Archives for posts with tag: creative writing
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No oysters today

June 28, 2012 //
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This is a bit of false advertising! I am currently trying to tie up so many loose ends. For the first time I sat down this morning and didn’t know what to write about. I have to meet somebody relatively early this morning and am therefore under some time constraint. I looked through the images I have taken recently and found this lost looking oyster catcher. The only thing to pick on this bare ramp is a plastic bottle cap.

I’ve just finished this little book called “Modern Puppetry” by a guy called A.R. Philpott. He was obviously a very famous puppeteer in his time, known as Pantopuk the Puppet Man. The book is mainly on puppet making, but touches on performing and the current state of puppetry in general. Current in this case means 1966, as this was when the book was written. I am surprised how much puppetry still seemed to have been part of society then.  But I suspect in the meantime I am just living at the wrong end of the world for puppetry.

One sentence in the book really touched me. He talks about finding material for your puppet show, he says: “Once you need them – that is as soon as you start being a puppeteer – ideas will come, a part of your mind being always alert for new possibilities – and not only for puppet characters but also for situations in which these can find themselves on stage. Plots and plays are inseparable from characters.” [p40].

Phew, so I am normal!

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets

Monster’s fear

June 26, 2012 //
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I didn’t really want to write about what happens in the dede world today, but there was another incident.

Monster waited up for me. He sat quietly in the corner and waited until I came past. “Psst” he said, and at first I could hardly hear it. “Psst” he said again and I looked around and there he was all scared, squashed into the corner. He is an ugly little thing and one doesn’t know where his front and back is, but his dark black button eyes stood out.

“Can we talk?” he continued. “I don’t have much time, so make it short” I said looking at my watch. I was happy to lend him my ear. He comes across as a fairly rowdy one, I assume much of it is facade. Once you know him, he can be a really nice guy. But one thing is for sure, he is certainly not one who wins you over at first sight. You have to look twice and engage with him for a little while.

“You know, mhm, you know” he hummed and hawed.  There was nothing demanding about him today, not like the other day when he came to see me together with Skeleton. I felt sorry for him as I could see how painful it was for him to get started. Then finally he just exploded and blurted it all out… all his fears.

He virtually begged me to put Lou in his place (if he had knees he would have fallen on them). Deep down he is very worried that Skeleton actually enjoys the attention she gets from this handsome young puppy. He has been observing her. She is looking in the mirror more often than she usually does. If she had hair she would comb it all day. There are countless little signs. He told me around ninety-nine of them …

Monster is worried out of his mind that he will loose her. He is so sure she is his soul mate. He seems to think he would not survive, should she ever leave him.

I had to sit down and just let him talk. He sobbed and cried. It was obvious he seems to think she is his ultimate love. He talked and talked. Finally after an hour or so, he started to slow down, clearly exhausted. I watched him silently. A lot of thoughts flashed through my mind, but I was certain, none of them would have fallen on fertile ground in this situation.

I believe, if they really have such a strong relationship, no puppy, now matter how young and handsome, could destroy it. Yes, the attention might revitalise Skeleton Edeltraut for a little, but only temporarily…. She certainly knows there is more to a relationship than zing!

In the end I put my arm around him and said: “Look, just trust Edeltraut. Don’t be clingy and suffocate her with your love. The more you watch her, the more you shackle her, the more you will drive her away.”

“But, but…”

“No but… Trust!”

“You just don’t understand” he muttered, disappointed.

“Poor sod” I thought.

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Categories Art, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Hurrah! It’s Saturday!

June 23, 2012 //
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Who doesn’t love an extended breakfast on Saturday? I love it and I enjoy it even more in the company of  friends, so I invited Devil’s Advocate and Fairy Godmother for breakfast. Okay, okay, I had an ulterior motive. I’ve noticed these two are always standing together lately, whispering to each other. I am so curious about what’s going on.  As if I hadn’t enough on my mind with Lou and Skeleton Edeltraut, but after all I am only human.

So they came along and they are a lovely couple indeed. You can tell they have a lot of respect for each other and they really care.

Unfortunately it wasn’t long before the subject changed to Lou and Skeleton Edeltraut (Mouse did a brilliant job spreading the gossip). My visitors were interested in my point of view.

“I don’t want to favour either of them” I started. “But you can’t remain sitting on the fence” Devil’s Advocate interrupted me  immediately. “Amongst friends you have to have an opinion! There is no way around it. Otherwise you will be nobody’s friend!”

Then they explained to me that both Edeltraut and Lou want me on their respective sides. “If you are not on their side” Fairy Godmother warned me, “they automatically think you are against them. For them you are a traitor.”

It seems the Dedes are now divided into three camps: Some side with Edeltraut, others with Lou and the third party is putting pressure on me to solve the problem and giving me advice on how I should do it. And this is by far the biggest group.

“Can’t you do anything about it?” I asked Fairy Godmother. “Oh no, that’s not my department!” she waved her hand, “you better ask Witch.”  Then she clarified the difference between her and Witch. Fairy Godmother can only work on wishes for yourself (for example, if I wanted to be rich I could hire her to give it a go, but I would have to work with her), while Witch works on wishes you have for other people (for example if I’d wish the plague on Nosy Neighbour I would have to go to her and pay her to cast a spell or mix a potion). But of course neither of them guarantees success.

“So,” I asked her out of interest, “did Lou come and see you?”

“I couldn’t discuss my client base with you” she said in a quite unfriendly manner.

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Social Network

That really tops it!

June 22, 2012 //
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I have to tell you what just happened. I am really shocked (and this doesn’t happen very often).

I went down to the letterbox to get my newspaper. (Yes, I still get it delivered and read it religiously.) My Neighbour Envy was out at the same time. He had been on honeymoon. I didn’t even notice they had come back. He recently got married to Twofaced. I will have to wait and see whether this relationship lasts.  They seem to have a lot of like-minded friends though. Honestly, when they moved in I thought they ran a swinger’s club, with the constant stream of visitors they had.

Anyway, back to my story. So here was Envy standing in his garden waving me over to his place. I followed his invitation, he is a nice enough guy as long as you don’t have something he wants. (Make sure you never lend him your tools, you won’t get them back). Being neighbourly, I thought he was keen to tell me about his honeymoon. Was I mistaken!  He launched right into me. “What’s going on in your place?” he asked indignantly, while I was only half way across the road.

“What do you mean?” I asked back, I really didn’t know what he was going on about.

“What’s with all the comings and goings to the kennel? I see all sorts of people loitering about. I would watch this young puppy of yours. He isn’t into drugs, is he?”

I was flabbergasted and tried to laugh his accusations off. I told him that Lou had been sick all week. He shook his head and walked away, muttering: “Take him into the house when he is sick, don’t leave him in the draughty kennel”

I just stood there standing in the middle of the road with my newspaper in hand and my mouth hanging open, wondering what had just hit me!

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life

Lunchtime politician

June 21, 2012 //
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It is very wintery now and it rains a lot. The beauty in our country is that it never rains for very long. Sometimes we have all fours seasons packed into one day.  Yesterday lunchtime it was like summer and I grabbed my sandwich and headed for the bench at the library, which is nicely sheltered from the wind and drenched in sun. I had hardly settled, when Ducky passed by. Ducky wants to stand for office in the Dede Society and now he makes everything his business. He has an opinion about everything and everybody. Most of the time he doesn’t even acknowledge me but obviously he had heard something and of course he had to stop today.  He towered over me with the sun at his back and said: “I hear you have difficulties with Lou! Can I help in anyway?”

I had to shield my eyes and squint to look at him “No, not really,” I replied. He didn’t move and went on to tell me how well connected he is and that he could get Lou into a really good puppy school if I wanted. I just let him talk, there is no need to interrupt him, he doesn’t like listening much. I know I should have said something, but I also thought what’s happening in my house is not such a big deal . I am very much one for keeping it in the family.

Finally he gave up but not without saying: “You know you have to stop them early. Lou is a nice young lad, but you don’t want to him to go around and pee on every lamp post!”

He is a puppy for god’s sake, I thought, but was so pleased to finally get rid of Ducky. If I’d said something, he would have started again…

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Categories Art, craft, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life

Oh, no!

June 20, 2012 //
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I am very tired at the moment. I really feel the dedes pulling and tugging at me and it starts to wear me down. I thought I would treat myself to an early night. This wasn’t a good idea though. As you might know by now, Monster has a flat under the bed and Skeleton Edeltraut has virtually moved in with him. Mouse is good mates with Skeleton Edeltraut and of all nights in the week she picked last night to pay Edeltraut a visit. Obviously Monster had gone out and Skeleton didn’t want to be on her own. She finds her family very boring now, as they sit in the wardrobe playing cards, day and night.

I have to be fair, usually they are reasonably considerate and keep their voices down, but last night I heard Mouse’s high shriek of exclamation and had to listen to what they were saying. Edeltraut of course told her the story of Lou‘s scare attack. “Oh no,” I thought  “don’t tell Mouse!” It is an open secret: if Mouse has news every dede in the world will know it by lunch time.

It’s usually not my thing, but I had to say something as Lou wasn’t there to defend himself. “Excuse me!” I said (it just popped out without thinking too much) “but Lou has a totally different view on the story.” Mouse and Skeleton both jumped out at me. “Of course he would,” Skeleton replied quite angrily, “he had three days to think a  good one up!” Mouse only shook her head and said: “You are such a sucker for a story, aren’t you? You believe everything.” I thought that was a bit rich coming from Mouse!

I was too drained to have a long discussion, so I just turned round and said: “What ever…” I will have to tell Lou he needs a good publicist to do damage control.

 

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life

Found him

June 18, 2012 //
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I got really worried about Lou. He hides sometimes, but never for long. This morning I had a look in the kennel outside, a place he really hates as he thinks it is beneath him to live in a wooden shack. But there he was… curled up and staring into space. When I called out to him he choose to ignore me. I had to call three times and ask what the matter is. He said: “Nobody loves me”. “Of course we love you,” I replied knowing very well, how little my words meant to him at this moment.

I crouched down in front of the kennel and invited him to tell me his side of the incident with Skeleton Edeltraut.

According to him he meant well. He says, he heard Skeleton coming home. She obviously had difficulties opening the door carrying all the shopping bags and being on the mobile at the same time. He wanted to help and ran over to the door to open it, but she had already managed it herself and was inside. When she saw him she dropped all her bags and ran up the stairs. He grabbed what he could of the shopping and ran after her, but she just dived under the bed. He waited outside, still short of breath, he wanted to tell her there was no need to run, but she never showed.

“I do love her, you know”, he added more to himself than for me to hear.

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Self-publishing

Piece of cake

June 17, 2012 //
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It was Philosopher‘s birthday yesterday. He loves chocolate-hazelnut cakes. I used my grandmother’s never-fail recipe and made one to take round to his place in the afternoon. He lives in this derelict boat at the bottom of my garden. Mostly he keeps to himself pondering about the world and the great beyond, except for when he goes for walks with me on Wednesdays. Only Detail visits him on a regular basis.

I wanted to take Deutsch Fraulein with me as I know he has a crush on her. He certainly would have loved that, but Deutsch Fraulein was nowhere to be found. So I went by myself and as it turns out it was a good move, as I could talk to him about Lou. Philosopher should be able to help. After all, he is in the same boat as Lou, but handles his desires more maturely it seems.

He offered to take Lou fishing one weekend and speak to him – man to man. Good on him. I only hope they are not going in the boat he is living in, it’s certainly not sea-worthy! But I kept that to myself.

I’ve just noticed, I haven’t seen Lou all weekend.

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life

Postponed…

June 16, 2012 //
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The conversation I was supposed to have with Lou was on my mind all day yesterday. I could hardly concentrate on my work. On my way back I stopped at the wine shop and bought a bottle of red. I thought I’d have it while cooking dinner, so it will be easier for me to talk later.

I had forgotten that whenever I open a bottle of red, The Professor pops up out of nowhere and of course with Pig in tow (they are an item – totally inseparable. If you ask me, it is a case of co-dependency. But who asks me!).

These guys certainly saved Lou from his talk. They usually don’t stop at a single bottle and I had to dip into the good stuff I keep in the kitchen rack for special occasions. I left them to it and went to bed around 11pm. I don’t know what they were doing all night, but they were still hanging around when I got up this morning. The Professor gets very melancholic when he drinks and he loves to solve the problems of the world in this state. He can really talk, particularly round and round in ever decreasing circles. Pig doesn’t say much at the best of times, just holds on to his wine glass. It was all a bit too much for me last night.

This morning they both were very quiet and they moved on relatively swiftly after I made them a good strong coffee (and left me with the mess!). I haven’t seen Lou yet.

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life

Penitent?

June 15, 2012 //
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Friday is always a busy day at work. So I didn’t have much time this morning, when I put Lou’s breakfast out. I was already running late and was just finishing  wiping down the bench when he came skipping into the kitchen.

When I saw him I just blurted out: “We have to talk… tonight.” Admittedly it sounded a bit too demanding but it certainly had the right effect. He stopped in his tracks and looked at me inquiringly as if he had no clue what I wanted. I hate it when people hint at a problem and then don’t spit out what it is. In a mellower voice I said: “Scaring people is not on”. His head went down and he covered his eyes with his paws. He knows very well he was naughty. It was difficult not to laugh, but I know he knows and plays it well…. He knows he is very cute and gets away with much more than the average puppet.

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life
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