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Monday 4 June 2018

Writing Group prompt - and they said it couldn't be done.


I've joined Hereford Writer's Circle.  We meet on the first Friday of the month.  I won't be able to get there every month.  I've been meaning to go since February, but the March one was cancelled by snow, the April one I was away for the Easter Holiday, and the May one was a bank holiday weekend and we were away in the campervan.  I went this time though, and it was great fun.  There weren't many there, though apparently numbers are usually higher, but it was lovely just to have time and space to write and talk about writing.  I thought I would revive my blog, and each week try to share a piece of writing that came from the most recent Writer's Circle meeting.  I love to write, and getting back to blogging will give me a creative outlet that I need and rarely make time for.  The first piece of writing I did at the Circle we were given a title - and they said it couldn't be done.  We had about ten minutes to write and we all did something very different with the title.  The following piece of writing is the first thing that came to my mind.  My sister (who blogs as Seaside Belle) has recently become a single mum of four.  I can't say how accurate this piece of writing is (as I've not spoken to her since she got back), but her Facebook posts this week are the inspiration for it.

"I'm still not sure this is a good idea," she messaged from the airport lounge.  Around her loomed the potential for chaos.  E. was looking for his i-pad, rummaging through the carefully packed bags; Overexcited B was pirouetting, very nearly knocking poor little O off his feet.  He gazed around, fingers in mouth and drank in the busy scene, then he continued inexorably towards Mum, his safe haven, clambering over the bags, discarded coats and the luggage trolley.  On his arrival a hand reached down and pushed his face away.  Five year old W already occupied this lap, and he wasn't giving it up easily to his three-year-old nemesis.  

Was she brave or stupid?  She couldn't decide.  A newly single mum of four, trying to prove to herself and the world that she could manage.  She took a deep breath... Look out Barcelona!

"Still waiting for take-off," said the next message.  The children in their aeroplane seats in this photo were now looking a little less excited and a bit more sugar-fuelled.

"We went for the hop-on-hop-off bus tour to see the sights without tiring ourselves out too much," was the message the following day.  Those in the know read between the lines, and wondered whether the children had kept her up all night and it was her energy she was preserving.  A flurry of supportive and encouraging messages back ensued.

Over the following days the messages and photos on Facebook showed the children eating churros, at Camp Nou football ground, at the market, enjoying views and sunshine and almost every photo showing all the children looking in the same direction and grinning at the camera.

"A glass of cava on the last day to celebrate a successful trip to Barcelona," said the caption on the last photo of the week, showing a tired-looking but smiling mum.  She'd proved it to herself.  She'd proved it to everybody else.  A single mum on holiday with four children under the age of ten to Barcelona.  They said it couldn't be done, but the hashtags on that last photo said it all: #travellingsolowith4kids #planningournexttripalready.  She'd done it.


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