Spring Resolutions - Looking for the Happy

I’m a little bit behind with my New Year’s Resolution, so as today is the start of spring and the clocks go forward at the weekend, I decided I’d introduce a “Spring Resolution” – better late than, never right? Plus, spring always feels like a chance for a new start anyway.

  At the beginning of the year, I decided that one of the things I would do for myself this year was to allow myself some time to be creative. I’d spend some time on my blog and as last year I started writing a book,  I decided to dedicate a bit of time to that every week too.

  That basically panned out like this...... I wrote a blog on New Year’s Day and about 6 weeks ago, I wrote a chapter of my book. 

 Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have publishers banging my door down for my book and my inbox hasn’t been full of e-mails demanding when it’s making a return, but for me, I knew wasn’t doing something I wanted.

  2017 has so far been a bit peculiar, a whole combination of things has meant that my ass has been well and truly kicked! Rather than letting this year be about creativity and fun, somewhere along the way it became about decorating and furniture building and trying to squeeze 26 hours’ worth of stuff into 24. Then there’s been the thing that I could never have predicted, the thing that came along punched me in the stomach, pulled my hair and placed Lego everywhere I walked.

  Last week, everything really got on top of me and I realized that I’d got to do something…. Anything! So, I decided to “look for the happy”, for the last 5 days, I have tried to focus on just one thing every day that’s made me happy and take its photo.

By doing this, I realized that there was actually way more than one thing every day that put a smile on my face and I could probably have taken hundreds of photos!

These are my 5….

  The first photo is of my dog Mabel, I’ve written about her before, because she is the definition of happy, however rubbish her life might have been in the past, she’s put all that behind her and now she lives for playing fetch, her walks and her cuddles.

  The second photo is of daffodils; these beautiful yellow flowers always make me smile. Firstly, they remind me of my Mum, who ALWAYS bought me and my sister a bunch of the first daffodils she saw in the shops every year. She loved them because they symbolized spring and things coming to life. Secondly yellow is my favourite colour, it’s the colour of sunshine and if happy was a colour it would be yellow!

The third is a caricature that someone drew of me at an event. Me and some colleagues attended a show for work and ended up chatting to an artist at one of the stands, he drew pretty unflattering pictures of us all, but we belly laughed about them  and they are now are proudly on display in the office.

Whilst the box of Capri Sun and 3D glasses might seem random, they signify a really great night out last night. Now I know, not many stories start with “I was drinking Capri Sun, when this fun thing happened” But last night me and some of my favourite people went out for dinner and to see “Beauty and the Beast” and it was just the best night, it was so much fun, we laughed at each other’s stories and the film exceeded every expectation! If you haven’t seen it, go immediately!  My friend Gav rocked up with a carrier bag full of goodies, including a Capri Sun each!

  The final photo is my CD of choice in the car today, on the way to work belted out such classics as “Don’t Stop Believing”, “Making your Mind Up” and was over joyed when my beloved Bros came on.

Although I started off looking for the happy, I think that the happy has started to find me. So why not try it? For the next 5 days, look for one thing that makes you happy!

Traditions

Christmas / New Year always makes people a bit reflective, I think it’s the sense of tradition it inspires. There are things you do at Christmas that you do because you’ve done them ever since you were a child. Family traditions, that no one can remember why they started, but they seem to have always been a part of your family DNA. 

    Ornaments that get put up year in year out and are now so old that they’re treated like the finest most delicate bits of expensive china. In our house, it’s the fairy at the top of the tree, bought for Mum and Dad by my Grandpa when they first got married. Granted she looks a bit like a drag queen now, but she sits at the top of our tree every year and is ceremonially kissed for luck.

And Red Whisker, I've no idea, where he originally came from, but he was named after a character in a story my Dad made up for Lucy and I when we were little. He used to tell the Nogglers what the wicked Queen was up to. (I guess you had to be there)

  This year was the first Christmas we’d spent at home since my Mum died. My Mum always made Christmas really special and despite her Christmas Eve strop, where she was anything BUT festive, it was always really magical.

   Lucy and I made a pact never to arrive on Christmas Eve pre Mum having a G&T. Dad would send the secret signal that the aforementioned G&T had been poured and Mum was safely sat on the sofa with “Carols from Kings” on the TV merrily crying at the choir boys and partaking in a chocolate Orange (Never mind Terry, at Christmas, that Chocolate Orange had Pamela’s name all over it!)

We could then arrive, safe in the knowledge that she wouldn’t turn into a wailing banshee at the sight of presents and suitcases we'd arrived with, that would be bound to mess up the immaculate display of neatly placed presents under the tree.

  For some reason we always had a Chinese on Christmas Eve and this year, we’d said we wouldn’t do that as we wanted to make things different to how they would have been when Mum was alive. However by the time Christmas Eve arrived, we’d all been hit by the flu and felt generally crappy and the logical thing was to stay in, in our matching Elf PJ’s (don’t judge, I don’t care how old you are, you’re never too old for matching comedy PJ’s!) and eat our bodyweight in Chinese food!

  That pretty much set the standard for our Christmas, we ate, we drank, we laughed, we embraced the old traditions, we created new ones…. Christmas bedding was inspired Dad. And we just had a really good time!

  I noticed that there were other family traditions that I subconsciously did everyday or when I was feeling a bit down. I’ve had the really bad flu over the last few days and knowing there’s not a lot the doctor could do for me, I resorted to the things my Mum used to give me when I was ill when I was little. As far as I know, they have no legally recognized healing qualities, but they hit the spot and made me feel better, if only spiritually!

That’s when I found this quote….

It doesn’t matter why your family has created the traditions it has, or if you can even remember the reasons why, what matters is that no matter where you are or one of you is missing, there’ll always be a bind that no one else will understand or laugh at unless they’re part of your family / team / friend group and that’s why traditions are important, they make us feel safe!

I'm Not Anti Exercise, I'm Just Anti Doing Stuff I Don't Like!

There’s a line in “Sex and the City”, where Carrie says that shopping is her cardio. There’s a lot of things I like about Carrie Bradshaw, her fabulous shoes, her ability to wear clothes that would quite frankly make me look like a crazy bag lady and the fact that despite spending most of her evenings drinking Cosmopolitan’s in a fancy New York bar, she really doesn’t have a weight problem! (Weight Watchers fans, a Cosmo is 6 pro-points!)

  Alright, I’m sure there’s a wealth of personal trainers who would argue that shopping isn’t cardio, but they would be wrong. I can only assume they’ve never spent a proper day shopping, walking in and out of shops, up and down stairs, spending hours and hours traipsing around the streets of your favourite city, looking for that one bargain! Plus, sitting to enjoy a coffee / glass of wine on your trip is not only a chance to rehydrate, but is also sort of like doing squats….. I went too far didn’t I?

  I think the point Carrie is trying to make, is that whatever it is that gets your heart pumping and the blood racing around your body, should be something you like doing. P.E lessons for me as a child, were not fun, running around a school field in P.E knickers in the freezing cold, getting bashed with a hockey stick and trying to make head or tale of what the bloody hell lacrosse was. None of these things made me happy or indeed want to continue them in later life. In fact having an amenable music teacher meant that he was quite happy to schedule my flute lessons for then!

  As part of my “Happy Katie” plan, and knowing that eating less and moving more helps with the slinky mission, I have decided to only do things at the gym that I really like. The classes where I don’t notice the ticking of the clock and spend it wishing the teacher would get a phone call telling her that a heard of goats had attacked her car.

  So the last few weeks, I’ve been trampolining. Planet Bounce has opened in Nottingham and if you haven’t been, then I’d really recommend it. I went with my friends and godchildren and bouncing is for EVERYONE! Turns out an hour of bouncing is quite a lot, but it’s one of the most fun things I’ve done all year!

Bounce selfie!

Shooting hoops is far easier with the help of a trampoline!

  I’ve carried on with Burlesque dancing, because lets face it, if more exercise classes involved top hats and feather boas, gyms would be happier, feather-covered places.  I’m doing Just Jhoom (Bollywood inspired) and today I booked myself into a Zumba class that I had never done.

  Turns out I didn’t read the small print with the Zumba class because it was the hardest class I have ever done! I’m not really sure why.  I’ve done Zumba a lot in the past, but for some reason my feet and arms had declared war on each other and were refusing to work in perfect harmony. There was one routine that involved so much spinning around, that I think even Kylie would have refused to continue! Still my new 71 year old BZF (best Zumba friend) kept checking I was OK and we had a lovely discussion about “Strictly Come Dancing”, she’s rooting for Jay & Aliona, she doesn’t like Peter Andre and she thinks Jeremy Vine is very brave to take part, because he’s all arms and legs.

  By the end of the class, I was slightly dizzy, very sweaty and a crazy red face!

  However I loved it and I’ll be going again next week, although maybe, just MAYBE I’ll get my limbs to work together.

Turns out I’m not anti-exercise, I’m just anti doing stuff I don’t like!