Use this plot in a short story; Doctor says hockey is damaging his back.

 

When my son was at school he was no good at sport.  He hated the days he had to change into his sports gear and participate in what was for him humiliation.  In those days teachers were not so tolerant of pupils  who didn’t get sport.  To make things worse, his classmates made fun of him too.

Then one September he came home from the first sports lesson of the year full of himself.  A new teacher had arrived and introduced the boys to hockey. For some reason my son took to this sport really well.  He’d had a growth spurt during the holidays and was becoming stronger.  Apparently once he was armed with a hockey stick there was no stopping him.  He soon became chosen for the team that was created to represent the school.

As the first term sped by, my son went from strength to strength, not only in sport, but in his academic work too.  He continued to grow taller and was turning into a good looking, popular young man. Life was good.

One morning he woke up and when he got out of bed, he could hardly walk.  His back was very painful and he found it difficult to stand up straight.  Of course, we took him to see the doctor who ordered X-rays and therapy and a visit to a specialist.  The specialist listened to his history and asked about sport and how that had been going.  My son proudly explained how he’d done so well once he started playing hockey. 

At the mention of the word hockey the doctor scratched his chin thoughtfully.  He explained that my son had grown to be exceptionally tall and the constant leaning forward with the hockey stick was putting a strain on his back. Hockey, which had helped my son so much, was damaging his back.

Creative Writing Prompts No. 317

Write a story about a beggar who loves to hear himself sing

 Old Joseph was a familiar site in the town center on most afternoons.  His clothes were old and worn and quite dirty, unless he was given something new to wear by the people at the soup kitchen.  Nobody really knew where he went during the mornings or the evenings and nights.  Most people probably didn’t think much about how he managed in the cold winter rain at night.

Joseph was one of those men who had been very successful and (he thought) happily married with three lovely children.  His marriage ended the day his wife asked him to leave.  She had been having an affair and wanted to divorce him in order to marry her new man.  Things didn’t work out as she expected as her lover suddenly lost interest.  He already had a wife and children of his own.  Why take time to adjust to a new family?

This all meant that Joseph had to pay the mortgage on the house and support a wife with three young children without the benefits of living comfortably with them. At first he slept in spare rooms, on sofas and even the floors of friends and colleagues.  Very soon his work started to suffer; it was becoming harder to find somewhere to spend the night.  He wasn’t good company and he started to drink.  Have you ever wondered what it must be like having nowhere to shower and prepare for the day at work?  He had very little money anyway and one day decided that it wasn’t worth the effort and he walked out of his job.

He managed to get himself away from his home town and became one of the many homeless in a new place where no one knew who he had been. There was one thing that made him stand out and also earned him a few coins; he loved to sing.  Joseph had an amazing voice so he usually finished Saturday afternoons with a bit of money in his pocket.  There was quite an audience of people who looked forward to hearing him and they would shout out requests.  He would sing anything, he’d always loved music so could manage most demands.

Unfortunately, his health started to suffer and his voice started to fail and eventually you would hear people in the street on Saturday afternoons wondering where he had disappeared to. When they heard that he had died they said that it was such a pity to lose a local character who loved to sing.

Creative Writing Prompts  No. 222

Anne of Green Gables

This summer I watched “Anne With An E” on Netflix.  I loved it.  The setting was beautiful. I totally got Anne and I loved her ability to see the best in every situation.  I don’t understand why I’ve never read the book before.  I found the eBook on Amazon and downloaded it to my phone.  I haven’t had much time for reading this last year, but I’m almost at the end and am thoroughly enjoying it.  I will be looking out for all of the “Anne” books, as well as the rest of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s work.

Cat men

This post also appeared on Facebook

We’ve recently seen the film Bohemian Rhapsody and since then Freddie Mercury and Brian May seem to be cropping up all over the place online. I’ve been especially interested in Freddie’s love for cats. We had four cats as I was growing up and I loved sharing the house with them (except for winter mornings when one or another cold damp cat would try to get into bed with me).

This morning as I woke up a grain of an idea manifested itself; I had seen someone like Freddie holding a cat somewhere before. I managed to find a surviving scan of a rare photograph/postcard we sold of French writer, Pierre Loti, holding one of his cats. Like Freddie he was famous for his love of cats, he loved flamboyant clothes and was possibly bisexual. And the moustache is very similar too! Here are a couple of blog posts.

The moving statue of Franz Kafka

In May we visited Olivier and his partener Anna.  As I thought, Olivier had plenty of new things to show us.  This was one of them:

A statue of Franz Kafka that moves.  If you're interested look on Google for longer versions.

The Jardin Public in Bordeaux

At the end of November we spent a weekend in Bordeaux.  We had Sunday lunch at the Jardin Public, a beautiful park on a beautiful day.  We even ate outside in the sunshine!

walking by the river

We were walking along the banks of the River Charente in Jarnac. It was a beautiful day. Here are some reflections:

It really is a beautiful place to go for a walk: