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    Frog Legends
    Frog Legends
    Frog Legends
    Ebook58 pages50 minutes

    Frog Legends

    By Noel Gray

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Frog Legends
    In their ceaseless travels across the globe, two, moderately inebriated Frogs of Renown have inspired all whom they have met. From the Continent to Asia, and from the Americas to the British Isles, their exploits have literally become the stuff of legend.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNoel Gray
    Release dateFeb 9, 2018
    ISBN9788827567029
    Frog Legends

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      Book preview

      Frog Legends - Noel Gray

      Noel Gray

      FROG LEGENDS

      © Noel Gray 2018

      ONDINA PRESS

      www.noelgraybooks.com

      Book cover: original photographs by Ray Hennessy and Mads Schmidt Rasmussen (on unsplash.com), digitally altered by Ondina Press

      UUID: 7d116e8e-9577-11e8-b76b-17532927e555

      This ebook was created with StreetLib Write

      http://write.streetlib.com

      Contents:

      SHAKEN AND STIRRED

      HARE TALE OUT

      ODE TO MEMORY

      SAVING THE SEALS

      JUNGLE LAW

      VERY KOI

      TAIL FEATHERS

      WEB WOE

      TO BE A BEE, OR NOT

      SHAKEN AND STIRRED

      Everything in moderation is a boring way to travel round the world. Why not drink four glasses of Italian wine instead of two; eat two Viennese cakes instead of one? Be merry today in Paris and die tomorrow in Beirut, why not? Tomorrows come too quickly, which is the answer to that. To overcome this tension between longevity and happiness most seasoned travellers prefer moderation-in-excess. A bit of everything everywhere but not too often, is an ideal compromise.

      Two such practitioners of this clever ruse I have known for many years: Felix Ranadia and his constant companion, Mossie de Rana. They are what you might call, Frogs of Renown. Both are from Venice and are the city’s most experienced travellers. The thickness of the worlds they have seen through the bottom of their glasses testifies to the wisdom of their tongue-sipping ways.

      Indeed, happiness has never eluded them, nor clarity’s bounty ever disappeared in the fog of promises not kept. Instead, by constantly sipping cautiously they have mastered the art of the immediate by making the past and the future merely the edges of today. Moderately excessive, they continue to stretch out their lives beyond the super nova style favoured by committed tipplers whose days vanish into an ever-narrowing membrane between countless yesterdays and dwindling tomorrows. I also have no doubt my two friends will continue to survive well beyond that other addictive group: absolute abstainers, those retched creatures that endlessly predict doomed futures based on arid pasts.

      Although they are barely in their middle to late forties my friends have travelled wisely and far. So wise and far in fact, that many legends have grown down the years concerning their exploits. Each one illustrates the dangers facing those whom, unlike Felix and Mossie, favour the too-little, too-much, too-soon, too-late, or nothing-at-all life style, and all the other kinds in between.

      One of these legends, the dangers surrounding the nothing-at-all life style, occurred when Felix and Mossie were going to Genoa to attend a buoyant conference on pesto, its uses and abuses. Rather than go straight to the famous seaside port they decided to stop off in Milan, a city where the traffic rules are not laws, only suggestions. My friends arrived on a sunny day that was drying itself from an early morning shower. They went immediately to the centre of the city.

      There, next to the world’s most pointed cathedral, they entered the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. Grabbing a seat in a crowded cafe near the twin arcades that cross at right angles beneath a high vaulted glass ceiling, Felix and Mossie enjoyed the buzz of Italian life as it elegantly sat, stood, strolled, and dashed about its business. Rays of sunlight beamed through the overhead skylights and warmed everyone’s faces. A better moment for an aperitif would be difficult to imagine.

      Sipping their Campari and sodas, the inseparable pair were debating the espionage merits, or not, of shaking instead of stirring their drinks to perfection. Before the matter could be decided, fate intervened. It came in the form of an evangelic teetotaller, which may be a tautology. This particular specimen had only to catch sight of a drink and he became instantly inspired to convert its owner. True to his rodent ilk he never waited to be invited. Perpetual motion had found a home in him.

      Let me save you, Brother and Sister, he yelled at Felix and Mossie. Getting no response he moved further into the future. "Don’t think you can fool me, sunning yourselves as though you don’t have a care in the world. Alcohol talking, that’s all it is. Your day of reckoning is coming, Brother and Sister, it’s coming quick-like; it might already be here. So take heed.

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