Me versus Trying and Succeeding

If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again

I fancied a bit of a change so I will relate my experiences in tackling this cliche in the form of a poem.

I thought my giant onion

Would win 'Biggest Vegetable' prize

But some of the other entries

Were four, five or six times the size.

And then at the Marmalade Festival

The judges tried to be kind

But I knew as well as they did

Something was wrong with the rind.

I entered the Japanese Cheese Contest

And was thrilled to finish third

I might have done even better

If I'd been gentler with the curd.

It was at the open mic night

When my poem won the cup!

(Can we keep it our little secret

That nobody else turned up?)

Conclusion: Confusion. Am I supposed to try the same thing another three times after the initial failure? What if I succeed before I've used up my additional tries. Can I try a series of different things? What if the fourth time doesn't guarantee a positive outcome? Do I stop altogether or continue until I do succeed? 

Best just do things and make your own decisions about whether to persevere or not I reckon.

Me versus Thoughts and Pennies

A penny for your thoughts

I had a quiet moment at the place where I volunteer recently so I took myself off to the 'snug' area and sat down. I must have had a contemplative look on my face as a visitor looked over to me and said: 'Penny for your thoughts."

"Well," my reply began, "over the last ten years or so I've been writing a series of blog posts where I take clichés literally but I'm worried that I'm starting to run out of ideas."

"On top of that, next to nobody reads these and there's even less feedback. I'm wondering if it's worth carrying on."

The visitor looked at me briefly before saying: "Okaaaaaaaaayy" in that really sarcastic way that people do now with that extended 'ay' sound and then started to walk off.

"Hold on," I said. "Where's my penny?" The visitor looked confused so I repeated my question adding that my recently relayed thoughts were part of a verbally agreed commercial transaction.

After a second or two they replied: "Sorry mate, don't carry cash these days" and headed for the exit. This was very disappointing behaviour on their account so they're banned now.

Conclusion: Be very careful who you give your thoughts to if they make this offer. In fact, you might want to get the penny up front first to be on the safe side.

Next time: I say boo to a goose.