Q3. Tell me a story.

1 Sept

Written By GoneClements

this month’s blog is asking to retell a story that has been prevalent throughout their lives. Something that’s been told many times or thought about often, good or bad.

A memory that I relive often throughout my life was when I was in school. I was bullied by a girl and this had gone on for several months. It had affected me terribly and although I asked my dad what to do, I had been told to ignore her. This was not at all helpful.
One day whilst me and my friend were on dinner door duty, this bitch walked through the door, this was not allowed. My friend without thinking told the bully to she wasn’t allowed to come in. The bully went to go for my friend and as she did, I tripped her up and she fell to the floor. She got up and went for my friend again and I stood in front of her. I would have never done that if she had gone from me, but as it was me protecting my mate I didn’t think twice. Nothing happened then and nothing happened after. It is a story I have told my children over the years. I try never to back down from bullies and would hope that although I look back and get upset by how she made me feel, she taught me not to be a coward and stand up for yourself.
A few years ago I was out with my friend and we saw these really cool people sat under a tree. So we panicked and tried to act like we were cool too, but I walked one way and she walked the other. Still trying to act cool, I quickly ran over so we could walk the same way but I ran into her and she got her foot stuck in a hole. Still trying to act cool in front of these absolute strangers we tried to get her foot out of the hole so they didn’t see us looking like dicks, but I then fell over and that’s when they looked over and saw us so we both just started laughing cause at that point we couldn’t have looked any stupider if we tried. Then a little girl ran over and started laughing at us and the cool people just gave us a dirty look even though it was funny at the time. It made me realise that the things that we can panic over really aren’t as big as they seem and even though it was a tad embarrassing it turned out to be a better memory than if we just acted cool like we wanted to.
Our first experience of a cruise was on a passenger’s cargo ship. if we enjoyed it we’d try the more expensive passenger lines.
A very nice welcome when we boarded. Nice cabin, a good amount of passengers and a friendly crew. A fair-sized swimming pool and we had excellent food. we soon made friends and stopped at different ports to unload and take on cargo and go on land to explore. The captain was a very friendly Spaniard with perfect English. we were on our return journey when we hit a storm, a lot of passengers didn’t like the ship’s movement as the storm worsened, but my husband and I decided to use the games room and learned how to play scrabble to pass the time. We’d had a few games after the storm worsened when the captain looked in. “what are you playing?” he asked. “well scrabble” my husband replied pointing at the box. “no you are not” he replied “you are playing it all wrong” and proceeded to show us the correct way. The storm worsened and we were rolling around quite a bit. The captain ignored it then suddenly a huge wave hit us with a crash and the light above us smashed. He stood up very quickly and said calmly “excuse me ill just check on my officers”. He went through the door and we heard him charging up the stairs!! I didn’t put us off cruising, but we chose much bigger liners after that!!
One day, poor young Micky was walking to school he had a rock thrown at him by Keith. To Micky’s horror, the rock throwing would continue for some time and with each rock, Micky’s hatred for Keith grew and grew. Disliking life, Micky thought “ life is bad”. After a few months, Micky and Keith were forced to sit next to each other during their ICT class. After getting to know one and other they realised they had more in common than they once thought. With this new friendship came free pancakes for Micky every break time from Keith. Enjoying life, Micky thought “ life is good”. Six years later, now close friends, Micky and Keith were spending most of their evenings up late playing video games. Eventually, Micky used the late-night gaming to distract himself from his residual teenage angst. The angst grew and grew and Micky fell into a state of unhappiness which led to being kicked out of university. Disliking life, Micky thought “ life is bad”. After a summer of reflection, Micky fixed his head and pulled himself together. Giving both him and Keith an opportunity to live with each other. Getting up to all kinds of shenanigans Micky and Keith enjoyed a bloody good year. With late-night poker games, becoming true pub regulars and a shit load of badminton. Although not as much debauchery as Micky and Keith would’ve hoped, the year together was nothing short of a bloody good time. Enjoying life, Micky thought “life is good”. To me, the story is about how things happen in life that can seem bad and make you feel shit even though they can ultimately be for the better. In the moment it can be impossible to see any positives but you never know how things will play out and it’s important to remember that sometimes it needs to be bad before it can become good.
You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.
N/A
when I was about 17 I was working on a YTS scheme earning £26.25p for a week's work, the boss told me that if I came off the scheme and went on the dole, he would pay me £40 a week no questions asked, so I had more than doubled my wage for doing the same job. He also asked if any of my friends wanted a job.
So, one Saturday, decked out in a new shirt and jeans I went down the RAOB club(better known as the Buffs)in Broad street to meet up with friends for a few beers and watch a live local band that was playing there. A few of my friends were interested about the job offer, so on Monday I would be working with my mates, happy days. After the live band had finished a few mates were going over to the Island to the friars club for a late drink, usually I would have been going home but with my new found wealth over we went. Due to my boyish young looks(or acne as some call it)it was a 50-50 weather I would get in, not tonight though(was it the new shirt?)we were in, we paid the £2 entrance fee and went to the bar. After a few beers I was feeling a bit confident, so pint in hand I walked around the club trying to chat up girls, I got a few comments on my shirt but not good ones(Note to self, don't wear a dark blue shirt to a night club when you have dandruff).So back to the bar I went to stay out of the dance floor strobe lights. just when I thought the night was going to pot, I got a lovely smile from a pretty girl near the bar, she was a bit older than me but I thought what the hell and walked over to her." you got a lovely smile" I said to her, she held my hand pulled me away from her friends that she was with, then leaned into my ear and said" If I was the first girl that you said that line to tonight we would be going home together tonight, I think your friends want you". Ouch but what a put down. About an hour later I was coming out of the toilet(I had been trying to remove the dead skin from my shirt, to no avail as there is a different lighting so I could not see those evil spots) when I noticed the pretty girl leaving the club. I followed her out but I was too late she was in a taxi and gone before I could talk to her. I tried to get back in the club but the doorman stopped me, he said "I don't care that you just came out, who let you in anyway, how old are you 15?"Ouch again. So, with no mobile phones to get in touch with mates and not enough money to get a taxi on my own I had to walk the long walk home. About half way home walking up Broad street wondering how the night had gone so badly I kicked out at a parked car denting the door, that felt good so kicked out at another car, another dented door. The next car I kicked out at the wing mirror and it smashed and hung there by a wire. The next thing I know there are blue and red lights flashing and two policemen standing in front of me, they had been watching me zig zagging up the street and were keeping an eye on me to make sure I was ok. Ouch number three. So, it's in the car down to the station, searched, fingerprinted and put in a cell, no chance of sleep as it was Saturday night and the cells were full with lots of banging and shouting. After what seemed like hours, I was taken from the cell to be confronted with my mother and stepfather, the police charged me with criminal damage, gave back my loose change that I had left of a half-smoked packet of cigarettes(I wasn't sure if mum knew I smoked but she did now)Ouch number four. After the long walk home they didn't say a word about what had happened, just chatting about other things with me walking just behind them. When we got home, I was about to go to my room and have a sleep when my stepfather said "where are you going, you are coming with me, get in the car". It wasn't until he pulled into a parking space in Broad street that I realised what was happening, my stomach sank, we got out knocked the door and waited for what seemed like an age, me sweating and now feeling really sick. When he answered my stepfather said "what have you got to say to the gentleman? "I could barely speak and mumbled that I was sorry for kicking his car. What he said then was Ouch number five, "that's ok we were all young once "and thanked me for coming down and apologizing saying it was very brave. Ouch, Ouch, Ouch.
If I had to say what the moral to this story was or why it has always haunted me since, it's not, you never know when your good luck will change, it's not ,don't be a desperate fool looking for something and stay in the moment and good thing will come to you. It not even do not drink too much and act like a complete arsehole. Although they are lessons that I have tried to learn out of this story the main one is how calm the older people were with me. The pretty girl put me down politely and never embarrassed me, the police were looking out for me, my stepfather made me do the right thing and the gentleman whose car I kicked went out of his way to make me feel good. As I have got older, I have become a much calmer person and I think it was these 24 hours when I started to change
It was sports day and I was about 12. I was conscious of myself in my swimming costume. we were all lined up getting ready to get in the pool when something came over me and I jumped in the pool. I couldn’t swim at this point and I thought that it was the shallow end so when it wasn’t and I realised I jumped into the deep end, I began to drown. all I remember are bubbles all around me. after a while, I remember being lifted up by someone and all I could do is shiver and repeat the word bubbles
one day I got up as usual for work in a refrigeration unit down Cardiff docks, working on one of those compressor motors. I had to take the pully wheel off the shaft, in those days there wasn’t anything mechanical to help draw the pully off. I was with a young lad about 16 and we were doing it all day and when I went to look to see how far off the pully was, my hand got caught underneath the refrigerator catching me on two of my fingers. one didn’t feel too bad but when I took a look at the other finger I saw that it was half hanging off. the apprentice went to get the manager who took me to saint Davids's hospital. I was holding the piece of finger that was hanging off with a towel the whole way there. when we got there I sat down in the office and as soon as the doctor saw the finger he went and came back with a cutter and cut the thing off without warning me at all. I thought he was going to stich the thing back on, bit of a shock!
I was on holiday with my family in Spain and it was our usual evening few beers around the pool before heading out for a bite to eat, after our meal it was still quite early so we decided to find a bar and have a few more, in the bar was a couple of pool tables, there were some lads playing on the 1st table so me and my boy went to 2nd table and had a couple of game, we ended the last game and I finished my pint, but went back to our table to see if anyone wanted a drink before going to the bar, as we had been a while, to my amazement when I got there, there was a full pint still on the table when I asked my mrs who's it was she said it was mine, I said who's have I been drinking then, I suddenly realised I must have picked up one the lads full pints from the pool table and drank it all while carrying in playing pool next to them, luckily they took very well and never said a word to me at the time, I bought them a drink and apologised after, just can't believe they didn't say anything.
perhaps they just thought I was nuts !!!
There was a man that won a lottery ticket and with a 1 out of a load of people's chance, he won the prize. The prize was a holiday to Cannes, a city in France and a video camera. He was thrilled and couldn't wait to set off. It began smoothly but as he got to the station the problems and setbacks soon began to reveal themselves, like getting his tie stuck in a vending machine, and the main balls up, missing his train. He gets a taxi to his destination but it dropped him off at the wrong location and he has to walk to the next train station. He then gets to his train on time, with enough time to ask someone to film him with his camera getting on the train. The person agrees and as he begins to film, the train leaves the person with his son on the train. So now he has to try and help the son find his father that he just left at the train station to get back to each other. He then goes on a wild journey trying to get the farther number. He tries to make money in a town to get the bus because he left his wallet on the train. He does this by doing a live performance in the town centre and it was baning. Everyone gave money and he was able to pay for food and transport. It then goes from bad to worse, the ticket he just bought gets caught in the wind and gets sent flying into a chicken van thing. He then goes on an extensive mission to get the ticket back, running into a nazi film set where he destryos the set. He then finds a nice woman in a mini that allows him to hitchhike to Cannes. After a few days of driving the three reach cannes and the woman was going to a film festival where the boy's father will be because he is a film producer. Noone knew this at the time the woman just wanted to go. They reach the film festival and had to disguise themselves to get in. finally the boy spots his father when he goes up on stage and they reunite. The man then exits through the back door looking out onto the beach that he wanted to go on from the beginning of his journey. He then stops at nothing to get there and walks over roofs, cars and people. Finally, he's there and he BLOODY LOVES IT.
The reason I tell this story is that I love the message behind the story, it shows that no matter what or who stands in your way you will always get to your destination wherever or whatever it is, and with enough dedication it's always achievable. Also to enjoy the setbacks, make an experience out of the things that stear you from your goal.