#creativepassport

It is always hard to find a nice quiet place to curl up and read a book. So I decided to go to the extreme and hide on the roof of house to read. 

On our roof there is outcroppings that I could lean against and it also created shade to sit in. When I first went up there I purely intended to read, but I took a while to first admire the view... A person can feel so tiny when you view the imminence expanse surrounding you.

When I was done appreciating the view I expanded my world more by diving into the book I brought along. I made quite a dent in the remaining chapter before I started to get uncomfortable. The roof tiles is not really designed with comfort in mind. So purely because of my sore backside I reluctantly moved away from my makeshift sanctuary.

My parents recently made a large new group of friends, and of course it wasn't long till they were invited to dinner at our house. Some of my mom’s friends brought their kids. There was one adorable little girl who came with her parents. She was only four years old and extremely shy. 

She clung to her parents but I was determined to win her over, so I dove into my youngest sister toys and extracted a purple unicorn. The little girl knew the show where the toy stems from and immediately loved it. Taking her hand I led her to my sisters room to play with the toys (and she has a lot of them). 

We fixed up the castle toy sets and gathered the accessories. When we were satisfied with our work we started to brush and braid the toys’ hair. She spent the entire time in the room playing, even when we ate. I also read to her from a few children books we had lying around since I really feel saddened by the fact that kids don’t read anymore. 

I kept trying to make sure she will be okay, but I couldn’t really give her any treats or soft-drinks since she couldn’t take in any sugar. This made me needlessly worry about her, but she was fine. The only time she complained and threw a fit is when they had to leave, so I will take that our time spent together as success. 

Extracted concept:

I like to try new things, but I really like it when I can try things with my friends. So while visiting my friend I asked her to introduce me to some of their hobbies. That is where I first witnessed and played backgammon...

It is a very interesting game, at first the rules confused me and I opted in watching my friend’s mom and aunt play so I can see the game in action. The next game my friend played against her aunt and I somewhat assisted the aunt.

After that I attempted to play on my own, literally at my first turn I drew a blank. I suddenly felt an imminence amount  of pressure (for no reason). I think I thought about my first move for 5 minutes.

After a while I got a hang of the game, and I enjoyed it. Backgammon is a weird mix of skill and chance, you can play aggressively or passively. Before I packed of my pieces I strategically placed I knocked of one of friend pieces and since I occupied all the spaces they have to enter in, they were stuck. In the end I won my first game of backgammon and I enjoyed it enough to play it again.

The extracted concept is:

It is actually very easy to spend a day (and more) without electricity, but I guess that’s because we had to entertain ourselves during load-shedding. To incorporate the concept, I decided to spend the evening swimming with my friend.

We left our phones in our room and set out to the swimming pool. We had a great time, we attempted to play hide and seek in the water (which failed but it was hilarious). We also made a small stream by swimming in a contentious circle and fished out beetles since the filter was off.

We both made it without any electricity to entertain us and we both had a fantastic time. So far it was the easiest Mission I have done so far.

Extracted concept:

We have large dogs, which means there is a Lot of dog to wash. And like young children, they hate being washed but it needs to be done. 

So with promises of treats I finally managed to get our Labrador into the tub. It was extremely uncomfortable. To keep the dog from bolting, I had to weirdly straddle the tub and dog. My pants got all wet and the shed hair stuck to my skin, making me itch. 

When the Labrador was done and dried I moved on to the Great Dane. He was actually much calmer, but you feel so bad every time you rinse them because they look so betrayed. 

The Yorkie and miniature schnauzer was the easiest since they are more used to it, but the Yorkie still takes his chances to bolt. My cat gave me a single look and I knew that my pet washing day is (finally) over. 

My reward for the day was a stuffy noes, leaking eyes, itchy skin, soaked clothes, miffed dogs, wet dog smells and I was utterly and thoroughly wet. It also didn’t help that the dogs went to roll around in the grass immediately after their bath.  

My concept for the next task will be:

This is a very simple mission, but yet again I need to make things difficult for myself. To incorporate the concept DRY, I am going on a 5 km run, without taking any liquids during the whole exercise.

I took of at 6 in the morning, since it will be safer that running in the night where I live. Our dogs joined me on this journey, since I swear they get withdrawal symptoms if any household member leaves for a while. 

I believe that I may be more fit than our dogs, which is weird since we take them for regular walks and we have a very large yard for them to play in. The route we took has a lot of fresh water sources for the animals, but I was adamant about not consuming a single drop. It wasn’t bad though, I did feel slightly parched near the end, but I rewarded myself with a nice cool glass of coka-cola.

Next concept:

I believe that I can be a very patient person (sometimes) and I know I don’t bore easily. So first I need to get something that is unnecessarily boring. Thanks to a prompt in a show, I decided that I will watch paint dry.

Since I made paintings before, I had leftover paint and a ruined canvas, so I decided I might as well use it. Using left-over Yellow oil-pant (since it dries slower) I covered the canvas in Yellow. Then the waiting began.

Staring at a boring all yellow surface was, well, boring. I didn’t do anything else, I simply watched paint dry. It was ridiculous now that i think about it but yes, it was boring.

The concept I extracted is:

On a camping trip, my little brother and I went to a somewhat secluded play park in the Rhino Park Airfield. There was the usual see-saw, swings and merry-go-round, but there was also a giant, blow-up, jumping mat thing. The thing is I once visited this very park a LONG time ago. I think I was nine or younger and I distinctly remembered planting myself in the ground after miscalculating my jump. I had to throw out my ripped beyond repair pants after that.

This time I was going to jump without falling. After waiting for the other kids to tire themselves out and leave, I ascended the sloped surface and started to jump. At first my feet started to burn since it’s a large nylon surface that’s been baking in the sun all day. It was safer to jump on the yellow part since it wasn’t as hot. 

The heat kept me bouncing and me and my brother had a blast. It wasn’t long till the younger kids came back and I thought my time was over. I was wrong and got roped into their games. In the end I, was, exhausted... But it was fun to release my inner child again.

The extracted concept this time is: