Category: Little things that made me smile

Posted in Little things that made me smile

That joke isn’t funny anymore

Posted on by WeeGee

First up, I love the Smiths. So here are the Smiths singing ‘That joke isn’t funny anymore*’

I’m not an earnest person. In fact I’m probably whatever the opposite of earnest is. I don’t take anything particularly seriously, which by the way, is not to say that I’m irresponsible or feckless**.

I laugh a lot (more often than not at myself), I poke a lot of fun at things (again, more often than  not at myself) and I tell a lot of jokes – not knock-knock, boom-boom type jokes though; I always mess the punch lines of those up. I like funny things – not necessarily shiny-happy-people funny things, but funny things nonetheless***. Maybe that doesn’t sound like somebody who suffers from depression, but I’m yet to find the rule that says somebody with a mental health problem has to have a compulsory sense of humour bypass.

I often make a joke of my mental health difficulties because they are quite heavy enough without me adding a ten tonne weight by being oh-so-serious about them. That’s not to say I don’t know that they’re serious, or that  I think it’s funny being me: they are and it isn’t – I think I try to use humour  to get a bit of perspective when it feels like the sky is falling in. To be honest, I think laughing at myself might just have saved my life, so, in celebration of that fact, I’m going to end  this post by telling you something that I thought was funny…..

Last night I was having a ‘bit of a moment’. I knew I was heading for trouble because I started doing the whole pacing/curling up in  a ball thing. Thankfully I was mindful. I tried to find somewhere to put the thoughts, but the ‘shelf of stuff Wee Gee can’t think about’ was full so I decided to distract myself with something positive by writing a list of ‘all the reasons Wee Gee has to be cheerful’. In reality, there are a few reasons for me to be cheerful but last night the single solitary thing that I could think of to put on my list was:

“I don’t have one of those stupid Jimmy Hill moon shaped chins”

Why on earth did I think of that?! Where did it even come from?! It’s not as though I’ve anything against people with moon shaped chins by the way…..

Anyway.  I gave up making the list and I didn’t do any more of that pacing/curling up in a ball thing.

Take care, Wee Gee x

*Granted, it isn’t the most cheery song in the world, even by the Smiths’ standards, but it is at least marginally more chipper than ‘Last night I dreamed somebody loved me’ and ‘I know it’s over’….

**All of the time

***I like to think I am witty and rye**** but I might just be sarcastic and sneering.

****Of course I meant wry. I was just testing you there. Ahem 😉

Posted in Little things that made me smile

Lots of loveliness (an award? Who moi?)

Posted on by WeeGee

While I was in Nottingham Hello Sailor went and nominated me for the One Lovely Blog award. I’ve not been blogging for very long so I’m really touched to have been nominated, plus, this one is super exciting because I get to share seven random things about myself. Hurrah!

Step one is to thank the blogger who nominated you:

Dear Hello Sailor. I proper love reading your blog because it is truly one of the most fab blogs ever. Thank you very, very, very much for nominating me for this award – it has made be smile and right now that is a BIG achievement. I’d have liked to nominate you back, but I thought that was a bit weird. Love and kisses Wee Gee x

Step two is to share seven things about myself:

Here are seven things about me which may, or may not be very interesting depending on your take on things:

1. I was hit by a Double Decker bus and lived to tell the tale. Not only did I live to tell the tale I would have stood up and walked away if the nice paramedic man hadn’t forbidden me to stand up.

2. I was the head girl at my school which is a rather unlikely achievement for so many reasons, but not least because I was a full blown comedy mentalist at the time.

3. Some of my friends rather hilariously refers to me as ‘the three degrees’ because I have three degrees.

4. I become obsessive about things and therefore have an ever growing list of things to obsess about. The current list includes: Frank Turner, Crime Watch, Monk, Dexter, Blogging, my new voile panel, making guacamole and eating manuka honey.

5. I’m Scottish but I don’t speak with a Scottish accent unless a) I’m speaking to someone who also has a Scottish accent or b) I feel like it. Part b allows me to confound people at will.

6. I have had the same iron since 1997 and it works perfectly well thank you very much.

7. I don’t do a lot of ironing.

Step three is to nominate ten blogs you admire:

It took me a while to whittle it down to ten but in the end I settled on the list below. I’m nominating these blogs in particular because I admire them (obviously) and also because I thought it would be a good way of thanking the bloggers in question for writing such lovely blogs for me to read. Some are funny, some are sad; some are brave, some are vulnerable; some remind me of who I used to be, some of who I am now, and some make me think about who I want to be when I grow up; all are marvellous in their own special way.

Anyway, in no particular order, here are the blogs I’ve chosen:

1. Sparrow in the snow
2. Its a beautiful disaster
3. Another battle
4. Halfway between the gutter and the stars
5. Anxiety adventures
6. Diary of the princess of tides
7. Everything but the kitchen sink
8. Struggling with the elephant in the room
9. Pialosophy
10. Adverse Universe

That’s all from me folks.

Take care, Wee Gee x

Posted in Little things that made me smile

Aww you guys

Posted on by WeeGee

I’m feeling a nice warm glow today because two of my readers have nominated my blog for a reader appreciation award. I’m really chuffed about this because a) who wouldn’t be chuffed to get an award and b) when I first started my blog I didn’t think anyone would be remotely interested in reading it let alone find something in it to appreciate. Being appreciated is nice.

Anyway. Apparently I have to jump through some hoops to pick up this award, so without further ado: let the hoop jumping commence….

Include the logo somewhere in your blog

Here is the logo somewhere in my blog:

Answer ten questions about yourself for fun

  1. What’s your favourite colour? Instinctively I’d say I don’t have a favourite colour, but I guess you just have to look around my flat to see that I’m obviously rather partial to purple albeit on a subconscious level.
  2. What’s your favourite animal? Generally speaking my favourite animals are cats. Specifically my favourite animal is my lovely little cat Gryff.
  3. What’s your favourite non-alcoholic drink? I drink a lot of white tea, so I suppose it must be that.
  4. What’s your favourite pattern? A nice, neat symmetrical one.
  5. Facebook or Twitter? Twitter. Facebook makes me despair of the human race.
  6. Do you prefer getting or giving presents? In truth I find both eventualities a bit awkward, but on balance I probably find giving gifts the least toe curling of the two.
  7. Favourite number? I do rather like it when things come in groups of three (I don’t know why) so three.
  8. Favourite day of the week? Monday – it’s a fresh start that comes around again and again.
  9. Favourite flower? I’ll say roses because I have a little daydream about a cottage in Oxfordshire where I grow roses and because they remind me of ‘roses in the hospital’ by the Manic Street Preachers.
  10. What’s your passion? Possibly music, possibly fiction, possibly justice. Is that cheating?

Nominate 10-12 blogs you enjoy. Or pick a number.

I’m going to ignore the first part of that instruction and pick three because I like things to come in groups of three. So, in no particular order here are the blogs I’d like to nominate.

  1. Hello Sailor: I’ll eat my hat if Hello Sailor hasn’t received this award, like, a zillion times over, but I really do enjoy reading it so I’m going to include it anyway. Put simply, there is nothing not to love about this blog.
  2. Trying to break free: The writer started this blog at around about the same time that I started writing mine and I’ve really enjoyed following her progress. Aside from that the writer is a total sweetheart – full of kindness, good advice and timely *hugs*.
  3. I only started following AdverseUniverse a few days ago but it really struck a chord with me so I’d like to nominate it. I love how articulate, brave and honest it is and I think it’s really important that blogs like this, which counter the whole ‘pro-ana’ thing, exist. The art work is awesome too.

Pay the love forward: Provide your nominee’s link in your post and comment on their blog to let them know they’ve been included and invited to participate.

Links above. I’ll swing past their sites any minute now….

Pay the love back with gratitude and a link to the blogger(s) who nominated you.

The first thing to say is that the two bloggers who nominated me are two of my favourites and by rights I would have nominated them. But if I nominate them back, they might feel obliged to re-nominate me back, and then I them. And so on and so forth ad infinitum until everyone gets very bored!

Sparrow in the snow is one of the first blogs I came across when I joined WordPress. It’s a sweet and enchanting blog – sometimes funny, sometimes vulnerable but always worth a read.

Another battle is also one of my earliest discoveries. It’s a personal blog which captures the ups and downs that come with the illness perfectly; it’s honest and courageous, but most of all it’s determined.

So that’s it. All done.

Posted in Little things that made me smile

Smiling at strangers on trains

Posted on by WeeGee

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. Truth told, I’m a little bit over excited about the theme this year (doing good does you good) because funnily enough, I’ve been thinking about the positive impact that doing nice things for others might have on your mental wellbeing since watching this rather fantabulous Ted Talk recently:

The talk focuses on the positive impact spending your money on others can have on your emotional wellbeing, but since I don’t actually have any money I’ve been wondering whether spending other things – like time or energy – might have a similar effect; this means that Mental Health Awareness week has arrived at the perfect moment to give me an excuse to a) try this theory out for myself, b) get involved in something that I care about and c) include a link to a Frank Turner song* on my blog!**

The song is Smiling at strangers on trains which, for the record, is an awesome little song. My plan for the week, inspired by the title of this song, is simple: my daily act of kindness will be to smile at every stranger I encounter 🙂

I’m quite sure that this will be interpreted as a sign of lunacy by some of those people lucky enough to find themselves on the receiving end of my cheesy grin (I do live in London after all – sometimes just making eye contact is regarded as a sign of lunacy here) but hopefully most people will smile back and the exchange of smiles will provide a little lift and serve as a reminder that the world isn’t all bad…

* For the sake of accuracy, it’s actually a Million Dead song, but this is Frank’s solo rendition (try as I might, I can’t quite get my head around Million Dead!)

**This will doubtless be the first of many such links. For me, Sir Frank is a bit like Pringles: once you pop you can’t stop!