Category Archives: 100 Word Challenge

100 Word Challenge

Just a bit of ice…

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This post is in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ prompt here, where there are links to the other responses. The brief was to write 104 words, including the phrase shown in bold. The substance of my piece is based on my memory of this occurrence some years ago.

The extreme weather meant that the nation’s ability to respond to a crisis would be tested to the limit. It was not that conditions were incredibly cold, nor was the snow the deepest most of us had ever seen; rather that a deadly combination of air temperature (round about 0°C) and critical wetness of snow occurred simultaneously. This gave rise to the phenomenon known as ‘ice accretion’ where flakes of snow can join and cling together round a suspended line, such as a power or telephone cable. This, of course, increases its weight and causes it to stretch and even snap! The consequences that time were disastrous!

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100 Word Challenge

In Concert – In Every Sense

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This post is written in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ prompt here, where there are links to all the other responses. Once again I struggled until inspiration came at the last moment – well, on the last day for submissions! The brief was to write 105 words, including the five-word phrase shown in bold. You may care to listen to this, which inspired my piece below.

The pianist walked onto the stage, and bowed twice, to the applause from the audience and fellow musicians. Then, in a most moving gesture, he moved across to help the much older conductor to his feet.  With inimitable charisma, the white-haired gentleman led the orchestra into the opening bars. From then on, as the notes from the piano sounded out with accuracy and feeling, the audience were held in rapture. The following forty minutes were a perfect exposition of what the words ‘concert’ and ‘concerto’ really mean – a display of co-ordination, empathy, devotion to the art, and sheer stamina that was a joy to experience!

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100 Word Challenge

A Slight Misunderstanding

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This post is in response to the ‘100 word Challenge’ here, where you will find links to all the other contributions. The phrase shown in bold had to be added to 100 words. My little dialogue is, thankfully, entirely fictitious!

“Fred, can I have a word?”
“Sure.” The young lighting designer followed his boss to the managing director’s office, where they sat down.
“Fred, but I’m a bit puzzled. I met George Greenway at the club today, and just mentioned that design you submitted – you know, as you do – and he seemed rather off-hand about it. So I checked our copy of what we sent. Now, you said you’d do… WHAT, exactly?”
“Well, I looked round, and suggested a scheme in uplighters. He seemed keen. So I chose those conical ones.”
Harry put his head in his hands. “Trust Sally… She only typed ‘comical’ didn’t she?”

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100 Word Challenge

Money Well Spent?

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Once again, this is a last-minute response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ – this time the one here. (Have a look at the other responses, via the links.) Once again, I struggled – until I recalled New Year’s Eve, 1999. As you will see, the brief was to write 103 words, including the phrase I have typed in bold.

There had already been one or two flashes and bangs – and then, as midnight struck at the end of that memorable New Year’s Eve, the sky was lit by a display of pyrotechnics the like of which I have never known, before of since. The noise was deafening, and unrelenting for a full twenty minutes.

Now, everyone likes a celebration, but in the days that followed, many of us began to think. Supposing the same amount of money that had been spent on that amazing, but brief, spectacle had been used to fund children’s hospitals and other noble causes? Was money wisely spent?

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100 Word Challenge

The Night Before Christmas

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This post is in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ prompt here, where there are links to the other responses. I really struggled with this one. Then I remembered how I’d been thinking about all the people whose jobs require them to work ‘unsocial hours’ for the sake of the rest of us. Doctors and nurses, fire, ambulance, and police personnel, and all those who keep our public services going – something often taken for granted. There will have been some children, somewhere, who might have said something like the first verse of my little poem, on Christmas eve.

“‘Twas the night before Christmas, and our Dad was just home
When his mobile rang again.
He kissed our Mum, then back outside
He went, in the pouring rain.”

Dave, the foreman, took a call, the other side of town:
“…When you’re done, go straight to Bridge Street, somewhere near ‘The Rose and Crown.’
The pub and fifteen houses are off supply, they say
The section engineer’s already on the way.”

Engineers and gangers worked through that dreadful night;
A fault repair was made without delay.
A cheer went up as lights came on in Bridge Street
And festive fare got cooked on Christmas Day.

Edit, Christmas Day, 2014:
I’ve just remembered this post as I was thinking about all the people who will have been working today, and how much we have to be thankful for, here in the UK and so many more countries. So now, I’m linking this post to ‘The Prompt’ here, which is themed on the single word ‘Christmas’.

mumturnedmom
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100 Word Challenge

Yet to Come?

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This post is in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ prompt here, where there are links to other responses. The brief was to write 100 words on the based on the prompt words I have typed in bold. I’ve allowed myself a total of 102 words as I have included the prompt words in the text.

Just this once, Dickens might have got it wrong. The ‘ghost of Christmas yet to come’ was not clad in black. A lady ghost, she was. She wore silver stretch-fit leggings and a knitted top emblazoned with reindeer. She carried a tiny evening bag that matched her leggings, and on her head was a miniature plastic Christmas tree complete with LED illumination, with a choice of flashing modes. The song We wish you a Merry Christmas blared out from a tiny loudspeaker at the top of the tree. Her black-and-white striped high-heeled shoes gave a new meaning to the words ‘Bah, Humbug!’

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100 Word Challenge

A Minor Problem

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This post is in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ here, where there is a list of links to all the other responses. As you will see, the brief was to write 107 words, including the seven-word phrase shown in bold below.

The tree was up, decorated, and festooned with the light set. Joe looked round.

“Sophie plug it in now!”

“Go on then, pet!”

The little girl dived behind an armchair. A clunk, a click… and then… no light.

“Oh. So what’s wrong, then? They worked when I put them away.”

As Sophie crawled out and stood up, she lost her balance for a moment and collided with the hi-fi system, hitting the button labelled ‘FM’. A familiar tune blared out.

“… ONES… I USED TO KNOW…”

It was hard to say which of them was the more startled.

“It’s all right, pet. You’ve just put the wrong plug in.”

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100 Word Challenge

The Chairman’s Speech

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This post is in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ here, where links to other responses can be found, as usual. As you will see there, the prompt this time was a photograph of a piece of chocolate of some kind, on a plate. What I have written is entirely fictitious, but I’m sure there are many firms like this and I hope directors are as grateful in real life.

“Good evening, Ladies and gentlemen. I hope you’ve all been having a good time. I just wanted to come and see you all here for a few minutes. And it’s a real pleasure – not least because early this year, I wondered if the firm would see the end of it, yet alone have a party. Well, we have. And that’s every credit to all of you. You’ve all gone the extra mile to get and keep business, and my co-directors and I just want to say thank you. And thank you, too, for that piece of chocolate someone saved me.”

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100 Word Challenge

The Other Extreme…

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This post is in response to the ‘100 Word challenge’ here, where you will find a list of links to many other responses. The given subject is simply GREY.

This year saw the celebration of our Queen’s diamond jubilee – only the second such event in the history of the monarchy, the first, of course, being that of Queen Victoria. But what about the other end of the scale?

Queen of England for only nine days.

Nominated as the successor to the throne by a dying king aged just fifteen, she evidently accepted the crown with considerable reluctance. Certainly, she did not contend for it. This, however, did not save her from execution for treason, which she accepted with grace that only inspires awe.

Truly, an amazing woman.

Lady Jane Grey.

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100 Word Challenge

The Prankster

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This post is in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ here, where there are also links to other responses. The phrase shown in bold is to be added to 100 more words.

On Pete’s bench lay a large envelope, unsealed. Several workmates knew that it contained a glossy photographic print of a picture he had taken himself. It was almost the end of the working day, and he went to the ‘gentlemen’s’ – two floors down. As he left us, Tony quickly removed the print from the envelope, then folded and creased the empty envelope neatly in half. He then unfolded it  and wrote at the top:

PHOTOGRAPHS – DO NOT BEND

then added across the middle:

OH YES THEY DO!

and replaced the print.

I really tried not to laugh when Pete came back. His face was a study…

This is a true story from my early working life. I have changed only the names of the persons referred to. The fellow I have named ‘Tony’ was an inveterate joker.

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