Bite Size Memoir, Other Stuff

Bite Size Memoirs: No 2, 3 and 4.

I’ve joined in Lisa’s Memoir challenge late, but want to catch up with the completed prompts from the past. Lisa is on a break, so that will give me that chance.   Memoir must be no more than 150 words. I could also choose to do 10 x remember statements.

If you would like the see the posts others have posted, just click on the elephant below each post,. It will take you to a compilation.

Bite Size Memoir No.2 “Jinks and Japes”

I’m a spoil sport when it comes to pranks. No doubt, I was mean to my younger sister and four brothers and played tricks on them; as you do.

Mr Ex told me of his favourite prank. He and his friends would place a wallet or handbag on the side of the road, then hide. As a vehicle was pulling up, they’d yank the wallet out of sight using the attached fishing line. Then, they’d stay hidden until the puzzled driver departed.

One day, my flustered daughter came running inside. She owned up that she’d just been caught doing the same thing!

Last year, I saw a wallet upended on the road. I stopped, but not until I’d looked around for the fishing line. There wasn’t enough cover to hide anyone. The wallet belonged to an old bloke nearby, having fallen from the top of a taxi exiting his street.
BITE SIZE MEMOIR

Bite Size Memoir No.3 “Magic and Fairy Tales”

Mum brought magic alive for us. She encouraged us to believe.

At one home, we had a magic date tree that bore fruit only at night. At another, we would plant a penny in the dirt, marking the spot with a stick. It would turn into two bob overnight. Everyone knew about the tooth-fairy, but this one was our special fairy.

We feared the hobgoblins and hobyahs, and watched out for trolls. Mum fed us ghost stories. When older, we would sit in the dark, around the open fireplace, and scare ourselves silly.

I’ll always remember the time Mum did see a ghost. She came rushing into her bedroom – I was sleeping in the old cot while Dad was away – and told me she’d seen Nana’s feet doing her signature twiddling thing in front of the fire. Nana had given the promised sign. I was sworn to secrecy.
BITE SIZE MEMOIR

Bite Size Memoir No.4 “Sports Day”

As a child, I wasn’t a very physical person. I struggled with physical education at school. I’d prefer reading a book. The only game I was remotely interested in was softball in third grade. As long as I got to the first base, I did well. I could run, fast.

I reached my peak in Grade 6, at George Street State School, Hamilton. I was taller than almost everyone else so I could run faster, jump higher and longer. I was a star.

I came back to reality in High School when I resumed my place near the back of the pack. Mum would happily write me a note once a month to get out of sport. It didn’t get me out of donning the dreaded bottle green tunic and bloomers. Uggghhhhh! How I hated that sports uniform.

Sport’s days were hot and boring. Swim sports? I won’t go there.

BITE SIZE MEMOIR

 

Outside of my 150 words, I want to point out that, as an adult, I did play lawn bowls, basketball and netball – even a game of competition tennis once when the team was desperate!

That was fun! I hope you enjoyed my bite sized memoirs as much as I did writing them.

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Other Stuff

Windy today.

Today, wondering how I would could show you the wind, I was I’m pleased to see my neighbour has attached a wind sock to the speed restriction sign, drawing attention to her advertising signs on the fence.

Mrs W. next door, has a giftware business she runs from one of the local service stations. She has a website and does home delivery. The wind sock and flags are to attract attention to her banners hanging on her front fence.

(Originally sent from my phone. Edited later. I had to turn the photo around and I set it as the featured image. Edited and added text.)

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Other Stuff

My online learning report.

This photo is from my archive of photos. I dug it out for the ‘straight lines’ challenge but didn’t use it. Weather is nasty and wet today, and worse expected tomorrow.

Sunset

Sunset

I’m embarrassed to report my dismal performance in the Effective Writing Course at Coursera (still in the Grading stage) I know I have failed because I let other things distract me, and I was lazy. I’m owning up here, though no doubt I will have to report it on my online learning blog, too.

Since the course went for five weeks, I thought the ‘big paragraph’ would be due in Week 5, not week 4. Wrong! Also, somehow, I managed to forget I had submitted an assignment for week 3, so didn’t front up to do the required peer assessments, thus losing points. I missed the deadline for completing Quiz 5 by a day.

Yeah, failed and embarrassed. It’s worth repeating.

The writing course repeats in September and I’ll do it again. I kept at the quiz 4 questions until I got a perfect score, despite it not being worth a single point towards my grade. It’s learning. I have a big problem with recognising sentence structure. Yeah, some of you are probably chuckling; you know I have a big problem.

I begin another course tomorrow. It goes for 4 weeks, and requires about 3-4 hours a week. I’m telling myself there is no point signing up for these things unless I intend to make an effort.

Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects

Whether you are an outstanding or a struggling student, “Learning How to Learn” will give you powerful mental tools that will help you learn more effectively in tough-to-master subjects. You will discover practical, immediately useful insights that will help you to more deeply master your studies.

Course Syllabus Learning How to Learn is meant to give you practical insight on how to learn more deeply and with less frustration. The lessons in this course can help you in learning many different subjects and skills. Whether you love language or math, music or physics, psychology or history, you’ll have a lot of fun, and learn a LOT about how to learn virtually any subject! …

More here.

This course might do the trick for the old brain. I am still participating in the “England in the time of King Richard III” over at FutureLearn, and loving it. I’m even up to the right week.   I trimmed away some of the courses I had booked at FutureLearn, but added a fiction writing course starting there on 27 th October. It sounds interesting, and goes for 8 weeks, at about 3 hours a week.

Start Writing Fiction

This practical, hands-on course aims to help you to get started with your own fiction writing, focusing on the central skill of creating characters.

You will listen to established writers talk about how they started writing and consider the rituals of writing and the importance of keeping a journal. You’ll learn how to develop your ideas and the importance of reflecting on writing and editing, and you’ll hear other writers talking about their approaches to research and consider ways of turning events into a plot.

Tomorrow, I have to go and clean a bloody oven in a rental unit, and clean out cupboards. I hate that work, but, unfortunately, I like the real estate woman. I think she got the message not to ask me again. I’m too old for crawling around on the floor with my head in an oven.

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