Curious Incidents of a Flailing Mermaid

Prompt for day sixteen: "Review" a old piece of yours from your port that you haven't looked at in a while. Has your writing style changed? What have you learned since you wrote that piece? (Be sure to link to it so we know which item you are talking about.)

This is a very interesting prompt. It has made me have a quick look over the work in my portfolio and have a very brief glance at the review I have received over the time I have been on this website. Unfortunately, to start with (well really until April this year) I was not very active on here. Therefore, I rarely got many reviews back then. However, this exercise has made me realise that my poetry isn't too bad. I never think my poetry is very good. Yet, my best reviews and ratings are for some of my poems, which really surprise me.
The item I have decided to look at today is the first thing I ever posted on WDC. Looking at the date the concept must have been really clear in my mind. The situation the poem talks about had only just happened within the previous week or so.

Swimming to the End!  (E) About bringing a stunning swimming career to an end #1798319 by Fran 💜 💜 💜

Reading over this I feel I ought to have used some way of allowing the reader to personally identify with this a little more. As it is I can see that I was trying to place the reader into the swimmer's shoes, which is not going to be an easy task if they have never been in this position. Therefore, I think actually this needs to be in either the first person or third person for that item to have the correct level of emotional impact. Obviously, when I read this I am immediately taken back to the emotionally draining day that was the catalyst for writing this. But, now that I look at it, and am able to take a step back, I don't think anyone else would be able to picture the scene as easily as I would like.
I have always loved reading, but when I wrote this item I was going through a two-year period of being and unable to sit down and read a book. Therefore I wonder whether I had forgotten how important imagery was in a piece of writing. Now I read a book a day sometimes and if I can't picture the scene properly, I won't be able to enjoy the book/piece of writing. So I suppose, if I was to write this again now I would I bear that in mind. That is definitely something I have learnt since I wrote this (just making sure I stick to the prompt).

The piece is also far too wordy for my liking now. If I were to go back and edit this, which I really ought to, I would definitely cut down the word count. I have definitely learnt over the years that less is more. I am a well-known waffler and could easily use five words where one would do. Also, some of the punctuation could certainly do with revising.

All in all, what have I learnt? I’ve learnt that this item needs a good ol’ edit and I’m not all that bad at poetry/prose.

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Prompt for day fifteen: Is there a date in the year that holds some particular significance to you? Tell us the story!

Hmmm… For the first time I think I might really struggle with this blog prompt. I do not have any real dates that stand out and are significant enough to make me stop what I am doing once I realise what day it is. As I have already mentioned this week (far too often, I know!) as of next year the 12th of July will be my wedding anniversary - in theory that should be a date
that stands out forever more. Unless Chris gets sick of me before that, which is highly possible.

I can think of a couple of dates that I remember from the past which are quite cool. But I have had to dig around in my memories to find these.

17 September 2004: this was the day I competed in my first ever Paralympic event. If I am right in thinking, it was the 100m freestyle in which I won a Bronze medal. It was that or the 50m freestyle winning me a silver medal. Either way I was terrified. I can't remember exactly which race it was because I did four events at the Athens 2004 Paralympic games, winning a medal in each. I promise I am not trying to show off! :)

17 October 2011: this is the day I announced my retirement from competitive swimming. I had actually decided to retire months before this but my management told me to hold off until this particular day. It was actually a massive relief, if I am honest. I remember so many people telling me that they wanted to buy tickets to watch me race at London 2012 and I couldn't tell them not to bother until this day. It was really hard to keep my mouth shut and not tell anyone.

I thought I had some more dates to share with you. However, all I can think of are birthdays and I am confident that is not what the prompt was looking for. Therefore, I am going to sign off for today and hope for a prompt that suits me better tomorrow.

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Prompt for day 14: Blog. Tell us about your week. What was your favorite blog entry of the week, and most importantly, why?

The end of the second week of my first 30DBC! Wow! I think I said last week that I was impressed that I’d completed a whole week. Thus, I’m doubly impressed. Because of this, I’m really concerned that I might let myself down on the Wednesday and Thursday coming up. Well, Wednesday should be fine. But on Thursday, I’m going to be out from 6am till midnight then working at 6am on Friday too. I’ll be really upset if I miss a day/have to be a day late. So, I’ll be setting myself a challenge to find a few minutes to get something down! *hopes*

Lets have a look it the past week. *warning* It is not all that exciting – apologies in advance!

Monday: hmm… this also tests my memory skills, it seems!
Ah, yes. I had a school visit. Now, the schools get a free visit from me (or my colleagues) and the organisation we work for pays us. Technically, I only go in to do an assembly and work with one chosen group of 20 (max) students for anywhere between 2-6 hours. Some schools, however, like to stretch us and get their money’s worth!! Monday’s school did exactly that. Phew! I delivered an assembly to 150 students, the 3 different workshops (1+ hr each). After this, and feeding me an highly unappetising school lunch, they got me to head over to the local primary school to deliver an assembly to 80 8-9 year olds. It seemed to me, once I’d done my speech, that every single one of these children had a random question to ask me! It took a while!

I think I mentioned Tuesday in a blog post earlier this week. It wasn’t that interesting so I’ll not bother writing about it

Wednesday: sigh.
I was at another school. I wasn’t really looking forward to this one really. I thought it was because I knew I was working with a group of boys with severe behaviour difficulties. I realised, on my way there, that it wasn’t the kids I was dreading – it was the teacher.
For my visits, I tend to work with one lead teacher to organise everything when I go in. Before hand this teacher immediately struck me as a very young guy who tried to be cool with the kids. I was correct.
I took the boys for a swimming lesson in the morning. Somehow, they managed to pull the teacher in the pool – suit and all – twice. I was laughing really hard in my head but I was also surprised that he let that happen. Not only that, but no one was in trouble!
The rest of the day went pretty well. The boys were lovely really, just had trouble showing it. I thought they were really chatty and I often had to stop talking and pull the attention back. However, the teacher said he’d never seen the students as well behaved as they were in my sessions. I took that as a great compliment. But I found myself wondering if that said more about me or less about him!

The rest of the week doesn’t really merit discussion as I wasn’t working and floated around doing very little.

Today, my lovely mum decided to take Chris (my fiancé) out for lunch at the place we are having our wedding reception next year. It was lovely. I decided it was an OK place to be seen as Stephen Hawkins himself came in for his lunch.
Because it was a nice day, we decided to wander over to the place we’ll actually be married and take a look round. You know, to see where photos could be taken. We are very lucky. Chris studied at Cambridge University so has the right to be married in his college chapel. Words cannot describe how beautiful it is.. Check these photos out (I’m so excited, can you tell?):

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As I said last week, I love having the opportunity to read a wide variety of different blog post. I am sad that some people have had to drop out, but hopefully we’ll meet again next time!

I’ve really struggled to find my favourite post from this week – there’s so many great one to choose from. But I think, since I am being forced with my arm tied behind my back, my favourite has to be:

groovygirl’s "Invalid Entry"  this was a great poem that really made me smile. A little disappointed that she doesn’t actually like spaghetti and meatballs. You can have everything, I suppose.

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Well, yesterday marked my minus one-year wedding anniversary, which technically is a non-event. Today, however, marks my two-year WDC anniversary. Over the last four months, or so, I have become increasingly addicted to this site and have grown to adore it. Therefore, I am hoping to do myself justice with today’s post, in celebration of this fact.

Here goes…

Prompt for day thirteen: What are ten of your favorite words (whether they be your favorite because they are fun to say, fun to spell, fun to remind other people how to spell, have significant meaning, or some other reason)? List them at the top of your entry, then use them all in a short memory of an experience you had as a child. (Be sure to bold the words so I can see them)


The words:

1. Procrastination (great word and something I do a lot of)
2. Lion (associated to childhood memories – see below)
3. Connotations (just like the sound)
4. Cricket (hate the sport, love the word. Especially when said by a Yorkshire man)
5. Wobbly (describes myself ;))
6. Stillness (everyone needs to experience stillness – I struggle! Heh)
7. Confidence (a powerful word I use daily)
8. Snakes (I like it because it really suits the animal)
9. Africa (the word sounds like it belongs to a great continent and brings back memories)
10. Guarantee (I always spell this incorrectly. When I get it right I get excited! It’s like my very own mini writing challenge)

The story:

I’ve always been exceptionally good when it comes to the art of procrastination. Even as a child, when I lived Africa and the school pet was a lion. Yes, a lion! No, it didn’t eat people! Although, it was free to roam the school as it pleased. So, I suppose it had ample opportunity to eat as many 4-11 year old children as it wished. Luckily, we never seemed to be to his taste. Nevertheless, I digress!

My brother and I have always had a love-hate relationship. Much like all other siblings, no doubt. When we were young, our disagreements tended to rotate around the sport of cricket. I hated it, he loved it – it is genuinely that simple. I am pretty sure that, for most of his youth, my brother dreamt of being an international cricketer. He could have done it, of course, had he not, in his later teenage years, discovered distractions that did little to encourage the growth of an international sports person.

Nonetheless, my brother was very keen on playing cricket in the garden as a way of practicing his skills and honing his talents. Unfortunately for me, I was frequently “the chosen one”: the one who was forced to play with him after school, because my father, inevitably, would refuse.
I ought to mention, at this point, that whilst in Africa my brother did not own the proper cricket equipment. Rather, he used an old, broken table leg, which was pretty heavy and cumbersome, and an old tennis ball. I swear he spent more time trying to dig this ball out of the garden bushes than he did actually playing with it.

“Fran! Come and play cricket with me!” my brother would shout down the hall, most afternoons.

I always knew this was coming so, with confidence, I shouted back “in a minute! I’m just doing something important.” Of course, I was never doing anything important: I was a child. I was merely utilising my generous procrastination skills.

Occasionally, I would let my confidence run away with me and add “get Arnold to start a game with you and I’ll join in later.”

Now, Arnold was our gardener and was the only one of us that enjoyed cricket as much as my brother. This was not, as you might think, a good thing. Arnold was a better cricketer than my brother and this rarely went down well.

Therefore, the connotations of what I had just said were never going to be good. I always sat waiting for the repercussions. I could almost guarantee he would come into my room, pick me up (he was 8 years older – you couldn’t tell) and threaten to feed me to the snakes he had found in the garden. Little did he know that this never scared me, I merely pretended it did.

One day, instead of the snakes, he just came in, holding his “bat” and pleaded with me to play. When I begrudgingly agreed, he casually threw the bat over to me, clearly expecting me to catch it. Of course, being the wobbly little girl I was, there was absolutely no chance I was going to catch that table leg! Mind you, to give myself credit, I gave it a really good go. Unfortunately, however, the clunky wooden leg caught my thumb and took it to places it was never destined to go!

My thumb wasn’t broken; luckily it was just badly bruised. I say luckily, at the time I was actually annoyed it wasn’t broken: I figured that if it had have been I could’ve held it against my brother forever more. I did, however, discover something else to dislike forever more: x-rays!

That day I had my first ever x-ray and vowed never to have another one. It started off well, I was relaxing into it, and my thumb was in the right place and relatively still. Then came the doctor’s voice: “keep still, Frances”. BOOM!! My relaxed stated was ruined.
Stillness is not my friend. I have Cerebral Palsy: I do not do still unless I am asleep or very calm and relaxed. Telling me to keep still will, without doubt, have the opposite affect. It’s like telling jelly not to wobble and then shaking the plate. The more I try to keep still, the less likely it is to happen. Needless to say, the x-ray took a long time.

This still happens… “Keep still!” Noooooo!!

I had a MRI Scan a few years ago for an injury I had. I was dreading it since it was going to be a long time to keep still. I got in there, settled down and did an awesome job of relaxing. Twenty minutes in, the voice came: “keep still, Fran!” At which point I declared that the scan was ruined and asked to be excused from the machine!

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Today’s blog prompt is actually very interesting and is definitely right up my street.
I’ve just sent a load of emails and was about to settle down to write this post. However, since I have a day off, I have decided to take myself off to the cinema to see a film. So, I will continue to organise my thoughts and return to this later ☺


I am now wondering whether I should have written this bloke before I went to see a film. Not only do I generally feel pretty wiped out today, but also I saw a film that is not particularly conducive to sensible thought. I saw Despicable Me 2 by myself – I am not ashamed of my childishness! Therefore, I’m not sure how this is going to go anymore. I’ll just write and see what happens…

Prompt for day 11: Competition brings out the best and the worst in us. Should more activities or competitions be encouraged for children in schools? Or should they be discouraged?

As someone who is extremely competitive and has competed in sport at the high level, I’m all for competition. I’m going to mostly focus on sport in this blog, because that’s what I know. However, I am aware that there are other forms of competition.

Whilst children are participating in sports, and other competitive activities, they are provided with excellent opportunities to learn new skills that they may not get elsewhere. Sport has the ability to teach children good sportsmanship, self-discipline and how to be a team player. Not only this but sport can also increase a child’s confidence, self-esteem, life knowledge, planning skills and change their attitudes towards trying new things.

I, myself, have first hand experience of how sport and competition can significantly enhance a child’s life. I don’t just mean medals and winning; I genuinely mean its affect on my personal well being. Before finding sport I had absolutely no confidence at all, wouldn’t talk to anyone, terrible at school and no dreams for the future. I found competition and this all changed – two high class university degrees, public speaker and esteem levels that I’m completely satisfied with. I wouldn’t be in this position without sport – in my opinion.

Regrettably, competitive activities can sometimes take on new meanings; kids like to be recognised for their efforts and, often, winning is a great way to place them in the spotlight. Therefore, winning becomes more appealing. The unfortunate thing, however, is that kids who lose, constantly get discouraged and end up stopping the sport all together.

If children/teenagers feel they can't accomplish their goals or meet the expectations of teachers and parent they end up with very low self-esteem. Consequently, it is best to encourage them to continue participating in competitive activities, even if they only do so in the back garden with their friends.

I think encouragement something that we definitely need more of when it comes to our children. Encouragement is positive feedback that focuses primarily on effort and improvement rather than outcomes, such as winning. Encouragement is about recognising, accepting, and conveying faith in a child for the mere fact that they are trying; giving things a go. Thus, the child does not have to be “the best” to be able to take part.
With encouragement, a child feels worthwhile and appreciated regardless of the results they achieve. Encouragement assumes that children are intrinsically motivated and will cooperate and learn for the satisfaction that comes from it.

Therefore, I believe competition is important and should be encouraged. However, we are guilty on putting too much emphasis on final results and winning. There are ways of offering competition and not putting too much segregation between “the best” and “average” children. I think this should definitely be investigated.

I could write a 10,000 word essay on this subject, if I am honest. But I fear I may bore you to death if I keep going. So, this is where I leave you for today

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I’m actually very glad I’m writing this because it means my day is done and I have a week off now ☺

Prompt for day 10: What was your favorite meal as a child? Do you still eat it today, or make it for your own children (if you have them)? Does eating it/making it bring back any childhood memories?


I originally thought I had nothing to use for this prompt and I’d struggle. However, I have been thinking about this throughout the day, searching my memory for food, and I’ve managed to find two. I was actually a pretty fussy eater as a child, but not in the usual way. Normally fussy eaters will stick to simple foods, like chicken nuggets and fries. But not me, oh no. I wouldn’t eat easy kiddy foods, much to my mum’s annoyance at times. I would only eat proper home cooked foods: food that required effort to make!

I digress. My two favourite childhood foods are relatively simple and both remind me of my grandparents.

The first, I’m not sure if it is a meal as such but was certainly filling enough for me; treacle on toast. Now, I must say, it wasn’t actually treacle. Rather, it was Golden Syrup, which, for a reason I never worked out, my grandparents always called treacle. When I stayed at my Nana & Grandad’s one of them would make me about four slices of treacle on toast (which was a lot for me!) cut up into squares. Now, as an adult, I make this for myself every now and again – it is never quite the same.

My second definitely is a meal but it isn’t necessarily a specific food. Every Sunday, until my Nana passed away, my grandparents would have “Sunday tea” at their house for the whole family – about 15/16 people. We would go very often as we lived a long distance away, but when we did I always loved it! My Nana would put so much effort into feeding her family every single week. Most the food was home made: pies, cakes, and sausage rolls. The best bit? Sunday tea would start with jelly and ice cream!
I’ve not been to a Sunday tea in years. But when I’m much older I’d like to think I’d be able to do this for my children & grandchildren.

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You may have to excuse the rubbishness (see, not even a word) of the following post – I am extremely tired. Today I was up at 5:15am, I have sat in the car for about four hours and have spent the day working with a group of 15 year old boys. I didn’t get anywhere near enough sleep last night either. The teenagers next door decided to have a very noisy garden party last night, as per this item:

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I have to do the exact same thing tomorrow. However, today’s students were a gifted and talent group whereas tomorrow’s boys have severe behavioural problems. Not to mention the fact that the lead teacher has been a total nightmare to coordinate. So, I’m feeling a little dubious about my day tomorrow. At least, afterwards, I’ll have a week off until my next visit ☺

I’m now excited that soon I’ll be eating Thai green curry followed by cheesecake. Simple things…

Anyway, forward!

Prompt for day nine: Have you ever collected anything? Tell us about your collection - why you started it, how long you've been collecting (or were collecting) and your favorite pieces in the collection.

I guess I collected many things in my youth. Mostly stupid things like trolls and rubbers – useless things really. I do not collect things anymore, certainly not on purpose that’s for sure. So, I thought I would use this blog post to tell you about the most bizzare thing I have ever collected.

Millipedes!

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Yes, Millipedes! No, I’m not joking!

This was when I lived in Africa, at some point between the age of 3 and 8 years old. I loved them for about 6 months or so, before I kept getting upset because they don’t live long. My mum talked me into giving up my love affair to put a halt to the heartbreak.
I started collecting them after discovering one at the bottom of my favourite tree in the garden. I then proceeded to build a millipede farm and looked after about 20 at one point! Some may think I was being cruel but I did my research properly and looked after them extremely well!

It sounds ridiculous now, of course! The things we do as children, huh!? ;)

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Prompt for day 8: Freeze a scene from your weekend and describe it in as much sensory detail as possible.

Sunday 7 July marked 77 years of Britain waiting for their very own Wimbledon men's tennis champion. Was this going to be the day that the country united in celebration?
Andy Murray walked on to Centre Court to a standing ovation at 2 PM. The heat must have been overwhelming - people at home, watching on, were boiling just as they sat and hoped. The temperature on Centre Court was a staggering 40* degrees - temperatures we are not used to experiencing in Britain.
The match, featuring the first and second male tennis players in the world, was grueling to say the least. The drama that unfolded throughout the 3-set final was indescribable.

At 5:11pm, just as Andy Murray served to win the game and his opponent returned the ball, time stopped!

The 16,000 people crammed into Centre Court, not to mention 17 million people watching on TV at home, were all on their feet. Every Single mouth was wide open, mid-cheer. All the negativity and criticisms aimed towards this man fell to the wayside as the ball hit the net: declaring, in no uncertain terms, Andy Murray the Wimbledon champion. With tears in the majority of Britain's eyes, we all looked on at the overwhelming joy, relief and passion radiating off the face of our new sporting legend.

Stood in my lounge, I was able to hear clearly the cheers coming from my neighbours houses as they celebrated at the exact time I did. Laughter and jubilation were flooding from the doors of every household in the neighbourhood.

In that moment, despite distance and difference, the whole of Britain this stood as one to celebrate the end of a 77-year wait and the beginning of a new found respect for the tennis hero, Andy Murray.

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The following photo was meant to be in my blog post yesterday but for some reason it didn't quite make it. It is a photo of a display a primary school put together to welcome me last week:

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Well, while I wait for the Wimbledon men' s final to begin, which is due to be in about one hour or so, I thought I would make it start on today's blog. I am pretty excited about the tennis, I have to say. It is very rare that a British person does so well in sports like tennis or, indeed, football. But today we have a British guy in the final (Andy Murray) and he has quite a good chance - at least I hope so.

Please excuse any weird mistakes you may find while reading this, if I type too much I get really sore hands and wrists. So, I recently invested in DragonDictate so I don' t need to type so much. However, it is still getting used to my voice and can sometimes interpret what I stay in a very bizarre way. Mind you, considering I have a speech impairment, I think it is doing a very good job. How ironic that it struggled to understand me saying "speech impairment" just then

Prompt for day seven: Blog. Tell us about your week. Include your favourite blog entry from your fellow challengers from the preceding week and, most importantly, why.

It is funny, my weeks can either be very interesting or very boring. I actually think this week has fallen through the gap and I am not entirely sure how to rate it.

The main problem this week is that I have been ill. It is typical that I would be ill during one of my busiest weeks of the month! As I said earlier in the week, it is hard for me to take time off work when I am ill because I am self employed and I mostly work in schools. So, if I didn't go to work I wouldn't earn any money and I would let down loads of students.
Unfortunately, I had to cancel a visit to a school on Thursday. I hated having to cancel and felt incredibly guilty. But on the drive to the school (approx 1hr 20mins away) I realised that I could barely speak, and given that my job is basically a motivational speaker, I figured this was probably a good time to admit defeat!

The day before I was working with a new company for the first time. This meant working in London and speaking to a primary school (for non-British folks this is age 5-11) of 400 students. I’m not a fan of driving in London and I don’t normally work in primary schools – I only really do secondary schools (ages 11-18). So, I wasn’t feeling the passion when I woke up that morning, and that’s without feeling really rough! Now, technically I live an hour away from London and one hour 30 from where I had to be. However, the traffic is so bad in London that you need to double your travel time – or in this case add two hours. Needless to say, by the time I got there I was late, grumpy, feeling pretty rubbish and in no mood to be entertaining children! Because I was late, I missed seeing this amazing display the school kids had done for me (I feel really bad for missing it)

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Anyway, the visit went really well and I had some fantastic feedback. So, I felt awful for not putting more into it – maybe it’d have been awesome. But we cannot help being ill, I suppose.

I should point out here that it has taken me about 2.5 hours to get to this point in the blog. The tennis build distracted me and the match is one of the best I’ve ever seen. The British guy is winning … so far! I hope I don’t jinx it!

Back to Thursday: other than going back to bed, I spent the day waiting for an important/exciting phone call. I was waiting to hear whether I was successful in my application to sit on the Board of one of the major disability sport organisations in the UK. I was, indeed, successful! Everyone already on the Board voted me on without question. I’m very excite but more than a little bit scared – if I’m honest.

I think that might be it in terms of my week and things worth writing about. Well, there is the 30-Day Blogging Challenge, of course! I’ve really enjoyed the first week, having got further than I thought I would – haha positive thinking, huh! I just hope I can continue and do the full 30 days. I’m enjoying the contest because, not only does it make me write something every day but it allows me to read other blogs and see how others use the prompts. That part of the contest is something that I am finding incredibly interesting. Although, all the other blogs I read are far better than mine ;)

Now, apparently, according to the prompt, I have to talk about my favourite blog post from one of my “competitors” and discuss why it is so. I have a feeling I may struggle with this part of the blog – all posts have been brilliant thus far.

OK, whilst Andy Murray has been winning Wimbledon (wooo), I have been deciding on my favourite blog post. I think I have to choose:

"Wildcard Monday: The Rules for using Magical Chalk"  by Prosperous Snow celebrating

I’ve chosen this because I was so impressed at her ability to write such a fantastic acrostic so quickly! It just shows her ability, skill and creativity!

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