Weekly Writing Challenge: Dialogue

Posted in Challenges by angloswiss

Nothing draws me into a post like an opening scene with dialogue. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing fiction, nonfiction, memoir, or even journalism

Swiss National Day 1st August

It was after the evening meal, my body digesting a cucumber salad, ham and cheese and I had just plugged in my computer to see how blog life was progressing Then it happened, just out of the blue, a cannon ball hit me from nowhere.

“Sign here, at the bottom“

My attention was actually drawn to a cup of tea and some chocolate. My dessert after tea and he is sorting papers at the corner of the table..

“What am I supposed to sign.”

“Next Sunday is voting Sunday.*

I thought he was going to add the word “again”, but he did not; one of the advantages disadvantages of being married to a Swiss. They vote every month about something, how am I supposed to keep up?

“What is it about this time?”

“Don’t you ever read the newspapers or look at the news in television?”

“Of course I do, but I do not study the political pages or watch the programmes where it is one large argument, everyone trying to shout loudest and eventually nothing is decided because the time runs out.”

“Sign and I will tell you about it afterwards.”

“But I am not signing for free cigarettes for everyone, or raising the retirement age for women?”

You never know what this Swiss Federal State is thinking about. It has all been there before. OK, it was not for free cigarettes, but for banning smoking almost everywhere, except for your own four walls and there I gladly gave my signature. Imagine the disappointment when it was considered a little too radical by the Swiss folk and was turned down.

The retirement age was increased for women a few years ago, just in time to allow me to work until I reached the age of 64 instead of 62. Oh, how I love these voting Sundays. At least we can now do it all by post. Just sign it, fill out Yes or No on the various slips, according to your wishes and put it in a special envelope containing your personal identification: all nicely organised by the Swiss State.

The problem being this time, that I had not seen the various slips. Of course, they had already been completed by Mr. Swiss, being sure that his opinion was my idea of a well organised country and all I have to do is sign.

As I was in the middle of my chocolate, Swiss of course, I had no chance. I wanted to eat my chocolate in peace with no further interruption. I signed. It could have been a cheque, a permission to sign all my important documents, but I signed, with one eye on the remainder of my favourite chocolate.

“I will explain it afterwards” he answered.

Afterwards the news programme arrived on the television and he is concentrating on the events of the day. It seems raising a ship in an Italian port, that had been lying on its side for more than a year, was more important than extending my knowledge of the details of the Swiss government decisions.

I dared to interrupt.

“What about those details of the voting.?”

“I have already filled it all out.”

“I know, but what is it all about.”

Without taking his eyes from the television, we had now progressed to the latest news on the national German elections.

“It is all in the booklet on the table”.

I interrupted my chocolate again and cast a glance on the table, which was empty except for some silver paper remaining from the chocolate and half a cup of tea.

“Where?”

“On the corner, red book, ah no, it is brown. Have a look”

Eureka, I found it, the fourth from the top in the pile. Oh, it has sixty pages, each in small print, explaining what my future in Switzerland will be. In short we have a people’s initiative for abolishing compulsory military service, national law about fighting contagious illnesses (epidemic law) and changing the working law. I think the working law has to do with the opening hours of the shops, some garage shops wanting to remain open until late in the evening and on Sunday. You see I do watch the television if I cannot avoid it.

In between I did discover that Mr. Swiss does not want to abolish the army (he found it a joke). And me, I decided he was probably right. My son has already finished his duty to the Swiss State in uniform, so let the others get on with it.

Mr. Swiss is now watching the weather report, you never know we might have an avalanche or might be snowed in, although we live in the low lands. Anyhow it is a no go thing when the weather report is on TV.

In the meanwhile I have decided to let him get on with it. I signed and I am sure him being a Swiss citizen he has made the right decisions.

Weekly Writing Challenge: Dialogue

Dialogue Pingbacks

16Sep2013

Daily Prompt: Super Sensitive

Posted in Challenges by angloswiss

If you were forced to give up one sense, but gain super-sensitivity in another, which senses would you choose?

Photographers, artists, poets: show us SENSITIVE.

Fluffy

Meet Fluffy, our blind cat.

“Mrs. Human, what’s blind?”

“Fluffy that is when you cannot see.”

“What’s see?”

It was then that I gave up. Fluffy had an accident when he was two years old, we do not exactly know what happened, but he was probably hit by a car near where we live. He found his way home, nose close to the ground sniffing his way. I will never forget that evening. We went immediately to the vets. He was kept for a week and we thought we would lose him, but cats really seem to have nine lives. This all happened nine years ago, and he is still with us, part of the feline family. He is still not aware that he cannot see, because everything else seems to compensate. He knows where his cat tray is, finds his food and drink and can climb to his favourite sleeping place. If we shift the furniture around (some time ago we had a move around in the living room), he needs time to get acquainted with the new formation. It does tear a bit on the heart strings to see him on his hind legs, pawing for a place on a chair which is no longer there, but after a few days he knows where he is.

Now to me: I am approaching an age where nothing really works 100% as it used to. I am not invalid, but things slow down as the human body takes its toll on life.

My sight is OK as long as I am wearing my glasses. I can no longer read without them and they are part of my dress code at home and outside. Driving a car without would be a danger to all.

I think my taste buds are also going slowly but surely. I know if something is salty or sweet, bitter or sour, but I notice that Mr. Swiss uses the aromat (Swiss equivalent of salt, no Swiss is happy at the table without Aromat) to spice up the food I serve. Personally it is spiced enough for me, and more would be overdone, but Mr. Swiss finds it sometimes “hospital food” and so he puts a little perk into his food with his aromat and is a happy Swiss.

Sometimes I would not mind missing my sense of smell, especially when one of my felines deposits part of their recycling process in their litter box.

“Mrs. Human that is not nice” and my chief feline Nera adds to my writing experience. “You know what they said about Siddartha that where he walked a smell of lotus flowers hung in the air.”

“Are you sure Nera, I do not remember that part of the book. I did not know that you were interested in the mysteries surrounding Siddartha.”

“I read it once on my pawpad, Hermann Hesse certainly had a point. I am a sort of Siddartha in the feline world and my feline tray has a perfect scent, in the Siddartha manner of things. I can identify it immediately.”

“So can I Nera” and so I decided to terminate that conversation (Nera is now glaring at me with her yellow eyes). My sense of smell in no longer what it was, but as long as I can take notice of the danger signals, such as burning, that is OK with me.

My hearing was never sharp. After growing up in London, England, amidst heavy lorries and busses, as well as main road traffic, the hearing does suffer over the years. I now live in a country where the cows and goats say good night to each other so my sense of hearing has recovered, although it is nowhere near perfect. Sometimes I find this not so bad. There are some things you do not really want to hear especially if you are trying to concentrate on writing an unforgettable piece of blog literature. At the moment all is quiet and I can only hear the wind whistling through the apartment (seems to be Swiss hurricane season today). If Mr. Swiss decides to listen to an unforgettable and unique piece of jazz music, then I change rooms, usually to the kitchen and close the door. I think that is more a matter of concentration that hearing – after all when D.H.Lawrence wrote one of his masterpieces, I am sure he did not have jazz music in the background. I must take care that my chances of becoming an unforgettable famous blog writer are preserved.

Which leaves me with touch: even that is no longer what it was. I almost managed to chop off a finger pad whilst cutting the hedge in the garden a couple of weeks ago, part of the nail disappeared. It has now renewed itself, although the nail has a new curve, but the finger more or less works. The tip has a sort of electric sensation at the moment. It can only get better. Actually touch is about the only sense that still works almost perfectly, although it is more common sense that I do not dip my hand in boiling water.

Reflecting on this intelligent piece of information, I have come to the conclusion that I do not have to give up any senses; most of them are no longer working as perfect as they should.
A sharper hearing would be OK, but something I could switch on and off as I feel. If I am reading or concentrating on writing my best seller, then I would switch it off. If I notice the neighbours are talking in the garden, it would be handy to hear what they are saying sometimes. Although I do have some nice neighbours, there are always a few bad seeds in the pod, but c’est la vie.

Daily Prompt: Super Sensitive

Sensitive Pingbacks

Being honest the title is based on a remark made on one of my blogs by a supporter.
"You always turn a topic inside out and on its head" were words also applied by a visitor to one of my blogs. I think she hit the nail on the head.

Prompts are there to act on, not just tell everyone what you had for lunch or your likes and dislikes. I trust that on my blog you find something spiced with humour. Mr. Swiss, my other half, has been known to say that not everyone always understands my humour (I do not always understand his).

Blogging is for me coupled with having fun. I do what I want to and not what I have to.

Disclaimer: Not reponsible for any spelling or grammatical mistakes. I do my best, but having two langugages revolving in my brain (yes, I have one), sometimes the result is more bi- than unilingual.