Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Cabinet

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Cabinet: noun - case or cupboard usually with doors and shelves; collection of biological or numismatic specimens; a chamber with temperature and humidity controls, used for incubating biological samples; small room providing seclusion; small exhibition room in a museum; private room used as council chamber of chief councillors of a sovereign; the consultations and actions of these councillors; body of advisers of a head of state; advisory council of a governor of a state or a mayor; a meeting of a Cabinet.

‘Harold emptied out the shopping bags and filled the kitchen cabinet with the groceries he’d bought at the supermarket.’

‘Calling the Cabinet to order, Shirley rose to her feet, at the head of the table, and announced her intention to become an absolute dictator and have all the members present shot as an example to any who might oppose her plans for world domination.’

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Yam

Yam: noun - edible starchy tuberous root of plants of the genus Dioscorea, of the family Dioscoreaceae, used as a staple in tropical areas; plant that produces yams; moist and orange-fleshed sweet potato.

‘In parts of New Guinea, the yam is used not only as a food but also as a measure of wealth and status: the more yams a man has, the greater his position in society.’

Picture: Looking north along Cow Dale, near Huggate, East Yorkshire.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Compliment or complement

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Compliment or complement: A compliment is praise given to your lover in hopes of the rewards of love. You may complement a collection of objects by making it complete, or add an item to some others for the same reason.

‘Frank was apt to flirt with the girls and compliment them on their figures and appearance in the hope that they would favour him with, well, favours.’

‘Jesse brought in a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon to complement the meal of roast beef.’ 

15 June 1996 – Central Manchester was bombed by Irish dissidents.

Another example, fortunately now well past, of idiots believing they can achieve their unpopular aims by terrorizing populations indiscriminately. Terrorists rarely actually achieve anything that couldn’t be better changed by normal, if slow, democratic processes. And when governments and journalists dress up the activity of such sociopaths by referring to mass murder as something other than what it is, they aid the terrorists.

Writing: 2900 Words; Better.

This morning, the computer was playing up; Excel was slow and the custom dictionary in Word pretended not to exist. I wrote on nevertheless and managed 2900 words of blistering prose, taking three separate story threads further through the tale. After breakfast, I restarted the machine and all settled back to normal, apart from Media Player, which had somehow lost all my music from the playlist. I created a new one and imported all the albums into that; it now works again as well. Bloody computers!
A quick trip to Tesco's for fresh groceries and then lunch under a clear blue sky in the garden.
Kate took a friend off to the coast in the car to 'study' on the beach.
This afternoon I scheduled more posts for the blog to take me to next Thursday. Read some of one of my writing magazines with a great feature about the late great John Sullivan.
After tea, pinched Kate's bike to carry Valerie's bowls bag to the local bowling green, where she had a match, and then cycled back. I'd forgotten how much effort it takes to cycle against the wind and up even a slight incline!
This evening, I've completed 8 character profiles, which leaves another 8 to do. But now I'm going to spend the remains of the day with Valerie, sitting on the sofa and watching comedy on the idiots' lantern, whilst imbibing some Cabernet Sauvignon from the case I got from Naked Wines on my birthday.

The picture shows a villa in Crete.

And I've just noticed I've reached 300 followers on the blog tonight. If you'd care to join them, please do. As a member of Facebook, you just click on the Networked Blogs link, and if you don't belong to FB, just click on the 'Follow' link instead. I'd love to have you along for the ride.

Stuart’s Daily Word Spot: Nacho

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Nacho: noun - snack or appetizer made of fried tortilla chips covered in melted cheese, peppers and spices.

‘Jennifer was an absolute glutton when it came to nachos, devouring all that came her way and ignoring the effects of the spices on her delicate stomach.’