22nd February.
There was a good turnout, we get bigger every week.
Heinke asked people to support the Vivace concert at the Teatro Circo on
17 March at Orihuela, when they will be performing Carmina Burana, tickets are
5 Euros. The town hall in Orihuela Costa is running a bus to the concert.
The theme this week was Spring Flowers
Margaret’s story was entitled Death by Blossom. Gwen resided in Spain
but lived life as if she was still in the UK, as was reflected by her office
type clothing. She decided to take her
dogs Duke and Duchess out for a walk in the citrus orchards. She inhaled the
scent of the blossom and felt intoxicated.
The lightheadedness made her veer off the road into a ditch and the dogs
ran off. ‘The scent of blossom was heavy
in the air.’
Comments: Very good characterization.
Geoff’s tale was about Mr Wordforit, who had the most extensive
collection of collective nouns in the UK.
His story contained a proliferation of collective nouns, some of them
unknown to me, like
Ÿ a bouquet of
pheasants
Ÿ A clique of
photographers
Ÿ A scoop of
journalists
Ÿ A flash of paparazzi
In the end Mr Wordforit was overwhelmed by an avalanche of collective
nouns, which wasn’t a barrel of laughs for the rescue team, so he decided to
concentrate on verbs. As usual extremely amusing.
Alan wrote a piece of tongue in the cheek journalism about a local
function he had recently attended. The meal was late, they didn’t win any
raffle prizes, they were entertained by a songstress who had to pitch her voice
up to compete with the chattering hordes at the tables, but apart from that it
was a good event. Rupert Murdoch is setting up another newspaper Alan, any good
at hacking?
Gerry gave us the start of something he is working on. ’No-one had
seen the Mustang pull into the 24 hour parking block.’ There was a sickly smell coming from the car;
a logo indicated it came from the Lone Star State of Texas. It had been there quite a long time before
the attendant forced open the boot to find a headless body, then the detectives
arrived to investigate.
Comments: ‘A fist of foul air’
was very descriptive. We guessed too
early that there was a body inside the car so the impact was lost when the boot
was opened. It took too many words to
set the story up. Gerry appreciated the comments,
which will help him to refine and continue the story.
Brenda had written on the theme of Spring Flowers. Mother Nature is
working her magic creating the beauty of a bluebell wood. The narrator, who
thought her name might have been Margaret, had been in the wrong place at the
wrong time. Picking bluebells aged 14
years she had been disturbed by a man with blood on his hands. To stop her telling anyone about his poaching
he had buried her alive, but she is not lonely, she can feel the earthworms and
hear the beetles, she knows it is spring because of the bluebells
swaying in the breeze and she is happy in her magic wood.
Comments: Brenda painted a brilliant
picture of the scenery and the wild life. It was questioned whether she would
know her name or not but as she is now just a body she is a nonentity without
name. It was reminiscent of the start of Lovely Bones and we all wanted to hear
more. Brenda apologized that she cannot write about nice events!
John went back into history to the time of the mods and rockers. He was a mod and he had a Lambretta called
Bubbles. He overtook a car as he was late for college. Bubbles fell on her side
and he ended up in the gutter. The
police arrived and he was fined £10 and received 2 points on his license for
driving without due care and attention. Being the suave mod that he was, he was
too cool to wear his crash helmet; it was a fashion item dangling from the
luggage rack most of the time. He told us about Slab Square in front of the
council building in Nottingham which had stone lions in front. Apparently the lions would roar if a virgin
went past. ‘A quiet place Slab Square!’
He gave some old man in a car a V sign who turned out to be his father,
not a good idea. He somehow survived and
still has an old Vespa called Bubbles 11. You seem to have had a few contretemps
with the police John! Very amusing as always and evocative of that age, which
seems like only yesterday to me!
Betty had written on the theme of spring flowers. A mother looked at her
daughter with pride, her eyes brimming with tears. In the physio room the girl made
her first step forward. She was determined to walk unaided at her marriage in 8
weeks’ time. It had been a great shock
to her mother to learn that her daughter had lost her legs in a train accident
which had changed their lives. She brought the wedding dress to the hospital for
her daughter to try on. The dress went
down to the floor and covered her new artificial legs. She punched the air. ‘With a bouquet of spring flowers it will be
my perfect day.’ A lovely tale of triumph
over adversity, very nicely written.
Heinke – this psychedelic story is about people who live in bubbles in
the sky (I think!?). Polystyrene and Polyester
share a room. They didn’t know whether to have the stem cell soup or the
collagen stew. Everything was made from animal or human extract. The inspector came to inspect and was told to
feck off. The people on the ground are
trying to hit the bubbles with stones. Heinke really believes in the world she writes
about, which is a bit worrying! Innovative
and amusing.
Avril also wrote about spring flowers. She managed to name every spring
flower known to man. We could visualise
the scene of the bluebell woods unfolding before us and it made us pine for
life in England when spring arrives (but not for long). Very evocative.
Maureen gave us an interesting report of a trip to Poland. She was dressed up like the Michelin man in
sub zero temperatures. The buildings
were charming; it felt like a set from the film The Third Man. There were medieval markets and quaint
churches. They visited a museum showing
the Nazi atrocities. The river contained
thousands of ashes of victims. They visited
an Irish bar at night (as you do). The next
day they visited Auschwitz. ‘The air was like razor blades’ it was so cold. They visited the salt mines which included a
church and a sea.
Comments: The piece was very atmospheric, the group wanted more
description about the salt mine.
Ann also wrote about spring flowers.
It had been the coldest winter on record. They had decided to leave their stressful
lives and move to the country. They
bought a disused property in Galloway which was 5 miles from the nearest
village and renovated it. It was too
good to last. Ann’s cancer had returned
and was inoperable. She passed away and
he retreated into his shell. He took a walk to the village, stopped by a tree
and could see yellow heads of daffodils pushing through the piles of leaves. He began to cry, ‘Ann would have said that
life goes on, pull yourself together, you have to live for Ann.’ Very
touching. As Mary said, ‘I never thought
that spring flowers could bring so much misery.’
Thank goodness Jane had a happy poem about spring flowers. Lines included: I know a place where bluebells
grow, I know a place where violets hide, I know a place where primroses
peep. In my heart they will dwell.’ Beautifully told.
Jenny’s poem was very short but to the point about almond blossom and
broom in the April sun.
Alan updated us about Spike. I
was getting a bit worried about him.
Spike told us about Christmas and New Year in his household. He now has a friend Kitty who lives with him. Spike behaved himself and didn’t cock his leg
at the Christmas tree. He nipped out to
see Fifi, the French poodle. (No doubt
we shall hear more about her, the hussy).
He and Kitty felt like plonkers in their sweaters and boots. Comical as always.
Next week it is hot pen. Bring a
photo or a card or an object with you. These
will be passed on to someone else to write about.
 |
| Spike and Kitty |
Cynthia
