The next Post Of The Week will be announced on Sunday evening.
Please note that nominations for next week cannot be accepted until then.

(Apologies to all that this is a little late…)

1. Absolutely Miles Away and On A Whim

Two people have asked me in the most recent days, in the most outright way, why I am so strange. So weird…

2. Dreary Me and The Art Of Noise

The only noise I made with any regularity was the splatter of beer-diluted half-digested chips on my desert boots…

3. Edvard Moonke at Trowell Services

Standing facing the urinals, there was a deathly silence broken by a sudden shuffling sound…

4. Enidd and Enidd’s Feelings Couldn’t Be More Mixed If They’d Been Tipped Into A Magimix And Blended On High

The sun is lower now and the shadows are darker. enidd sighs too for her lost opportunities…

5. Fussy Bitch and Perceptions Of A Paedophile

Reading his perception now I see my invisibility was a condition I got from from birth…

6. Law Dog Files and Tactical Advice

If you’re a young, horny teenage male who wants to get it off in the worst possible way, do not get a school ‘friend’ to introduce you to a pretty girl…

7. Mommy Has A Headache and Ten Reasons Why I Couldn’t Be A Man

How the heck do they keep going? Day in, day out, rotating a finger on an area the size of a pencil eraser, for five, ten minutes…

8. The Other Side Of Paris and Pause For Poetry (4)

Betjeman proposed a game. Every time we saw someone walking by the road we should all shout “Hello Mrs. Fisher!” (or Mr. As the case might be)

9. QC Report and a two parter: Summer and Smoke and The Unforgettable Fire

Another two trucks screamed towards the park. I drove home, glancing sideways and then backwards at the smoke. It didn’t appear to be diminishing…

10. Random Burblings and Conspiracy Theory

There is tension in the air you could cut with a knife. Everyone present senses that what is about to be said could shatter their dreams forever…

11. Real E Fun and Kit E Cat

As her fingertips reached the base of her belly she arched her back in anticipation. What was that?

12. Waiterrant and The Only Way Is The Wrong Way

There’s a long pause. Finally the younger man says. “My wife’s upset that we don’t have children. The doctors say we probably can’t.”

If you have a post you want to nominate, please leave a link in the comments below.
The deadline for nominations is Friday May 18.

Badger That …: An itch … that is always scratched, yet never eased.

“I can be on guard whilst on the phone. On guard at an important meeting. Even on guard on a quiet train cabin. But when I am alone it comes back, and it comes back like a rocket.”

Read more…

Our judges said:

“Marvellous insight into living with Tourettes Syndrome.”
“A strong piece of writing. Wow.”

The next Post Of The Week will be announced on Sunday evening.

Please note that nominations for next week cannot be accepted until then.

1. An Unreliable Witness: Drop in the Ocean, fall in the river

I try to stop thinking how, in another time and place and moment of both decisiveness and indecision, it could have been me. Could have all too easily been me. Vertigo would have kicked in, wouldn’t it?

2. Badger That…: An itch… that is always scratched, yet never eased

I can be on guard whilst on the phone. On guard at an important meeting. Even on guard on a quiet train cabin. But when I am alone it comes back, and it comes back like a rocket.

3. Enidd: A message from the Prime Minister

I, as your leader and, I like to think, close personal friend of, not just you, but all citizens, wanted to contact you directly, and personally, to ask for your help.

4. La Pajaro: Evaporated

10 found a perfect heart-shaped stone in the grass, slipped it in his pocket, slept with it that night, carried it to his bureau at home, placed it in alignment with his starships, his glass penguin, his first-place artist award. The smallness of that Kansas town, its fresh grass meant that much to him.

5. Overnight Editor: Earning My Stripes

As I finish with the ketchup I notice the two men are strangely subdued. I look up. Their eyes fix on me, the three of us frozen to the spot. Then I start seeing them; diagonal red stripes. Everywhere.

6. Raised By Chaffinches: Alone. Terribly alone.

An hour and 30 minutes passed and I was cold, bored, wishing I’d brought my iPod, worried, getting rather angry and wondering if we were going for the world acupuncture record.

7. Scaryduck: Mirth and Woe: Grand National

Alas, the scaffolding planks buckled under his weight, and it became clear to those of us watching in awed silence that he was struggling to reach the top at anything near his desired launch velocity.

8. The Perorations of Lady Bracknell: The results of a sleepless night

It’s a long time since I’ve got this close to a normy, and I worry that I’ll cramp his style. That my own physical limitations will end up being imposed on him. That he’ll feel obliged to give up doing the things he enjoys out of a misplaced sense of solidarity with me.

If you have a post you want to nominate, please leave a link in the comments below.

The deadline for nominations is Friday May 11th.