Daily Prompt – Oil, Meet Water

Of the people who are close to you, who is the person most unlike you? What makes it possible for you to get along?

I was just about to say that I can’t think of anybody who fits this criteria, but then it hit me… I do have somebody like this…

Daily Prompt – Flash Talk

You’re about to enter a room full of strangers, where you will have exactly four minutes to tell a story that would convey who you really are. What’s your story?

Hiiiii, I’m an alcoholic. Just kidding, I’m addicted to heroin. Again… Kidding.

27 Aug – Personal Stories

Aldous Huxley said your memories are your personal literature. What story are you telling yourself today?

The day started like every other day. Daniel woke up a few minutes before his alarm was due to go off. He rolled onto his back and blinked his eyes several time as his vision adjusted to the darkness of the bedroom.

Daily Prompt – Climate Control

The idea that the weather and people’s moods are connected is quite old. Do you agree? If yes, how does the weather affect your mood?

I’m one of those people who’s mood is heavily affected by the weather… hmmm.. hang on a sec… I was going to say that when it’s cold and miserable outside, I just want to stay in bed and sleep… and when it’s hot and sunny I just want to stay in bed and sleep…

Apr 28 – Crisis Mode

Do you keep calm in a crisis?

I think that’s dependent on the actual crisis itself. The other factor here is that everybody has their own definition of the term ‘crisis’. Generally speaking, it would need to be quite extreme for me to consider something a crisis and I think that I’d be okay.

I’ve been through more than more my fair share of bullshit over the years, found myself in some less-than-ideal situations unfortunately caused by other people, and although at the time it feels like the entire world is crashing down around me in an extreme path of pure destruction, I feel like I’m going to have a complete breakdown and yet somehow, I come out on the other side. Not necessarily without taking a few knocks along the way, but I manage to end up okay.

Mar 26: Alone But Not Lonely

Do you enjoy being alone? What do you do when you’re by yourself?

Dear Hulk, If you ever read this, please don’t be offended or take what I’m about to say personally… xx

I love being alone.

Well, in the right context. I have always been quite independent, ever since I was a little kid. From an early age, I learnt that it’s true what they say – the only person you can truly depend on is yourself. As a result, when I got a bit older and began travelling interstate by myself, I realised that I didn’t need to depend on anybody. All I needed was myself, and that was fine. It wasn’t until I moved out of home, moved interstate, and found myself living in a share house that I realised just how much I enjoyed being alone.

I was responsible to nobody else, except me. If I wanted to just come home after work and eat a whole tub of ice-cream… I could. If I wanted to come home after work and just go straight to bed and sleep for 12hrs – I could. If I wanted to take a day off to see a couple of movies, I’d do it on a Tuesday because it was ‘Tight-Arse Tuesday’ and all tickets were $9 – so I’d end up seeing something like 4 movies back-to-back. If I wanted to spend a Sunday doing nothing but sleeping, then I would. If I woke up one morning and wanted to go on an adventure, then I’d just do it. I had nobody to consider; nobody to consult with. I was a free-agent and could do whatever I wanted. It was a good time. But in saying that, I did also get quite lonely. Yes, I had a small close-knit circle of friends to fall back on when I wanted somebody to hang out with… but I had a good balance of company and solitude.

Just recently, I was away on a work trip, and found myself feeling quite lonely at night time because I missed having Hulk around… but at the same time, there were some quiet moments that I truly enjoyed being by myself. Swimming in the ocean at 7am when there isn’t a single person on the beach was truly an exhilarating experience. Granted, the water was incredibly cold (hence why it was completely deserted), but there was just something about that moment that I truly loved. Being able to experience that was something that I would never have done had it not been for the fact that I was away at the coast, and only because a few other colleagues had been discussing it the night prior.

I didn’t care. I just enjoyed being in the ocean. It’s been so long since I had been in the ocean, and it’s an experience that I miss quite a lot, and an experience that I have craved for a considerable amount of time.

Standing in icy water, armpit deep in the water on an empty beach, watching the sun begin to rise is something that I’m actually quite glad that I got to experience by myself. I didn’t have to share it with anybody else. It’s an experience and a memory that was, and forever will be, just mine.

Temporary solitude amongst the icy waters of Torquay Beach

When I got back to the hotel, I had quite a long hot shower (to defrost myself) and sat outside on the balcony in my oversized fluffy robe, watching the sun continue to rise, and listening to the echo of the waves crashing on the shore in the distance… and I realised that I could happily wake up to this every single day. I actually began to think that I would like to come back here at some point, purely just to focus on doing some serious writing… like working on a novel or something equally creative.

…however, to stay at that resort would cost an absolute fortune, and I simply couldn’t justify that sort of luxurious indulgence.

Daily Prompt: Those Dishes Won’t Do Themselves (Unfortunately)

What’s the household task you most dislike doing? Why do you think that is — is it the task itself, or something more?

Without a doubt, the thing I hate the most, is having to clean the damn shower / bath. It’s one of those tasks that I just keep putting off and putting off week after week until I can’t handle it anymore and I completely snap and go on a cleaning frenzy.

Oh god, how I wish it was simpler. In saying that, I wish that I either had a shower with one of those detachable arms so I could rinse down the shower walls easily without getting water everywhere; or alternatively, get a steam wand so I could do everything just using steam and not have to deal with gassing myself from the cleaning chemicals.

I think that I hate it so much is because it’s such a messy job to get it all clean. But it’s also because we let the bath get to such a state that it requires a lot of elbow grease to get the soap scum off. I’m sure by now you’re all imagining that my bath looks a little something like this:

I can assure you that it doesn’t, nor would I ever allow it to get to that state. The reality is, that you can’t really see how dirty it is, unless you look really closely… but I can see it, and it drives me crazy. Hulk has only ever cleaned it a couple of times, and lets just say he should stick to cooking. Cleaning something like the bath is most certainly not his forte. Bless him for getting in there and giving it a go, but I like things to actually end up being clean not… well, still dirty.

Needless to say, cleaning the bath is my job. There’s something quite satisfying about scrubbing the crap out of the bath to make it all bright and squeaky-clean before filling it up and actually having a bath.

It’s just the cleaning process that’s the worst. But it’s also due to the configuration of our shower / bath. It’s not a great set up, and in the end I have to strip off and get in the bath to scrub every square inch of porcelain and glass, so I end up covered in chemicals all over my feet, and then get completely drenched rinsing it all away because I have to stand there and manually move the shower head around. It’s time consuming, it’s exhausting and it’s just the worst!

However, the satisfaction once it’s all done and it’s so nice and clean again is great, and makes all the process worth it.

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