Story #296

Came the Thursday – came Big Tony
Through the doors with knife and fork
‘Make some room and take my order,
2 hundred hash browns and a whole roast pork’

It started as a novelty idea
to promote our gaff and make some talk
‘Eat the lot and for you it’s free
from snout to tail, a whole roast pork’

At first we thought we had succeeded
In through the doors customers would walk
But that soon ended when we met Big Tony
and he uttered the words ‘Whole. Roast. Pork’
THE PIG

It took 3 hours until he’d finished
’Oh my days. No way’ I’d bawk
But after inspection of the table
nothing remained of the whole roast pork

Now he returns every Thursday
People do come but only gawk
through the window at big Tony
biting the neck of a whole roast pork

– James Brewer, London

Story #295

My partner and I used to be a very good friend before we decided to take the relationship to more serious commitment. It’s amazing to have someone who knows you really well, even better than you do. Nonetheless, our path is not always easy. We have to face “the storm” and many obstacles to make things work. I know it’s hard, but I believe we can make it together. We have to.

– Atika, Jakarta

Story #294

Once upon a time there was a little girl who was the most lonely girl in the world. Every day she tried to get some new friends but did not succeed. One day a new family came to live in the little girl’s village. The little girl knocked on the door. The door opened slowly and inside she could see a girl in her own age. The little girl asked if she wanted to come out and play. The other girl answered happily: Of course!

After that day the little girl never felt lonely anymore.

The end!

– Vickan, Kalmar

Story #293

Once upon a time, two cats lived in a tiny cottage. They were husband and wife. They ate fish together and sang together. They did everything together until, a nasty human came and picked up the female cat. The male watched in horror as he put the female into a TINY cage and walked away. The male followed the human into a humongous place where they called “town”. The human put the female cat into a shop as the male watched kids come and grab the female. STOP PUTTING ANIMALS INTO TINY SPACES!  THEY HAVE LIVES  HAVE A RIGHT TO LIVE!

– Shaaee, Male’

Story #292

The House of Folklore is a brain child of a girl in her mid twenties on a summer early morning at 2am working in front of her architectural office desk in Hong Kong. Struck upon a philanthropic thought, ‘why am I doing this? Is this job meaningful enough to make it a lifetime career?’

The very next day she was ready to put down her papers and decided to explore what she loved best art and culture. She envisioned a brand where every piece would have a story to tell. She wanted to bring together a team of designers who would be as passionate as she is to bring life to her thoughts. From there grew a team of designers, artists and artisans who passionately work in each of the products and help breathe life into them. The team believes the products that come out of The House of Folklore brand are definitely worthy of being passed on to the next generation and not a mere keepsake.

Story #291 – How to catch a shark

I got a letter from my six year old nephew the other day. Amongst other things he asked: “How do you catch a shark?”. Well, we have a couple of options.

Option 1: try to fish it. Which can be a bit tricky since you don’t know for sure what bait to use. I mean, some sharks love pastries, some eat only Mc Donalds and then there’s the occasional vegetarian shark.

Option 2: use a net.

The tricky part here is that you always manage to get a lot of extra stuff in the net in addition to the shark. And no one is happy when the electric eel gets loose in your boat.

Option 3:

Challenge the classic options of fishing and netting your pray and think outside the box!

The tricky part here is that most trapping gear is made for above water use. But if you want to catch a really, really slow shark lasso could work!

The real question is: what would you do with a shark if you finally caught one?

Option 1 would be to keep it in some kind of aquarium. Tricky to find one big enough though.

Option 2: eat it.

Might be tricky because:

1. it’s hard to find a big enough sauce pan.

2. what kind of seasoning goes best with shark? Thyme? Salt? Pepper? How much? Until the shark sneezes twice?

3. the shark might not appreciate it.

Option 3: teach it to do tricks!

Might get boring when the shark has eaten all the audience and won’t fit through the rings anymore. And a shark on a diet is anything but pleasant.

If I’d catch a shark I’d go for it’s heart. If you manage to befriend a shark you’ve made a friend for life. And what a friend! Sharks make the best donuts, never cheat on board games and know where to find every adventure of the sea.

Bring raspberry lemonade, it might help.

Story #290

Responsibility. So often lately have I found myself wondering about that word. The true meaning of it. Is it a responsibility to finish things you’ve started? Or is that just something that are expected of you?

Recently I took a test. Myer-Briggs-Type-Indicator. MBTI. It was really accurate. My personality is described as gentle, smart, easy-going and tender. I have the ability to make friends easy and people always can rely on me. And one of my greatest features are starting projects and come up with amazing ideas.

But as we all know, there’s two sides of a coin. The backside of mine is that though I am really good at making good ideas and start projects, I can’t really follow through. I am a great leader, who can distribute an idea or a project between other people to get it done. But if I’m alone in it, then I usually never follow through.

For example, my projectlist (with %-ish completement):

Learning Finnish 2%
Learning Italian 1%
Get my masseuse-training done 90%
Finish my medicine ground course 5%
Make a Link-quilt 95%
Spring/winter/summer/autumn-clean the house 20%
Knit a sweater 80%
Build a bookcase 5%

And it just keeps going…

So.

Instead of finishing all the things above, I start something new. I buy a colouring book for grownups, and refuse to stay inside the lines and paint all over the lines (just because I can). I solve crosswords. Everyday I watch Food Factory on Discovery Science at 5.43 P.M to learn everything I can.

Responsibility. Is it a responsibility to get all these things done?

Or is responsibility the utterly, define, sweet, heart aching love for people? For all the small children of “mine”? Of being a godmother?

I sit and wonder, while I continuing to knit on a babyblanket.

– Matilda, Tavelsjö

Story #289

Once upon a time there was a sad unicorn named Christy! Christy was sad beacuse she didn’t have any friends, every time she tried to make friends all the others unicorns laughed at her and they screamed bad words to Christy!

In the beginning Christy started crying and ran away but now she’s stronger!

Christy started a group for every single unicorn that felt lonely, like she did. Christy took this group with big arms and together they helped every single unicorn that felt lonely or sad or just needed a friend, just one friend to have on their side! Christy and her friends in the group are happy 🙂 So if you need a friend, just call Christy.

– Sarah, Västerås

Story #288

Max was getting old.
He had lived a good, long life – even by turtle standards. It had started the same way as all the other turtles he had known: crack out of the egg. Race to the sea. Swim for approximately one hundred and fifty years. Then retire.

He was even sure that he had done his part in keeping the species going over the years, even though he would never really know because turtle-dads never really meet their children. But he had the confidence of his good turtle-intuition that they were all alive out there and generally succeeding in their  sea-turtle adventures and in their sea-turtle lives.

All that remained was for Max the sea-turtle to settle back in his shell, smoke his pipe and float along the current while reflecting on his 150 years of life.

He’d met all kinds of beautiful fish in the brightest colours. He’d tasted every kind of underwater plant that was considered a delicacy in the turtle world.

He had watched in awed silence as collossal whales passed by above his head like ghostly Giants, their shadows causing a temporary night around him.

Some evenings, he swam up to the surface and stretched his neck so that he could watch a blazing sunset on the open blanket of sea around him. Then he would fill his shell with air and float on his back and watch the moon and the stars for a while before swimming back down to his bed.

Yes. He was old now, but he was happy. All that he needed to do was figure out how to pour whiskey into his glass without it floating all over the place, and he would be pretty much complete.

– Adri le Roux, Cape Town

Story #287

I’m stuck at the bathroom right next to the Business World Society. There’s a beautiful girl that I know right outside. And they know I’ve been here for over an hour now. They will think that it’s super strange if I just walk out now. I can’t answer the phone either.

What should I do? The battery for my computer has run out as well.

Couldn’t you come by and call the elevator so that it can drown the noise from when I flush the toilet?

Seriously, if you come by and just wait outside and grab the bathroom after me I can tell you that I used the bathroom because I needed a quite place to study. Please can you come by now?

So that you can flush.

– Anonymous, Stockholm