#SoCS Aug. 20, 2022 – Key

Linda’s SoCS prompt.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “key.” Use it as a noun, a verb, or use it metaphorically. Have fun!

When using a hotel keycard, it is key to know which action you need to open your door.

Gone are the days of simple metal keys inserted into locks, then turned to enter your room.

A few years back your keycard needed to be inserted too, into a little slot. A light came on telling you that the lock had been deactivated, then you could step in, but not forgetting to pop your keycard into the dock by the door, to get the lights and electrical amenities working.

Then there were ones you swiped, rather like a debit card wipe.

Yesterday we were at a hotel, and they have upped the game once more… you just tap the keycard on a panel on the room door and it lights up, ready to let you in!

Of course, it is easier to misplace those cards…

But then again, proper keys go missing, too, don’t they?

We had a case when not one set, not two, but three sets of car keys complete with house keys went missing…

We began to think a poltergeist had taken up residence in the house, but then we found said poltergeist, in the form of a giggling 2-year-old Lil Man, who had found the stash of keys left on the dining table, reached up, took one and dropped them behind the radiator! It was such fun, he felt around and took any others he could find, and did the same!

And they all got stuck behind the radiator panel, so we spent an evening trying to fish them out with bent hangers and all sorts!

Reminds me of a time my mum recalls, hearing tiny me giggle randomly one day, and following the noise to find me in front of our small fridge in the kitchen, door open, with a puddle of broken eggs on the floor. I took one at a time from the egg shelf in the door and proceeded to break around half. adoze, because it was such fun to see and hear them break!

I will be 47 in two weeks, yet to this day, my mother has never kept her eggs in the fridge!

And, likewise, our keys are always hung up now, and never left on the table!

Throwback Thursday #52 – Transitions and Modifications

Having another go at Maggie and Laurens, Throwback Thursday challenge! This week it is Maggie at the helm!

This week’s prompt is: Transitions and Modifications

  1. Think about your first haircut. Were you the kid that cut your own hair? Did you go to a salon or did your parents cut your hair? Did your parents save a lock of your hair? As Sikhs, we aren’t supposed to cut our hair, appreciating and being grateful for what God gave us. However, we are not fully baptised in our family. When I was about 6, I had a real craving to get my hair cut, and so my mum took me to the hairdresser, and I had my first page boy cut! My dad cut my brother’s hair for the first time, and that was painful for him, as my father has always kept his hair and worn a turban, but felt the pressure to do it, so my brother didn’t get any bullying as he grew up in an area that was predominantly white. One silly story of me and my hair is that I wear convinced I had too small a forehead, so I took a bunch of hair from the front and snipped it clean off at the scalp, thinking no one would notice… Er, they did And, then I had a fountain of sprouting hair growing back, soon after!
  2. How about shaving? Fathers often teach their sons to shave. Most girls I know, decided for themselves when to shave their legs and their underarms. Some cultures do not shave at all. Again, line the above, we aren’t supposed to remove any body hair, however, the majority of us who aren’t fully baptised do. I think my mum got me an electric razor first, but I also experimented with hair removal cream, waxing, etc over the years. And eyebrows and upper lip threading!
  3. Did you alter your clothes? Cut jeans into cut-offs? Cut the sleeves off t-shirts? Wear graphic tees? Tie-dyes? Sew patches on your jeans? Not really. I was pretty simple growing up!
  4. Was there a time you remember challenging the authority in your household? Do you remember the first time you found your voice? I wouldn’t have dared as a child! But as I grew older I learned how to stand up for my thoughts and beliefs.
  5. What about piercings? Girls getting their ears pierced was a rite of passage for girls. Then boys started getting one ear pierced. As time passed, piercings became more mainstream and accepted. I had my ears pierced, just those one set for each ear, and they are still just like that. I was around 8, I think.
  6. Did you walk on the wild side? Smoking? Drinking? Did your parents know? Shhhh! Okay, so there were a few drinks, as I went to Uni, but nothing more…
  7. What about tattoos? Did you get a tattoo while still living at home? Did your parents approve? Nope. No tattoos, but I do think about it now!
  8. What about language? Was swearing allowed in your family?  Did you use the same language around your friends as you did at home with your family? Nope. No swearing was allowed but as I got older and learned more Punjabi naughty words, it became fun to sprinkle them into conversations with people who didn’t understand!
  9. Think back to high school. Girls, did you iron your hair? Did you colour your hair? (using Sun-in counts!) Guys, did you grow a beard or moustache? Did you grow your hair long? Feel free to share a photo of yourself back in the day. I have naturally curly hair but didn’t even realise it was curly until I was 16, because it used to be brushed out and plaited all the time, or left in a frizz ball! Straightening wasn’t a thing, for me until uni! And Sun in… er, yes, but not before uni!
  10. Many people think our authentic self is the person we were as young children. Are you still inherently the same person you were as a child or have you changed your personality and demeanor along the way? I think. I am the same, but I have just become more confident and able. to stand up for myself and my beliefs more. The benefits of getting older!

Okay, so three times in a row was my limit, here we are on Friday, again, but be glad… I am off to a wedding and squeezed this in before we leave!

One-Liner Wednesday – Covid Spread

“First wedding to attend in 3 years… and I can’t fit into any of my clothes!”

Ritu Bhathal

For Linda’s #1LinerWeds

The Hedge Witch and The Musical Poet by @Marjorie_Mallon #BlogTour #NewRelease

Today I welcome my friend Marjorie Mallon to the blog to talk about her new part poetry/part fiction release, The Hedge Witch and The Musical Poet.

The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet is a collection of poetry and flash fiction celebrating the beauty and the vulnerability of the forest kingdom. It begins with the poetic tale of the kind-hearted Hedge Witch, Fern, who discovers an injured stranger in desperate need of her woodland spells and magic.

The sweet pairing learn from each other and through Fern’s guidance, Devin embraces the power of magic to leave behind his troubled past to become The Musical Poet.

Poetry/flash fiction titles in section one of the collection include: 

The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet, Rain Forest Love, A Forest Baby Boy, A Forest Baby Girl, A Modern Witch, Rock of Mine, Chester Don & I, The Network of Trees, More Trees Not Less, Two Boys Watching War, Mum Climbing Trees, Let’s Play, The Scorched Tree, Owl’s Holiday Home, A Man’s Holiday Home, A Child’s Excitement, The Teddy In The Woods, Run! The Organutans, All Hallow’s Eve Candy Girl The Forest Bash, Dreaming At Halloween, A Face on Bark, Golden Willow Tree, Rainbow – Parasol of Light, Lollipop Sunshine Tree, 

In Section two I pay tribute to the following poets: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, Ruby Archer, King Forest, Bliss Carman, Woodland Rain, Emily Dickinson, Who Robbed the Woods, Rupert Blake, Stopping by The Woods on A Winter Evening, Oscar Wilde, In the Forest.

With my poetry inspired by their works:

The Forest Weeps, The Forest King, Raindrops and Childhood Dreams, The Woodland Treasures, Winter Woodland Moon, Child Me.

Amazon Kindle buying Link: https://books2read.com/u/mv1OeV

Paperback to follow.

Cover and Formatting by Colleen Chesebro’s marvellous new formatting service, more about that here: https://unicorncatspubservices.wordpress.com/my-services/

My Review

The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet by M J Mallon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A beautiful book inspired by, and a nod to, the mystical and the natural world around us.
Marjorie Mallon has used fiction and poetry to craft a selection of flash fiction for the first part of the book, about the Hedge Witch and the Musical Poet, as well as other scenarios interspersed with verse.
The second section is devoted to poetry inspired by various famous poets.
A lovely book to delve into when you want a little slice of magic.

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mjmallonauthor

Chai And A Chat #199 #ChaiAndAChat

Hi there, Peeps! I apologise for the tardiness, but actually, I’m not sorry, really! For a change I have had a good chill out, which is huge for me, especially after a pretty crazy, hot week and weekend!

I have my bath of ice, hope you are sufficiently cool!

  • If we were having chai, I’d tell you that last week, I had plans. I have been picking random quotes and sayings from a couple of packs of motivational cards that I have, and this one came up. And what truth this particular quote resonates with! No, we all know my time situations. School and life drains me, meaning I can’t write as much or as often as I would like, so I have to fight. to make these words happen, at a time where I Can be productive, AKA the school holidays. And…
  • If we were having chai, I’d announce that, on Wednesday, I officially finished that first draft! It’s a monster, at nearly 109K, and no doubt there is a lot. of excess that will need trimming, but my story for book 2 is finally all out of my system!
  • If we were having chai, I’d say that I have to now start the read-back, which I am doing out loud with Lil Princess, who has shown interest in something other than her phone for the first time in a long while! (and she seems to be enjoying the story so far, so YAY!) I also need to do my own quick check-over before sending it to some trusted Alpha readers, so I can hear how much of it is actually waffle, and total rubbish, cutting it down to 80K!
  • If we were having chai, I would say that rest of the week has been devoted to being rather hot and sticky, and just getting comfortable, most of the time! And it was also Rakhri on Thursday, which is brother and sister day in India. I have written about this before on the blog, but we celebrate our sibling bonds and promises to always be there for one another by the sisters tying a sacred thread on the wrist of our brothers, and the brothers respond with a little gift for their sisters! It’s always a bittersweet day for me since my brother isn’t here locally, so I can’t physically tie my Rakni on him, but we are very close, and we always speak regularly, and my rakhi is sent to him, ready for him to get it tied by someone else, on my behalf.
  • If we were having chai, I’d sigh and say, yes, cricket featured heavily this week, with Lil Man having friends over to train with him three times this week, a training session with his club, as well as three full-day matches! Productive, but long and hot!
  • If we were having chai, I would end, as always, with Sonu Singh who this week decided to use an awful lot of energy, and try and do an escape mission out of the Velux window in my office! There I was, innocently reading in my chair, and he hopped up to snuggle next to me. The next thing I know, he had an idea and jumped up, onto the shelf below the window, and clambered up! He tried to work out how to get his paw through the gap in the open window, but then got stuck trying to get down, back onto my armchair! So this means that instead of having a bit of a breeze running through my office regularly, I have to keep the windows closed, unless I am up there, to that any more bright escape ideas he has! Stuffy! What a cheeky kitty!

This week will pass in preparations for the weekend. We have a wedding to attend. (Stick with me, here, as I try and explain who is getting married…) My brother-in-law’s sister-in-law, or rather, Hubby Dearest’s sister-in-law’s sister is getting married. Got that, so my husband’s brother’s wife’s youngest sister is getting hitched. Phew! Long-winded, I know! But, we haven’t been to a wedding since way before the lockdown and Covid graced us! So, I’ll be squeezing myself into outfits I barely fit. And I hope that it’s not so hot that my makeup just slides off my face! I hope to have lots of colourful pics for you, next week, but beware, it might be another delayed post, as we may not be back home until Monday, itself!

And while you’re here, did you sign up for my mailing list? I am in the middle of writing an exclusive Chickpea Curry Lit story for my subscribers, and there will be news, tips and even recipes! You know you want to join… go on! Click the pic below to sign up!

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