The sea is a cruel and unpredictable mistress...

Here's something I wrote a little while ago whilst on holiday in Portugal and just never got round to posting.

The sea is a cruel and unpredictable mistress.

You know when the day starts off well and you're having fun until you find yourself in the middle of the ocean, in what can only be likened to a rubber dinghy....  

And you realise your fate, your life, your every movement from this point forward is in the hands of a guy who's name you don't know and who speaks very bad broken English as a 3rd language.... 

Other then you being in Portugal no-one knows exactly where you are. You gave them no resort name. No hotel name. And definitely no day to day itinerary. 

Shite!! The water's are pretty choppy, perfect for surfers, not so perfect for a barely 10metre swimmer with a very confident non-swimming 5 yr old. When, scratch that. If, you make it home swimming lessons are definitely on the agenda. The water is so choppy that your sprayed every time the stupid under equipped dinghy moves. 

You can feel the salt water drying and crusting on your skin. This was NOT a good idea. You did NOT think this through!! 

There comes a point when calm takes over, a resigned to your fate, (that fate being death) type calm. It settles easily. Calmly even. 

The ocean is beautiful. The colour like nothing you've ever seen. There could be worse ways to go then being claimed by the cool, salty, raging teal of the med. 

And then there is a rainbow. With every lift, splash, spray and additional salt crust a rainbow appears. Just as you are able to see again through the stinging of salt water in your eyes a rainbow lays just on the rift of the tide. Is it like an oasis in the desert? A mirage? Sent here to distract you from the imminent death? 

Sunglasses removed to double check? It is there.. Actually really there... With every rip curl (that's what surfers say right?) forcing you to hang on for dear life a rainbow appears. 

A sign? 

Rainbows promise gold... A happy ending... Life!!!

I put my life in the hands of the rainbow. 

Despite everything we made it back in one piece, Portugal is beautiful and I recommend it highly :-)

PR xx

CREATIVE WRITING: I Thought I Saw...

Assignment 3b: Prompts 

We were given a snippet of text. A prompt. And had to write a piece starting with it.

I thought I saw a Unicorn. From where I sat, legs swinging in the breeze it was perfectly reasonable to imagine. It was the kind of place where you could believe. Where anything was possible. It smelt of summer. Of sunshine and flowers. Where Bees, crazy with the intoxicating smell of pollen didn't know where to land first. It smelt green. Of greens made with oil paints from tubes, smeared on brushes and applied thickly. Flowers all the colours of the rainbow dotted with small fingers until the paint ran out. It felt magical. A place where Unicorns could roam free, dusty white like icing sugar. Candy cane horns twinkling in the sunlight. Flowers smiled up at the sun, basking in its canary yellow glow. The cloudless expanse it sat in, like a blank canvas. Stretching as far as the eye could see. Like a lid. Blue joining green at the edges. Containing. Keeping this enchanted place secluded. Keeping the Unicorns safe.

This is where I belong :-)

PR xx