As hE enteRered the yard, the noise took him back to his youth. His visits to his grandparents on Shetland were happy times, despite the simple living conditions. The regular use of the quern for grinding grain for making the next day's porridge was so familiar. He was quite surprised to hear the same noises after all this time, but his grandparents would still rerun the same routine day after day.
ThE restaurant was noisy. Pete pined for the noisiness of home, rather than this place. But his boss, Greg, wanted to celebrate not being fined and had insisted the team gather here to be wined and dined. But Pete was smart and left his phone on audio-record during the evening, gleaning lots of information. On reviewing the recording the next day he found he'd mined enough of Greg's dodgy dealings to take it to Greg's bosses. Greg didn't get to savour his triumph for very long before he found himself leaving the company with no job. Pete thought this would widen his career prospects, but, although the bosses were grateful for Peter's help, they weren't keen on promoting a snitch either.
Ryan was having increasing difficulTy maintaining his imagE of a bRute (see 1160 - BRUTE). The lad he rescued spread the word about what a kind thoughtful man Ryan was. His friends, whilst initially shocked by the apparent change in personality, began to realise it was just an act. It was time for Ryan to ditch his stern expression, though he loved his Harley Davidson Trike and as soon as he could he changed his gear to look less threatening.
AT lunch they went to a salad bar. He chose a lovely mix of salads with a big piece of Stilton cheese. "I can't have the same as you - Stilton has this horrible smell and looks all wrong. Are you sure there isn't a taint to it?", she said. "Oh, you are missing out - Stilton is lovely - smooth and with lots of flavour.", he replied. She wanted to please him so she ordered the same. There was a long pause before she actually had a bite of the Stilton. Then it was time for the verdict. "When I put the Stilton in my mouth I thought I was going to faint, but the phobia vanished on enjoying that first mouthful."
The LeAvEs of the old tree had become paled with some disease or other. Stuart took the reluctant decision to cut down the beloved hazel tree. Having stripped off the branches, the trunk looked in good condition, so Stuart put it in the outdoor shed to dry out. In idle moments he would dream about what he could make out of it. What about a gravel - but there was no one in the family involved in legal stuff, so that idea was set aside. He started thinking about making a model of the tower of babel, but considering what happened to the original planners, he thought better of pursuing that. At last he settled on the idea of making a model of a camel, although he needed to enlist the skills of his young artistic daughter Grace to make the fine detail.
Gary had been a successful financial trader, yet alcohol had become his friend and gradually his other friends, his family and his job said goodbye to him. Now his home was the streets and sadly most of what was put in his collecting bowl was used to acquire alcohol. One day a thoughtful passer by bought him a fish and chip meal, which should have been a real blessing. Instead, Gary was in too much of an alcoholic haze to notice the noisy seagulls circling overhead. It didn't take long before chip-by-chip and chunk of fish by chunk of fish his meal started disappearing. Gary came to his senses in time only to save a tiny piece of fish, 4 chips and a sealed tub of mushy peas. The moral of the story is to beware of alcohol and seagulls!
RoberT dreaded this moment. It was his stint to take care of his nephew Lukas. The moment he walked in the door the trouble started as Lukas took aim to shoot Robert with his Nerf Gun. Robert knew that he wasn't supposed to shout at Lukas, yet his instruction to Lukas to desist could be heard from outside the door! Robert attempted to settle Lukas with a reading book. "See how far you can get with this, Lukas", he said. "Incy … Wincy … spider … climbing … up … the … spout - what's a spout, Uncle Robert?", started Lukas. This was going to be slow but at least Robert wasn't likely to be attacked any moment.
