Sunday, August 23, 2009

Fiction Writing

I am taking a fiction writing class - this is the first week. I signed up for it so I could write stories about my pictures. My first assignment is supposed to relate to something I saw or read (a picture, a headline) and should be 250 words. Below is the picture and my 250 words ! Let me know what you like about it or not.

It was a hot summers day, my parents were having their annual British party. We had spent all morning cutting perfect little cucumber sandwiches, mom had made her famous coconut macaroons, dad had his Tanqueray and Pimms ready. They had stupid rules at this party; all guests had to wear a hat and everyone had to speak in a British accent for the evening. One can imagine how ridiculous the yanks sounded in fake Brit accents! As a little girl I would sit on my yellow swing under the tree watching the festivities unfold. As the night progressed the accents got funnier and the conversations more bizarre. I was always a by-stander looking from afar, I wondered why my parents would have this yearly shindig that the entire neighbourhood would look forward to for months. Later I realized how much this brought the community together and how much my parents missed their home in England.
Last week my mother passed away so I hosted 'the party' one last time in her memory. Everyone came with their hats and accents, this time around I could not be a voyeur to the party; I had to make sure the scones, cucumber sandwiches and macaroons were up to snuff. I now understood why my mother did this every year; it was so that she could never lose her roots - it made her feel like she was back home in England. T&T in hand, I toasted to her in a thick British accent!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Finger Lakes

They say that god put his hands down on the ground and the finger lakes were created; I guess god has 14 fingers for the 14 lakes. We went upstate to Lake Canandaigua few weeks ago to get away from the hustle and bustle and just unwind. We stayed at a beautiful bed and breakfast called Bella Rose. Most of our time was spent wine tasting, pottering around the lake, visiting beautiful gardens and sleeping a lot ! Below are a few pictures that I took; the first one just makes me unwind and reminds me of that sigh when you finally relax. I love the duck picture cause it was very similar to one that I took a few months ago of Cherry Blossoms.

The lake and beyond
Rubber Duckie

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Chicago Chicago …. my kinda of town?

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Chicago – I really don’t know what to think of it. I was there last week for a day, well actually for 17 hours to be exact. I have never had enough time in this city to truly know its character. Most of my visits are “work – hotel – fly” sort of ones. People who live there seem to love it; its a city with a mid western warm feeling they say. Awfully cold in the winter. Lake Michigan looks gorgeous in the summer. The magnificent mile has tones of shopping. Just don’t know if its for me. I am more of a grimy, grungy city girl. Anyways, I am going back in a couple of weeks – plan on spending the weekend there; hope to form an opinion then (stay tuned). If you have any reccomendations let me know !