Today What Pegman Saw travels to Oman. As always, feel free to stroll around until you feel inspired to write up to 150 words.
When you’re finished, post a link to your story on the InLinkz page to share with the other contributors. Remember that reading and commenting on the other stories is a big part of the fun!
Do your best, and enjoy yourself!
SLAVER
by John Yeo
Rasheed woke, aware of a blue sky through the leaves of some tall Palms. A crow in the branches above his head called loudly with a raucous grating cry. Almost as if this bird had been trained to keep a watch on him and warn his captors the moment he woke. Rasheed began to adjust to the mixed-up emotions and feelings of the crazy dream world he had emerged from. His body was stiff and aching from inactivity, he’d been tied up for a long time. Sand was blowing, fiercely shaken by the slightest gust in his ears, eyes and hair, he was intensely thirsty.
‘Welcome slave, I’m Captain Malik, you will get to know me better when we board my dhow for our long voyage from Oman to China. Omar and Faisal will look after your needs from now.’
They stepped forward, roughly pulling Rashid to his feet.
Dhows are as much a part of the country as Frankincense or the sand on its beaches and these ships were instrumental in establishing Oman’s maritime dominance in the ancient world.
This extends back centuries to when Omani sailors established major sea routes to cities of the ancient world with the earliest recording of an Omani dhow reaching China for trade in the 8th century.
We decided to book a parking slot and visit Felbrigg Hall, a National Trust property.. We did try to book a visit to Sheringham Park, also part of the National Trust but there was a high demand for parking slots and we were unlucky. The after-effects of the partial lifting of the lock-down restrictions due to the Coronavirus has created a high demand for places in these open air environments.
We parked our car in a lovely spot overlooking acres of fields full of cows, sheep and lambs munching the luscious green grass.
We set up our chairs and sat ready to enjoy our picnic lunch. We were a little early and we spent an hour seated, reading and taking in the sounds and sights of Nature. It was a pleasant day to spend doing very little, just relaxing, watching the grass grow as it were.
After lunch we took a stroll towards the main building where we came across a small herd of cows feeding on and under some trees.
As we passed a large black cow stepped up towards me with her head down.
I stepped back and she took another step forward. I would have given her a friendly stroke or a pat on the head but I noticed her head was full of flies, she was that close. Margaret and I decided it was time to move on and we made our way to take some photos of Felbrigg Hall.
We passed a pretty, well-cared for garden at the front of the building. There was a notice to inform visitors that although the walled garden was closed to the public, the Head Gardener was still working.
I snapped a lovely photograph of a small tortoiseshell butterfly sipping nectar from a large lavender bed. The plants were literally covered in insects and butterflies.
We continued strolling around the front of the house.
Finally we made our way to our car where we enjoyed a nice cup of hot tea from our flask before we made our way home.
Write about two people who grow up together, eventually part ways, move to different sides of the country, and somehow still end up unintentionally running into each other very frequently for the rest of their lives.
LIFELONG FRIENDS
by John Yeo
St. Judes care home was located in a large house that was once a country mansion. Over 200 young boys aged between 13 and 16, were educated and cared for here. Martin had lost both his parents in a road accident and following a brief stay in a reception centre was allocated a place. The home was a residential school, based on the management and ethics of regular boarding schools.
Martin was overwhelmed with the change in his circumstances and took his time finding his way around and getting to know the ropes. Martin was a quiet boy, keeping himself to himself for the first couple of weeks as he adapted to his new environment. He was 13 years old, a stocky lad with brown eyes and a shock of brown hair that had been cut severely short during his first week at school.
One day after breakfast he was on his way to the school hall for the morning assembly when he came across several boys shouting and tussling. Two larger boys were kicking a smaller lad who was lying on the ground with his hands over his head desperately trying to deflect their punishing boots, Martin instantly ran forward and started pushing the bigger boys to one side, punching wildly, as he took their attention away from the prone form on the concrete path. The smaller lad struggled to his feet and despite a nose that was streaming with blood started to fight alongside Martin. The two bigger boys were taken by surprise at this fight back and were fighting the two smaller boys, suddenly a loud voice from the corridor shouted, ‘Stop that at once!’ Mr Cuttle, one of the housemasters had turned the corner.
The boys all fled in different directions, leaving Mr Cuttle to wonder.
This was how Martin, known throughout the school as Marty met his lifelong friend, Walter, known by everyone as Wally.
Wally was a thin lad, 13 years old, with dark hair and blue eyes. An unusual combination that betrayed his Irish ancestry.
They instantly became inseparable, firm friends and out for revenge on the two bullies.
Marty had the bright idea of discovering who they were, what form they were in and following them, to discover their weaknesses and then strike. Wally was a popular boy, who had been at the school for a couple of months before Marty had arrived.
Two days later, Marty said to Wally,
‘I know who they are, they’re both prefects who have a reputation for being nasty people, they have many friends and we’ll have to be careful how we handle this.’
Wally grinned and said,
’Don’t worry, I have a plan, we’ll trap them behind the bike sheds and teach them a lesson they will never forget. We will let it be known that we have a secret supply of cigarettes stashed there and when they come to check it, we’ll take them by surprise.’
‘Oh yes! Where will we get the cigarettes and how will we surprise them?” asked Marty.
‘Don’t worry! I have the cigarettes and all we need to do is drop a hint to Sneaky that we will be smoking behind the bike shed after dinner tonight. He’s bound to pass it on and we can lie in wait.’ replied Wally.
Everything went off fabulously well and later that night Wally and Marty hid the cigarettes and climbed onto the bike shed roof to watch the fun. As predicted the two prefects arrived and discovered an unopened packet of cigarettes with matches lying on the floor with no one around, there were sounds of someone fleeing from the scene.
The two bullies laughed and nudged each other, ‘They’re scared!’
At that moment a hail of missiles rained down from the bike shed roof and buckets of water were thrown soaking the two prefects.
Wally and Marty leapt off the roof and proceeded to exact their revenge on the two bigger lads, using their fists and their feet.
Blood was everywhere as the bigger boys were beaten and ran for it towards the school building.
The next day found the two bullies with a black eye each and one had a split lip, which looked rather nasty.
Nothing was ever said about this and rumour had it that two prefects had been beaten by some trespassers in the school grounds.
Wally and Marty knew they would never admit to having been beaten up by two much smaller young boys.
Wally and Marty got through their school years getting into many other scrapes together. They went their separate ways after they left school and met up again in the army and many other separate occasions over their lifetimes. Taking care of each other in many strange adventures and circumstances.
The war was over, family life was in a turmoil. Betty was at her wits end. She was pregnant and in overcrowded lodgings with her two babies, Peter and Penny. The landlady, a widow with three daughters, was sharing her house with Betty. One day a man wearing a dark blue overcoat arrived and spent a long time with Betty in the parlour. Her children, both under five, were waiting with the landlady, playing games in the kitchen, oblivious of the life changing decisions being made by their Mum. Finally with tears filling her eyes Betty announced the heartbreaking decision she had arrived at. Her babies would have to go into a children’s home.
These photographs show an amazing tropical tree that mysteriously appeared in our garden about 10 years ago. It grew from a tiny shoot and became larger and larger until it is now over eight foot tall.
Our next door neighbour has an older, even larger version of the same tree and we can only draw the conclusion our tree is an offspring of that splendid specimen. We think somehow a seed, perhaps delivered from a passing bird or insect was transported to our garden and took root.
This year is special though as it has burst out with a huge white branch of small white flowers. Google lens identified it as a Cordyline australis, or a New Zealand plant.
‘Cordyline australis, commonly known as the cabbage tree or cabbage-palm, is a widely branched monocot tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows up to 20 metres tall with a stout trunk and sword-like leaves, which are clustered at the tips of the branches and can be up to 1 metre long. (Wikipedia)’
I came up with the following information from the internet. Some comprehensive facts on the edible parts of the tree and how the Cabbage tree got its European name and the many interesting uses discovered by the native Maori people.
The huge flowers are too high on the tree for us to experience the reputed fragrance. There are many bees and insects visiting this unusual tree so there should be some interesting flavoured honey in a hive somewhere nearby.
Poetry on a tragedy. I was asked by an old friend to resurrect one of my poems to reflect a sad addiction. After some minor adjustments I came up with this seven year old piece. Love ❤️ and Peace ☮️ to all
‘Tell the story of what you imagine your close friends would do if they won the lottery.’
DOUBLE WHAMMY
by John Yeo
Arthur and Angela lived their lives happily together, drifting into their later years with deep loving feelings for each other. They were close at the beginning of their relationship and they just continued to become closer and closer as the years went by. When they first met they were both players of the National Lottery and both had their own personal sets of numbers. They decided to continue playing with these numbers jointly and set up a standing order at the bank to defeat the problem of remembering to pick the weekly ticket up. Strangely enough they had both played their individual numbers for years, based on family birthdays and other memorable dates that had affected their lives before they met each other. They both played two lines, twice a week and it was just a case of marrying the entries together. Mystical, magical thinking on both sides, decided these numbers mustn’t change as they would never forgive themselves if one of the lines came up and they missed the jackpot. They certainly never considered stopping playing as they were aware that once they stopped they would never be able to win. As online players they were automatically informed by email if any of their numbers came up. One day they received an email that informed them there was news about their Lottery ticket. Excitedly they logged onto their online Lottery account to discover they had won a £25:00 prize and the money would be paid into their bank account. They had indeed won the lottery, not enough to radically change their lives. They now had to decide what to do with this unexpected windfall. Foreign holidays or new cars were certainly out of the question. They decided to blow the lot on a meal out together, even though the winnings would hardly pay for a posh restaurant meal, perhaps they could manage a Fish and Chip supper together at home. While they were happily discussing their options the front doorbell sounded and Angela opened the door to a man in a smart pin striped suit and a red, white and blue tie. ‘Good Morning, I’m Mr. White, I’m extremely pleased to inform you that you’ve won one million pounds first prize with your Premium Bond, number ******************. They were both stunned to hear the news that they’d finally come up with the top prize on an old bond that they had held for years. As Arthur and Angela were eating their Fish and Chip supper the following Saturday evening, they were busy dividing up the Premium Bond winnings between their family on paper. The next morning they received another email from the National Lottery, with news about another winning ticket??
Today What Pegman’s Saw. travels to Chechnya in the republic of Russia. As always, feel free to stroll around until you feel inspired to write up to 150 words. When you’re finished, post a link to your story on the InLinkz page to share with the other contributors. Remember that reading and commenting on the other stories is a big part of the fun!
Image from the net Al Jazeera
A HOSTAGE OF WAR
by John Yeo
Dawn broke over the war-torn streets of Grozny. Russian aircraft had devastated another area of the city overnight. Abdullah and Melissa were moving furtively on their way to feed the Russian hostage. They were both aware of the land mines that were still around. When they reached the dilapidated garages they were surprised to find Bashir, waiting at the entrance.
‘Food won’t be required, the hostage is dead.’
‘Dead! How come?’ asked Mellisa. ‘Did he try to escape?’
‘No!’ replied Bashir, ‘Selina killed him! Apparently her whole family were wiped out last night; she came straight here in a rage and killed him. It’s not a pretty sight, she went wild.’
‘ No!’ Screamed Melissa, ‘Where is she?’
‘She’s in a terrible state, hysterical, begging for forgiveness from God, she’s in shock!’ Bashir replied, tears drenching his eyes.
Abdullah put his arm around his friend, said. ‘We’ll take care of her.’
Grozny has only partly stabilized enough to be safe for travel. Take extreme caution when visiting war-torn areas as there are some unexploded land mines. Rebels often take tourists as hostages, so try to blend in with the population.
Travel Warning WARNING: The UK Foreign Office and other governments advise against all travel to Chechnya. There have been many incidents of foreign and Russian citizens going missing, or being killed or kidnapped. Government travel advisories United Kingdom (Information last updated Dec 2018)
I remember an unwilling, uninspiring English language teacher several years ago, who demonstrated some individual views on life that would have been highly criticised today. His major goal in life at the time was a high degree of self-promotion. His outward role was to attempt to instil in his pupils, (subjects), an interest in writing and appreciating poetry. He would start a session by reading his personal examples of poetry, then invite comments, which were obviously expected to be positive. The class would then be invited to write a poem on a set subject. An hour later our teacher would sit and take them apart piece by piece. The session would end by him handing out a subject to take away and use as an impetus to write a piece of poetry. When I wrote the above poem, I was influenced by some of his views and his comments. I included a couple of sentences that to this day I hope he noticed and took away with him.
Of course I’ve reworded and rejigged some of the words, since I resurrected it. When I look back, I can’t help thinking perhaps he wasn’t a bad teacher as he certainly stung me into action.
SUNDAY 14th JUNE 2020 ~ BLOG POST
I stepped back and she took another step forward. I would have given her a friendly stroke or a pat on the head but I noticed her head was full of flies, she was that close. Margaret and I decided it was time to move on and we made our way to take some photos of Felbrigg Hall.
WEDNESDAY 10th JUNE 2020
DOUBLE WHAMMY 
FRIDAY 5th JUNE 2020
johnandmargaret1607 