One sentence accepted!

Just a quick update to say how excited I felt when I opened my emails this morning to discover that my submission to One Sentence has been accepted! Considering the volume of submissions made to One Sentence each week, and that only 5-10% are successful, I'm thrilled to have made the grade. I was even more chuffed to see that some people have already started 'liking' my one sentence story!

Café Chick's One Sentence story

Peanut slice

I found this recipe for peanut slice while perusing the Sunday Star-Times at a café this weekend. Luckily I had my trusty iPod Touch on hand to make a quick copy of it. It's easy to make and apparently freezes well ... if it doesn't disappear into hungry mouths before it gets to the freezer, that is!

Peanut slice

Ingredients

• 150 g butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 dessertspoon golden syrup
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup whole raw peanuts
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup rice bubbles

Icing

• 60 g butter
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup
• 120 g icing sugar

Method

1. Melt the first three ingredients gently in a large pot. Add the flour, peanuts, baking powder and rice bubbles.
2. Place in a well greased 30 x 20 x 5 cm slice pan and press down.
3. Bake at 180°C for 15-20 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't over colour on top.
4. Ice while hot and cut into squares before it is cool.
5. To make the icing, heat the butter in another pot, add the syrup and then the icing sugar and blend well.

Peanut slice

State of the Union - Douglas Kennedy

State of the Union (2005) is a novel by Douglas Kennedy. Starting off in the 1970s, it is written in the first person and focuses around Hannah Buchan, a school teacher and doctor's wife living in small-town Maine and leading a very ordinary and safe life. Enter a mysterious radical, a political colleague of her father's, and a brief affair happens. Jump forward to the present day and the events she thought were long-buried come back to haunt her in a very public way, fuelled by the current dramas facing her family.

As a newcomer to Kennedy's work, I enjoyed the writing style. Errors aside, his vocabulary and literary knowledge is wide, something which he repeatedly reminds his readers of. This is the only novel I have ever read which uses the word phantasmagorical and continues as though nothing has happened.

Although, at times, the drama is laid on with a trowel, and one wonders how many more issues can possibly be crammed into each character, this novel is definitely a page-turner. Tension builds to almost overwhelming levels. I was, therefore, surprised at how rapidly everything was resolved in the final chapter; the "happily ever after" ending arrived very quickly, almost begging for another chapter to be written and make things more believable .

I'm certainly keen to check out Kennedy's other novels. (The cover boasts that he is the author of a number of novels and non-fiction works, including The Pursuit of Happiness - not to be confused with The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), like I was.)

Apple blossom

Spring is here and we are enjoying an incredibly beautiful day. The sky is clear and the sun is shining. Daffodils and freesias are popping up around the place; such simple pleasures to enjoy. Today, while out walking, I spotted this little tree in full bloom and happily pulled out my camera. Goal #84 for me is take a photo of apple/cherry blossom in spring and simply savour the moment.

For me, apple blossom characterises the start of spring; winter is officially over, and summer will be along shortly. Apparently we're in for a warm, windy spring this year which makes days like today even more special to cherish.

According to the song, "it's cherry pink and apple blossom white", but I think there are many variations of apple blossom with hints of pink in them, too. I suspect this is one of them.

One sentence

Being somewhat loquacious by nature, I have come to enjoy writing. With the bulk of my writing at work mostly consisting of 'academic speak', I enjoy the contrasting informality and conversational style that a blog such as this allows. I guess that leads to my posts often being rather verbose; oh well!

When I first compiled my 101 in 1001 list, I had recently discovered the One Sentence micro-blogging site. I hastily added a goal to my list to submit a sentence to onesentence.org. From time to time, I review my 101 list and on several occasions this goal has come close to being cut; telling a true story in just one sentence is almost an impossible task. Tweeting is no measure for this challenge! I revisited the site once again this morning and, after reading through the latest contributions and listening to the interview with Radio New Zealand from earlier in the year, I decided to give it a go. Today.

Bearing in mind that the site receives 700-1000 sentences per day, and that 5-10% are accepted, I'm not expecting it to be published. However, if it does make the grade, you'll hear it here first, lol. It certainly has been a challenge, and I returned to my draft sentences all during the morning. As site creator, Michael Ryan, is adamant, he doesn't want One Sentence to "turn into a lazy man's PostSecret". This is harder than it sounds, and many of my sentences started out this way before promptly hitting the cutting room floor. However, I finally settled on a sentence and hit 'submit'. *Gulp*

And my sentence? I'm almost embarrassed to post it, but here goes:

When asked how he could be certain the speaker had blown, Dad dramatically explained (with grandiose arm gestures) that, "I plugged it in and all I heard was nothing".

Random Acts of Kindness Day

Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day in New Zealand. Some friends and I were talking about it at brunch on Sunday and brainstormed some little things we could do to surprise those around us (or complete strangers) with kindness. I liked the idea of paying for the next person's coffee at a café, or toll booths (if we had any locally). I thought I might whip up a batch of cupcakes and distribute them randomly. Friends also thought they might bake or bring flowers from their gardens to place onto a colleague's desk. (I work from home, so while I would have enjoyed flowers to celebrate the start of spring, it wouldn't really have been a surprise.) We agreed that it would be more fun to do something kind when there was no chance of being found out.

I baked a batch of triple chocolate muffins (white and dark chocolate chips with a chocolate melt in the middle) and made up some little care packages.

I attached a "You've been RAK'd" card (why the apostrophe instead of just an 'e'??) to the top of each package. I often share baking but have never given it away to complete strangers or people I barely know. I chose three groups of people whom I knew would rarely get to enjoy home baking (and also had large letterboxes) and went about making my secret deliveries. Hopefully they will each enjoy a little surprise when they get home from work and check their mail. I'd be thrilled if it brought a smile to their faces and, even better, inspired them to do something random and kind for someone else. :-)

Check it out!
http://www.rak.co.nz/