Clean Slate

/ Absidity Art / Leave a comment

Today’s post asks us to explore the room we’re in as if we’re seeing it for the first time – What do we see? Who is the person who lives there?

                       *                    *                      *

As I walk up to the door I can smell the scent of lavender, the kind of smoky lavender that comes from burning incense and I can see an old faded green fabric one seater lounge chair just inside the doorway. As I walk through the door I step on something hard, I look down to see a baby’s plastic rattle under my foot. There are a few baby toys strewn around the ground, obviously to keep a little someone occupied while a bigger someone is trying to use the room. The rooms one large window has its blinds drawn to the left side and the room is filled with bright sunlight. What the bigger someone would be using the room for becomes obvious once I see the big black desk under the window. Now this desk looks like it was probably an old rectangular dining table it’s so big. At the table is a computer chair. On the table is an open Laptop Computer and Tablet PC, multiple paper filing trays with bills and books, pen holders, an open daily planner, a large silver desk lamp as well as an empty oil burner and an incense holder with a extinguished incense cone in it. As I turn around to leave the room I realise there is a white built-in wardrobe that I didn’t notice as I walked in. I open the wardrobe and am immediately hit with a divine smell, I look up first and find a rather large supply of candles, incense and oils. There is also a collection of craft and painting supplies, some old work out equipment and a massive box full of aged by still in good condition Lego all stuffed in the little wardrobe.

Judging by the desk this is the home office of someone who likes a lot of space when they are working, I assume they have a baby and that the baby isn’t old enough for the Lego so it’s hidden away for once they are older. Maybe it’s ever the room’s owners Lego from when they were a kid and they intend to pass it on. They must like candles and incense and all things pretty smelling.

I look back around the room as I go to leave, It is a rather clean and tidy room, if you don’t count the few baby toys on the floor, everything on the desk is lined and grouped just so, it’s possible the owner of this room is a bit obsessive.

So the owner of this room is a slightly obsessive person, who likes space, who likes the air around them aromatised and who is a parent trying to keep their child occupied while they work.

*                         *                           *

The room I wrote this in is my home office/ writing room.

365daysofprompts Post 13/365 missed 3

Take Two

/ Absidity Art / 2 Comments

Today’s post asks up to run outside and take a picture of the first thing we see, then run back inside and take a picture of the second thing we see, then write about the connection between these two random objects, people, or scenes.

Ok so I didn’t run, when I run I tend to fall! But this is what I saw when I opened my front door:

outsideMy Car (and my dying front lawn) were the first things I noticed. My green Lancer wagon. My nice family friendly safe little Lancer wagon aka My G.L.W (green lancer wagon). Before I got the GLW for its baby carrying wagon benefits, I had a Commodore (aka the Bombodore). The Bombodore was actually a bigger, heavier and faster car then the GLW, but alas it was a sedan and a wagon is much easier to hall prams and things out of. The GLW uses half the fuel of the Bombodore because it’s got half the engine. I am really enjoying the ease of a wagon carting my son around, but when I’m driving ALONE I still yearn for the rear wheel drive Holden power that used to put me sideways when I’d take off too fast – ummm no I’ve never done that I swear – oh who am I kidding, I can be a typical Aussie who likes being a lead foot and a dickhead some of the time!

When I turned back around I saw my floor mat covered in dirty foot prints, making my think I needed to clean it. Second thing I saw was a display cabinet. I never realised my hall was so boring until I looked at this photo.

insideThe cabinet is full of mementos from family trips, my wedding and trinkets my husband and I have collected over the years. The things that you can probably make out in the photograph inside the display cabinet are; the number plate off of my motor scooter which I kept when I sold the bike just before my son was born and one of my Astro Boy figures, I loved Astro Boy when I was younger and when I was four I named my first dog after him. Up on top of the display cabinet is evidence that I am a Harry Potter fan as I have a Dobby stuffed toy, two white owl statues representing Hedwig and a toy cat I made representing Crookshanks. Also up on top there are two photos from my wedding.

The connection between the two things – well they’re mine for a start, It’s my car and my display cabinet, one holds a lot of memories and the other has the ability to take me to places to make new memories.

365daysofprompts   Post 12/365 missed 3

Tripwire (3rd of 18 Reacher Novels)

/ Absidity Art / 5 Comments

Tripwire (3rd of 18 Reacher Novels) by Lee Child

Goodreads synopsis:

Jack Reacher, ex-military policeman relaxed in Key West until Costello turned up dead. The amiable PI was hired in New York by the daughter of Reacher’s mentor and former commanding officer, General Garber. Garber’s investigation into a Vietnam MIA sets Reacher on collision with hand-less “Hook” Hobie, hours away from his biggest score.

My thoughts:

This book grabbed me that’s for sure, I didn’t want to put it down. This book has all the fast paced page turning action and thrilling mystery of the other Reacher novels I’ve read, but also you get to see the more loving side of Reacher through his relationship with Jodie. I would like to think he sticks with Jodie, but I know from reading later penned Reacher books that she’s nowhere to be found, maybe later I’ll come across another book that will tell me what happened to her and General Garber’s house. I really like how with Lee Child we get a running account of all the big players in the story and how they always all come together at the end somehow. I always find myself trying to guess the puzzle, then he gives you another piece and you’ve got to guess again. Mr Child and his Jack Reacher always keep you guessing.

Four out of five stars for another enthralling Reacher investigation.

Turn me into a curry

/ Absidity Art / 2 Comments

Sometimes when my sons sitting on my lap he stares into my eyes and it’s like he’s reading my soul – Other times I swear he’s thinking ”if I cut her up and put her in a curry she’d be delicious” then he’ll smile, slap me and bite my chin, which makes if perfectly obvious he wants to turn me into a curry!!

Teacher’s pet

/ Absidity Art / Leave a comment

Today’s post prompt asks us to write about a teacher who had a real impact on our lives, either for the better or the worse and how is your life different today because of him or her?

Haha well I could talk about my mum, she is a high school art teacher, oh wait WAS, its 2014 she’s now retired. So anyways she was a teacher and she’s taught me a hell of a lot over the years – but I think the prompt probably means more along the lines of your past school teachers.

So I’ll start off saying I didn’t really have any teachers that impacted badly on my life in the long run, although I’m sure I impacted badly on some of their lives.

There are a few teaches who stand out:

Primary School. My year 6 teacher Mrs Anderson, the first teacher I ever tried to behave for, first class I actually tried to learn in. She separated me from my friends and put me down the front of the class between Nick Redman and Guy Faseas, it was probably the smartest thing anybody had ever done. I already knew Cathie Anderson (now Cathie Black) before I had her as a teacher as she was and still is friends with my parents and grandparents. She’d known me my whole life and I cared about what she thought of me, I was probably still loud and un-agreeable some of the time, but I did try to behave for her! Well in my head I did, she might tell you a different story!

High School. I walked into Toronto High School with a bit of an attitude and walked out with a rather bad and major one, BUT most of the teachers I had there had a positive effect on me, I just had to grow up to understand their lessons.

Science became one of my favorite subjects. Now I was never a very good ‘learner’ at school, WAY! to easily distracted, but in my four years at Toronto I had two super awesome science teachers Mr Morgan and Mr Delbow (that’s not how he spells it I’m sure) who made learning science easier for me because they kept me captivated. I don’t really remember getting into much trouble in science class.

I loved music class, but that’s because it was always a bludge and the only class I got straight A’s in. Art class was also one of my favorites, even though I really liked my art teacher, it was more the subject matter that held me. I Hated Math!!! No teaches fault! Just F*#king hated having to think really hard on boring numbers LOL and now I’m an office clerk who works with numbers each day, oh what a world. Numbers and I became friends after I left school. Sorry I got a bit off track there.

Last but not least Mrs Ireland my Drama teacher, I’ve mentioned her before, she could always get me to behave. Everybody respected Mrs Ireland, she was a hard teacher, but a good one. It was Mrs Island who encouraged the angry loud mouthed fifteen year old Sarah to try reading. I had read as a child, school forced you to read and some of my fondest early child hood memories are of reading with my mum and my Nanma, but somewhere along the teenage path I’d lost that love. She helped me to find my love of reading again, which has no doubt improved my writing, spelling and concentrating abilities over the years.

Ok I’ll shop boring you with my ramblings now 🙂

365daysofprompts   Post 8/365 missed 1

Helpless

/ Absidity Art / 4 Comments

Helplessness: that dull, sick feeling of not being the one at the reins – Today’s post asks us when did you last feel like that, helpless and what did you do about it?

I laughed when I saw today’s post prompt, a bitter laugh! I think the question for me would be when do I not feel helpless. I’m going to be brutally honest here (which I think I’ll regret when I hit publish), I break down almost daily, feeling trapped, feeling like everything is out of my control, feeling that the things I want for myself are out of reach and that going on is pointless. I breakdown feeling helpless, sorry for myself and mad at myself for feeling the first two.

What am I doing about it, well to be honest I’m sick of dealing with it and I’m sick of talking about it, talking just drags it out, talk talk talk talk, talking around in circles, talking to my husband who doesn’t understand, talking to a ‘professional’ I got sent to see – talking is pointless when nobody’s listening – so I’m done with talking.

I can suffer through it. I can try to think about the things that make me happy to help the current wave of depression wash over me. Once the wave is gone I can go back to being the ME I enjoy, until helplessness, fear and anger come rolling to my shore again and I’ll suffer through them again until that wave passes also.

I think you can tell I’m under a wave while writing this, my sons been cranky this afternoon and his crying always sends me straight to the bottom. There is nothing that makes me feel more helpless than his cries, it really is amazing how you can love something so much but have it cause you so much anguish.

But I will say I am thankful for the life I have, things could be much worse, but unfortunately that doesn’t stop the waves crashing over me.

365daysofprompts   Post 7/365 missed 1

Reading books

/ Absidity Art / Leave a comment

As a generalisation I won’t read a series until it’s finished. I hate the waiting. I dread falling in love with a book and not being able to read it’s follow up straight away and having to wait another year or so. I’m rather impatient in all aspects of life actually, one of my major flaws, causes me all sorts of grief, but that’s a trillion different stories right there.

I purchased all of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter books at once, then read them back to back! I read all five of Douglas Adams’s HHGTTG in one go, all The Percy Jackson series, hunger games trilogy etc. I’ve got Shadows of The Realm and A Time of Darkness sitting on my book shelf and I’m waiting for Dionne Lister to publish the third instalment so I can sit down and read them all.

I know you’re thinking ummm you bought the whole series before reading the first book, what if you don’t like it? – In my defence, I read reviews to get a feel of the book and see whether I think I’m going to like it or not, I can’t just read for readings sake, it’s got to draw me in! Normally the first book will come out and I’d decide I wanted to read it, if I find out it’s a series I’ll note it down to keep track of it and wait for all the books to come out, then buy the first book, read it and see if I like it before buying the rest – but by waiting till they all are published I can go and buy the next one straight away, no anguish waiting.

Yeah, I should just learn to be patient hey!

My big problem with reading at the moment is my ‘want to read’ list keeps getting longer, my bank out keeps getting lower and I can’t seem to get much time to read, hmmm I’m wasting reading time right now!!

Night All.

The Demigod Diaries (Heroes of Olympus)

/ Absidity Art / Leave a comment

The Demigod Diaries (Heroes of Olympus) by Rick Riordan

Goodreads Synopsis:

What dangers do runaway demigods Luke and Thalia face on their way to Camp Half-Blood? Are Percy and Annabeth up to the task of rescuing stolen goods from a fire-breathing giant who doesn’t take kindly to intruders? How exactly are Leo, Piper, and Jason supposed to find a runaway table, dodge a band of party-loving Maenads” (“who just might be a little psychotic), and stave off a massive explosion…all in one hour or less?

With his trademark wit and creativity, Rick Riordan answers these questions and more in three never-before-seen short stories that provide vital back-story to the Heroes of Olympus and Percy Jackson books. Original art, enlightening character interviews and profiles, puzzles, and a quiz add to the fun in this action-packed collection.

My thoughts:

I found it very cute the way Riordan set up and linked the short stories as a training manual for Demigods. While I only gave this three stars as an adult, I think if I were a young teen (the demographic that this books is aimed at) I would go crazy over this and have loved it.

In this book we get a story from Luke Castellan’s point of view, a first-person Percy Jackson story, a Leo Valdez story and a short story debut from Riordan’s sixteen year old son Haley.

I will add that the short story by Haley Riordan is quite good and I think he’ll be an emerging author to watch.

Murphy’s Law

/ Absidity Art / Leave a comment

Trying to get Riley to the doctors for his 6mth needle appointment – First the rubber on the front door broke and I had to kick it shut from behind and go out the garage, then I finally got all Riley’s stuff in the lancer and of course it wouldn’t start, So I chucked everything in the cruiser, tripped and hurt my ankle while doing it 😦 but least we still made it to the doctors on time lol

Call Me Ishmael

/ Absidity Art / 1 Comment

 

Today’s post ”Call Me Ishmael” asked us to take the first sentence from your favourite book and make it the first sentence of your post. I can’t really narrow down ONE book as my favourite so here is a mash up of my favourites:

 

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. The tracks of an old railway line run from Adelaide in South Australia to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. It is a truth universally acknowledge, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Did you guess any of them?

 

Now these are not in a particular order because I couldn’t choose between them:

 

For out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. The hitch hiker’s guide to the galaxy – Douglas Adams. All hail the late Douglas Adams and his trilogy in five parts, I’ve put the first line out of the first book, but in my heart it’s representing the whole series.

 

The tracks of an old railway line run from Adelaide in South Australia to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Albert of Adelaide – Howard L Anderson. If you haven’t heard of it you should look it up. http://sarahalison27.org/2013/12/14/albert-of-adelaide/

 

Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. Harry Potter – J K Rowling. As with HHGTTG I’ve put the first line out of the first book, but in my heart it’s representing the whole series.

 

It is a truth universally acknowledge, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen. You all know this book I’m sure. If I really had to narrow it down to one book as my favourite, this would probably be the one –

 

BUT if you’d asked me as a child it would have been Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery and this book will always be right up there!! Anne of Green Gables opens with a whopping 148-word sentence.

Mrs Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops, and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde’s Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs Rachel Lynde’s door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs Rachel was sitting at her door, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.

All these Books in my opinion are pure awesomeness!!!

365daysofprompts   Post 5/365 missed 1