a cooking pot and twisted tales
Thoughts and Tales…A Lifestyle Blog with a Zing.
Tears ran down the bridge of Jane’s little nose and fell on Captain.
Huddled near her best friend she tried to drown out their screaming voices.
She never liked it when they fought and they seemed to do it more and more.
Dad would storm out and disappear for days and mum would go round the bend all teary and mad.
She wished she was back at her gran’s house.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Plot slithers through the dark night
thick, restless curling fingers of treacherous webs
woven by desperate men
who prefer to imbibe the witches brew of hatred
instead of drinking deep from cups of peace.
©
Jacqueline
My fingernails have been au naturel for many years now for expediency sake.
I love nail polish but with hands in and out of water cooking for my family daily, the polish chips pretty quickly and I’d rather wear my nails bare than bearing tacky looking fingertips.
However, my toenails are always glammed up in a cheerful, bright colour just like this new bottle dear hubby bought for me. Little treats make this girl happy 
Jacqueline’s
Polish – Daily post
Life brings forth many opportunities, the question is, will you be brave and step into the light to shine, or do you prefer to stay in the darkness of nothing?
Jacqueline
I know that I’m guilty of trying to give instructions now and again.
We write we talk, we meet and we tweet
we call each other ugly names in moments of madness
we select a handful to make scapegoats out of the terrorist gangs
and impose bans and policies that are simply laughable
BECAUSE after all is said and tweets of hashtags and empty moments of silence
We go ahead and sign billions of dollars for arms and ammunitions – with those who breed terrorists with great delight – only to propagate more wars.
Just who are we fooling?
OUR leaders are responsible for these reproachable acts of terrorism. They are all owned by these billion dollars manufacturing plants for armament.
They vicariously feed terrorism through their greed to line their own pockets with filthy riches and at the expense of innocent citizens.
These terrorists get their arms for their dastardly acts from somewhere, it’s a vicious ugly cycle.
I am tired of having my thoughts bombarded each week by one form of terrorist attack or the other.
Until we start holding our leaders truly accountable and stop worshipping parties and their money, we will never get it right. Peace is not the absence of war, but the good sense not to propagate it.
Who is your leader in bed with?
Today, my thoughts are with London. Peace.
I am glad that Etta honoured my request to interview her. I admire her personality and her blog is one of those that never fails to offer me inspiration that picks me up.
My name is Yvette, creator of the “SimplyEtta D” blog.
This is the difficult part, I find so easy to speak about other things, however, it’s not so easy speaking about myself but I’ll do my best. I’m a West Indian living in Central Scotland, The Forth Valley to be exact! My family and I moved here three years ago in search of adventure and a new beginning. I’ve always wanted to live in another country, to immerse my children in a culture that was different than our own. We had previously traveled around Europe and fell in love with many of the cities we visited I guess you can say this became the impetus for our move.
My general outlook on life is to live in the moment enjoying life in the now and letting tomorrow take care of itself. This doesn’t mean that I live recklessly; of course, I prepare for the future but don’t spend my days trying to live it before it arrives.
I’m what you would call a career student, after leaving High School I went on to college to study IT. After not being able to land a job in the field I returned to college to study Business and have been progressively upgrading and enhancing my skills as the landscape for the way businesses are conducted changes with each new concept. After spending years working in the Diplomatic Corps, I’m quite comfortable working with the local council in strategy and customer service. It gives me the flexibility needed to explore Scotland, Write and spend quality time with my family. I think we all are career students, isn’t that what life is all about? Learning as much as you can for as long as you can, no matter what field you’re in.
As a suggestion from a friend of my in my writing group, I actually started my blog to improve my writing skills; it took me a few years after signing up with blogger to jump over to WordPress. Even then it took me a while to get started, I had to first decide on
1. What I wanted to convey in my blog and
2. A Name for my blog.
Once those were decided it was easy for me to decide on the direction I wanted to take. I would describe my blog as a haven for lifting the spirit when people visit my blog I want them to leave feeling better than they did before their visit. I truly believe that our thoughts can change our life, I know there are hundreds blogs and websites on self-improvement, motivation, inspiration, metaphysics etc., out there but I don’t own those blogs and that’s what makes mine unique. It’s an expression of me. My experiences through reading, the people I meet and my outlook on life.
Here are a few links you might find interesting:
Top Blogs
Special Interest
Inspirational Insights
I find the blogging phenomenon just that, a phenomenon that’s taken the world by storm. I don’t think it’s a fad for one thing. Blogging is here to stay; I think it will continue to evolve the way it has been doing over the years. Blogging has come from being an online diary to rival the popularity of social media because now there’s more interaction, more content and more in-depth dialogue between the blogger and the audience across the spectrum and I love it!
Honestly, it’s hard to keep motivated, sometimes even scary when you know there are people out there who are waiting to read what your next post. I’ve thought a few times of just calling it quits and walking away from my blog due to fear of disappointing my followers through lack of or poor content which is why I choose to blog three instead of the five days per week. It gives more allowances research my subjects and creates more substantial content. I’d rather have a less frequent posting with more substance than posting every day with not substance. For me it’s not about filling my site with blogs, it’s about adding content that won’t bore and people will be happy to come back to again and again.
I want to say getting more of my followers to engage in my blogs. But I don’t really see that as a challenge. I would say coming up with a title for my blog! I mean I write a blog, and then I’m stuck for the next 30 minutes on coming up with a heading that’s not only eye-catching but also ties in with my blog. I also suffer from writer’s block. I always jot down my key points, pull my ideas together and project that so it makes sense is more difficult than it seems.
Yes!! Most definitely blog!! It will expand your thought. The way I see it certain aspects of your life that may not seem interesting to you could spark a following from others, there are people out there who can benefit from your experiences and what you have to say. The beauty of the Internet is, if you’re a shy writer it gives anonymity. Just be honest in your intent and write about what you know, don’t try to be someone else or live on someone else’s experience.
I’m an early riser and a night owl. My typical day can begin as early as 5:00 am. Two weeks ago I started drinking coffee again, the first time in about 30 years and found it gave me that extra kick. So after a cup of brew, it’s playtime with Mitzy, then setting breakfast out if it’s a workday, on weekends it’s usually a late brunch. Workday I’m off to work. Weekends or days I’m off, I spend writing, visiting fellow bloggers and researching new information for my blog and book. I also enjoy volunteering which I manage to squeeze into my schedule. That’s just a typical my life is more exciting, I promise!
I would say the next evolution of my blog is to be published either outsourced or self-published and I’ve found a lot of ideas on how to do this. But it all takes planning and lots of related content, right now my blogs is bits and pieces of everything. Another avenue I’m interested in is networking through guest post or supplement pieces for larger sites or online magazines, I did a weekly, years ago, for a supplemental that was printed by a local newspaper back home.
In closing, I’d like to thank my followers for their continued support and interest in what I have to say. Big thank you to Jacqueline for her interest and inviting me to do this interview for her ever expanding, ever evolving blog.
‘PLEASE SEND IN YOUR LINKS.’
Today’s featured blogs are:
Are we on a slow slide towards destruction? Who would we blame for our poor choices? An enlightening read to start one’s day.
Excerpts of this insightful article struck me in the head and I have to question myself. Am I part of the problem?
We cannot expect children or young adults to behave in a way that we have not trained them to behave. If we have done everything for them and constantly protected them as they have moved through the world, of course they are going to wind up back in our homes where they feel protected, comfortable, and … well, at home.
When it rains, do you huddle somewhere and wait it out, or do you enjoy a little sprinkle – if you are not a bag of salt – and exploring?
Feeling tired, check your blood sugar
I think Anna wrote this article for me. This is how I’ve been feeling lately.
I read this post and here’s my thought: ‘Good gracious! If we continue at this rate, we’ll suck the joy and juice out of living!’
In this busy world of twenty-first century, we the human beings have transformed into mechanical beings. No one has any time to spare. Recently, I came across an article about helpline services which provides memorial services if approached. They help performing functions like cremation and the likes. They even have the service of sending people to cry and mourn on the particular occasion. Such modernized our world has become that people are hiring actors to cry for their relatives’ death. People have become superficial.
Do step in, explore these blogs and show some love.
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Thank you for your understanding and regards.
You are welcome to join ‘Welcome to June blog party going on right now.’
Hello lovely, welcome to June. It’s a blazing hot month over here – UAE – and I wonder how your ends doing?
I would like to thank all the recent follows to my blog. It’s a pleasure to connect and share this space with you. I host monthly blog parties where you get to network with other bloggers.
Do make yourself comfortable. Refreshments are nicely arranged down the page: Drinks, Chocolates, Cakes, Donuts, freshly squeezed juice, Coffee, Tea and so much more. 
This month I am promoting Nutstrok’s new book as my own little way of supporting other authors. Just click on the image or check my sidebar.
The only phrase I find apt to use in describing this book is ‘it’s pure gold.’ Once I dug into the first chapter from England to Jamestown – the story of Andrew and Molly, I got hooked and didn’t stop till I finished it.
Linda paints a vivid, compelling story that I was transported back into time and could picture the voyage, the misery and the tough as leather lifestyle of these pioneers. Yet, it’s filled with verve, the strength of body and mind, resilience and inspiration.
A beautiful series that strongly reminds me of Janette Oke’s books which I absolutely adore.
When this is lit the pattern of light created by the baubles around it glows prettily.
a cooking pot and twisted tales 