#Bloganuary (somewhat late).

To galvanise me into action, I’m taking up the WordPress Bloganuary challenge but with a proviso.

Since…

a) I came to this challenge late,

b) I don’t aspire to blog daily,

c) I have other things to do…

I’ll be looking over the week’s prompts and only rambling on about those that interest me (or not). As I mentioned in an earlier post, if I don’t have anything to say, I’d rather say nothing, and so far I’ve come up with little that would justify a whole post.

1st Jan: What advice would you give to your teenage self?

Be brave. Leave home and take up that university place you have waiting. You’ll meet more people.

(Note: In the 60s/70s, students were given grants to live on while at uni. If university back then came with tuition fees and a student loan, I might advise my younger self to stick with what I did at the time – chuck in the uni place to go out and earn some money. I did end up paying for Open University modules, but I didn’t have to give up the day job for those.)

2^nd Jan: What is a road trip you would love to take?

Road trips leave me cold. Isn’t that what trains and planes are for? True, we have a motorhome, so that we can take the dogs, but my favourite parts are when we park up and unpack everything – ideally within walking distance of a pub and/or restaurant.

3^rd Jan: Write about the last time you left your comfort zone.

One of our writing group prompts last year was to write something outside our comfort zone. I know this doesn’t rate alongside earlier decades when I told  myself, ‘I can do this,’ when trying to ride my husband’s motorbike or stay up while waterski-ing, but my focus has kinda shifted since then.

My ‘homework’ for that month’s prompt was to pen some blank verse. (Being an amateur poet I can never be sure mine could count as poetry if it doesn’t rhyme.) Several of our scribblers dipped into science fiction. Our efforts may make it into our next anthology.

Or maybe not.

4^th Jan: What was your favourite toy as a child?

Ro-ro, a once-white stuffed dog with black ears and a stiff leg-at-each-corner. Ted Bear was his constant companion. No dolls, but I would push Ro-ro and Ted around in a toy pram (later passed on to my younger sister who fulfilled our mother’s expectations regarding dolls).

5^th Jan: What is something you wish you knew how to do?

How long do you have?

6^th Jan: Who is someone that inspires you and why?

Terry Pratchett. The master of (seemingly) effortless commonsense that touches wisdom and still tickles the parts other satirists don’t reach.

Although I know now that it wasn’t as effortless as it seemed and that his publishers had to virtually pry each manuscript from his still-editing hands. This knowledge gives me hope.

7^th Jan: What makes you laugh?

See answer for 6th Jan. Also an earlier post (Timeless Truths) gave examples of how my sense of humour has changed as I aged matured. It also includes many (timeless) Pratchett quotes.

These days, I rarely find comedy on the TV that makes me laugh (standup or sitcom).

I mostly laugh at my dogs.

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I did warn you my muse was still hungover.

What inspires you to put pen to paper?