Monday 13 April 2015

Drifting



 
 

 

Olly and Sam have returned to their various places of learning today. Alfie has an in service day, which is just as well because he hasn't done a sod of homework all holiday. He did win a bar of mint Aero from his sergeant major on cadet camp though. Apparently he was the best at marching and halting. And he got to fire an air rifle. And eat more bacon and eggs than at home.

Apart from yesterday, which saw me nursing the hangover from bloody hell, I've had a lovely time at home with the boys. It's mainly just me and Olly of course, but I just like the idea of them all being here. I like that they are happy and safe and content. My days always start early. I am normally awake at 6, and I tend to jump out of bed and do. I enjoy that quiet hour of pottering before Olly stirs, and I find that I can get a lot done.

But in those last days of the holiday, I found myself not jumping and doing. I let myself drift in and out of thoughts, as I listened to the chorus of birds outside. For instance, I found myself thinking about the novelist Annie Proulx. She is a wonderful story teller, and her short stories in particular are exquisite, almost eccentric works of art. Thinking of her led me to remember a school short story competition that I won when I was eleven. The story had to have a definite beginning, middle and end and no more than fifty words long.

I still carry some residual guilt about my winning entry. And I chuckled to myself as I noted that the story I submitted was rather revealing about the person I was, and the person I was becoming. My guilt is down to the fact that the story was completely plagarised; I merely re-told an old joke. The truth of the matter was (and still is) that I have a very lazy brain. I was a clever girl. I think I could have been very clever. But it seemed far easier to coast through school, and do okay. I have coasted all my life. It's kept me out of trouble, but I suspect I could do so much more.

I went for the laugh. I have always used humour as a way of making friends, getting out of tricky situations and hiding behind. I am the cynical one, always ready with a pithy one liner. I come from a family of jokers. My brother can spin a yarn like no-one else. My sister and my Mum enjoy a laugh and have quite a dark sense of humour. But I always have to have the last laugh. Always.

I really needed to win that competition. I'm a lazy brain with a very competitive streak. But bugger the marathon, I shall kick your ass in the sprint. I used all the tools available to me to score the winning goal. I borrowed an old joke, and I re-worked it. I made sure that it was funny, because everyone remembers funny.

I am actually an honest and ethical person. It was a rather hollow victory in the end, and I have often felt guilty about it over the years. I guess you can call it a penance. I even contacted my old English teacher through Friends Reunited, and apologised. She was very gracious in her response. She wrote "You were always a trenchant young lady."
Trenchant! Me!

Other drifting thoughts:

I am convinced that Elizabeth Bennett would also be a clumsy cow like me. I wonder whether it's odd that I only write on the right hand pages of my note books, and then turn then upside down and fill up the pages that were left blank. I reckon that Charlie and Lola do not represent the majority of sibling relationships. And have decided that I should never start digging on my allotment with a hangover.


Thanks ever so for all your responses to my last couple of posts. And a very warm welcome to new followers. You are very welcome!

Have a great week. Be good. Or not.

Leanne xx


A Purple Short Story

Once, in Purple Land lived a dragon. The kingdom lived in fear.
 The King promised his daughter's hand to whoever could slay the beast. A purple knight accepted.
 He dug a deep purple pit, covering it with purple sticks. The dragon charged, falling to his doom.
 "Indigo," said the prince.

(I know, I know. It ain't no Annie Proulx)

24 comments:

  1. I am not a drifter per se, but I do need to have drifting days. Like today. L and I are home together and drifting very nicely, thank you. He is drifting in his PJs beside the tele and I am drifting through washing, tidying, blogging, wandering about the garden looking at flowers and insects, and sewing.

    I would have given you the prize for the short story too, because, as I a heart I made for my mum that now hangs in her kitchen says: "a day without laughter is a day wasted".

    Hope the hangover is one that eases as the day progresses, instead of the ones that now beset me where they start out painful and progress to horrendous :o) XXXXX

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  2. What a marvellous word "trenchant" is! I had to look it up and I rather like it. Don't apologise for your story. Aren't most stories merely re-workings of something that we have heard or seen somewhere in our lives, intertwined with snatches of conversation and moments that have caught our eye? I think it's rather clever that, at the age of eleven, you managed to re-work a joke into a story which amused the judges enough to give you the prize. How many others actually bothered to enter at all? And how many of the teachers recognised the joke but still awarded you the prize for ingenuity and imagination? Not so lazy after all. Don't be so hard on yourself xx

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  3. What an interesting post. I was a bit of a lazy student, bright, intelligent, but just couldn't be bothered to do well. And like you I hid behind humor. I think you were very creative in your plagiarism.

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    1. There's a lot of us bright/lazy students about I think xx

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  4. You made me giggle, I too was a lazy student! How I got the position I have now I will never know, a big mouth seems to help. I love your plagiarised story & the fact you contacted your old teacher to own up. I do like a drift now & then, I should be mopping the floors at present but nope, watching trashy TV & blogging instead x

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    1. Is there such a thing as an honest plagiarist? :) xx

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    2. Is there such a thing as an honest plagiarist? :) xx

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  5. Gosh, we're so much alike. I don't think I'm a drifter and I know I wasn't a lazy student - nothing came easily to me and I had to work hard to get decent grades. Nothing comes easily to me now, either, actually. I love being a mother and staying home to raise them but I feel like I fell into it when my intended career as a teacher didn't pan out as I'd hoped (no jobs available where I was living and I didn't feel much passion for it anyway). I did it for a few years and when it was time to have a baby, I was so relieved to have something else to do instead. But then I learned to love it and be good at it. I finally feel like I'm really good at something. I love your story and I think it's very funny. I hope you have a good week. Try to waft around the garden if at all possible.

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  6. hi Leanne. You are so lucky to wake up early, it is precious to have some time to yourself in the morning. Drifting is good, keep it going. I actually think it is an excellent strategy for life! I have drifted all my life in the sense that I never really planned my future and just went along the easiest path, working hard along it as necessary. Things seem to come easily to me often and I am grateful for that. I do sometimes regret the lack of direction with regards to my career but on the whole, I have done pretty well in life drifting. Some might disagree I guess. Charlie and Lola sibling relationships are definitely not normal. These two sometimes make me want to throw up with jealousy. Happy drifting Leanne! Christina xx

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  7. We're all inspired by something, your a great writer Leanne. X

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  8. Hello there. Well. I was VERY lazy at school and I had to look up the word " ebullient" which was written on my report. The report I was not supposed to look at before my Mum. Of all the things you write about I an empathise with but how I wish I was an early riser. I am such a sleepy head in the morning and my natural waking time us 8.55,!!!!! I raise my head and think of all the years that time represented Registration time x

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  9. Sometimes it is good to drift I think, and to spend some time with our thoughts and memories!! I hope you enjoy the time. xx

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  10. I've coasted as well, and I'm a bit cross with myself now. And to make matters worse I can see at least one of my children, who is quite bright, doing the same thing. No effort! Not trying! Things come easily so he doesn't need to try hard. It's not at all okay. But I'm still not sure how to make myself try hard, so how can I make him try hard? Sigh. Love the purple story, and I love that you contacted the teacher. Teachers now don't use words like trenchant much, it's disappointing, I do like to hear lots of different words used. CJ xx

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  11. Hello fellow coaster. I look back on the teenage me and want to shake her, and I see the same casual, last minute tendencies in Bella already. Definitely waft, I'd say. Wafting is good. And your story made me snort with laughter. xx

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  12. I hope the night that caused the hangover was a good one x

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    1. Ha! It was a good night. But I've suffered for it, and suspect I will for another day to come xx

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    2. Ha! It was a good night. But I've suffered for it, and suspect I will for another day to come xx

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  13. Oh Leanne you always bring a smile to my face when I read your blog posts. Currently I am stuck in bed with the lurgy and a bad back from coughing so much so reading your post today has definitely been a tonic. Your everyday goings on are what I miss most now that my older three have left home I have come to realise that was a very precious time in deed and I have many happy memories of their childhood goings ons. Love the Purple Dragon story too.

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  14. Just found your blog and loved it. I think we can leave the guilt of anything we did at age eleven behind. So glad you've spent a little time coasting!!

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    1. Hey Karen,
      Yes maybe I've done the guilt with the story. It may be time to re-visit all those fake careers posters I put up around school....Thanks for stopping by.
      Leanne xx

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  15. I'm loving catching up here ... it's the only plus about being so far behind with everyone's blogs.

    Ditch the guilt m'dear, all of it, not just plagarised primary school story related ... I have decided not to feel guilty about anything - I am essentially a good person, I don't need guilt to keep me on the straight and narrow so instead it simply derails me - go on, try it, it's liberating!

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