Thoughts Opinions & Memories | But I Smile Anyway...

WRITE A FAIRYTALE SET HERE – WRITESPIRATION #96

13 Oct 2016 41 Comments

by Ritu in Challenges, Fiction, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #Writespiration, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Fairytale, Photo Prompt, Sacha Black

Sacha’s back with a new Writespiration prompt!

This week your task is to write a fairytale, or a part of one, or a fairytale poem set in the photo. Maybe it’s a nightmare tale, or perhaps a happily ever after ending, or maybe a prince’s love monologue. Write a fairytale in less than 200 words. Leave it in the comments or use a pingback so I find it. Due by 23rd October.

fairytale-writespiration

Ok, so I’m not sure this was exactly what you wanted… but here goes!

Candicella – The Party Princess

Candicella looked up. Surely her Prince would arrive soon!

She had been trapped in this woods, where the rave was being held, for the last 2 hours.

Faithfully, she had dressed up in what her Fairy Godmother had assured her were the latest ‘threads’, but looking around her, she realised that old Betty had not quite got it right. She really needed hot pants and a cropped top! The sneakers were a lovely shade of green though.

She sat admiring them, then winced in pain. Trying to join in with the other party animals had been rather more strenuous than she had remembered from her ‘ball-going’ days, and had resulted in a twisted knee.

Hearing a twig crack as someone stepped on it, she turned.

“Oh thank goodness you’re here!”

In all his princely regalia, Prince Dwayne looked rather out of place, but he valiantly stepped up to his regal duty, to rescue the Princess, again.

Scooping her up in his arms, he teetered slightly, but righted himself, and carried Candicella back to the waiting carriage.

“My dear,” he said as he glanced down at her footwear, “I can see why you needed rescuing…glass slippers are much more ‘you!”

Life In The Nursery World

11 Oct 2016 38 Comments

by Ritu in Children, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogging, Clowns, New class, Nursery, School

I realise that I haven’t really mentioned work much, considering it is only a few days to our first half term vacation.

Besides being tired, I have been settling Lil Man into his new school and dealing with secondary homework, learning how to remember which books or sports kit is needed on each day, and generally learning to let go…

It hasn’t helped the last week, where the whole ‘Killer-Clown’ craze has gone wild on Social Media, so the kids are showing each other messages and photos, and spreading stories of impending clown visits to schools. Lil Man finds it hard to sleep, worrying about it. But on the flip side, he wants to be strong enough to fight his corner, if he was to be apprehended by a curly haired joker…

So, back to my daily grind…

If last year was a Baptism of Fire, with some real tough characters, this year is almost the flip-reverse!

Now, I’m not saying I am teaching a whole class of advanced angels who can all read and write already, and have the social skills of adults, but there is a world of difference between the two cohorts of children!

Yes, we have many with language barriers, from Punjabi to Hindi, Polish to Slovakian, Russian and Latvian, Greek and Albanian, and the odd English speaker too!

Yes, there is the strong chance of a couple of children with special needs, ADHD or Speech impediments,

Yes, there are some children with behaviour issues, those who are not used to sharing, or anyone saying no to them.

But they are manageable!

They have their quirks too. I have one who comes up and randomly kisses whatever part of the body he sees, so far kisses have graced my knee, shoulder, bosom and even my bum!

We have had criers, who could sob, or wail for 2 hours, giving us headaches, then stop, as if a switch flicked, leaving us wondering what went on!

Nappy-gate is still here, we have a serial pooper, who has gone from the nappy to little slips in his new pants. There is the one whose mummy can’t bear him to have an accident, so sends him in nappies, then asks us to take it off… Bless him, he is so good at going toilet, oh ye mother of little faith! And we have already trained one,who now proudly announces she needs a “widdle”!

Talking of the toilet, and down ‘below’, I am intrigued as to what conversations may be like in some households. Maybe I am wrong, but when referring to our ‘bits and pieces’, we use soft terms, you know, willy, and winky, or pom-pom and floof…

The other day one of my little 3-year-olds came up to me and told me her f*nny was hurting! And today (forgive me, bad teacher, but I really wanted to laugh!) one of my little charges needed the loo, after wriggling around on the carpet, trying to hold it in. I followed him, to make sure he was ok. I did call after him, to ask and he answered “I’m just getting my d*ck out!” Said in such a matter of fact way, I didn’t know what to say!

Suffice to say, I haven’t been driven to drink so far this term, an improvement on last year!

Spidey’s Serene Sunday – Part 86

09 Oct 2016 39 Comments

by Ritu in Spidey's Serene Sundays, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Maya Angelou, Quote, Rainbow, Serene, Spiderman, Spidey, Spidey's Serene Sunday

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” – Maya Angelou

Reading this, it made me think that no matter what you are going through, or how bad you think you have it, there is always someone worse off than you.

We can all be someone’s ‘rainbow’.

It’s not hard you know.

It doesn’t take much to shine a light on someone’s darkness.

There are times a simple smile will brighten a gloomy day, it may be offering to lend a hand, or taking a little extra responsibility to give another person a break. You may just want to be the shoulder they need to lean on, or the ear for them to offload.

It doesn’t have to mean going out of your way, but believe me when I say these little things, that may not seem to be of importance to you, can change another person’s outlook from negative to positive.

Go on Peeps. Try and be that rainbow to someone today!

Happy Sunday!

Bridget Jones’s Baby – A Review

08 Oct 2016 34 Comments

by Ritu in Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Bridget Jones's Baby, Cinema, Film Review, Hilarious, Movies, Popcorn

I went to the cinema again.Two times in two months, a bit of a record for me!

It was Bridget Jones’s Baby this time. We were having a girlie night with a film and dinner for a dear friend of mine, and what a perfect film to watch! Not least because my friend is turning 43, and so was Bridget in the film, but because it was ‘laugh out loud’ funny, pretty much all the way through!

Renee Zellweger is back as the hapless Bridget Jones, unlucky in love, in her forties, with a bleak outlook on her future.

I guess it is most women’s nightmare to be pregnant, and not know who the father is, but for poor Bridget, her two ‘encounters’ came at close intervals to each other, after a five-year sexual hiatus. The falling pregnant after thinking her ovaries had dried up was a most pleasant surprise, but the not knowing who daddy was… STRESS!

And it didn’t help that both candidates had a LOT going for them!

One is her long time love of her life, an older, but still just as serious, Mark Darcy (played by Colin Frith) who is overjoyed, in a subdued way, at the thought of being the father to Bridget’s child, and the other, a supposed one night stand that ends up being a very handsome, eligible billionaire, Jack Quant (a rather yummy Patrick Dempsey!) who really wants to be a daddy!

Much hilarity ensues in the build up to the falling pregnant, and the duration of the pregnancy, where both prospective fathers try to be supportive, but secretly hate each other’s guts as they really want to be the father!

Antenatal classes with two dads… always going to be funny!

Then there is the macho locking of horns right up until the delivery where they find out who really is the daddy!

Actually a cringeworthy, but belly achingly funny scene when they need to get Bridget to the hospital when her labour starts, and need to pick her up! Oh, how we laughed!!

Of course, I will not disclose who it is, but if you have read the books then you already know!

Throw in a ludicrously young, trendy new boss for Bridget, a mother who is on a political campaign trail, winning over the blue-rinse brigade, and the hilarious Italian restaurant owner and you have a gigglefest on your hands!

Looking around the theatre, there were groups of women, young and old, and couples, from all age ranges, so it is a film that would be enjoyed by most people! But not kids… with the “f*ckity f*uck” swearing, and a little horizontal tango-ing going on, it is a 15 rated movie!

Again, a seriously funny film, I may have actually enjoyed it more than Bad Moms, and that was a good film! We both drank too much Diet Coke, but had to cross our legs as we didn’t want to miss a moment of the movie!

And on the subject of diet drinks, I didn’t eat popcorn at the movies! Saved my Slimming World syns for the KFC Rice Box (10.5 syns), and got home and had a movie snack (3 syns) there instead for far fewer calories!