WTF Easter Monday

Yay, Katie, for finding this cute little fella in the Dollar Store.

I wonder what "Hollow Milk" tastes like.

500 Words XXXIII - This Week's Sentence

This week's sentence is taken from James Ellroy's 'The Big Nowhere'.

It is:

'Claire chain-smoked and drummed her nails on the dashboard.'

You've got your assignment. Now go do that voodoo that you do so well.

500 Words XXXII - Story Time

Hokay, so it's a day late but I was too busy to even think, let alone read and write.

Here goes (at last):

This week’s sentence was taken from L. Frank Baum’s ‘The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz’.

It was:
‘Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions.’

Some goodies to enjoy with your coffee this week. Adonia's little Jake is definitely one to watch, Lulu reminisces deliciously and Old Dive retreats into his Norfolk childhood.

Adonia's 'Part III: My Boy Jake'

Yikes! There's a definite edge creeping into Adonia's Jake stories. I can feel something big coming and I'm pretty sure I want to be hiding behind the sofa when it gets here.

Shivery stuff.

Lulu's 'Little Apple'

Ah, the ache of age. Lulu's story this week hits that ache hard with some wonderfully real writing about … well … certainly not about what it's like to be over fifty, darn it.

Dive's 'Prelude To An Incident On Somerleyton Marshes'

If you're a little kid who likes to get out into the countryside and is prone to daydreaming, Norfolk's a pretty good place to grow up in.

Enjoy!

Hang On A Minute …

Sheesh!

This week has been so busy I have not had a minute to myself, and I'm back in London again on Thursday so I won't have the chance to do the Story Time post until Friday.

I promise I'll sort it out then.

Gotta dash … Toodle pip!

WTF Lunedì

Another shot from Phil's trip to Rome.

500 Words XXXII - This Week's Sentence

This week’s sentence is taken from L. Frank Baum’s deliciously subversive tale, ‘The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz’.

It is:
‘Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions.’

Give your mind a good sniff of the sentence, then slip off its leash and let it run free.
The rules are the same as always.

Enjoy!

500 Words XXXI - Story Time

This week's sentence was taken from Willa Cather's lovely 'Death Comes For The Archbishop'.

It was:
'Muerto,' he whispered.

And yes, the chill hand of ol' Death himself stalks our stories this week, so settle in with an iced coffee and sit in that annoying seat that all coffee shops have where the air-con blows right down the back of your neck and let us tell you tales …


Adonia's 'Part II: The Pearsons'

Christmas with a sting in the tail from Adonia this week.
Lovely descriptions; I felt I was right there in the Pearson house.
But don't get too comfortable!


Lulu's 'Dead Fish Swimming'

First up: awesome title, Lulu!
No space aliens, Godzilla, Chandleresque detectives or wild sex this week, but a lovely day out for Davey (who is really growing as a character) where sand, sea and sunshine are chilled by death foretold.
This really is terrific writing. I love it!


Robyn's 'Miss Bernice And The Newts'

Eek! The terrifying Miss Haversham returns to feed the nightmares of children (and me).
Beware her home-made cookies and tremble at her finger puppets.
Of course, her heart is in the right place, it's just that it resides inside a classic fairy-tale monster.
Brr …

Dive's 'Sometimes That's All You Need'

I'm still on my Chekhov kick, so once again I give you some nondescript characters and then make nothing much happen.

Next assignment in tomorrow's post.
There or square; it's your choice.

Enjoy the stories!

WTF วันจันทร์

Motion Towards …

Senatus PopulusQue Romanus (as opposed to Romani Ite Domum).

I was just cleaning out some of my photo files on the Mac when I came across Phil's photos of his trip to Rome a couple of weeks back.
Being the type of person who is easily distracted I got sidetracked into giving some of them the "Teeny Tiny Treatment" and then I realised that they are actually bloody good photos, so as Phil is not blogging at the moment I'll put a few of them up here for your lazy-assed Sunday afternoon perusal.
Hey, what else are you gonna do on a Sunday? Visit the inlaws? Sheesh! Sit and look at these pretty pictures instead; it's better than the telly and a lot better for your soul than going to church.

Here's a Teeny Tiny dome in the Vatican.

A Teeny Tiny ceiling painting.

The Teeny Tiny Colosseum (apparently it looked bigger when he was there).
Do click on these. Some of them blow up quite well.

A Teeny Tiny car park in the Vatican.

The rather bigger Colosseum.

The Pantheon. Yay!

Decius Marius Venantius wrote this when he was drunk.

Very dodgy looking Vatican guards (this was just after the scandal broke with the Vatican guards and the transexual prostitutes … and dressed like this I'd look worried, too).

I especially like this one. Boffo, Phil!

The Tiber at night. Be careful crossing that bridge.

Colin being Colin.

I might post some more of these another day. He took lots of spiffy photos.

Oh, and an easy two points for anyone spotting the post title reference.
Enjoy!

What's Cooking With Dive? - Quickie Sucker Salad

I've not done a 'What's Cooking With Dive' post for ages. I keep meaning to, but time is a problem right at the moment.

Having said that, Lulu's story from last week's 500 Words assignment (which she just rushed in late) is such a doozy, and probably the most scary and disgusting thing ever written about seafood - check it out: it's at the end of the last Story Time post from a couple of days ago … just don't eat before you read it - that I decided to post a quickie 'What's Cooking' today.

I read Lulu's story just as I got home from David the fishmonger and it's only the fact that I am a truly gross and disgusting person myself that enabled me to eat seafood after reading it.
David's just expanded his mighty emporium with an enlarged shellfish section and as well as my usual stuff I grabbed a bag of marinaded octopus and some little prawns to make a donburi-style lunch.

With a true donburi, you pile the food on top of the rice but I had too much octopus so I plopped it in a plate.

Anyhoo … Not much cooking involved in this one. Just crank up the rice steamer, add a handful of Jasmine rice, boil the kettle for some miso soup, then plonk the whole lot on the table and eat it. The green stuff's wasabi by the way.

I promise I'll do some proper cookery posts soon, but this tentacular affair kinda suited Lulu's story as most of you find such things icky.
For any newbies, do click on the "Eat Me" link in my sidebar and check out further forays into cephalopod heaven, including the utterly disgusting "How to dismember fresh squid with your bare hands" post that grossed so many of you out. The creepy one with the live razor clams is in there somewhere, too. Squeamish, beware!