Talestream

I’ve had a bit of a brainwave this morning. Rather than having all of my random ramblings and my on-going tales all mixed together in this one blog, I thought to myself, ‘Tom, why don’t you set up a new blog for your tales?’

I answered myself with ‘What a good idea!’ and set about setting up another blog. I initially tried to set up a blog with a different blog provider, but for some reason they wanted me to verify who I was by sending a text message to my mobile phone – although nowhere in the initial registration process had I provided a mobile phone number. In fact, there wasn’t anywhere to provide a mobile phone number apart from this verification process. ‘How,’ I continued to think to myself, ‘can providing a mobile phone number verify who I am?’

This was after the initial problem I had of trying to enter those letters from the jumbled-up pictures some sites use to verify that I am not a robot. I thought I was a robot after about eight attempts of failing to enter the letters. I clicked on the little symbol beside the picture that provides a spoken rendition of the letters, so they can be typed if I was having difficulty. I do not know what language the site was using, but it was one I have never heard before. I could only make out one word, ‘repeat’, which kept on being repeated after so many letters had been ‘pronounced’. I returned to the ‘normal’ entry screen, persevered with this a few more times, and finally managed to get my letters accepted.

I then had the mobile phone number verification problem, so I gave up. I scrapped the other blog provider there and then, and decided to stay with WordPress.

So, Talestream came into existence in a flurry of confusion and frustration. Hopefully, that is the end of the problems, and I can now concentrate on what I want to do. Tell tales! I enjoy reading short stories, and have written a few myself over the years. I have written a few during the course of this blog too, so I’ll eventually include them in Talestream over time. At the moment, however, I’m adding the Clancy Farquhar story over there, scene by scene. Not, I must add, necessarily in the correct order… the reasons for this will become clear over time.

Talestream is my name for my imagination. Where worlds and words combine, swirl and branch out into a million and one different streams of possible ideas. The stories I find there will appear on my Talestream blog; anything else I come across will appear here (for now).

One Minute Ramble: Individual within the group

Where does the individual start and stop in the group collective?

How do some individuals stand out and become leaders and role models, and others stand out for less inspiring reasons?
How are some individuals excluded, distanced and ridiculed for their differences, yet others are put on pedestals for theirs?
Why do some individuals always follow the crowd, and others do their own thing?
Why do some people look down on others, while others cower in fear?
Why do some help others, but others help themselves?
Why do some people get everything they want, and others get nothing they need?
How can some people eat themselves silly, yet others not know when they will next be fed?

Everyone of us is an individual. We are not the same. We can use our individualities however we like. We can make ourselves count for something. We can be better than we are.

Who is Clancy Farquhar?

Claudette looked at her watch and tutted. Her bus was due fourteen minutes ago. The journey takes twenty-five minutes to get her to the town centre, and then she has another five minute walk to the surgery. By her reckoning, she was now forty minutes late for work.

As she worked flexible hours, this wasn’t such a problem, although she was the only receptionist working today, and needed to be at the surgery in time for the first appointment. Wednesdays were usually quieter for some reason, but there was always a rush first thing. Owen, the dentist, hated the fact that the receptionists worked flexible hours, and today would have given him an ideal reason to change the working arrangements. It was his surgery, and he had the final say in things. All three receptionists were surprised when he agreed that they could work flexible hours, but he did stress that he needed the early mornings, and evenings covered.

Today, the plan was for Claudette to cover the other two, work longer hours in fact, and through her lunch, and then the others would do the same for her. A way of them getting some extra time off.

Today, things weren’t going according to the plan.

Claudette looked at her watch, and tutted again. The bus was nowhere in site, and the electronic signpost above the seat where she was sitting read ‘Due 15 minutes ago’, and once more Claudette tutted.

She glanced over the road, and saw one of her neighbours approaching. Claudette smiled, and said “Morning, Dan”, with the friendliest voice she could muster. She was in no mood for being friendly this morning.

Dan Abernathy was aware of Claudette’s grumpy nature, and paid no attention to her tone. He smiled, and said “Morning, Claudette. Are the buses running late again?”

Claudette tutted.

“There’s some kind of hold-up on the High Street,” Dan announced. “Roadworks or something”

It was the ‘or something’ that made Claudette smile. Internally. She knew what the ‘or something’ was. It was her bus, broken down. The one she’d missed by mere seconds earlier this morning. The one that had sped away, and left her breathless at the bus stop. She smiled at her imaginary revenge. The fact that the High Street was before the bus stop on this route, so the bus she’d missed would have gone in the opposite direction didn’t register with her. Well, until she realised how she was thinking, anyway. Then she tutted once more.

Dan stood beside Claudette at the bus stop. He was still smiling. He enjoyed the mornings, whereas Claudette didn’t. Dan’s cheerfulness made Claudette feel even more grumpy.

The sign on the bus stop now showed that the bus was due 16 minutes ago. Claudette looked at her watch again, but before she could tut, a car horn sounded on the other side of the road. It was another of Dan’s and Claudette’s neighbours. Abigail Odonwe, who also happened to be a partner in Owen’s dental surgery. She was running late too, and offered both Dan and Claudette a lift into the town centre.

They both accepted, and settled into their seats just as the bus made it’s way around the corner, with a second bus behind it. Claudette tutted once more. She said, quite loudly, “Typical.” Although she wasn’t thinking about the irony of two buses and her lift turning up at that precise moment. She was thinking about the day she had in store for her at work. The surgery manager would not be pleased that there was no receptionist or second dentist in for the morning rush. The patients wouldn’t be too pleased they had to wait later than their appointment times.And Claudette realised that they had to go a little further out of their way to drop off Dan on the other side of town.

Claudette decided there and then that today was not going to be a day for pleasantries.

Stopping and Starting

I’ve had a bit of an odd day today.

Not odd as in totally strange and weird, but odd in the way that I seem to have been stopped or delayed in everything that I have wanted to do.

Usually, when this type of thing happens, I take it as a sign that I must slow down. The Universe is giving me the opportunity to take little ‘time outs’ in my day.

Driving to work this morning, I had to stop to pick up the daily newspaper. OK, this is a stop I make everyday, so no Universal intervention with this one. Only I had to wait for someone to come out of the shop before I could go in. The newspaper was in a different place to where it usually was, and it was upside down and back to front, so it took me slightly longer to pick a copy off the shelf. The person who worked on the till, Joan, was reckoning something up on a slip of paper, so I had to wait for her to serve me, and then, I had to wait for someone to come into the shop before I could exit it.

As I got back to the car to drive to work, I had to wait for a man and his dog to walk passed so I could open my door to get in. The junction with the main road is merely twenty steps from where I had parked, so no sooner as I had got the car moving, I had to give way again – this time for a bus. I needed to turn left here, and immediately on the left here, is a bus stop. The bus started to pull in to the bus stop, which would have made me wait behind it, but the driver realised that the person waiting there didn’t want the bus. So, the bus pulled away again, and had to stop for the red traffic light at the pedestrian crossing.

I inched along behind the bus until it turned off to the left, and I needed to take a right turn at the roundabout. Where I had to wait for traffic.

Once on this road, I could move. Well, as far as the roundabout at the other end of the road, and I had to wait in line again.

The rest of the journey into work was like this.

As it happened, I arrived at work early, and got myself ready to start work as soon as I could. Only what I needed wasn’t ready, and I had to wait for it.

I eventually – or finally – got my job finished, and had to start on another one… and this wasn’t ready either.

Finally, home time came, and after the eternal five minute wait until my ‘proper’ leaving time, I was out of the building like a flash. I got into my car, and had to wait for someone walking behind my space before I could back out.

Then, traffic lights, waiting for on-coming traffic, slow moving wagons, and lost motorists meant that my car journey home was remarkably similar to the one this morning.

I’m not even going to mention my nose and my hay fever today. Oops, I just did. I’ll say no more, then.

This post has been typed two letters forward and four back… so, I’m now taking heed of the Universe’s clues. I’m taking things nice and slow for the rest of the day. I’m going to sit back, put my feet up, and stop for the day.

It can all start again tomorrow morning!

One Minute Ramble: Summer Storm

The air seems thicker… hotter… stickier
The sunlight is just about getting through
A surreal darkness fills the mid afternoon
As the weather decides what to do
The wind is slight and welcome
Although the breeze is hardly there
The trees are braced, the birds hidden
For they know what is in the air
A distant rumble
A flash of light
The sky is hidden
As though it’s night
The thunder booms overhead
Raindrops freshen (it must be said)
Lightning forks across the sky
The clouds roll and swirl up above
It rains and stops and rains some more
Even heavier than before
More thunder claps and lightning streaks
Then sunbeams filter through the clouds
Blue skies appear once again
The rain stops, a rainbow glows
The warm sun reappears
The thunder has passed – it has moved on
It’s odd, this weather; these summer storms
As quickly as they start, they are gone…

The Spirit of the Tree

I’m watching you almost every day
I listen to every word you say
You hear me rustle as you walk on by
When it rains, I can keep you dry
I do not move as I’m everywhere
See a tree ~ and I’m there
Look through the leaves ~ see the space
Then notice the smile upon my face
I will always smile when you look for me
For I’m the Spirit of the Tree

Who is Clancy Farquhar?

Lady Salinger-Wallis squealed with delight as she slipped down the artificial ski-slope. She wasn’t standing; she had fallen at the top of the slope trying to attach one of her skis which had become detached from her left foot as she was about to ski for the very first time. She slid head first, from top to bottom, and laughed all the way down.
At the bottom, she stood up, took off the other ski, dusted herself down, and declared to the couple of complete strangers who were milling around, “I think that’s enough skiing for this lifetime!” and hobbled over to the cafe for a hot chocolate. She’d banged her knee in the fall, but the ache had only just been realised.

Still laughing, she ordered her coffee (in the walk, she had changed her mind about the chocolate) and sat in a large leather sofa that looked out onto the slope. A low table was in front of her, and the waitress placed her coffee down on the table.

“Would you like anything else?” the waitress asked, with a kind smile.

“No thank you,” Lady Salinger-Wallis returned the smile, and raised the cup. She burned her lip on the blisteringly hot coffee, and gave out a quick “Ooh”. She laughed again. “I don’t suppose you have any painkillers, dear?” she joked, and tried to take another sip. And she burned her lip again. She rolled her eyes and the waitress returned to her counter.

Edward Hamilton rushed passed the viewing area, and saw Lady Salinger-Wallis dabbing her lip. She tilted her head to one side, and waved with the hand she was using. Edward walked into the coffee shop, and sat on the chair that was next to the sofa the Lady was using.

“Oh, sit here!” Lady Salinger-Wallis patted the empty space beside her, “I won’t bite.” She laughed once more. Lady S loved to laugh.

“Are you alright?” Edward asked, with grave concern. “I saw you fall at the top and couldn’t believe how you fell all of the way down.”

“I’m fine” Lady S replied. “I have a bruised knee. I never realised skiing was so much fun!”

“Maybe I should have suggested something else for today ma’am,” Edward was Lady Salinger-Wallis’ chauffeur, and was slightly concerned for his job. “Maybe someone of your age should have…” He realised he was speaking without thinking, and decided to say no more.

“Nonsense!” Lady S finally had a sip of her coffee. “I asked you to suggest something different for today, and you did. And, I’m only fifty, young man.” She never missed anything.

She delved into her shoulder bag to take out her mirror. When she saw her reflection, she roared with laughter once again. “Look at my hair – it’s all over the place!” Edward noticed that it wasn’t. Lady S noticed the waitress over her shoulder in the reflection in her mirror. Behind the counter, the waitress was standing still, staring, as though she was in a trance.

“Eddie,” Lady S looked at her receipt for her coffee, “Go and get yourself a coffee from Clancy over there, and stop worrying. Today is my birthday. Let’s have some fun!”