Halloween

Day 31: What else could we write about? It had to be Halloween. So as we already had a rhyme (written by me about Halloween, that needs a thing or two adding to it, maybe I should put it in the cauldron for improvement?), we have adapted that into a limerick.

Halloween

Stir the cauldron, stir the pot,

Fill it up with what's and not.

Add a twist of lemon balm,

Add a frog's leg for a charm.

A magic spell's now what you've got.

And now it's off to trick or treat or give a book for All Hallow's Read.

Frogs

Day 30: Halloween is fast approaching, and we all know that witches keep wart covered frogs in their coats.

Frogs

There were three frogs who lived in a pond,

Two were green and the other was blond.

They hopped and croaked,

And splashed and soaked,

And little tadpoles then they spawned.

(you need to pronounce spawned like pond with an s in front: spond, or the last line doesn't rhyme).

Dinosaurs

Day 29: Walking with Dinosaurs. This was one of the greatest documentaries from the BBC when Max's brother was growing up. Funnily though, he always like to watch the documentary of the documentary: The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs.

Max watches these as well as Walking with Monsters, and Walking with Prehistoric Beasts over and over again to the point that he knows the script off by heart. 

As we diplodocus our way towards the end of the month, duck quick you might get swooped on by a pterasaur or hunted by the coelophysis bird that sits in the tree outside....

Dinosaurs

Giants plodding on the earth,

Jumped the queue and got here first.

Scaly claws

And toothy jaws,

They'll eat you if they find the nerve.

And yet, we still want to keep them as pets.

Hot Chocolate

Day 28: We made hot chocolate this evening as we were feeling cold. Yes, feeling cold in Singapore! but when it rains, the temperature drops and you really feel chilly. Max makes fun of the goosebumps on my arms. So, to get warm, we frothed some milk and made some especially tasty Cadbury's hot chocolate.

Hot Chocolate

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/688818

I like to drink my chocolate hot,

With frothy milk, poured on top.

Sprinkle with marshmallows

Warms your heart and toes,

I think I'll make a huge great pot.

That sounds like an excellent idea.

Bread

Day 27: I suppose when you eat sandwiches you need a couple of slices of bread to get started. There is something very comforting about taking a slice of bread and toasting it. I like mine with a tiny scrape of butter and some lemon and lime marmelade. Max prefers his without any additives, although occasionally some chocolate rice finds itself sprinkled on top.

Bread

I like my bread slightly toasted,

Not plain or even almost roasted.

No butter, no jam,

Just cheese, no ham,

A plain piece of bread, not overloaded

Now we should go and bake some.

Happiness

Day 26: Homework this weekend is to work on a poem about happiness. Max has progressed on to exploring lyrical poems. This is what he wants to write next month, we shall see if we get to write one a day ;)

Happiness

What is it like to be happy?

Is it jumping and being batty?

Is it a smile?

A look to beguile,

How nice it is to be happy.

Well it was the best I could do with a lack of ideas about what rhymes with happy. We'll post up the lyrical poem next month. 

Fridays

Day 25: We are getting close to the end of the month - quite an achievement, when we reach 31 rhymes, on non other than Halloween.

We decided that we should choose Friday as this is the last Friday of the month.

Fridays

Friday's nearly the end of the week,

The weekend's just a little peek.

Two days of rest,

Simply the best,

And then it's Monday, squeak, squeak.

Not sure why there is a squeak, there are no mice.

Wounds

Day 24: Max hurt his foot on his way out of school, so he hobbled his way to the bus.

Naturally, the rhyme gravitated towards the topic of being hurt: wounds.

Wounds

Falling over cuts your knees,

The same as falling out of trees.

Stick on a plaster,

So it heals faster,

Unless of course you were using skis.

If you hurt yourself while skiing, you tend to get really hurt.

Headaches

Day 23: A little late in posting this, and probably because I had a headache, or a haircake as we like to call it in our family. Consequently my brain was in the deep freeze when it came to writing rhymes with Max. So this one is just from me.

Headaches

Creeping up they worm inside your head,

Twisting fingers weave a painful thread,

Thumping like a drum,

Your head's a rugby scrum,

Go away I'm staying in bed instead.

Some mornings I wish I could, but then I would miss out on a moment, like a child waiting at the top of the stairs, not wanting to go to bed quite yet in case he or she misses something.

What to Write?

Day 22: It was a funny Tuesday. Especially since I realised that the blog URL has a double ad in it. Talk about egg on my face on a forum, but eggs are not what we are going to write about. Actually I am not sure what we are going to write about, so instead, we are going to write about what to write.

Not sure that really makes any sense, but here we go......

What to Write?

I racked my brains with all my might,

I simply didn't know what to write.

We'd written about cats, mummies and cheese

And even sausages, pie and peas.

I'll go outside and fly a kite.

I suppose, you could say that we have written about a kite.

Back to School

Day 21: Today was a back to school day after a two week mid semestre break. It was good to be back, even if it did mean getting up really early. Mum gets up even earlier, so by the end of the week, we all walk around like zombies. That's an idea, if we keep this up, we have ready made costumes for Halloween.

First day back at school was brilliant, I really enjoyed my day, Swimming, Humanities, Maths, Mandarin and Art. Tomorrow I have English, so I am going to see if I can share my blog and the poems I have been writing.

Back to School

When you go back to school,

It can make your feel like a fool,

If you forget your sums,

You have to twiddle your thumbs,

And try your best to look cool.

Back to school means that we should get to bed early. 

Teeth

Day 20: We have reached our two thirds mark of the month!

Max has written up his five top favourite rhymes so far on his school poetry blog: 

Bob the Slob,
Ice Cream,
Pizza
Mummies,
My Crazy Cat

And now, before we all head to bed - we have an early start tomorrow, it is back to school and 6.30am wake ups, we have a rhyme to write.

Max was brushing his teeth and so this became the subject. We looked at words that rhyme with teeth, toothpaste, brush and whatever else we could think was to do with cleaning your teeth.

This is what we came up with:

Brushing Teeth

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/289281

At night my I'm always in a rush,
To give my teeth a brush.
So the stripy paste,
With a minty taste
Gives those germs a flush.

Nothing to edit, just a note to remind everyone to brush for at least 2 minutes, or more and to scrub around the back.

Pie

Day 19: Finally, after sausages and cheese, we have... ...pie!

Pie

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/556342

Once a man made a pie,

That could really make a lie.

He stuffed it with cheese,

And frozen peas,

And called it chicken pie.

The man actually gave the pie the power to talk. He threw in some magic ingredients along with some very strange liquids that created a perfect chemical reaction, causing the pie to have vocal chords. 

Joe's Toe

Day 18: Friday was rather busy, and we never found much time to write, however we did start a rhyme that we had to finish today (day 19). So we will have two rhymes today by the time we have finished.

We ate pasta for lunch yesterday, back to our favourite pasta haunt in Singapore. Then we wandered over to a strangely named Union Building in Tras Street to drop off a couple of copies of Mum's new book: Mayan Cocoa: A Halloween Tale. All ready for Halloween and to celebrate All Hallow's Eve.

Joe's Toe

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/342694

A grumpy old man named Joe,

Had a habit of stubbing his toe.

So he wore a steel boot

And played on his flute,

While praying for the weather to snow.

It seems to be getting harder to write rhymes - or maybe we are choosing silly subjects.

Balloons

Day17: It was a hot day today and we went out. I suppose like mad dogs and English men (or rather English kids with their English Mum).

We hurtled down a concrete luge, gosh my backside after that. Then took a jolty ride to Underwater World, where we got accosted by rays conditioned to believe that as we were standing next to the tank, we were going to feed them. We had a travelator virtually all to ourselves and then got a shock from a hologram shark. Our favourite creatures and the sea angels, their insides glow red as they float around in a surreal blue.

Sitting in the cool now, the day drawing to a close, the subject of balloons, and baboons came up. So, that is what our rhyme is about today. This is was a hugely "joint effort" due to the heat and fatigue.

Balloons

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/507604

A band of smelly baboons,

Flying multicoloured balloons,

Went out for a walk,

With a knife and a fork,

And a bag full of wooden spoons.

I am not sure that baboons really like balloons, but you never know.

Sleep

Day 16: We are all rather tired today, so naturally the topic of sleep was chosen as our rhyme for today.

Max found a number of words that he liked, that rhymed with sleep: weep, creep, deep, beep, cheap and cheep, heap, keep, leap, peep, reap, seep. The next task was to decide which ones we wanted to use and what we wanted to say about sleep.

If you don't get enough sleep, it can make you very grumpy and totally ruin your day. So, it is extremely important that you get your head on a pillow early and benefit from some quality dream time.

This brings me on to a poem that I wrote a couple of weeks ago about being tired, you can find a copy of it on Limey Limericks: Being Tired. It really is rather unpleasant being tired.

Sleep

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1335678

Not having enough sleep,

Makes you grumpy and weep.

You're drowsy all day,

What more can I say?

Head on your pillow, sleep deep.

It always feels very satisfying when you have had a good night's sleep.

Storms

Day 15: Today has been one of those days. By one of those days, I mean we got very little sleep last night. We were entertained by one of those humungous electric storms that Singapore is so fortunate to receive rather more frequently than on average.

Flashes of lightening, thunder that rumbled like someone's stomach was churning with excruciating hunger, crackles and bangs as the lightening made earth and then the rain. It is like being in an ultra noisy shower. Your senses are just bombarded, overloaded and then of course, you cannot sleep anymore.

I reckon this is what turns people into zombies, not being bitten by some strange alien, but rather being subjected to a cacophony of inclement weather sounds.

And so, today, it is my turn to write a rhyme, and for Max to edit / approve it before we publish.

The Big Storm

Last night there was a thunder storm,

It kept me scared right up till dawn.

The thunder clapped,

The lightening snapped.

So now all day I know I'll yawn.

I also had another thought:

A mighty storm raged last night,

It gave me such a terrible fright,

The thunder thumped,

And I just jumped,

It sounded like a meteorite.

Max's comments were approval, and he has promised that after taking a break today because he did not get much sleep either, that he will be back rhyming with Mum with extra enthusiasm tomorrow.

I am sure there are more rhymes in my head and more to come from Max, we have another 16 days to get creative. 

Lemons

Day 14: A momentous day, we have reached the two week mark! Fourteen limericks. This is quite an achievement and we are building quite a routine. Writing needs routine, although when you write to a routine, sometimes you meet a brick wall. What do I write? How do I make my poem rhyme?

This is where lemons come in. Today, we are writing about lemons. Max's choice, no doubt inspired by an episode of Doc Martin where a patient has to suck on a lemon and another one is diagnosed with scurvy. All the more reason to eat your fruit and vegetables and take Vitamin C.

Lemons

Lemons, yellow, juicy and sour,

Drink a glass for superpower,

Add some water, and you've made,

A refreshing cup of lemonade.

That tastes much better than cauliflower.

Lemons certainly do taste nicer than cauliflower.

Washing the car

Day 13: We were a bit late sharing our post from yesterday, but nevertheless, we did. We also washed the car this morning. It was filthy. I realised just how much brake dust gets deposited on the wheels, it made my hands and the sponge go black.

What better subject to tackle than washing the car? There's soap, water, sponges, wheels, dirt, brake dust and hoses that burst under pressure and get Mum all wet.  

Washing the car

Washing a car can be such fun

Sunday morning in the sun,

The wheels were really dirty,

Which made me feel quite thirsty,

Soap, water, sponge, then you're done.

Washing the car is fun but hard work and it made me feel incredibly thirsty. 

Older Brothers

Day 12: It is the weekend and we had a very lazy morning, which was good as we all needed some extra rest. Normally Mum get's up very early on Saturdays and Sundays as she teaches English, but this weekend she has got a break. Maybe tomorrow morning we'll surprise her and wash the car, or maybe we wont.

After lunch it was time for reading and relaxing. The afternoon was cool, but then the man came back to finish cutting the trees and propping up the young ones with frames. Mum is still upset they cut their arms off.

I thought and thought about what to write about today. I thought about computers, but mum screwed up her face. Then, it came to me: Older Brothers.

Older Brothers

Sometimes an older brother,

Really causes you to suffer.

They give your door a knock,

To make you jump in shock,

To tell you it's time for supper.

Having an older brother can be lots of fun, but sometimes it's a pain.

Trees

Day 11: Today our rhyme has to be about trees. Not least because they have cut them all down outside where we live. All because Mum mentioned that one of the young trees was bending and bouncing over the road like it was about to fall on someone. So instead of just cutting one down, they cut them all down.

Could this be called a tree massacre?

Trees

tree flopping over outside my house

Outside my house grow lots of trees,

Today cut straight down to their knees.

The branches shrunk,

Right to their trunk,

No more to sway in a gentle breeze.

We could have written about the jungle outside, or the trees in my Granny's Magic garden. We could have made a rhyme about Ents, or Christmas trees, or even the Ash tree that is under threat in the UK from a nasty attacking fungus, but instead we wrote about the trees that used to give us wonderful shade. Now they are gone, all carted away on large trucks.

There are lots of brilliant words that rhyme with trees. We found that we could have written this rhyme very differently with words like sneeze and peas, chickpeas and bumblebees. Max also pointed out that there were three words that sounded the same, but mean very different things: frees (as in freedom) and freeze (as in frozen) and frieze (as in a decoration or screen).

Maybe that can be another project for us to do, to find as many words that sound the same, but do not look the same?

Pizza

Day 10: one third of the way though the month! That means we have composed ten rhymes already, (including this one). 

This evening we got take out pizza as a treat, it also gave Mum a break from cooking. We had discovered a restaurant that offers woodfired pizza at half price, between 6pm and 7pm Monday to Thursday: La Nonna (if you live in Singapore).

So, it goes without saying that our topic or word for today had to be Pizza. 

Pizza

While devouring a cheesy pizza,

I was caught by a sneaky cheetah,

It nicked a slice,

Not once but twice,

So I rolled up the rest as a fajita. 

Luckily there were no cheetahs around this evening, so we all got to finish our pizza in peace. 

Mummies

Day 9: Ha! I got my way. We are writing a rhyme about Egyptian mummies. Or rather I ended up writing most of this, as today was one of those days filled with no spare moments. 

I wanted to write about his brain making his nose runny - well the embalmers would pull the brain out though the nose. They didn't think it was very important - could you imagine having your brain extracted in chunks through your nostrils? Mind you, sometimes when people sneeze, what comes out of their noses could easily be mistaken for brain tissue.

I could not work a runny nose into the rhyme, without making it more than a limerick. We will have to settle for writing a poem about mummies and runny noses some other time.

We did however, manage to include the bits about the inside bits of the mummy being removed. They were kept in giant pickling jars. Could you ever imagine going to the food cupboard and accidently taking out a jar of pickled stomach thinking it was something else? No, I doubt you could, and nor could we. But it was fun thinking about it.

Mummies

We couldn't find a good photo of a mummy,
so here is a black cat with an ear ring instead

I once knew an Egyptian mummy,

Whose demeanour was really quite funny.

All wrapped in a sheet,

From his head to his feet,

He'd no brain, no heart and no tummy.

I still prefer my Mum to one of those strange bandaged up things in painted boxes.

Water

Day 8: we went to look at mummies, but I didn't like any of them. They didn't have a heart and their eyes, well all I can say is that they gave me one of those stone stares.

We had tons of fun doing some of the activities that came in the "activity bags". It was soon obvious that they some of the tasks were really far too young for an eleven year old. But Max still beat me at the memory game.

I was naughty, I got caught taking a photo of a cat with an earring - but that lady was taking photos, was my quick response. (I looked around, but I couldn't find any Don't Take Photos or we will smash your camera, signs).

Now on to rhymes. We are starting week 2, so I am hoping to see some improvements or creativity blossoming.....

I wanted Max to write about Mummies or Egypt, but he has made his mind up that today's word is water. So, water it is. 

Water

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1289650

A huge roomful of water,

Can explode just like a mortar,

It's refreshing to sip,

It's so great for a dip.

And we are 95 percent water. 

There really are not very many "good" words that rhyme with water as we discovered. While daughter was a strong suggestion, it just didn't fit. So, water it was again.

Ice Cream

7th October 2013

Day 7 already! we have made a week of silly rhymes. I am quite impressed at our staying power. 

Max got to choose the word again today, although I reckon that I maneuvered it into his conscious! 

After a morning waiting for the carpenter and some magnet fixers - not the store, but men to replace the rusted magnet catches on the doors in my outside kitchen, (yes, I have to admit, I have an inside and outside one, the outside one is for cooking anything that is rather smelly or sticky), I dragged both boys out for ice cream at Holland Village. Not a village in the Netherlands, but an area in Singapore. In fact it was named after Holland Road, off which it conveniently sits; Holland Road in turn took its name from Mr Hugh Holland, an early Dutch architect. 

There is fairly good site with a little more about the origins of the history of Holland Village.

I digress. In the interests of global warming, or doing our bit to stall it a tad, we walked and took the bus - I was naughty as I did not put my seat belt on as Max pointed out.

And so we arrived at one of those High Definition ice cream shops where you can buy waffles, lava cake and overly aerated milkshakes. It was an obvious choice, our word, or words for today had to be ice cream.

Ice Cream:

Little bowl, big treat: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/664567

Delicious cold ice cream,

Turns into a chocolate stream.

In a cone,

Or in a cup,

It's every school kid's dream.

It was extremely tasty ice cream.

Sausages

6th October 2013.

Well, I stand corrected. I was well and truly wrong. I was convinced that Max would pick the word "pie" for his rhyming word today.

Instead, he chose: sausages. I looked at him, somewhat aghast. How could I have missed that one? Bob, Cats, Milk, Apples, Cheese - it had to be pie. But I overlooked a vital clue... cheese dogs. By association, cheese becomes cheese dogs, dogs become sausages.

There are not many words that rhyme with sausages, unless you want to write about sausages in Ancient Rome, and then you could use auspices.

We needed to think about what sausages do or what words best describe sausages.

They sizzle, they roll around on the ground, you by them by weight, you can put them on the barbecue or in a hot dog bun, they are cooked on automatic grills (I really do not know where that idea came from), Max even has them on home-made pizza (which defeats the purpose of me trying to make it healthy).

So, Max and Mum proudly present a rhyme about sausages:

Sausages

sausages: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/chidsey

Filled with cheese, they roll around,

On barbecues a sizzle sound,

Sitting on automatic grills,

Hot dogs complete with all the frills.

I like my sausages by the pound.

Now, about that pie......

No lie in today

6th October 2013

Cats need to learn that humans occasionally throw routine out of the window!

And so it is my turn to write a rhyme, only because the cat woke me up and I didn't get the lie in I thought I would. 

Routinely a cat

Silly cat, thinks he's a bird,

Chirruping just to be heard.

Wake up my belly's empty,

I need food and a'plenty,

And after all that, he purred. 

I really want to sleep but now I'm awake. 

Crunchy Apples

5th October 2013

Our fifth word is Apple. I reckon that tomorrow's word with be Pie. All will be revealed tomorrow, if I am correct.

Max (and I), like apples, we particularly like the huge juicy China Fuji apple variety. So you can imagine Max's delight when we got the chance to go apple picking in an fruit orchard in China, in Hebei, just near where we staying.

The experience of walking the unkempt Great Wall, the day before, had sparked the comments from both Max and his brother Jason that it was "better than XBox. And then, like icing on a cake, and pretty yummy icing if reactions are anything to go by, Max gets to pick real apples!

Having chosen the word, we then searched around for words that rhyme with apple that we could use. We didn't find any we really liked, so I asked Max for words to describe apples. Crunchy seemed like a good one, so off we went in search of "crunchy" rhymes.

And here it is: our rhyme for today:

Crunchy Apples

Fresh apples, straight from the tree

Apples taste best when fresh and crunchy,

I don't eat pears there just too lumpy.

I eat one once a day,

To keep the doctor far away,

And stop me getting sick and grumpy.

Which reminds me, time to cut some apple for a snack.

Cheese

4th October 2013

A wonderfully talented friend, Rose Appleby has been setting crazy rhyming challenges on Twitter. Yesterday, Max sent her a word: cheese, to write into her rhyme for UK National Poetry Day: Graham's Watery Wanderings.

And so, cheese became Max's rhyming challenge for today. With a little cajouling, and some pointing in the right direction, (names of cheeses), here is the rhyme we fermented today:

Oh, How I Love Cheese

I really like Parmesan Cheese,

Way nicer than little green peas.

Emmental comes with holes,

Mozzarella comes in balls,

And Pizza comes covered in cheese.

A Drink of Milk

3rd October 2013

The subject challenge for today, we decided, would be "milk". <br/>

Max has been pondering how we came to start drinking milk. Who discovered that we could drink milk from cows, and then bottle it?

So, milk it was, or it is:

A Drink of Milk

The man who first drank some milk,
Found it tasted as smooth as silk.
He put it in coffee,
He put it in tea,
And now I eat my cereal with milk.


This does not clear up the conundrum of who decided milk from cows would be good to drink, nor does it uncover who was the first person to take a sip.

Well, that will have to be for another day, another challenge, another post.

My Crazy Cat

2nd October 2013

The Limerick challenge today was to write about a cat. 

Max has decided to write limericks all this month. Next month, he will take on another rhyme format. (I shall wait and see if we manage this!).

He decided to write about his crazy cat. His cat is a red tipped ragdoll, a very fluffy, very loopy ragdoll. He sits and talks to R2D2, reads the Guiness Book of Records, brings in flying lizards as gifts, plays football with a tennis ball, fights carpets and tries to climb walls.

My Crazy Cat

And so, here it is:

My Crazy Cat:

I have a rather crazy cat,

He likes to fight my black door mat.

While chasing a gecko up a wall,

It came to him, he had to fall,

And gave the lizard a big bat.

I don't think he did give the lizard a bat at all, as he fell off the wall as soon as he realised that his feet were not made of velcro.

Bob the Slob

1st October 2013

Off we went for lunch, to our favourite Italian restaurant in Singapore: Pasta Brava.

Max ate Penne with Pomodoro and I chose my usual: Ravioli Verde, followed by a single espresso.

It was a surreal experience, we met a new Executive Chef. He used to work at the Wessex Hotel (an icon), in Winchester. 

Winchester is where I grew up. Mario, Rolando's new chef, used to work for an Italian Manager: Signor Cassini, the father of one of my junior school friends: Susan Cassini. We used to run through the kitchens, probably causing havoc for the chefs.

Max sat opposite me, smiling. He told me he is learning about poetry and different types of rhymes at school. He explained the rhythm and format that a limerick should follow, in minute detail.

Then came out with a rhyme: 

Bob the Slob

Once there was a man named Bob,
Who really was quite a slob.
He did a poo,
In an old brown shoe,
While crunching a chocolate hob-nob.



And so, A Rhyme a Day was born. We decided that each day, for October, he will write a poem.