A Snippet of Life

  Happiness is time spent with your friends and with your family. It is time spent laughing and time spent dancing. It is time spent asleep and time spent awake. It is time spent reminiscing...  Have I yet mentioned money? No.    You don't need money for happiness, except for perhaps a few bottles of bubbles, the delicious meal, the chocolate and sweets, and the extra few bottles of bubbles to celebrate the first bottle of bubbles. For all this though, you don't need to be rich!  A rich man is asked "What, Sir, is your aspiration in life?" he replies, "To be more successful and more rich." After years of working hard, when he is more successful and more rich, what is he in himself? Happy. A poor man is asked "What, Sir, is your aspiration in life?" he states, in the words of Beyoncé, "My aspiration in life would be to be happy". What does he feel as soon as he wakes the next day to see the beautiful sun shining from the clear blue s...

  He claims his life is mundane, doing the same thing day in day out, living for his grandchildren...well, that may be, but he certainly has some stories does Granddad Mills.  ...Of holidays in the past, the highway to Spain, a video of an actual journey (and by that I mean every second of his actual journey) along the highway to Spain, with running commentary to add effect along the way, it makes me smile. Many wartime stories- inspirational. Radio recordings of his first wife (my Grandma) wishing him a happy birthday every year in the 80s, when, having been given the knowledge that Granddad was in charge of the erecting shop building aircraft, Ray Moore sarcastically puts 'poor old Chas, slaving away on his tod, in order to get this aircraft built!'  Many many stories, stories I have heard before, we can all repeat them in our heads word for word while he is telling them, and then a new one crops up and excitement fills the room! Stories well told, and each time...

  Have you ever had that moment, whereby you sit...and just stop for a minute or two. Life gets so busy that even when you don't appear to be doing something, your brain is going round and round: thoughts about dinner, your next meal, how good your breakfast was, how much is on your 'to-do' list for the day and how little you are yet to have achieved. I sometimes find that it helps, just to stop, step back and take a look at the moment you are in.   Through the window of the café, out onto the street. The man who just tripped and then turned direction thinking everyone saw, where in actual fact nobody even noticed, and now he has a longer route to the bank, making him late for his meeting. The lady with what seems to be five thousand kids, all running in different directions, out of control and you just pray, for her sake, that they are not ALL hers. An old couple, walking hand in hand, laughing, joking, smiling because of the life they have, and you think to yourself- th...

  Metamorphoses, the idea of transforming; from species to object, to flower, to animal, changing of Sex- so many different forms. A transformation which lasts longer than a lifetime, is that of things through time. 'Things' in terms of technology, fashions, the way in which we think, speak, interpret. Back then, they watched the Coronation on screens the size of a DVD case, at their friend's house who is lucky enough to have one, all crowded around as not many people did, and "what on earth is a DVD?", would be their reaction to the use of such a term. No colour. Today, we watch the Diamond Jubilee and over five hundred different channels on a box as big as a house, occasionally with glasses o, making the characters come to life, colour everywhere.   Back then, it took longer to dial and you were to remain in one spot while speaking- round to the '0' and back, round to the '2'. Whereas, today, our phones contain our life, fit snugly in our pock...

  Interesting concept, strange.   Having recently embarked on my newest adventure at university, the topic of “time” has been fairly prominent. How much time you need to dedicate to your studies, how little time you are actually in lectures, how much time you spend drinking, how little some of us remember. But what really struck me, is the constant mention of how quick time passes. I mean, my gap year went so fast it almost seems as if it never happened! My childhood, at a similar pace. And these next three years of my studies, I am sure of it, will speed by as well. Adults (I think I'm also supposed to fit into that category, but I mean like proper adults; job, family, sensible...well?) constantly tell me to “make the most of it all”. Youth passes so quickly, you are twenty and then fifty thinking how did I get here. I have already experienced looking back and wondering where the past decade has gone. It is that same scenario of driving your car to a familiar place, somewhe...

  You semi-forget the event is in your diary, until a week before having received a number of texts saying “what can I bring?”...”really looking forward...”, you leap off your feet and get your arse into gear. Cleaning,gardening, preparing the shopping list, then realising there are more guests than originally thought, and so preparing a second shopping list...and a third...worrying who you haven't invited, numbers, the WEATHER (particularly for my English readers), its all on the mind.   The day before you frantically work, clean, polish, sweep, in order to enable a slight lay-in for the big day, so that you are fully ready for the party...midnight strikes and you have just about finished. You think it is all done, you think you can be chilled the next morning before the guests arrive, leisurely get prepared with little left to do, but NO. RUSH RUSH RUSH. The weather has failed you. What can you do now that wont get mouldy before the guests arrive? What do you need to do f...

At this age life really has just begun, “the World is your oyster”, they say, “go out and explore”. It is a time to spread the young wings and flee the nest. Whether it be university, the start of a new job, a first home (for some) , a baby (for the nutters about!)  At 15, EVERYTHING is a catastrophic disaster! Your boyfriend/ girlfriend dumps you, the end of the World…Mum served fish for dinner and she’s known for 15 years that you HATE fish, also the end of the World. Going back to five, where you are the complete opposite, EVERYTHING is utterly fabulous! From crayons, to paper, to bugs, to mud, to puddles, just everything ‘floats your boat’! Everyone is your best friend, especially those who come armed with sweets, and the only issue you have is deciphering who stole your play dough! The above is based upon previous experience, but being just nineteen, I have a long way to go in order to be able to fill in the gaps. So, from observations through working in a village shop,...