Tag: dailyprompt

#1367 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

What profession do you admire most and why?

Could ‘Great Thinkers’ be considered a profession?

I am at my most creative when I indulge in disordered thinking. I am more than capable of productive and ordered thinking. To do so, I always have to translate my disordered thinking into ordered thinking. Sometimes I have to allow my ordered thinking to have a little freedom to wander into the realm of creativity.

I admire the undesirable qualities of great thinkers. Selfishness, reliance on others, assuredness, arrogance, certainty, single-mindedness. Knowing, that in my hands those same qualities would not lead to great thoughts but to an insufferable person. The world does need more great thinkers but it does not need any more insufferable people.

I suppose I admire great thinkers in the same way that I admire great sports people. Knowing that something that is a great achievement would not be in my  best interests or within my skillset.

My balance, or imbalance as a thinker is 60/40 or 40/60. Constantly switching from one foot to the other to find my own equilibrium. I admire Great Thinkers, I just don’t have it in me to be one.

#1363 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog)1 Comment

What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on a meal? Was it worth it?

I have no idea what the most expensive meal that I have ever had cost me. I have been lucky enough to eat in some very swanky places and don’t recall ever feeling cheated or disappointed.

I have also eaten all sorts of meals in ‘ cheap as chips ‘ places and been absolutely thrilled with the quality and value of my meal.

I find that disappointment is more likely to occur in the middle ground. Chains or places that believe they are fancier than they are. Establishments that are themed or over-decorated to attract Instagram moments are often very much styled over substance, with £££ spent and charged on decor ingredients and skilful chefs who are well-paid.

If the meal on my plate is not worthy of the cost. No one can force me to go back,but if everything about the experience is wonderful I will always return if I can.

Plastic flowers and grotty loos  might make me feel cheated even if the food was fab. Obsequiousness from the front-of-house staff makes me lose my appetite for a big bill. Micro-herbs and foam, also unlikely to thrill me to empty my purse.

All reasons to question the value at the bottom of the bill.

#1362 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Words1 Comment

Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that.

Headlines always fascinate me. I know that they are written to grab attention and are largely forgotten once readers take a deep dive into the nitty gritty of the story.

What is a week’s worth of honey?

And to whom is it a weeks worth.

The answers are endless.

What does a week’s worth of Honey look like to you?

A jar lasts me about 6 months so my answer would be, about a teaspoon.

That would never satisfy two bears. But it might easily be a full weeks production for a busy bee.

#1358 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity3 Comments

What’s your go-to comfort food?

Comfort and reliable. Two answers in one. Neither are Fine Dining or by any stretch of anyone’s imagination interesting.

Comfort food=Marmite toast or any spread on top of toast with butter on it. My top 3

Marmite

Marmalade

Ground Black Pepper

In all iterations the butter must be real and salty.

Reliable food has evolved in my life. Good quality shop-bought lasagne if I am feeling reliably fancy. 35 years with a home in the far west of England has taught me that the humble Cornish Pasty made well is a lifesaver.

The Pasty Gold Standard.

Not all pasties are made equal and at their worst they are a pappy meat and potato pie with a faint aroma of human body odour. At their best they are a peppery blend of beef and onions combined with swede/turnip and potato wrapped in perfect golden pasty.

Yesterday was a spreadsheet kind of day. If everything went well there was a twenty minute gap in which to eat a pasty before an art exhibition, Private View and a trip to the Theatre to see Hamilton. The spreadsheet day and the pasty.

As a tick box exercise the spreadsheet day went well. With. 95% success rate. We dropped 5% because the Artist at the Private View made a speech at the beginning. So fine words were heard but not a single brushstroke of paint passed before our eyes.

Hamilton was fabulous and the pasty fed us both before our evening started (warm) and at 11pm (cold) . That is a reliable, even comforting comestible.

#1354 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

It is almost 7 years since I last had a formal interview of any sort. I am completely out of practice of describing myself to others.

  Does anyone really listen to, or remember a self-description?

How would you describe yourself to someone?

People are so busy making their own judgements and assessments of the person they see before them.

I care less and less what people make of me as I get older. First and chance encounters are just that. Repeated encounters build a more accurate, nuanced portfolio of my character traits.

I can think of people who have quite the wrong idea of me. But their narrative suits their purpose. Others perhaps know me a little better than I know myself.

I always think people, myself included are a lot like Avocados. Their core values and attributes exist within the enormous seed, but the pulp changes and develops over a lifetime, while the skin just slowly ages  but shows evidence of the good times and the harms that shape the whole fruit. The skin of course, is all that is ever seen until a sharp knife is applied. Time to halt the avocado analogy I think.

My Life as an Avocado- the autobiography I will never write.

#1351 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

What’s the story behind your nickname?

No nickname ever and so no backstory. The closest I get to a nickname is ‘Bobber’.

As a founder member of a swimming group of just under 20 people including past members who predominantly swim in one location we, as a group are recognisable, we have named sweatshirts, and have  a certain positive notoriety in the swimming boom at Firestone Bay.

Groups are not for everyone and ours is as unstructured as a group can be. Just a WhatsApp group to organise our swimming time so no-one has to swim alone.

” So are you a bobber” is a fairly regular question.

Followed by ” Why are you called Bobbers”

Because mostly we just bob about nattering, some focused swimming is involved, but actually the most valuable thing is the bobbing and nattering. Putting our many worlds to rights and our sense of belonging to a supportive and caring community.

Bobbers

#1341 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, SerendipityLeave a comment

What bothers you and why?

It has been a blisteringly hot week. I have always been a lover of hot weather but as I have aged my tolerance is reducing. I have a new understanding of seeking out shade, a light breeze, avoiding the hottest parts of the day and sun hats. Sleeping at home daily has become like the giddy first nights of a holiday trying to adjust to flimsy bed coverings.

Abroad I love the abstract shapes that sheets form after a night of fitful sleep in a foreign climate.

This week I have had abstraction at home.

Which I agree does not look all that exciting, but by reducing the detail and adding some colour my bed looks like a sculpture.

Something I might never had discovered if my tolerance for heat had not diminished. So maybe I am not so bothered after all.

Is that why the Italians in particular are so brilliant at creating folds of fabric from marble. Bright Sunlight and folds of bed linen every morning  before they even get up.

#1353 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

What could you let go of, for the sake of harmony?

Sharing my opinions, is something I am willing to withhold for the sake of harmony. As long as I value the harmony I am preserving. But there are times when you just have to cast harmony to the wind and fly an opinion up the metaphorical flag pole to catch the same wind. Opinions are like the devices put on beaches to keep the sand in place.

Sometimes they work, other times they don’t.

And sometimes, for the sake of harmony, opinions are just not required. There is a path to harmony without them.

#1351 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Daft Questions1 Comment

Describe your most memorable vacation.

All vacations are windows into a different world and are almost all completely memorable for a wide variety of reasons. To choose one over all the others at this precise moment would be bonkers. Maybe when I have had my actual last holiday and I have time on my hands and feet, in some other realm, I could make a spreadsheet and engage with a futile holiday comparison. Every holiday, mini break, weekend away is a privilege. Each is a unique experience. Describe my most memorable vacation?  Not a chance. I may not have had it yet and in all honesty my bandwidth for things being memorable, both good and bad is huge. But every vacation really is a window into someone else’s world. A moment to be treasured not graded.

Written from my window into other worlds.

An isolated field somewhere in Cornwall