From her flat window she could see the fireworks between the gap of 2 houses. Mainly big chrysanthemums and whiz poppers, they were amazing and truly fun to watch, especially from the comfort of a nice warm flat with a cup of tea. There were no other distractions apart from the new years fireworks on the TV, which were even more spectacular and brightly coloured, the music rocked too.

She found it amazing looking at the TV, everyone in London was using their phones to film the show, when just, how can you film an atmosphere like that, she thought. Obviously remembering would be a stretch to some. She also sang to herself when ‘old lags one’ came on, and everyone joined in and joined hands in merriment of the old year gone and a new one starting.

Staring out now into the darkness of the street she could still see some fireworks sparkling in the windows of the houses opposite, the reflection reminded her not to look back to the past but to look forward to the new one.

The gull watched from afar, the pigeons were swarming towards it, the gull was unimpressed by the pigeons. The humans feed them by leaving food for them like rats chomping at the bit, usually around the bins.

Gulls were classier, they hovered around beaches combing through plastic bags and waiting for people to drop their food. The gulls just got so hungry, sometimes snatching food was the only way to live, humans didn’t understand, they went into buildings and came out with bags of the stuff, gulls can’t do that.

Listening to humans talk was also strange, some fuzzy language or monotonous groan came out of their mouths. They would shoo the gulls away sometimes with their limbs, and almost hurt them, they had to defend themselves, they could claw and flap their wings, but only when needed.

They weren’t sure how but sensing or smelling food on a person was easy, it just wasn’t as easy to get it from them, sometimes staring at them worked, and other times the humans ran away as if scared.

What was there to be scared about, it was one bird, what harm could it do, OK if lots got together they could reek havoc, but just one on it’s own, staring was as good as it got.

This particular gull lived in Tenby where there was always food being thrown for it, it was one of the better places to be, on a warm sunny day there wings would warm in the sun and bounce off their white feathers with ease.

It found that lots of people when it was sunny ate a cold substance with a likeable consistency in a crunchy cone. It was a favourite amongst the gulls. Following someone was easy, but getting them was hard, like today for example. The gull was simply following two people with cone things, one person a lot more relaxed around it than the other, and once they had seen the gull, the humans did everything to avoid it. They even ran away, the gull just couldn’t understand it, it was hungry and they denied it food, would you?.

Nell was excited, She’s never been to university before. She missed that part of her teenage to adult part of life, She had gone straight from school, to college to work, academic she wasn’t.

She had always been told that work and money was better than an academic education, I mean unless you want to teach or go on to higher and better things, what was the point of knowing the difference between a colon and a semi-colon in the real world.

Now she was proud to be a mature student and was looking forward to her creative writing course, making new friends, and learn how to actually do it properly, she had been writing for years, not much of it had been very good, she hadn’t even once won a competition or had anything published, if only, she thought.

The streets were dark. The wind was picking up, and it could have been warmer for February, then you would be walking somewhere exposed and then she wished she’d remembered her thermals and her woolly hat. She was walking between some tall town houses on her way to the main road and she heard a guttural low moan from the darkness, a bit like a washing machine finishing off its cycle. It was loud and felt close by, Nell took a deep breath and ran as fast as she could to the main road, she narrowly missed a cyclist with a broken light, he flashed an angry face in her direction and kept going.

Nell relaxed a little, bloody cyclists she thought. It was bad enough he was on the pavement, but he wasn’t even wearing anything bright or have use of a ringing thing called a bell.

She kept walking, she could no longer hear any weird noises from behind her, putting her headphones in her ears she had noticed they had gone numb with the pain of the biting cold wind.

She picked up the pace just so she could get there sooner and start warming up. Her eyes and nose were streaming in the cold wind and she only had old tissues in her pocket, they would have to do. Just as the dulcet tone of Emelie Sande were fading away she was minutes away from a warm and dry rec room.

She changed the pace of the music as she sat down, scissor sisters blasted through her ear phones as she was trying to stay awake by drinking coke and doing her desired reading. Her course was fun and informative, she could hear the wind howling through the trees outside between concentrating on character development and short story writing.

In the blackness outside she was waiting, she wasn’t bad or a murderer, just hungry, hungry for warm flesh and the taste of fresh hot blood. She would have to get some soon or she would perish, just like her family had, and she still had that detective looking for her, she was running out of options.

Hot sticky and humid, that’s how the day started, the beginnings of a pressure headache in a stifling office, she needed water, and a painkiller.

Rose was having a moment, looking off in the middle distance day dreaming of Colin Firth in a clingy white shirt walking towards her dripping wet.

She was then rudely awakened by a work experience girl who was frantically shaking her by the shoulder, mouthing the words ‘boss’ and ‘he’s back’.

That jolt of shaking and the word boss made Rose wake up and pay attention.

At the end of a row of medium height cubicles of computers and random family photos was him, the boss, he was a funny looking man, with a hairpiece that was in no way the same colour as his sideburns and goatee, he was tall with a lanky frame and a suit that looked like he was a reject from the eighties. Two words, shoulder pads, she often wondered whether they would ever come back into fashion. The tie he wore was just as garish, and flecked blue and red, his grin was a 1000 watts and he used words like fab, awesome and tickety boo. Clearly out of his time, but as bosses go his attitudes were fair, he could have been a dick, which would have fitted the appearance, but as a middle aged man, boss, he was OK, it didn’t matter that he was nice, it was the fact that he was the boss that made everyone sit up and pay attention, including her.

It was just a shame he lived at home with his mum, a social butterfly she knew he loved his choir, the pub, and his eclectic music collection. It was an even bigger shame that one of his unknown hobbies that his mother always encouraged him not to do, no matter how much he wanted to was castration, of mainly animals, their basement didn’t particularly smell nice and the bloody rags on the floor gave away the less than hygienic practices but at least he had stopped curb crawling for rent boys to ‘experiment on’. Some people can put on a wonderful front but behind closed doors, you never know what they are capable of, and he was one of them.

I will take any feedback as to what I could do with The Boss as a character.

Walking through the city at this time of the morning on such a nice day was lovely, Sarah basked in the warm early morning sun, marvelling at the quietness and appreciating the imposing buildings.

She felt like she was on holiday getting up at this time, with the sun shining and the smell of the coffee and croissants wafting from a nearby Starbucks.

This train journey today was going to change her life, for the better she hoped, plus she hadn’t had a decent day out in ages, and this was a blind date, she hadn’t been on one of these for awhile either, she was looking forward to it, and she was going to enjoy it, even if for the weather and getting out of the city.

Her cousin had set this up, he lived in Bath, in a posh area, so he already sounded appealing. She had been told he was handsome, dark hair with funky specks and was an architect, sounded good.

She was also panicking, what if they didn’t like each other, and what had her cousin told him about her, presumably not the skinny dipping from when they were younger, or the incident with the guinea pigs, her cousin could have been kind or honest, but which one?.

Only time will tell. She boarded her Salisbury train and started reading her magazine, one of the articles was how to make a good first impression, that will be useful.

Tony was getting nervous, a friend of his had set him up with her cousin, he was told she was a red head, green eyes, had an infectious laugh and was easy going. From the description he was glad, sounded like his type of girl, gorgeous and funny, perfect.

Although he was still a bundle of nerves, was Jess telling the truth, what if they didn’t like each other, didn’t get on , or looked completely contradictory from her description.

He decided not to worry too much about it, I mean after all, his mates did agree that Tony looked like Clark Kent, just not the perfect superman, but he could live with that, he took a deep breath to clear the cobwebs and got back to his paper.

The train journey was not as bad as she anticipated, not as busy, at the other end she got off and headed for the exit. Good job she’d been here before, normally with friends going to the bath Christmas market, you could smell the mulled cider and hot chestnuts. Not this time, summer was in the air and she could smell cookies from somewhere, it was making her hungry, she definitely needed a cookie before she left.

She was told to meet him outside the cathedral, it was a beautiful square, it was nice to see it clear and less tourists than normal .

Tony was running late, he was always running late, he just didn’t get the concept of being on time, he grabbed his new leather jacket, keys and sun glasses and legged it out the door and down the hill.

She was nervous waiting for him in the square, would he look like he had been described. She then noticed a rather dapper character walking quickly towards her out of breath, he was tall, handsome with posh sunglasses, the Clark Kent look, nice. He saw her, his heart relaxed a little, she was gorgeous as he hoped. After the awkward meet and the small talk had died away it was decided he would walk her back to the station, she was quite happy to let him do that. She had had a nice time and had enjoyed just looking at him.

He was glad that they had met, she had been everything he wanted, and more. It was a nervous goodbye, and as he went to kiss her on the cheek she turned, their lips met and a brief sweet kiss was exchanged between them, they both pulled away and smiled at each other slightly blushing. She walked away slowly to the train in a very good mood, thinking she would like to see him again. He was happy with himself that he had taken the initiative to kiss her, and walked away remembering it, hoping their paths would cross again.

Her friends down the street looked like they were having fun. She could see them on their bikes and skate boards, and some were skipping, they looked so happy. It was typical that she couldn’t join them, she had chores and homework to do, that was no fun.

Maisie was an only child but she didn’t think she was spoilt like the other children told her she was, she reckoned the dog was though, and all he did was lay about and bark at squirrels through the window, she could do that. Maisie wasn’t keen on her new school either, she had been dragged from her best friends in the country and told she had to make new ones, that’s all very well and good, but she wasn’t as confident as she would like, even at 8 she had insecurities, it didn’t help that she had a strong welsh accent and now lived in England, kids could be cruel, some thought they were funny the way they imitated her accent, she didn’t think so, she thought it made them sound Indian.

She liked her teacher though Miss Joyful, she was pretty, a kind face and blonde hair, with the kind of hairstyle she would like, long and straight, her went curly in the rain. She went up to her bedroom which overlooked the street, they were still playing, 3 girls and a boy, the only friends she had made, they lived on her street, their parents were friends with each other, they ate and played a lot together. She looked down at her homework, maths was never her favourite, and she wasn’t keen on her teacher, he made them recite timetables in class on their chairs, if you got it wrong you sat down, whoever was still standing won chocolate, she always sat down first, good job she didn’t like Mars bars.

‘May’ her mother shouted from downstairs

‘Coming’

‘What’s up’ she said as she entered the kitchen

‘Come and meet our new neighbour, Mr Daniels’

‘Pleasure to meet you little lady, and please call me Jack’ he said as he lent down and kissed her

hand, he was tall with dark hair and a cheesy grin, he was wearing a shiny leather jacket and

sunglasses, so she couldn’t see his eyes, just the Cheshire cat smile, very Danny from grease.

‘Hi’ she said smiling, and blushing.

She could here 2 dogs barking outside, 1 was theirs.

‘Is that your dog with ours?’

‘Yes, do you want to meet him?’

She nodded and followed him outside into the garden.

‘Oscar come here boy’ he yelled at the dog, it was bigger than hers.

‘This is Oscar, he likes chasing the squirrels and jumping in puddles’

‘ So does piglet, he likes to chase crunchy leaves in the autumn’

‘ He likes that too…. Don’t be sacred he won’t bite’.

She petted him, he was very soft with big dough eyes and a shiny coat.

‘Honey I’m home’ another man’s voice said

Maisie smiled at Mr Daniels and ran back inside.

‘Daddy’ she was happy to see him

He gave her big hug that lifted her off the floor.

‘Snuggle bug. How’s your homework going?’

Her mood changed ‘ al-right, we have a new neighbour, he has a dog too, I think mum fancies him’

‘Why do you think that?’

‘They keep smiling at each other and not talking’

‘I think I need to meet him’

Her dad put her down and walked towards the back garden to find his wife, she was now talking to Mr Daniels, and laughing. The next day Maisie was happy to go to school, she had done her homework and her first lesson was with her favourite teacher, she met up with her friends from the neighbourhood and got on the school bus. Her mum had packed her lunch again, she could tell, lots of fruit and other healthy food, ryvita, what, that’s grown-up food. She liked it when her dad did them instead, sandwiches, crisps, maybe an apple, and banana milk, perfect, not this health kick her mum was on.

Lessons went fine, first to sit down again in maths, she didn’t care any more she had got used to it, I mean how often is she going to have to know her timetables later in life any way, there’s always going to be calculators. At lunch she wasn’t hungry, looking at the fruit salad in her lunch box and picking at the ryvita, it tasted like cardboard. It was summer so she was sitting outside on the grass, her mums not going to be happy, her dress would be stained again, she didn’t care, it was too nice to be inside.

Her friends came up to join her, Mark picked up the carrot from her lunch box and started to shoot the birds with it, Tilly picked up another one and started shooting him, Suzie had one of her cherries and pulled the stork and yelled ‘Heads down’, before tossing it into the undergrowth and waiting for the inevitable bang, a bird flew out instead and made them jump.

‘Carol, do you want to throw my lunch away as well?’

‘Can I?’ she said with a smile, she picked up another cherry, pulled the stork and threw it to a different hedge, no bird this time, and no bang. All she had left was an apple with no stork, she ate it.

‘Come on, let’s get to class’ mark said

‘Nope, I want to stay here and sit in the sun, can I get my carrots back please?’

‘ No’

Him and Tilly held onto them and were shooting each other with them on the way back into school, Maisie could see someone looking at them from the path that went past the park, the sun was bouncing off their sunglasses so she could see them properly, the bell went, back to reality, she looked over that way again and they were gone, weird.

After school she had her friends over for a barbecue, her dad had a chefs hat on and a comedy apron. The parents were all talking amongst themselves and drinking alcohol, she had seen her dad drunk, he was funny and would trip over things. He was currently drinking coke and making sure the burgers didn’t burn, he was probably told not too be drunk and in charge of the food, good idea. They smelled nice, mum kept going into the kitchen bringing out bread and salad on trays, Maisie was picking on bread sticks and the others were playing with them like wands, she could hear the words expelliarmus and obliviate, she smiled.

Looking around at the adults she noticed Mr Daniels standing in the corner, surrounded by other mums in summer dresses and big smiles on their faces, he was still wearing those sunglasses. After the party finished Maisie felt full, dad had managed not to burn anything, she was impressed, and it tasted good too, he should do this more often. She looked out of her bedroom window at the stars, she still missed her old friends from Wales but figured she could see them again soon, she felt contented, and sleepy.

In the house next door Jack put down his whisky glass and camera before retreating to bed.

 

THE WHISPERING WOOD
Shirley was waiting for Tina’s little sister Amelia outside her work, she had finished early and they were running late. Shirley was hooting the horn of her ford fiesta and turned down the music.
They were all going on holiday together, OK it was only a cottage in Somerset for a week, but Shirley was looking forward to it, she got time away from work in a stuffy office and the office bully.
They had made the plans ages ago when they all decided they needed a break, well her and Tina did, Amelia was a last minute substitute, Shirley had recently spilt from her boyfriend Nick. She needed the pick me up.
She had been busy lately she had been working a lot for the insurance firm which was good money, not a bad job, although the bully was getting worse and he was younger than her, she had to say something soon, or go for a more rewarding job somewhere else
.She wanted to work in an animal compound, it would have been fun mucking out, maybe she should just do it.
After picking Amelia up she went home to change and grab a few things, the phone rang.
‘Hello’ she said.
‘Hi, we are ready to rock and roll if you are, meet us outside Ian’s flat, and be quick we need to get there before dark’
Said her friend Tina over the phone.
‘I’ll be there in 5 minutes’
Shirley said and put the phone down and got her suitcase that was ready to go.
It took them 3 hours to get to the cottage and by the time they had got there the weather had gotten better, it was gorgeous to see the cottage covered by ivy and blossom in the afternoon sun, the wind was blowing the reeds by the estuary and she could hear birds in the distance.
Inside was beautiful all wood and very country cottage with interesting paintings, and floral print everywhere. There was 2 bedrooms 1 for Tina and her boyfriend Ian, and 1 for Shirley and Tina’s little sister Amelia, it would have been for Shirley and Nick, she looked at the twin beds and sighed a deep sigh of relief, remembering that she dumped him, he was the one afraid of commitment, not her.
After they had dumped all their stuff in the cottage they went for an afternoon walk, they decided to stretch their legs after being cramped in a vw beetle for 3 hours, it was Ian’s, gorgeous car, but just not comfortable for long distances.
They had packed a picnic, and went walking following signs of a footpath down towards a lake.
With Amelia leading the way, they followed the footpath to a lake and set up a picnic on the pebbles, the sun was shining on the still lake and everything seemed quite still.
It was a little lake that was very shallow and had a small waterfall, which was sparkling in the sunshine. Amelia climbed up for a better look, and she dipped her toes in the water, she closed her eyes to enjoy the peace and quiet, then she could hear something coming from behind her it sounded like whispering from behind the trees, she stood up and followed the sounds, she stumbled upon a glade where dear were basking in the sun, they didn’t seem to care she was there. She thought for a moment the trees or even the deer were talking to her, she was thinking she must have gone mad.
The whispering started again and the deer ran off out of the glade and it went dark, the whispering got louder and louder, she was trying to work out what it was saying but to no avail, the ringing in her head got shrill like an angry alarm. By now her eyes were wide open and she saw the trees looking awfully menacing, with crocked branches and the hollows in the trees looking like gaping mouths trying to scream, and there was a distinct movement of the branches even though there was no wind, as soon as that happened Amelia came out of her stared stun and picked up the pace and fled, running through deep thicket and angry looking tree branches, she was tired out by the time she rejoined the others, a little worse for wear, and her favourite top had been snagged on the thorny branches, she sat back down to assess the damage and eat a sandwich to calm her nerves.
Amelia wanted to forget about what happened and didn’t step into the wood again, instead she stayed at the lake pawing at the water and day dreaming.
Shirley was the next to step into the woods, she was curious as to what spoked Amelia, and she needed to she for her self the apparent scary trees., that was all Amelia would admit too.

She found the glen through the thick undergrowth and the thorny branches, she basically followed the downed foliage and came across material attached to a thorny bit, it was a nice top. As she entered the glen she could see it was worth it, spacious, beautiful big trees, lots of butterflies and no sign of any whispering or any dark shadows, branches swayed in the cool breeze and the grass was bright green. Then she noticed movement in the trees, something low down, then high up, and there was more than one, intrigued she went closer. She saw what could only be explained as creatures jumping from branches on to the woodland floor, they were small, brown and looked like the trees they were swinging from, looking so cute and innocent, although she doubted they were. They hadn’t noticed her, they were still playing with sticks, as she watched these amazing creatures she wondered if they had a name or any predators, as an after thought, a sound was coming from behind her and she found her heart pounding, and was nervous to turn around, then a man came crashing through the woodland behind her making her jump, and scream, but only a bit.
‘Don’t get too close, their dangerous’ he said gruffly, in an surprisingly Scottish accent
She was so shocked she wasn’t sure what to react to first, this big gruff country man sporting a pair of dungarees and a very camp looking moustache, or whatever were still playing and jumping about with sticks.
‘I’m sorry, but what are they?’
‘wood faeries, there tricky little buggers, oh aye they look cute but that’s to fool predators’
‘ I hate to ask this but, who or what are their predators?’
‘Me’
‘Sorry I asked’ and then as an after thought ‘ who are you anyway?’
‘ You don’t need to know, I’m taking them anyway’
‘ why, what will you do to them?’
‘None of your business, where did you come from anyway?’
‘ We are staying at the cottage on the estuary, it’s a friends, just fro the weekend’
‘Go back there’
The stranger went towards the faeries, she watched as he loomed over the defenceless creatures, they had now noticed they were being watched and were bearing their teeth at them, Shirley took a few steps back, but he continued to get closer, and got something out of his open rucksack on his back, some kind of fold up cattle prod, and he started to thrust it in their general direction, she could hear screams, and her instincts kicked in, and she rushed at him, jumping on his back and strangling him from behind, the shock made him fall backwards on to her and they landed in a heap on the hard ground.
‘Your a bloody looney you, what did you do that for, their screams were bringing more, I need more’
‘Well your not going to have more’ Shirley was feeling the adrenaline, as well as the bruises, she picked up the cattle prod and waved it in his direction
‘What do you need them for?’
‘their blood, it’s like a resin, some use it for everyday things, polish and cooking, but unfortunately other people use it for nefarious purposes’
‘Such as’ she asked still defiantly holding her prod high
‘getting high, it’s cut into drugs, and it looks pretty too, it’s like amber, and just as expensive, for the right buyer’
‘ So what you hunt these things down for their blood, is it worth it?’
‘Aye, it is’
‘ Your just a big bully though, aren’t you?’
‘maybe, but you don’t know me’
‘ I don’t have too’ with that as her confidence was high and her blood was boiling she thrust his portable prod at him and he recalled, it hit his chest and he feel down forwards onto his belly. After a few minutes of him not moving she was starting to panic, what was she going to do now, she kept telling herself it was self defence, sort of. She went over to his body to see if he was still moving, he jumped up so suddenly she dropped the cattle prod, he picked it up and ran away into the woods, in the other direction. Her relief was immense, she looked up the bright blue sky and took some gulps of air, she could still hear her heart beating in her chest.
After a time she walked back to where the faeries were, they were still their playing, so serene, like innocent children, then she heard the branches all around her creak and crunch, it sounded like the woodland around her was coming alive, the faeires looked up, straight at her, bared their teeth and jumped at her, clawing at her, scratching her all over, the noise in the background was getting louder and from what she could see, it seemed to be getting darker, the faeries jumped off her and scampered in all directions, so much for helping them, next time she wouldn’t bother.
This didn’t last long in her head though as she could hear whispering, almost shouting, the glade was now almost completely dark and she was the only thing in the glade, she couldn’t even hear any birds over the loud almost shrill voices, the only words she picked out were ‘ leave now, we are the trees’, the noise was so thumping that it reverberated within her and she passed out.
She woke up in her bed at the cottage, still fully clothed and the only one in the room. With a headache and a few scratches she was fine, nothing that a shower and food couldn’t cure, but no syrup or sauce for her.
They headed back the next day, so much for a relaxing time, never mind maybe time.
She off work with shock and a note from her doctor for a few days, but she felt better, and when the office bully came round, lets just say she now enjoys her new job helping animals abroad.

The Interview
The hot sun hits me between the eyes and my stomach feels like I’ve swallowed a butterfly farm, nerves have definately set in. I’ve forgotten my sunglasses, squinting probably isn’t the best thing to do, oh crap, I’ve forgotten what I’m supposed to remember, when was it built?, how many stores do they have?, what do they sell, and oh crap, what’s my name?.
OK just breathe, it’s not going to be as bad as I think it is, I’m sure who ever is interviewing me is going to be nice, and nerves are expected at interview anyway. OK it’s a shop interview I don’t have to recite particle physics, which is good, that’s good, I can relax about that. Right OK so now I’m really early, but that’s OK, better than being late.
Are people looking at me thinking she looks nervous, wearing black and white, that’s definately an interview outfit, especially when I get my notes out to check my job description and my unique skills.
The shop is deserted, is that a good thing?, with no customers would I get bored in this job?, will I have enough to do.
It’s a woman interviewer that’s good, I don’t know why, it just is, and she’s smiling, that’s a good sign.
The interview goes well, she’s nodding and smiling in all the right places, and I’m being as polite, diplomatic and optimistic as I can, I use the words enthusiastic and friendly as much as possible, and my smile is fake, but It gives a good first impression, thank god my teeth are nice and shiny.
Afterwards I felt I gave a good impression of myself, all chirpy and enthusiastic, I’m off again with that word.
I now feel like a weight has been lifted, I almost feel light headed. I feel like treating myself after that, shops, chocolate, and I deserve it.
Who would have thought a simple thing like an interview would be so stressful, you do wonder, why are they are, after all who doesn’t need a job these days?.

People watching

People watching is fun, you see lots of different types of people go by every minute of the day. Some are beautiful and striking and you can’t take your eyes off them, whether it’s a man or woman, they exude confidence as they stride past in amazing outfits, with their heads held high, wearing the most expensive looking dress or outfit, and they make it look effortless, their the lucky ones, because everyone else is cheap in comparison.
Some people just don’t care about their appearance, they are the ones in jogging outfits, even if they don’t jog, or do any sort of exercise except walking around town window shopping. There are also the gaggle of teenagers that walk around in next to nothing on, even in winter, and some really don’t know how to dress for their body shape, 17 year old big girls in hot pants or denim shorts is not an attractive look, despite their confidence and their coolness rating.
Hen parties walk past wearing their pink sashes with boppers on their heads which flash as they walk, and the assumed bride to be carrying an inflatable man, always a great gimmick, but how long will he last if enough drunk students with pins get anywhere near him. And how about the stag do’s walking around in fancy dress, so far I’ve seen superman, super ted and banana man walk past, but I’m none the wiser which one is actually the stag, but they seem to be having fun, now danger mouse has joined them and has bought with him a six pack of beers, as if they needed more drink, they already seem to be swaying.
Family groups walk past in colourful shirts and tops and carrying cameras, I suspect they are not from here.
Then there’s gaggles of young looking students and I hear they are not speaking English, that means foreign exchange students, the older ones are probably doing schemes with somewhere like Oxfam to improve their English ( I’m writing this first hand as I volunteer for Oxfam).
A group of middle age women walk past giggling infectiously and in clothes meant for women at least once their junior. A night out for the girls springs to mind, to go with the groups of middle age men sitting outside the nearest pub in the warm summer evening, and goggling at the young girls walking past or commenting on the women’s outfits, well I say commenting, more like shouting at them, things like ‘Al right lovely’ and ‘Wotcha gorgeous’ which in my mind are the same phrase, I think I would prefer something like ‘hello sexy’, preferably by someone looking like Johnny Depp or Chris Pratt, but that’s just fantasy. I do see some rather fanciful men stride past, I glance in their direction and wonder what if, what if a not too drunk handsome man accosted me in the street and told me I was gorgeous, what would I say, would I be able to say something, or just smile and go bright red, or smirk and not believe him and make a joke about it. It all comes down to confidence and willingness to embrace the fantasy, the what ifs.

Through a Moving window 1.

The countryside changed as she stared out of the train window, the window itself was mucky with flicks of dirt, paint?, who knows, so the beautiful scenes that were flying past her were abstracted by the flecks of dirt.
Carol liked travelling by train there was something sturdy about them, despite the jarring of the carriages, up , down and sideways. Walking on them was a balancing act in itself, one wrong move and you could end up on someone lap, great way to meet new people, but not everyone would see the funny side, especially if they are drinking a hot drink. Luckily she had never been in that situation.
Staring out of the window the trees and grey skies wizz past , as if they were saying goodbye as they took their final call.
A food trolley went past, she never really cared for them , too expensive, even just boiled water for her own tea bag cost money, forget it, she could have a cream tea when she got home for the same price.
Carol was travelling from Darlington and her destination was Devon, a very long train journey, thankfully she had plenty of things to amuse her, and not having to change trains once was even better, her bag was heavy.
Carol had grabbed a table seat that wasn’t reserved, nice surprise, so she could do some college work on her laptop, yeah right, not likely, who does that, Carol regarded the train journey as part of her holiday and had said to herself that it would be better to wait until she got home, then she could have help doing it, a plan.
As she rested her head on the head rest of the chair she stared out at the moving countryside again and started to drift off. A few minutes later she woke abruptly as the guards voice said that they were pulling into a station, a few people left and a few got on. The sun was streaming in and she turned her head to see a couple sit down together opposite her , they put in their headphones and started to hold hands, sweet.
As the train pulled away Carol started to sleep again, and this time it was for longer, and as she slept things started to happen to the countryside.

As I sit down behind a sleeping girl, don’t blame her , I put in my earphones and look out of the window as the countryside moves past me, as I watch it starts to change and bubble, until it was unrecognisable as the real world. As I watch the sky was swirling and the trees were bending over backwards, outside the train it could be said to look like a painting, a Van Gough, ‘a starry night’ where all the melting trees blended with the hedges, it is beautiful. Eventually the landscape calmed down and went back to normal. After what felt like ages I noticed a group of people on a nearby hill through the other side of the carriage window, they were mainly wearing black and cloaks, wands were also raised at the ready, where as looking to my right out of my window I saw what looked like every doctor who monster I could think of, from cybermen and daleks, to autons and zygons, if anybody else was watching this I expect they would think they were going mad, this could seriously screw your mind, unless of course you were wondering what would happen if a death eater met a dalek or cyberman. When this ludicrously bizarre mixture of ‘people’ met further down the track they started fighting and if you looked close enough you would have seen voldermort get exterminated and Bellatrix get deleted, freaky. The whole thing didn’t actually take up that much time and then only two were left the dalek and cyberman, despite the dalek exterminating with all it’s might, when the train eventually hit them they disappeared into a puff of smoke , and it was over.
The next bizarre scene to happen was a few miles down again, and between the trees a dinosaur loomed into view, a brontosaurus, with it’s colossal height it loomed over the train and the people inside, although it wasn’t coming towards the train more rooted to the spot, because as I looked closer I could swear I could see something with a red cloak, and what looked like a hammer and was trying to take down the dinosaur, by climbing to the top of it’s head and using it like a nutcracker, attempting to crack it’s skull, watching this couldn’t help feel sorry for the poor thing. Then unexpectedly, what looked like iron man had come to intervene, no words were heard but the actions spoke loudly, and Thor was picked off the top of the brontosaurus and thrown into the trees, where fighting was resumed. Seeing this , unusual would be an understatement, never before will Thor and iron man wrestle for a dinosaur, glancing through the window on the other side of the carriage I am amused to see the hulk trying to match speed with a t-Rex, and I had to blink a few times, all the while captain America encouraging him, but as the train slows to another station platform the images fade, and the reality of busy commuters continue.
As the long journey resumes more wonderful things happen outside the windows, a medieval jousting competition takes place, dragons fly past, and another smash up involving characters from Disney musicals ensues, whoever thought Mulan would get into a scuffle with Snow White, or Cinderella would be half strangled by Rapunzels hair. The only princess that was exempt from this farce was the little mermaid, albeit if there was water around she would be seen trying to kill the lochness monster, or something more bizarre, but what could be more bizarre!.
My head is spinning watching all this happen, and I am getting tired, here’s hoping that my dreams are less weird.
After along journey of fighting , and the odd dinosaur we arrive at Exeter St David’s. Carol awakens with a refreshing yawn and stretch, thinking to herself her dreams were getting weirder, from avengers to Dr who and Disney princesses. She shook her head and told herself not to get distracted , she got her stuff together and got off the train, where her parents were waiting to greet her, looking behind her a girl with headphones got off as-well, she smiled to her, and mentioned something about dinosaurs.