Category Archives: 100 Word Challenge

Sport and Heroes

This post is in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ here, where you will find links to many more responses. The brief was to write a piece of 105 words in length, including the phrase shown in bold.

I’ve been thinking lately about the trend to acclaim victorious sports personae as ‘heroes’. The true story came to mind of the American girl runner who, last year, competed in two races on the same day; the first, she won. But then, so soon after the first challenge, the second race proved severe, and she gradually fell back into last place. Then, close to the finish, she stopped for her last remaining opponent who had collapsed. Lifting her and taking her arm she helped her to the finish. As the line was crossed, she pushed her opponent ahead.

For which race was she the hero?

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One Wet Night…

This post is in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ here, where you will see links to other responses. The brief was to write 104 words, including the phrase shown in bold, in a humorous vein. I struggled to think of something, until I remembered this…

At my front door:

“Gas!”
“Yes?”
“You reported a leak…?”
“No…”
“This is number 44?”
“Yes…”
“But you’re not Mr Hanson…?”
“No.”
“And nothing to do with the Baptist Church, then…?”
“No.”
“Sorry, mate… I’ll have to check this out…”

By now, I was intrigued, not least from the data security angle, so I asked if I might ‘listen in’ to the check. The engineer was agreeable, so I sat in his van while he contacted his control centre, then waited for a call back.

“Hello, Fred. You’re going to love this: I don’t believe it. Somebody didn’t know the number, so they guessed it…”

This actually happened to me, one wet night, pretty much as I have told it. I have only changed  my house number. Real life can be funnier, as well as stranger, than fiction!

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All That Chocolate – A Few Thoughts

This post was prompted by the ‘100 Word Challenge’ here, where you will find links to many more responses to the prompt, namely, to write 106 words, including the phrase shown in bold.

In a supermarket the other day, looking at all of that chocolate, I started to wonder about how many people know, or, more importantly, care, about where chocolate comes from. I was reflecting on how, on the one hand, Easter seemed to be turning into more and more of a materialistic affair, yet on the other hand, how hard people in, to use the approved term ‘less economically developed countries’ have to work, for a pittance in return, to grow and harvest the cocoa beans that are the primary ingredient of chocolate. People who consider themselves fortunate if they have a nearby supply of clean water.

How do you feel about this? Please let me know in the box below!

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The Fight for Spring

This post is in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ here, where you will find links to lots more responses. The brief was to write 104 words, including the phrase shown in bold.

Earlier in the year, the unseasonal weather meant that ‘Spring’ kicked in early. Deciduous trees were in bud ‘before their time.’ Early snowdrops and aconites were not even surrounded by snow. That ‘here comes the sun, it’s good to be alive…’ feeling pervaded the British isles. Winter was all but over.

Oh, how dangerous are those words ‘all but…’

Winter decided to fight back, even though his time was almost up. The upshot was that, by last Thursday, Spring hadn’t quite sprung. Leaves, buds and flowers have been duelling with frost and snow. I hope they win. And I hope they win very soon.

Buds and Ice

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Making the Most of my Chance

This post is in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ here, where there are links to lots more responses. The brief was to write 106 words, including the phrase shown in bold.

I had begun quite powerfully, but soon felt myself flagging. However, I had been promised this chance for some time, and knew that it would be a while before I could attempt this again if I was unsuccessful, so I was determined to keep going, despite the pounding in my head.
“Take it nice and steady! Lower your hands a bit – pray!”
The final part of the instruction was not an enjoinder to appeal to the Almighty – although that wouldn’t have been out of place – but rather, a reminder of the best hand position. It helped. And… here was the bar. I had swum a length!

This is an actual account, from memory, of the first time I swam a length of a swimming pool, being watched by a teacher, so that I could have a certificate. It was, erm, lets just say, a long time ago!

ADDITION – 9 APRIL 2013

I have now linked up this post to ‘Magic Moments’ hosted at The Oliver’s Madhouse.


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Found at Last!

This post is written in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ here, where you’ll find links to lots more answers to the challenge! You’ll also see the prompt – which is a picture of a key resting in frosty grass.

Loss of temper, allegation and counter-accusation had done nothing to improve the situation; the key of the shed seemed to be irretrievably lost. Searches in pockets of spare coats, and combing the pathways outside had been fruitless. Snow had come, and gone. Finally, Dave was talking darkly of using a crowbar – and the cost of locks and the hassle of mending doors.
But this morning, the damp weather had given place to frost. Suddenly, the youngest child burst indoors, waving the key!
“Me find it outside in the gwass, mummy! Me remember now! Me had it for the snowman’s nose!

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How do you know that’s a fair description?

This post was prompted by the ‘100 Word Challenge’ here, where you will find lots of links to other responses. The brief was to write 105 words, including the five-word phrase shown in bold, which didn’t, of course, necessarily have to be at the beginning.

“What does it taste like?” is a common enough – and fair enough – question. Less logical, on the face of it, are many of the answers; indeed, they are often not so much answers as exclamations, like “Aaaarrrgh! Tastes like old socks boiled in washing-up water!” This, of course, is likely to evoke replies like “I’ll take your word for it. I’ve never tried that…”

However, this kind of thing isn’t as illogical as it sounds; this is because the majority of what we consider to be taste is, in fact aroma or smell – and the sense of smell is very powerfully connected to the memory!

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Chef’s Orders

This post is in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ here, where there are lots more responses to read. As usual, I struggled to think of a plot until the last day of submission. The brief was to write 106 words including the phrase shown in bold. Ironically, I nearly forgot to do this post altogether!

“Henry, pass that margarine… Oh, could you weigh out twenty-five grams…? Thanks. And, Oliver, just chop those two onions, please. Good lad… Georgia, will you open two tins of tomatoes, then weigh two hundred grams of rice? Now that jug of stock, pepper, some herbs… Oh, my goodness! I nearly forgot the Worcester sauce! Now, while this is cooking, Harriet, will you grate some cheese, there’s a dear… You know, I saw something like this in the ready meals section only yesterday – a frightful price it was! And never mind the additives, I always think it tastes so much nicer when you make it all yourself!”

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An Incredible Journey

This post is prompted by the ‘100 Word Challenge’ here, where there are links to lots of other responses. The brief, as you will see, was to write 103 words,including the phrase shown in bold.

From far beneath the surface of the sea bed, up a pipe, along another pipe, and another… Into a tank and out, up a heated column, down into another tank, into a road tanker, into a tank again, out again into a tanker-trailer…

The young RAF officer was returning to duty. A last hug and kiss for his wife and little girl at the gate of the ‘married quarters’…

He was gone. Later that morning, the roar of jet engines rent the air.

“Daddy plane!”

The child looked at a trail of white. The first sighting of that oil-drop in millions of years.

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Companionable Silence

This little story, (entirely fictional!) was prompted by the ‘100 Word Challenge’ prompt here, based on a picture of an observation platform at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA. You will find links to lots of other responses.

We’d met on the plane at the start of this package trip to the Grand Canyon. Shy conversation gradually became easier as we made friends. Was our friendship set to become something more? Certainly, we found that we had a lot in common; a love of nature, photography, beautiful music, and many other things – but one more thing would tell me whether we were right for each other.

On that special day, as we walked onto the observation platform, we both fell silent, then took pictures. As we walked back, we both knew something special: we could both be awe-struck!

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