Saturday, March 24, 2012

3 word week: Chinese whispers

This was not the ideal job for Darren. He didn’t do mornings. Usually he staggered out of bed and rushed through a morning ablution before heading for the door and pausing on his way to work just long enough to inoculatte himself with double espresso. But the City being how it was and the financial health of the country dying rapidly, he’d proved ‘negatively valued’ by his employers and in need of a new position.


The ad sounded good when the JobCentre bloke read it to him. Island setting. Plenty of fresh air. Thousands of girls. And something about Xena. Well that decided him. She was that semi-naked bird on TV, wasn’t she? Sun, sea, sand and sex was right up his pair of swimming trunks. He’d agreed on the spot.

So how had he ended up sitting on a god-forsaken cliff top at the crack of sparrow-fart, and surrounded by feathers and guano? He really should learn to listen harder. What the guy actually said was: "Study the xenobiotic effects of an oil spill on glaucous gulls."

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It's that time of the week again.  Here's Steve Isaak's 3 word week challenge.
Some of my writing readers really should give this a go! 
The glaucous gull really does exist, by the way. I didn't make it up.

This week's words are
I.) glaucous - adj.
1. Of a pale grayish or bluish green.
2. Botany Covered with a grayish, bluish, or whitish waxy coating or bloom that is easily rubbed off: glaucous leaves.
II.) inoculatte - v. - To take coffee intravenously when you are running late. (Source: The Washington Post's Style Invitational, 2005)
III.) xenobiotic - adj. - Foreign to the body or to living organisms. Used of chemical compounds.
n. A xenobiotic chemical, such as a pesticide.

4 comments:

Sandra Davies said...

Thanks for the cleverly-provided giggle! And Darren should learn to wash his ears out in the morning ...
I've only one unsatisfactory sentence writ so far for my 3 word week, it's proving hard to fulfill.

MorningAJ said...

Oddly this one was easier than most for me. As soon as I read the words the last sentence came into my head. I just had to work out how to get there!

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Anne .. love the story - and your use of words .. I'd be mulling over the thought x 3 for weeks! Great gull storyline .. cheers Hilary

snafu said...

As ever a good story, but 'inoculatte'? I don't beleive it :^|