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Weekly Contest #177
Before arriving in China, the reality of experiencing a significant language difficulty never entered my mind. I truly believed everyone spoke English - if not fluently - enough for the essentials to be understood. Previously I’d worked in a zoo in Malaysia and had experienced no communication difficulties at all. Of course, this was because an English charity had set up my placement in the zoo and an English speaker looked after me. But, taxi drivers in Kuala Lumpur could communicate tolerably well in English, and the vast Sh...
Weekly Contest #176
She left "Primrose", the co-working cafe where she usually spent many hours, feeling strangely depressed. She'd spent at least half a day trying to cobble together a short story, and it seemed today her brain was in a permanent 'snooze' mode. Should she give up writing entirely? Or was this a childish reaction to her writing task not turning out well? She stomped up the main street trying to decide where to go and what to do. She noticed a side street and turned into it, finding that she wasn't familiar with it. 'Strange', she whispered...
Weekly Contest #174
Yes, she could have made some different choices in life, but she did what she did, both good and bad, and she turned out to be who she now is. It's simply just growing up and moving on. But as the years passed, she continued to dream that all was not too late and that something genuinely romantic might eventually happen to her. In her wild, heady past, most female friends had a similar ilk and would hunt in bars to find a guy to flirt with. After a heavy, boozy night, it usually ended with a quick fumble and speedy se...
Weekly Contest #172
Sitting in the cafe, sipping hot coffee, she absent-mindedly swung her feet, first quickly and then more slowly, whilst thinking. She had a deadline for a short story for a women’s magazine where she worked as one of their freelancers. She knew what she was supposed to write about but didn’t have a single original idea. Across the road from the cafe was a park. It was a crisp late-November day awash with bright watery sunshine that often happens in the Autumn. She could see smiling mothers and children hanging aro...
Weekly Contest #170
It is only when looking back, now that I have reached the mature years, that I realise all the sections of my life have contributed to a far superior life plan than I could have chosen. Apart from the purchase of a house and a pension plan I imagined myself a ‘free spirit’ jumping carelessly from event to event, without thought or care. I little knew all those earlier escapades and adventures were there to prepare me for the sheer joy of my sunset years. Like most things in my mature years, moving to Asia had been bizarre...
Weekly Contest #167
Lights, Camera, Action She fell into the pub, her pub. She loved this pub, her second home. But tonight, standing behind the bar, was a new staff member. She hated it when it was someone new, and a scowl immediately appeared on her face. At the best of times, new staff never seemed to know where things were and, much more importantly, often failed to recognise the important customers. But tonight, this was unreservedly the wrong bar staff; they’d hired a woman! Who the hell would employ a female to work b...
Weekly Contest #166
That sinking feeling of being called to a ‘three-line whip’ meeting. The guidelines to all staff, if not based in London, were to use the conference video service and dial in from the various offices based in the UK. It was clear that all must attend. She knew her team of work colleagues were perked up, finding this type of compulsory meeting exciting, as indeed was any interruption to their customary, standard routine. But for her, even the rumours swirling around the office regarding the upcoming meeting failed to brighten...
Bloody Remi. During the night, Sophie would be aware of Remi banging on the dividing wall from her flat next door to Sophie’s. Sophie then would have to suffer the indignity of being whispered about and covertly pointed at should Remi catch sight of Sophie in the garden. Sophie, feeling awkward, would attempt a pleasant smile at her ‘warring’ next-door neighbour, but Remi’s face would freeze, horror-struck that Sophie would try to acknowledge her. Sophie could blame Remi and claim it was all her fault for this awkwardness. S...
Weekly Contest #102
During the summer of the late 1950s my family and I lived in Chessington a town based in the South East of England - a short journey from Central London. My story centres around when I was about 7 years old. I was the youngest of three girls and next door lived two young boys of similar ages and we were all great friends. Childhood memories are never totally accurate, but I’m guessing it must have been the school summer holidays, as we seemed to play together endlessly; every day consisting of long, warm, sunny days, full of e...
Weekly Contest #99
‘The wheels will roll at 8.30. You need to get up now, we don’t want a big hold up in the bathroom. Get up now don’t just lie there!’ ‘mmmmm’ ‘Open your eyes - the wheels will roll at 8.30 - precisely’. I look at dad through screwed up eyes that are totally unwilling to open wide and inwardly silently groan: ’I’m asleep go away’. Once my eyes begin flickering and there is at least an attempt to wake up, that look of stress begins to leave his eyes and off he hurries to do battle with my sisters. ‘The wheels will roll at ...
Weekly Contest #98
During the early 2000s not long after moving to London from Cardiff, on a rainy, dull Saturday afternoon I sneaked in through the gates of Dolphin Square and found myself in one of the most glorious gardens I had ever seen. I felt sure my friend had made a huge mistake by telling me to get a flat here. This was not for the likes of me - it was - posh. I was convinced if someone saw me in the gardens complete with tourist book in hand I would be marched out of the garden and told not to come back. However, I was persuaded by my frie...
Weekly Contest #96
Several years ago I went to an Exhibition in London called ‘Get a Life’ which had representatives from every possible walk of life suggesting new job opportunities, new lifestyle ideas, all kinds of things that went from the sublime to the ridiculous. I was so depressed I found the Exhibition really boring. My head shook from side to side constantly and I wore the expression of the completely beaten and downtrodden woman. No, nothing appealed. Towards the end of the day just as I was about to leave the Exhibition I was suddenl...
Weekly Contest #95
I remember casually walking into the office and announcing I was taking a year off work to live with a tribe in the Borneo Jungle. I had volunteered to support a Charity carrying out an organ-utan population count. Everyone was so excited for me, and all the awkward questions I had envisaged just never came. When discussing my jungle plan I heard them using words like ‘helluva girl’. Why on earth my colleagues had got it into their heads that I was an adventurer, full of confidence, hanging out with apes in the jungle wh...
Weekly Contest #93
Many, many years ago I decided to give up smoking. My smoking levels were high and definitely getting higher. If I could have only stayed at ‘a pack a day’ I’m sure I would never have noticed that I had a problem. However by the time I was on at least two packs a day I was beginning to understand that the addiction had a vice-like grip on me. I felt I had tried everything - except just giving up - and so finally decided on hypnotherapy. I can still see Mark’s quite large house with the upstairs room where he hypnotis...
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