anyway.

Who cares, the atmosphere makes up for all of that!!!!!

Just look at the crowds……….and who though patriotism was dead!

A

HUGE thank you to my best mate of the moment

Brenda Williams.

It is raining so back to the old blog

Thursday, 28 June 2007

identity

I have been experimenting with pseudonymns. Twice before in mylife I changed my name.
The first time was when I was at college. At that time I hated my first name so I swopped to my middle name and shortened it. After college I reverted because I returned to my home town and everyone continued to call me by my original name.
When I started to write I hated both of my names so chose a new pseudonym completely.
I liked the name but when my mail arrived bearing this chosen name I didn't recognise myself.
I gradually let it drop.
Now in cyberspace I have experimented with so many names I forget them and the passwords which go with them. I thoroughly enjoy making up these alter egos but forget to record them.
Does this mean that I do not know who I am? Or just that I am trying to discover my real self?
Will I ever grow into my given name? Do I want to? will I find a self with whom I am comfortable,

Thursday, 28 June 2007

crosswords/passwords

I now have 3 blogs. My first one http:/wildwomenwrite.blogspot.com which I can no longer log into for some reason. Then I set up this one and thought I was going well when I forgot the password. Next I set up yet a third just to yell into cyber space about google. Low and behold I found a note on the wall of my office with name and password for this blog.
so now i am convinced of my downward fall into madness. But I still blame it on computers in general - Wanadoo, Microsoft and Google in particular.
Will I ever get to writing about my life here and thoughts and feelings? Not to mention my novel. And what about all the paintings that are floating about in my head? I have to live to be 200 to get it all done? Did I mention the garden? No? Now see the grass is growing even as I type this and the weeds of course. When will I get around to the water feature I started to create and the found-wood sculpture area. The stone circle remains an idea in my head.
Perhaps it is not cyberspace that is driving me insane. Perhaps it is head space or more precisely lack of head space

 

Entries from old blog that i lost

Friday, 1 June 2007

The exercise

I took the exercise from www.writespace.co.uk .
Make a list of words using the letters of your first name and as the initial letters of each word.
Use the words to write the first part of a story.
Do the same thing with your second name and write the second half of the story.

But. There is always a but isn't there? Well this time I am going to ignore all the buts. The but that says ,'You are too old.' And the one that says, ' You haven't got that much money.'
and 'You're afraid of flying.' All of them I'll get round them. Oh yeah and how will you get round your fear of needles?You'll have to have injections to go to almost any where in Africa.
Keep at it girl. That's how you got where you are today by being tenacious.
If you are going to get all emotional about it get angry. That is an emotion that you can use. Anger can be useful energy. Depression just pruduces inertia.
Right then here we go. It's a bloody disgrace that all these children are being left without carers. We need to get help to them. In fact I can probably be more help from here than if I went out there in the heat. I would just get in the way.
So find out which of the charities helps AIDS orphans and ask them what they need. Or better still finance someone who can go out there and help. What about raising money for just that. Or even financing a foster system of some kind. It is mandatory that you first of all finance someone to go on a fact finding mission. Then maybe you will have some answers. Who says there is no solution?