I hate glass!

I'm having a go at Sunday Photo Fiction this week!

I’m forever cutting my fingers. I should have shares in Band-Aid, I buy more than my fair share of them.

It's glass’s fault. It’s too sharp. It’s too fragile. It’s too splintery. It falls apart too easily. I broke a mirror once. They say that brings bad luck. Too right, the mirror had cost me a small fortune! 

I wear glasses for reading (not wine glasses!). I put them on once and one side was all bleary so I grabbed a tissue and tried wiping them but  I poked myself in the eye because the lens had popped out of the frame when I wasn’t watching - not that I’d have seen it of course.

Anyway, a bunch of us were round Julien’s pad the other night having drinky-poos and peanuts. He made us some posh cocktails. Lord knows what was in them but they looked great in his expensive cocktail glasses. Well, he proposed a toast and we all went clink-clink-clink very cautiously, but for some reason, a chunk of glass chose to break free from mine. I was devastated! I mean, what a WASTE of alcohol!

Thanks to Donna for hosting. 

The picture is by ifelias @Morguefile

I'm back!

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It’s still here! My blog! I thought it would have wandered off feeling unloved. After all, I’ve not written anything on it since I was in volunteering Africa nine years eleven months and two days ago, and that’s a long time. Isn’t it? 

My friend Keith says I should bring it back to life so here I am, wondering what on earth to write. He said a nice person called Sammi throws a word into the ring on Saturdays and asks us to come up with a story using it. I just looked and it’s complex - the word that is, not the challenge, that’s actually quite simple. Except there’s a word limit of 41 and brevity is not my strong point. (No need to nod your head so enthusiastically!)

Let’s have a go….

Conny invited me to a party in her apartment. It’s in a complex which lives up to its description because I had to walk round and round and up and down just find where her bloody door was! Worth it though.

I should have warned you about that naughty word, explicit content I think it’s called. Sorry!

Click HERE to take part or see what others have come up with.

So, there we are. I'll try not to leave it so long next time - maybe just eight years! Only kidding, bye x

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A note from afar!

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Hi, it's Rosey P across the sea! Greetings from a hot and dusty African village.

I’ve found an internet cafe in a village not far from where I live. I use the term cafe lightly! It’s certainly not the sort of place you’d come to for lunch! I just had a cup of coffee – it was SO bitter it nearly sucked me inside out!

They sell a local beer here. I don’t know what’s in it but a few feet away from me a group of men are sitting at a table covered with empty bottles and they are sort of swaying. Actually, it could have something to with what they’re smoking! I’m trying to ignore them but right now all I can see out of the corner of my eye are ten sets of grinning teeth and twenty swimming eyes! It is a problem being the only white-skinned blonde-haired female in the area. That’s not strictly true, because I’ve never really felt threatened in any way. Having said that I never stray far from home on my own, and right now my friend who is a fellow teacher from school with me. His name is Nangwaya which apparently means ‘don’t meddle with me’ so I feel pretty safe when he’s looking out for me! Apparently, the web is not a very reliable round here. Broadband doesn’t exist in the parts so if I suddenly stop midsentence don’t worry!

Oh golly-gosh, have you heard about those full-body scanners they are putting into airports? How embarrassing. They were trying them out at Heathrow when I flew out a couple of weeks ago and was asked if I minded going through one. I didn’t think anything of it at the time and I said I didn’t mind. After all, it was bad enough having to stand there barefoot and holding my jeans up (they made me take my belt off), I didn’t think it could get any worse. When I got through someone commented that I’d been brave to volunteer. I asked what she meant and she explained that the person looking at the screen could see all of me – underneath my clothes! I had no idea. Thank goodness I had clean underwear on! Apparently, it’s soon becoming compulsory so I have decided to try and track down some lead-based wool so I can knit myself a lead bra and knickers! That’ll fool them!

At school, we’ve been practising native songs to sing to a group of tourists that are visiting the village tomorrow. The songs we normally sing are pretty much the same as kids sing back home, but I don’t think our visitors would be very impressed if we treated then to an African version of Row Row Row the Boat or The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round! We’ve also been making handicrafts which we sell to provide extra funds for the school. Guess what, I’ve even got some of them involved in my hobby, knitting, although the demand for woollen gloves and scarves is pretty limited in these parts!

I’m out of change and the computer will switch itself off in a moment, so I’ll stop now. Hopefully, I’ll be back on my blog thing again soon.

Love

I'm home for Christmas!

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It’s me, Rosey! I’ve come back for Christmas. I’ve only got a couple of weeks here and then it’s back to Africa for a few months. So much to do and so little time.

I’ve got to see Keithy, visit Fuz and Scruf, take a look at the allotment, meet up with my friends, buy some wool and knitting needles, and pop into school before the kids break up on Tuesday.

I’m hoping there will still be some snow on the ground. I remember having a snowball fight in the playground last winter. It was so embarrassing – I got snow in my eyes so I couldn’t see where the snow I was throwing was going! (that rhymes!). It took the head teacher all afternoon to dry out!

It’s strange to think that the children in my school in Africa have never seen snow, except in pictures. Most of them never will. It would be wonderful if there was a way I could take a snowman back with me!

Must go, things to be getting on with. I’ll try and leave a few words here before I fly away again. In the meantime, have a great Christmas. I know I will!
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Toodle-pip

I don’t like long goodbyes so I’ve decided to slip away quietly. When the sun comes up on a brand new day I’ll be above the clouds and on my way to my new life 8000 miles away working with children in Namibia.

I bade farewell to my parents this afternoon, and before travelling to the airport I met my friend Keith who thought I was still going to be here for a few more weeks. In fact, I'd told him a little white lie. For once he was speechless!

And just for once I was able to quote from a poem! ‘Don’t speak’ I told him. ‘Words will only steal the moment’

I’ll leave you with a photo which for me says more than words can ever do.

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Will you miss me?

I’m in a rut! I really am. I’m thirty years old and I’ve done nothing with my life. So I have decided to break free!

Loads of my friends are married - several have children, but I haven’t, so I reckon this is the moment to add a little adventure to my existence.

I love my job to bits. Working with kids is great fun, but I’m not a real teacher and to be honest my job could never really be termed a career. I’ve got my allotment which is fab, but giving it up is hardly going to make an impression on third world starvation. I knit like crazy, but I’m running out of people who want scarves and mittens.

So I’ve decided to take a few months out, and use my freedom to do a little bit for the planet or its people. I want to get away and look at my life from a distance. Then I can hopefully make a contribution somewhere in the world whilst at the same time decide exactly where I’m going from here.

I love penguins so my friend Whitesnake suggested I see if there were any opportunities down in the Antarctic. He thought that with nothing but ice and flightless birds around me I’d have plenty of opportunities for reflection. And he thought that maybe I could do my bit to help save the planet down there where things seem to be going wrong.

Trouble is, I can’t see myself going anywhere without things like my hairdryer. Call me vain, but that’s how it is. It occurred to me that every time I turned it on I’d melt a bit more ice and that would defeat the object of the exercise! And of course, if I took my fabulous water bed it would probably freeze solid!

Then I heard about something called VSO. I believe it stands for Voluntary Service Overseas. Actually it was a teacher at my school who told me about it and she thought that I could get a job similar to the one I have now, but working in a village in Africa with children less privileged than those I currently look after.

That was several weeks ago and I’ve now applied for a placement in Namibia. They told me that education there is suffering due to high incidence of aids in the country. Many teachers and assistants are unable to work as they have either contracted the disease themselves or have to look after family members who are sufferers.

If all goes to plan I’ll be away in three weeks. My cats Fuzzybut and Scruff are going to stay with a friend and I’ll rent out my flat to give me a little income whilst I’m away doing unpaid work.

I’ve decided not to continue with my blog while I’m away. Instead I’ll keep Keithy up to date with my goings-on and he’ll let you know what I’m up to.

So, please don’t forget me! I certainly won’t forget you and I hope you’ll all still be around when I get back. I’m missing you already! xxx

Always the bridesmaid!

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Hey, it's Sunday Scribbling time again! Today we have a one word prompt and it's ADULT!

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Over the last few years I’ve been to lots of weddings. So many of my mates and cousins have got themselves spliced. Then they seem to go from being fun loving party animals to rather dull couples who enjoy nothing more than a night in beside the telly with a nice cup of tea.

I have of course,become an expert in the duties of the Bridesmaid and the (wait for it) Matron of Honour! Me a matron! Wooo!

And I every time I perform my role my Father says the same thing ‘Miss Rosemary Pinkerton, always the bridesmaid never the bride’. Grrrrrrr!

Most of the nuptials take place in damp dark grey walled churches where a bored looking vicar spouts the usual stuff about obeying and procreating children. And almost without fail a nervous friend of the couple will go to lectern and read a piece from the bible – a book they have probably never seen since they were in RE classes at school!

And it’s always the same bit – Corinthians Chapter 13 which goes on like ‘love is patient, love is kind, is not jealousies, not pompous, it is not inflated (beg pardon?) it is not rude (he-he!)

But the bit that makes me want to stamp my size eight on the floor is the bit which says’ When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things’.

Obviously I’m not a man, but it’s not that makes me cross. You see, the thing is I still like to talk as a child as many of you are only too aware! I have no intention of putting away childish things - my Teddy stays exactly where it is!. And when faced with a problem I find it much easier to work through it if I reason like a child. I have no problem with being a child and an adult at the same time. And ok, I admit it - I still suck my thumb when I go to bed. If all that has to go, then marriage 'aint for me!

You always hear people saying ‘Ooo, I love children’. But how often do you hear someone say ‘Ooo I love adults’. It’s just not the same.

As many of you know I enjoy the best of both worlds because I landed the best job in the universe. I’m a classroom assistant to a teacher with a class of seven and eight year olds and I spend my days at play whilst getting paid for it.

When I’m shopping I see many of the kids from my class in the mall and so often they are dressed like mini adults. If only they realised how precious the innocence of childhood is, they wouldn’t be in such a rush to leave it behind. I rest my case!

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