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.