Bored Now

"Persons of Aunt Ada's temperament were not fond of a tidy life.  Storms were what they liked; plenty of rows, and doors being slammed, and jaws sticking out, and faces white with fury, and faces brooding in corners, faces making unnecessary fuss at breakfast, and plenty of opportunities for gorgeous emotional wallowings, and partings for ever, and misunderstandings, and interferings, and spyings, and above all, managing and intriguing.  Oh, they did enjoy themselves! They were the sort that went trampling all over your pet stamp collection, or whatever it was, and then spent the rest of their lives atoning for it.  But you would rather have had your stamp collection."

Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm 1932

 

No Time..No Time...

Seriously wanted to Blog today...but as the heading says...  So instead I will post a poem I wrote ages ago...

Morning Coffee

The Crows black panic
at the sudden charge
of my small spaniel
lasts just long enough
to explode
the heavy dark body to the top
of the swing set

a pause
and one harsh chuckle
from that wicked beak
heralds an imminent descent

10 things you (probably) didn't know about mermaids...

1.  If you eat the flesh of a mermaid you become immortal.



2.  The mermaid, or syrenka, is the symbol of Warsaw

3.  In Greek Mythology the Sirens were the companions of Persephone, turned into birds by Demeter, her grieving mother for refusing to say what happened to her daughter after she was abducted by Hades.  Over time mythology changed the sirens to 1/2 bird 1/2 fish and eventually they became the familiar woman/fish hybrid of the mermaid.

4.  Alexander the Great's sister Thessalonike supposedly became a mermaid after she died.

5.  In 2009 the government of Kiryat Yam, a town in Israel offered a $1 million reward for the first person to photograph the mermaid that was being spotted by locals. http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/090813-bad-mermaid.html

6.  The oldest form of the mermaid found in mythology is the goddess Atargatis from Syria.

7.  There is a mermaid illustration in the mysterious and still untranslated Voynich Manuscript

8.  Medieval mermaids were often depicted as having two tails and this symbol can be seen all over the world - Do you know where?

9.  Shark egg cases found washed up on the beach are commonly called Mermaid's purses

10.  The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen is a copy; the sculptor’s heirs keep the original at an undisclosed location

Attack of the Mutant Killer Mole Cricket

Although technically it wasn't me being attacked...It was a friend..well technically a friend..well actually A Facebook friend.  well actually a friend of a Facebook Friend...Anyway I saw a wall post this morning about this huge monstrous mutant bug and had to show off my superior entomological knowledge - cos I am a show-off.  Except I thought it was a Sandgroper. So my knowledge is obviously NOT so superior.  Interestingly enough Wikipedia also lists them under the category of Edible insects...... 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_cricket

Categories: Gryllotalpidae | Edible insects

And apparently the edible insects isn't even a real page...so now I am just confused..
and hungry!

Ready...Set....

Having finally won an Emerging Writers Residency  at KSP Writers centre (4 applications, 3 shortlistings and a partridge in...) I am determined to suck the whole experience dry.  Me FINALLY!  And in the spirit of shameless self-promotion and writerly navel gazing (although why anyone wants to stare at oranges is beyond me...) I am going to inflict a Blog of the entire 4 weeks onto the world.  Don't say you weren't warned.

Residency dates:  Feb 28 to Mar 13/Mar 21 to Apr 3 2011