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!

Better to be the One Who Smiled First

I love this quote and it’s something I always try to do. When you first do it, you feel a bit daft, but before you know it you’ve had half a dozen conversations with random people and the daftness has definitely faded. If I didn’t do this, how else would I know that Snoop Dogg (or is he Snoop Lion now?) has a member of his posse called Rat a Tat Tat? It’s amazing what you can learn from random men in pubs!

  At the train station a few weeks ago, I ordered a couple of coffees and the lady behind the counter treated me like she’d just found out I had been round to her house and chopped all the arms off of her jumpers. She was really rude! As she crashed and banged cardboard coffee cups around and sighed at the fact I wanted milk, I found myself chatting nonsense at her. I went for the obvious weather smalltalk (grunt) wasn’t it busy today? (Another grunt) she must see all sorts in her job (grunt grunt) I could see the woman look at me like I was completely mental. As she finished our coffees and I paid I said; “have a lovely day”, the look on her face was priceless and she grunted back “yes you too” and then she actually smiled!

  For the last week, I’ve kept a note of every time someone’s paid me a compliment, when I started this, I thought it might be a really short list, but actually it hasn’t been. I’m normally really rubbish at taking compliments, so when someone says;

“That’s a nice skirt”, I’ll normally reply with something like “oh thanks, it was only £10.00 from Sainsburys, I’ve had it ages” (other supermarket clothing ranges are available)

  The first compliment I received was from someone telling me that my nails looked nice. They do, Sam who does my nails is a genius.

  As I made a note of the compliment, I thought I bet that’s the only one I write down. Then as I posted a link to last week’s blog, my friend Steph left me this message;

  To be honest it snowballed from there. I noticed even the tiniest of compliments “nice handbag”, “I really enjoy reading what you write”, and “Isn’t your dog well behaved” (Believe me that’s probably the biggest compliment I’ve EVER received!)

  My friend Paula also left me a voice message, which really made me smile and was just what I needed to hear at that point.

  I noticed that gratefully receiving the compliments, meant that in turn I said nice things to people and tried to help people where I could. I also noticed that I started to treat myself better. I’ve made time to go to the gym, I’ve taken Cyril for a walk, really enjoying the peace and quiet and the chance to just wander with him, rather than worrying about having to get back for something. I’ve made loads of lovely fresh food from scratch and enjoyed being in the kitchen. I’ve spent time in the garden painting the furniture, that I’ve been meaning to do for ages, I didn’t even get stressed when Cyril decided to help me and got paint on his bum. I even found myself saying no to things I really didn't want to do, as well as having the confidence to say when I didn't think things were right.

  I’ve also lost another pound this week, so that also added to my general sense of well being, even though after a weekend away with my sister and friend Julie, which involved Fish & chips, ice cream and wine, I’m not wholly sure I deserved it, but I’ll take it.

  So if you didn’t join in last week, this week just try it, see how many compliments you do get throughout the week and make a note of it, I guarantee it will put a smile on your face!

I Love to Go a Sauntering!

I know that sometimes my Slinky mission falls a bit short because I don’t exercise enough, I go through phases where I like going to the gym and other phases where I prefer staying at home and watching TV. 

  I think my main problem is I’m easily bored and am yet to find a personal trainer that really motivates me, or actually listens to the things I tell them! One skill I’ve had since childhood is being able to distract people with the art of conversation! I spent many a history lesson getting our teacher with the sexy bum to stop telling us all about the Industrial Revolution, but instead turn towards the board to draw pictures of what various rock climbing terminology meant. This was good for two reasons

1.     I found the industrial revolution quite boring

2.     The class, which consisted of all girls, got to stare at his bum for most of the lesson.

  A few years ago I started working out with a personal trainer, but again I soon got bored of lifting a kettle bell or lunging or stepping up and down on a plastic box so I soon worked out a way of distracting him. Apparently this came in the form of asking questions about anything from how certain foods boosted metabolism to what sort of car he’d like to own.

  Anyway with the best of intentions that if I was doing it for charity I would make myself train and go to the gym religiously, my sister Lucy and I registered for the Moon Walk. Every time I say that it gives me a vision of us wearing a black hat, white socks black shoes and something sparkly and going all Michael Jackson through the streets of London town.

  In reality the Moon Walk is a chance to raise money for breast cancer and as we both have friends and family members who have suffered we wanted to do something practical. You can do the Full Moon (26 miles) or the Half Moon (13 miles) We opted for the half moon because I have a manky ankle, I’m not sure this is the actual medical term, but the general gist is I have to be a bit careful.

  Over the last few months, we’ve done a fair bit of training, walking Cyril miles (something he never objects to), gym sessions, spin classes and pole dancing! I think I had images of the weight dropping off me, which sadly it hasn’t!

Cyril on one of his many walks!

  So by Saturday night, apart from the fact we were worried we’d be able to stay awake through the night we were ready and raring to go! We had our t-shirts; we had water and just for good measure we bought Walk the Walk bobble hats!

Who knew bobble hats could be such fun?

  There was a slight delay to the start time, and by the time we did eventually set off, standing in a field for an hour hadn’t helped my ankle. Still as people lined the route to cheer us on and homeowners leaned drunkenly out of windows to clap and tell us a bearded woman had won Eurovision it was hard not to get carried away with the mood. 

  So as Lucy and I strided through the streets of London talking about anything and everything from who had killed Lucy Beale? (Eastenders) Who was the best Batman? (Michael Keaton) and what we were going to have for tea (Chinese) we were in a pretty good mood. Sadly it would appear that not everyone doing the walk shared our good cheer and at one point where we reached a bit of a bottleneck on a pavement one woman exclaimed quite loudly “Well we made a mistake getting on the pavement behind these” before she then pushed through the middle of us. Still we let that go and continued discussing the issues of the day, (no we’re not sure when Katie Price will find a decent chap)

  By the time we reached the banks of the Thames my ankle was pretty sore and although we were still upbeat I was aware I had slowed down a bit, it was at this point, I heard a lady (and I use the term loosely) proclaim that “people who saunter should not be allowed to take part in this” I was a little outraged because surely whether I was sauntering or not I am still allowed to raise money for charity?

The walkers heading over a bridge, I forget which one!

  By the time we got back to our hotel about 4.30am we were pretty tired and sore, but proud of the money we’d raised despite sauntering our way through it!

Ouch! My poor manly ankle post walk!

  However on Sunday we celebrated with wine, a Chinese and there may have been a sneaky pack of Oreos, so despite my plan that the Moon Walk would help me lose weight when I stepped on the scales last night I’d put a pound ON, but at least I’ve raised pounds for a cause I care about!

 If you'd like to sponsor us via our fundraising page that would be nice.

A medicinal bottle of Chablis