Tag Archives: #SoCS

#SoCS – Tape #4 (part 2) – Linda G Hill

Posted on March 19, 2023 by | Leave a comment

See here for Linda G Hill’s prompts and siteL

After checking back with W (at control) I was advised to ask a policeman for directions.

Upon eventually my finding a PC, strolling around inside PC World, and asking him whether I should go ‘West or East?’ I was advised that ‘West is best’ – he happened to be one of the rare ‘rhyming’ policemen of little or no value to society, apart from in a strangely poetic way.

I duly travelled due East, and landed safely in the hitherto unknown Gillingham Airport in Kent (which is close to the Isle of Thanet) at approximately a quarter to.

The secret contact was found casually leaning against the third coffee vending machine on the right (as I had almost been advised that he would be), having kept himself awake and primed for inaction by the consumption of thirty-seven cups of steaming Nitrous Coffee –

‘Guaranteed to stimulate the mind if not the body!’

I handed the contact the tape and he briefly checked it through for authenticity. Finding it to be the genuine article, the contact gave me a recipe for his Grandma’s Treacle Tart Pudding, and a copy of ‘The Tatler and the Bystander’ from 1941.

Finishing the crossword in that magazine made me realise something: that I was terrible at crosswords… and that perhaps I should have spent the intervening 17 days actually earning the pay of a spy.

Needless to say, I was demoted to Dispatch Rider (second class) and given the choice of a donkey or Shank’s Pony as my chariot of choice. Being no fool, I chose the pony.

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SoC Saturday – Tape – Linda G Hill

Posted on March 18, 2023 by | Leave a comment

Saturday SoC Sequence #1-#3 a timed 5 minutes on each piece

https://lindaghill.com/2023/03/17/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-18-2023/

Prompt: Tape

#1

Pencils were always handy for me when I used to have cassette players in the car and at home. The tape deciding to leave home and get into a tangle was a semi-regular occurrence. If the tape was retrievable – hadn’t stretched or snapped – then a pencil (or even a Biro) coiled be used to return the tape from whence it came. I did, on occasion, splice some snapped tapes together again, but results were varying from poor to playing.

Cassettes were fantastic in the car, and, being too young for eight-track, I went mainly for the C90 tapes that would host an LP on either side. C120 tapes were too long, and so I avoided them; C60 taped held an album over two sides and room for some repeated tracks, or extra tunes to be added. C30, C60, and C90 are Cassette tapes to those minutes over two sides.

#2

Gaffa Tape is the most useful thing on the planet. Discuss. Form an argument as to why this is, or isn’t, so.; write a dissertation upon Gaffa Tape, buy more for when you next need lots.

Actually, Air is probably more of a necessity, or Water, possibly many things are needed before Gaffa Tape hits the list; but, when it comes to tapes… it’s going to be up there at the top – unless you are a big fan of Celotape. I wish they could invent a tape where the cut end doesn’t disappear without a trace and you spend minutes of your life (non-returnable) trying to get another piece from the reel. Life is not long enough to have to deal with this sort of thing.

Gaffa Tape has many, many uses which I shall not list here for fear of being asked how I know them all.

#3

My measuring tape, or tape measure, is 5 metres long when unwound. And yet it is only 2.5 inches long and tall when in its little container. Why I should utilise Imperial and Metric measurements I do bot know, but measure for measure I do.

There, a bit of Shakespeare in the night for you to enjoy, or ignore, in equal measure as you like – it bothers me not.

So, if I need to measure something 5 metres long, it is the ideal length of tape measure with which to do so. If longer, I will have to adapt my methods and improvise a standup routine to accomplish the feat.

Or buy a longer tape measure – but that will inevitably incur a cost, and I might only use the second tape measure the once.

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Back of the Fridge – SoCS #LindaGHill

Posted on October 8, 2022 by | 3 comments

Linda G Hill SoCS

SoCS – Back of the Fridge – a 10-minute write

There is a secret door behind the fridge in our kitchen. When, I say it is secret, I mean that, unless you knew, it is not that easy to spot.

For one, there is a large fridge in front of it, positioned there for purpose, and to hide any prying eyes.

For two, the secret door blends in with the wall to the back of the fridge, hiding its existence from any prying eyes.

For three, years now, we had been keeping the secret secret by secretly misdirecting anybody intending to visit the fridge area in the kitchen by telling them that there were monsters under the fridge – monsters that fed upon unwary fridge-visitors.

This might not have worked as well as it did five or six centuries ago, but who doesn’t love keeping a good old family tradition alive?

We, ourselves, have never opened the secret door at the back of the fridge – in fact, we have never moved the fridge, or opened its door.

Well, after you’ve left a fridge and its contents alone fir three years you might find monsters ‘inside’ the fridge!

We are considering bricking up the kitchen, and building a new one to the back of the house – it might be safer. Not that we are superstitious at all – it’s just… well, you know, better safe than sorry.

Update: When we sold the house last year, we forgot to tell the buyers about the secret door behind the back of the fridge – and I think they were only too keen to gut the kitchen and fit a completely new kitchen suite.

The papers have only just stopped asking, ‘Where did the Strathams go?’

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Me – a 10-minute SoCS write for Linda G Hill’s prompt.

Posted on October 1, 2022 by | Leave a comment

See here for Linda G Hill’s website and prompts

Me. I, Myself? What can I possibly say that will convince you to choose between the three of them? You may love Me, be passionate about I, or still have deep feelings for Myself, but will you be able to whittle down the three to just the one?

I knows you for what you are, and you don’t fool Me, let alone your being cared for by Myself.

You and I? Me and someone like You? Myself, I would protect you from Myself, unlike Me.

Me and his shadow, I and another like Him, Al by Myself, seeking insider information?

You tell Me. And I shall be Here beside Myself. I cannot tell You, or so he told Me. As to Myself, I cannot understand Myself, and He cannot understand Me. She doesn’t believe in Me, and I understands Me only too well. Tell You Me this: should I work it out for Myself, or He for Me?

What I really wants to know is, when it comes to Me, is He actually working for Himself? Or am I?

You may understand all of this, but I has lost the plot, and He really hasn’t ever known what was going on. Myself, I liked, but He hates Me.

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Unreliable Witness – #SoCS

Posted on November 20, 2021 by | 3 comments

‘SoCS’ Prompt: Black, Gray, or White – unreliable witness. As posted by Linda G Hill

See here for Linda’s site

DCI Syd (ex of the Yard): So, madam, what colour was the vehicle that you saw leaving the vicinity of the area of Whom Manor at about, or just before, or even just after 11, 12, or 1’ o’Clock on the day in question?

DCI Syd (ex of the Yard): So, it was Black, Grey, or White? Can you be a little more specific? No. Okay, it was Black, Grey, or White, and being driven by …

DCI Syd (ex of the Yard): Well, I stopped there hoping that you would fill in the details.

DCI Syd (ex of the Yard): Well – Man, Woman, Girl, Boy, Other.

DCI Syd (ex of the Yard): ‘Yes’ is not helpful, Madam. If you could narrow it down it would be most helpful.

DCI Syd (ex of the Yard): Not ‘other’. Yes, that does narrow it down somewhat. We have ascertained that it was a Man, Woman, Girl, or a Boy, driving a Black, Grey, or White vehicle.

DCI Syd (ex of the Yard): Not a vehicle? Ah, we are getting somewhere now.

DCI Syd (ex of the Yard): It was a ‘Motor Car’. A Black, Grey, or White Motor Car.

DCI Syd (ex of the Yard): And in which direction was it going?

DCI Syd (ex of the Yard): Forwards. It would be, wouldn’t it.

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If – Linda G Hill’s #SoCS

Posted on October 16, 2021 by | Leave a comment

(A prompt for a Saturday Stream-of-Consciousness write – which I restrict myself to doing in 10-minutes – this week the prompt was ‘if’).

See here for Linda G’s site.

—//—

If I manage

to write something

of worth here

I shall be mightily surprised.

And, before we get too far into this,

I am writing prose

in a poetry-looking format –

well, it has to be done.

Anyway,

if I ‘do’ manage

to create ‘War and Peace’

in the ten minutes

that I have allowed myself for this,

no one will be surprised.

Sorry, it should have read,

‘no one will be more surprised than me’,

but it didn’t – if you can follow that.

So, if a picture paints a large number of words

(In the vicinity of a thousand)

why can’t I paint?

If a rhetorical question

gains no answers,

why ask it in the first place?

If I knew all of the questions to some of the answers …

Ha! If!

No, seriously for a second –

why is it that E=MC squared?

Remember, you only have a second to answer that.

If you take too long

you lose a point.

If you answer with time to spare,

well, here is a chest

to pin a badge upon.

If this goes on too long

please let me know,

before I write copious amounts

of drivel

and waste everybody’s time.

Well, obviously, not ‘everybody’s’

that would be slightly over-stating

the dozen or so people

that irregularly read

(or claim to read)

what I do write.

If all (nearly) 8 billion people

read my words

(which they don’t)

and even one percent commented,

that would mean my taking

the rest of my life answering.

BTW ‘if’ is the centre part of ‘life’

that was one of those ‘Squirrel’ moments –

I get them from time to time.

Is it almost over?*

As if!

*the 10-minute alarm went off here – how appropriate. G:)

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N.O.T.H.S. #SoCS @LindaGHill

Posted on April 25, 2020 by | Leave a comment

See here! Please do. G:)

N.O.T.H.S.

Not on the High Street

or the Fore Street

(in these parts)

although N.O.T.F.S.

doesn’t scan quite so well;

I can tell

by the double-glazed look

in your wooden eyes

that it comes

as no surprise,

when I waffle on

like this

as I do.

So, what

is not

on the High Street?

You or I?

Or us.

And, we are neither of us,

either to be found

upon a bus…

poetry tinged with the moment’s uncertainty,

may become less accessible

when the steep pavement of Time

is put in our way.

So, let us value

the day,

‘Carpe Diem the day!’

as the Latinos

might never say.

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SoCS – Practice. @LindaGHill

Posted on April 18, 2020 by | Leave a comment

And you can Pop here to see Linda’s fine web site and all these lovely prompts.

No, I’m going in cold with this – no practice for me.

Which means that it’s gonna bomb.

I mean – can you have any expectations that this is going to be worthy of the three minutes that it takes you to read this. Not even mentioning the ten minutes that it took me (is taking me) to write it.

Words of wisdom – none!

Pearls of… well, wisdom – none!

Words… well, yes, it has quite a few of those – there may be verbs, adverbs, adjectives, nouns, pronouns, and more of the same. Oh, and definitely, somewhere within, there will be a list – there’s always a list – and what is list it will be.

Some lists just… list things, with no explanation (as does mine) whilst others are purely inspirational, buckets spring to mind, buckets always spring to mind, and then I down an hour deciding what colour my bucket should be. Well, Orange, yellow, basic black – there are oh, so many colours – and finally decide upon a pale mint and cream combination (which doesn’t exist) which has to be made like a kitchen (bespoke) yup, bespoke, and boy that would be an achievement – wouldn’t it?.

Don’t you just love rhetorical questions?

No, you don’t have to answer that.

But, if you want to… don’t.

So, what would I have written if I had practiced?

Nothing much, because I would have thought the heck out of the subject and been too self aware of myself to create anything of worth.

Like this is!

Anyway, I must be getting near my self-set 10 minutes.

Or am I?

Has Time become a Fourth Dimension where every ‘old’ second has become the length of an ‘hour’?

In which case, brace yourself for some rollercoaster of a ride – only what has gone before… *

times 3,600 (or so).

G:)

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‘The Key’ #SoCS @LindaGHill

Posted on December 8, 2019 by | Leave a comment

‘The Key’ #SoCS @LindaGHill – Linda’s Lovely site here.

I found a key, close by the door of an old boarded-up building. I thought that the key would fit the door, unlock it, and allow me to enter the boarded-up property, where I would find an old wooden chest which would contain a quantity of treasure that exceeded my imagination to imagine it.

The key did fit the door, and the door opened upon the most unlikely treasure chest location that I could think to encounter. There weren’t any floorboards remaining – due to the ravages of time – and the plaster that should have been hugging the walls was now filling the gaps between the floor joists around the edges of the room.

However, there was a large wooden chest, albeit slightly below floor level, and covered in a thick layer of dust – well, dust that had become a veritable skin for the treasure container.

I carefully walked across to where it lay and found that the lid wasn’t locked shut. It opened easily, and without the expected creak that is probably usual from badly maintained hinges.

Now, this is where thing got a little strange.

The chest was very deep. In fact, it was much deeper than theoretically possible, being to a depth of six or seven feet; and there at the bottom of the chest was just one thing, a piece of parchment the size of an old white five-pound note (they were larger than the current five-pound notes, shall we say twice the size?

I was leaning down into the chest to try and reach the ancient paper, when I was pushed by unseen hands and toppled forward. Any light was quickly removed as the lid of the chest closed upon me and , having been winded by my fall, it was a few seconds before I could gather myself. I had a torch, which I retrieved from a pocket, and I gathered up the parchment.

The words upon it, although in an ancient script, were legible,

‘East is East,

And West is West,

Now You are interred

Within this Chest!’

It took me a long time to die. It took me a very short time before that happened to curse my finding of a key to a house that, to my knowledge, had never stood on the corner of Elim Street and Douglas Avenue before.

For a short while I was a kind of a Cause Célèbre in the neighbourhood; then like my earthly body, mentions of me faded away… to nothing.

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‘Co’ #SoCS, @LindGHill

Posted on August 18, 2019 by | Leave a comment

‘Co’ #SoCS, @LindGHill

See here for Linda’s fabulous WordPress sited

The room was quite…

well, quiet.

Copious amounts of the absence of noise.

Consequently, when I heard a pin drop, I was startled to say the least,

“The least!”

Thank you.

Who had dropped the pin, I did not know.

I looked around – I was not a square.

Pin’s location and hurler, I knew not where. Nor did I care.

I picked up the pin, and remembered the rhyme:

‘See a pin, pick it up, all the day you’ll have a pin.’

which never made sense to me.

‘Cobalt is a colour: it could be brighter, it might be duller.’

which is something I’ve just made up – is there no beginning to my talents?

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