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Little pleasures
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A chance to exchange notes on the little everyday things that cheer you up when you're down, or make an ordinary day into a better one. Winning move unaltered.
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Going for a 40-mile bike ride and getting home at last after a 40-mile bike ride.
Bluebell woods - especially if there are ramsons as well.
An unexpected opportunity to sit and think, undisturbed.
Cool, white, freshly pressed hotel bed sheets
Waking up in a sunlit bedroom
Going out at dawn in summer for a brisk walk over the fields where the dew is just beginning to lift to make the sort of mist that, when you're in the middle of it, still seems to start about 30 yards away from you in every direction.
Border Collies
A hot tub - especially when there's very light snow which is wafted away by the rising hot air
[NJ] Gin/olive combinations and hot tubs are the only things on this list I've never experienced. At present.
[Phil] And the closely related but even greater pleasure that is golden retrievers. :-)
[cfm] I was going to say that if you made it to the UK I could offer the gin/olive/hot tub combination, but then you said you preferred fluff-head retrievers to collies.
Oh and the call of a curlew
Starlings or Asbo-birds as we call them in our house.
[Phil] BTW When did you sneak into Software's house?
[NJ] Wouldn't you like to know!
A lark, ascending. And the necessity of being in open countryside away from urban noise to be able to hear it.
A lie-in with no underlying feeling of guilt
Seeing a cat, any cat, anywhere.
Listening to the song of a blackbird at the cooling end of a stiflingly hot summer day
Lagavulin - both the drink and the place.
Seeing a very familiar place in an unfamiliar way, and hence really noticing it for the first time.
The sound of pouring rain on the roof
New potatoes
puppy dogs!
blowing bubbles
Watching a transit of the International Space Station
Watching the All Blacks perform the Haka. A better sight in sport I have not seen.
A perfectly ripe mango.
friends
Getting my car back from my friend who had borrowed it for the weekend, and finding he has, quite unbidden, cleaned it inside and out. There's even an air freshener in there!
An eclectic list. The concatenation of the last 4 things mentioned here, for instance.
Remembering that England only managed 3 points against Wales in the Six Nations this year.
Walking into an office that is airconditioned on a hot day. It's 33°C at 8.30pm, this is NOT on.
[Tuj] Indeed.
[Raak] I saw it twice when Cmdr Hadfield was onboard, thanks to Twitter notifications, and caught it by accident last Saturday night too. In fact, on Saturday, I also saw the Red Arrows fly over my house here in the Netherlands - on their way from a Dutch air show back to their base in my native Lincolnshire. That was an impressive and moving day for skywatching for me.
Smiling at strangers.
Getting back into bed after a loo visit in the wee (sic) small hours.
Getting things done
[penelope] the Dead Sparrows used to practice over Nettleham Police HQ when I was a late teenager there. I feel a special bond to them (especially after one of them waved both hand and wings to me and my mum while we were dog-walking). I miss watching the three new recruits each winter gradually getting closer and closer to the other six as their confidence and skill grow. Hence:
The Red Arrows
Having an unexpected day off I'm sorry the client's factory is on fire, really I am, but not having to make a 120km round trip is quite nice.
The two glasses of lovely red house wine I just drank with dinner in the restaurant in the next village, and the resulting headiness.. Long day, taking notes to transcribe a conference on which I have been working on the planning for 6 months. I was there at 07.45 and left at 18.00 . Dinner out with the windy miller. I didn't let him get a word in edgeways as I unburdened the events of the day, an d it took two glasses of wineto tell him everything. What a cheap date.
Singing along with the car radio.
Using your free bus pass
Your odometer getting to 100000km SO excited.
When your pee smells of asparagus
Victoriously relaxing my elevated cheek (sic) muscle back onto the chair.
[Tuj] I've eaten asparagus many times, and never noticed this alleged odour. However, I can't say I've ever sniffed my pee, so who knows what delights I've missed :-)
Rapid debugging of other people's code
There was a philosopher of whom I have read that he once walked into a room and announced, "I've just had the most glorious bowel movement!" Ah, one recognises the feeling.
[Lovely Gravy] Watching the All Blacks perform a haka on one side while Tonga performed one on the other really was impressive.
[SM] For me it was the Welsh team refusing to move first after the Haka in Cardiff in 2008. Still gives me goosebumps watching it on Youtube.
Perpetuating stereotypes mercilessly, but A nice glass of wine and a sit down after dinner.
Summer sunshine in Britain - hoorah!
A cold shower on a hot day
A hot shower on any kind of day. [SM] I've never 'got' the cold shower thing.
A hard ride on a racing bike, on a bright and sunny (but not too hot) day.
The Ashes
When the last strawberry in the punnet is the sweetest.
Baked beans on toast [with a crunchy sprinkling of rock salt and some ground pepper.]
Baked beans on toast [when the toast has been liberally coated with Marmite]
A glass of very cold beer on a summer evening.
The words "This one's on me" when uttered by the landlord of one's local at 10.30 on a Sunday night. Ok, so it's not an everyday occurrence, but it made my day.
Giving a present to someone you love.
(Phil) cf. this: I presented a nearly empty glass and said "Just a half in there" and meant it. The man topped it up. "It's an Irish half", said he, and he was indeed of the Hibernian persuasion. I had to drive home rather carefully.
[Rosie] We used to call that a pensioner's half, or a Hilton Half. Named after Hilton Spratt, who was at that time a very young Conservative councillor, and is now Mayor of Lincoln. My new local does a good generous half too :-)
Right now. I'm sitting outside at 11pm on Friday evening with a cup of coffee, a citronella candle and the iPad, with the prospect of three whole weeks off work. I don't go back until August 12. And there's a heatwave.
Still being alive. After 3 near death experiences in the last 12 months, simply still being here, watching us tonk the Aussies, despite being other-half-less, is more than enough to make me smile. The fact it's warm and sunny helps, too.
My bedroom is inhabited by the amorous ghost of a showgirl who takes joy in keeping me up nights after the wife has dozed.
Cooking for a friend who appreciates it.
Driving somewhere lovely with the windows down. Can't recommend the Aosta Valley highly enough!
[nights] Oh cor yes. On a childhood holiday we drove through the Mont Blanc Tunnel along the road to Aosta and the alternating bridges and mountainside galleries were spectacular.
(Nyet) I'm not sure nights would appreciate that too much.
[Rosie] hee hee :-)
Closing the deal.
Opening anything.
(Botherer) Wot, even a waste food container? :-)
Heavy windless rain.
Perfect timing.
(Rosie) Anything!
The pursuit of contentment rather than happiness.
Lying in the sun because I can.
I thought this might have been mentioned earlier, but Not wearing pants :)
Re-reading old love letters
[cfm] BBBBzzzzttt!! Oh no - that's a cringeworthy task! (Or is it just me who thinks that, because my husband has never written me a love letter so all the ones I have kept are from previous and rejected or jilting boyfriends?)
Spending money you don't have. To be followed, in about a month, by a Little Displeasure.
[Pen] *is reminded of the penultimate line of Charlotte's Web* :-)
Discovering this game. A one-off, unrepeatable pleasure, of course.
And a proper move: Sitting on the sofa reading a gloriously huge, heavy book printed in 1943 that references and discusses a whole load of medieval manuscripts... and being able to view those manuscripts in their entirety a couple of minutes later just by walking over to my computer and downloading complete full-colour facsimiles from the host library. How I love the 21st century. I imagine that the author of the said book (the musicologist Higinio Anglés) would have creamed his academic pants at the prospect, especially since, working at that moment in history, even the slow option of travelling around Europe to visit the collections in person wasn't open to him.
[CdM] I just had to google it. I think I last read Charlotte's Web when I was 8 or 9
Introducing my children to great films from before their time as they grow up - While Mrs Phil is poorly in bed, 'little' Miss Phil and I have watched 'Raising Arizona', 'Airplane!', 'The Big Lebowski', 'Shaun of the Dead' over the last 4 nights. Admitedly, she'd seen two of them before, but it was good to bring her up to speed on the Coen Brothers. Maybe 'Full Metal Jacket' tonight, or perhaps 'Withnail and I', which neither of us has seen.
Watch 'Withnail' for that going-into-work-after-a-bank-holiday-with-a-surreal-feeling feeling.
[pen] not back to work till thursday
[Phil] If you're going to watch 'Withnail and I' you can play 'Spot the anachronistic road sign'.
[Phil] However, what I find with MsCdMJr is that any film that dates from before 2004 is greeted with a comment of "That's so old!"
[pen] That was cfm, not me. It is a good line, though. Mind you, we should remember that the author of Charlotte's Web was also a co-author of the odious Strunk and White Elements of Style, and so not someone that I particularly acknowledge as a judge of good writing. :-)
Sautéed mushrooms
[CdM] We've managed to avoid that. Both our little beasts will happily watch anything, so long as it's good, e.g. Psycho :)
[Phil] She'll watch and enjoy. She just complains first...
Tiling an irregularly-shaped bread roll with cheese, using the fewest possible cuts.
Recreational mathematics
(SM) Demonstrate, using longhand methods only, that 398712 + 436512 <> 447212. Then do it on a calculator.
Reprieves
The MD saying "In that case, I'll go away and let you get on with it"
Breaking a pane of glass you no longer want. The first blow, with a club hammer, is the best.
Being able to make a comment on a complete stranger's website/blog/whatever and get a reply from someone who lives potentially thousands of miles away.
One's favorite blue jeans
Overtaking a very expensive car, whose driver is obviously in a hurry, by picking the right lane at a junction/roundabout.
Walking a fast half-hour circuit of the village last night under a clear and almost-full moon, seeing the stars and flashing lights of the planes circling for Rotterdam and Amsterdam airports, and hearing the very last of the summer crickets chirruping in the grass. (And the imaginary dog trotting along beside me, of course)
Farting in the bath.
Observing that the complicated program that one has just written is working exactly as it should.
A free lunch each Friday just because you're a student.
Making things
Watching football managers lose their rag or becoming, as they would put it, "disappointed".
(SM) I'm with you on that. I have just made one of these. Prior to that a contour map of the entire North Downs at 1:80,000. The wonders of Photoshop.
Hearing from a friend you have lost touch with
Sky-watching. In particular, watching the sunrise over the sea from the deck as the overnight ferry pulls into home port, with a cup of coffee and a chocolate croissant; seeing mammatus clouds with my own eyes for the first time, a shooting star, and a night-sky full of stars out in the country. All over the past week or so.
The smell of tertiary butyl alcohol. A bit like isopropanol (de-icer, various cosmetics) only more so. Minty and a bit camphor-like. Rather nice - even better than ether.
[CdM] Hear, hear! Via Facebook, I've just regained contact with an Estonian fireman I use to chat with about 12 years ago. The downside is the cyrillic script on my FB timeline now!
Christmas!
Those first few moments in bed
The second coffee of the morning
A quarter-bottle of wine
In that case: Arriving home from work to discover that your teetotal wife has opened a bottle of red wine, to make lasagne, and the rest of it requires drinking. I love getting out of the car to the smell of lasagne, as it means I don't have to feel guilty about opening a bottle, just for myself.
Guessing the latest AVMA
The entire sensory spectrum of chips cooked in beef dripping.
Ordering a treat for yourself - in my case, cricket pads, bat, and gloves.
Getting home to find that said order has been delivered
Boxy concrete buildings built on a grassy slope overlooking big swaths of nature. Only realized how nice this makes me feel the other day when looking at some pictures.
Mullion Cove at low tide.
The Science Fiction of Samuel R Delaney
Sunshine
Knowing how to spell Samuel R Delany
The memory of having met and conversed with Samuel R Delany face-to-face, and of loaning him a copy of Driftglass when he had nothing for his scheduled reading and thus saving the day. 8oP
Being blissfully unaware of science fiction authors ;-)
Wot, even Arthur C Clarke? Even Ian McLeod? Even Charles Stross?
I've heard of, nay read (but not for nearly 30 years), A C Clarke. Never heard of the others.
Wow, and I picked UK authors of great stature too.
Cherry Garcia.
[Stevie] I did read quite a lot of John Wyndham when I was a teenager, plus A C Clarke, and a couple of Harry Harrisons. Unless you count Stephen King, I think my adult science fiction reading has been limited to Douglas Adams.
[Phil] Well, I have a non-standard view of genre classification: If you think it is SF, it is. I may not agree with you, but so what? Delaney would at one time hold that you might not have the vernacular needed to properly appreciate SF unless you can recognize it when you see it, but I reckon if you enjoy a story at whatever level genres are irrelevant, and anyway all the people I've conversed with here are intelligent enough to acquire the vernacular as they go.

Years ago Raak and I differed with feeling over whether "Perdido Street Station" was Hard SF or something else. While many a satisfying hour can be passed arguing this over pints of beer, in the end all that matters is that it is a bloody good story sufficiently different from stuff sitting next to it on the shelves that it should please anyone reading it on your recommendation.

You should check it out of your library and give it a go, Phil.

Re: John Wyndham. Scariest thing I ever read was from The Day of the Triffids, the line about the blind man scuttling from a looted store with two tins of red paint under his arms and a cunning grin on his face (the context is that he thought it was food). The implications of that little vignette left me profoundly disturbed for weeks.
Watching the Aetheric Neuralizer's plasma effects in action. Worst build blog in the history of the universe, but the steampunk gun is spiffy.
[Stevie] I don't think I've specifically avoided SF, and I havea major problem in that I read so little nowadays. I know my son enjoyed "The City & The City", so I'll give Perdido a try. I really ought to get round to registering with the library too. The mobile library's next visit isn't for another 12 days, so it looks like a trip into town is required.
[Stevie] Aha, thanks for making me look up our library. I've found there's one only 6 miles away, and it's open on Saturday mornings. To Pangbourne, me hearties!
(Phil) Pangbourne is town? No answer to that.
[Rosie] Newbury is "town" Pangbourne is half the distance, and has a fish & chip shop, to boot!
The prospect of a long weekend in England; I sail back on Thursday night.That means seeing family and friends, not having to worry about not understanding what's being spoken about, eating familiar and favourite foods, and resting my eyes on familiar landscapes. Bliss.
Keeping my eyes inside my head... (Pen rests eyes on landscapes ... I prefer mine remain in their sockets!)
Witnessing another's earned success Case in point - This little animation makes me smile every time I watch it: katana girl (gif)
[Stevie] I think the Moran blog may be suffering from cybernautic gremlins. You don't seem to be able to comment - comments submit far too quickly, it seems to me, for them to be actually be being transmitted anywhere.
[Simons] Intollerable curbation of free speech! I'll have a look what knobs can be twiddled.
I just did an anonymous test and it worked fine for me other than the capcha being so fiendish it took three refreshes to make it spell something I could figure out. I used the "Anonymous" profile (you have to pick one from a list). There aren't any moderated comments waiting to be let out of the pen.
Watching Jeremy Clarkson say "I've ruined m'car!"
Getting a letter from the bank that refunds, with interest, the £30 that the ATM didn't dispense in June 2008, and that you assumed you'd just absentmindedly walked away without taking.
Contemplating the engineering excellence and sheer zombie-stopping power of my new Hammershot revolver and my Sledgefire shotgun. The Weapon Shops of Nerf are awesome.
First class travel. I have just upgraded from what was going to be four hours standing in the end of a carriage to a luxurious seat and free coffee for a mere £15. Privileged? Sure am.
Truly, it is wonderful to sit up in first class with a complimentary coffee and Wi-Fi and think of those down the other end, below the food car, and say to myself, "I'm posh and they're not."
You'll be drinking in the lounge bar next. As a friend once said to me while we were about to enter the UEA Union Bar: "You get a better class of scum in the lounge bar".

La Famile Stevie got upgraded to 1st class on a trans-Canada flight a couple of years ago. I was so impressed I wrote it up for mi blog.

Non-sensible (e.g. pink-paisley-silver-spike-heeled) shoes.
[cfm] May I ask, without prejudice, if you are a person of the female variety?
[Phil] You cannot ask, and cfm is not required to tell you if you do. Because it's more fun that way.

Firing the Nerf Rapidstrike submachine gun. Top o' the world, ma!

Hidden textAt last, a suitable vehicle with which to express my utter rejection of The Colbert Report and the fucktard who presents it.
Rare-breed pork chops bought from the butcher at home in Lincolnshire last week for dinner tonight in the Netherlands The pork here is shocking, and mostly reared indoors. These tasted soooo good.
[pen] Is it me, or is "rare-breed" pork so ubiquitous that one wonders just how "rare" these breeds are? It might just be a Berkshire thing, to be honest.
"Ahuh! Ahuh! Ahuh huh huh! Bet you can't guess what I'm doing?"
[Geo] Are you singing the second line of The Proclaimers' "I'm on my way"?
Puns. Endless puns. and reading back up the page I'd put a word in for Iain (M) Banks as a SF author worth reading... Also, should it be "an SF author"?
Listening to TMS at work
Hidden textThat's "Test Match Special". The BBC's incomparably excellent radio commentary on England's international cricket matches
[Geo] Not fair! It must give us two guesses! You are doing either:
a) Your Elvis Presley warm-ups prior to opening your Las Vegas drive-thru Chapel of Burnin' Love for the day

or

2) Your Tommy Cooper wind-up to the eggs/tray/water-filled glasses trick.
Discovering that my "Ten Years Without Gnawing A Leg Off" certificate bears the notorious doctored version of the city seal, in which the minuteman depicted on one side seems very pleased indeed to see the indian on the other.
Hidden textEven when honoring me they give me the shaft.
Petrichor
Also, knowing the word for petrichor. :-)
[SM] Excellent, on both counts.
Certain TV show theme tunes. Today's nominee, even though I only ever watched about two shows, is the Dexter Theme Tune. A fun little track, that one.
[Simons Mith] Good one. I'll volley that back with the "Morse" theme. I'm particularly fond of the bit where the French Horns swell up. Into tubas, presumably. But then they'd be French Potatoes I suppose. Musical theory was never my strong suit.
Riding on new bicycle tyres. Mm, pumped up really hard.
I'm not sure how I feel about walking through an antiques fleamarket and thinking, not once but several times, "that's not old, I had one of those!" A box of metal puzzles that I'm sure was exactly the same make and design as one my brother had, a set of mathematical instruments, manual sewing machines just like my aunt's, a metal right-angle just like the one my father made in the army (and which I still have), and of course any number of slide rules.
Being able to point at the giant sliderule hanging next to the canoe and the stuffed Springbok head in a local "casual dining" restaurant and say "I know how to use that to do hard sums".
Doing sums in my head faster than someone else does them with a calculator e.g. deducting VAT.
New windscreen wiper blades
Sitting in a 6th floor office in Rotterdam with a window that faces west over the city towards the Port of Rotterdam and watching the storms coming in from the North Sea only 20 miles away, swallowing the city's skyscrapers as it approaches.
The Alps in summer. The really green bits. With the cowbells. And the wildflowers. Don't care if it is like the Sound of Music.
Serving dinner to hungry teenage boys.
Being able to do simple diy stuff, like today, clearing an airlock in the hot water system; repairing a useful bag with a staple gun; making a jig to remove downlighters without damaging the ceiling.
What!?!?!? No! That cannot go unanswered!

Ripping the living bejaysus out of any recalcitrant home fixture with my mighty Tiger Saw prior to replacing it with one that works.

Curses! I never thought of using my angle grinder on that bag...
Life has become a lot simpler since I realized that 90% of the time, preserving the parts that you are replacing is a waste of time. New faucet required? No more struggling with claw wrenches in hard-to-reach places to remove water supply risers. Now I loosen the retaining nuts enough to lift the faucet up from the sink and Mister Tiger Saw has me doing the installation part in minutes. Light fixtures I fitted ten years ago won't take the new lightbulb de jour anyway so I just bin 'em and start over.
Thought of you the other day, gil, when Mrs Stevie arranged for me to go Karting.

In a Lamborghini Gallardo.

I am jealous. I hope a detailed account will appear in the Occasional Stevie.

It's a couple of years since I karted, due to various injuries and to other members of the Fugitives team moving to different pastures, but I haven't yet given up. I believe that the karting experience, at its best, is the ideal training ground for f1 drivers, as well as being a lorra fun for novices and experienced drivers alike.

Well, they marked out a track that prevented anyone from getting into third gear but it was still more fun than a poke in the eye. I was completely overwhelmed by the experience and forgot to be cool for the camera. Here's a link to the video library of the event and I was number L75 - right at the top of the page.
I finally watched your video, and admired the progress from uncertainty to confidence to pushing the limits. Occasional squeaks of wheelspin, and the casual enquiry "Anyone ever spin out?", followed by serious attempts to do so.
It was a lorra-lorra fun. I recommend it to all.
A 60 Mb fibre connection. Click — web page appears! Click — video plays! 100MB uploads to Dropbox in seconds!
[Raak] Grrrrrrr! Still, I get fresh air and no traffic instead.
[Phil] I have those as well. :)
[Raak] Hmmm, I have no chance of anything over 3Mb for the next decade as far as I can tell. Unless I move house.
The sound of a Mellotron's "orchestral strings" voice. Sounds nothing like strings but is entirely wonderful when done right.
I think it was actually called "Three Strings", but I never had the knobs under the Steviemitts so I can't say for sure.
Training interested student(s)
Chunky knit leggings.
Hidden textDear god, I have a picture wedged firmly in my brain now that will not come out no matter what I do.
Flicking a dead Christmas tree light and being rewarded by having the whole string burst into glorious life.
Brandy butter
Bing Crosby's singing voice
Hess Trucks.
Correcting somebody who just said "pedanticism"
[Moom] But that just makes one sound like a pedanticismist, doesn't it?
Awakening in the dawn's coming light to the sound of Kookaburras, Noisy Miners, Butcher Birds, Wrens and their avian friends having a chat about their breakfast menu.
The relief experienced on finding a legitimate receipt for the dodgy-looking transaction on one's bank statement after a brief panic. [Stevie] And proud of it.
Delighting in one's own inherent immunity to British humor.
Getting connected to someone who actually cares when calling a "tech support" line. Thank you, nice AT&T lady.
Being able to get through the head and the middle 8 of "Misty" without screwing any of the chords.
Being able to watch the superstructure of a massive crane on a massive ship serenely sailing up the river from my office window. No point in trying to drive home right now - it's not home time for one reason, and all the bridges will be up for another.
Sharpening pencils
Waking in the middle of the night to the sound of rain falling outside, and going back to sleep again. Of course, there was that time I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain falling inside ...
A shepherd's hut in a sheep field in Norfolk. (Much, much better than it sounds)
The space where a piece of furniture has been removed.
Charlotte Green reading the football results. A touch of class to counter all the snarly herberts on Five Live. (Pablo) I think I prefer a bed.
Les Dawson reading football results
Being greeted as "Mr Hughes" by the local Indian newsagent. Must be an age thing.
Guiding an off-spin delivery to the square leg boundary with consummate ease - best shot I've played all season (and last season for that matter)
Seeing the full moon. It's brilliant.
Sitting on the deck of our new house on the first warm evening of the year on the new garden chairs waiting for the fat (but waning) moon to appear over the trees
Seeing the ISS overhead.
Puppy cuddles!
Lunting my way through Cherry Tree Wood on a fine morning "To lunt" = to walk while smoking a pipe. A long obsolete verb, but I'm determined to bring it back to usage, even if pipe smokers are now rarer than a moment of fun at a Barry Manilow concert.
[Rosie]: It has a bed, a very very nice one :-)
A 6 over long-off from the final ball of the innings - which demoted the square-leg glance to the 2nd best shot I've played all season. Happy days!
Bouncing maniacally through grass as tall as you are, with one's tongue lolling, one's tail swishing furiously, and one's ears flapping about one's head. I hope it's clear I'm posting this on behalf of someone else without internet access.
[Simons Mith] I doubt anyone else's elephant has internet access either, so yours shouldn't feel short-changed.

Driving at night on a wide road with cat's-eyes but no street lights.

Early evening walks after hot days, through hamlets where they're growing lots of jasmine.
Finding out that a person that you want to audition for your play is going to audition.
Seeing the kids from the social housing up the road showing total unawareness of racial differences.
Having the tax man pay for one's new bathroom and a holiday in the Greek Islands. Well, not literally, but that's about what the unsolicited tax refund I just received amounts to.
Discovering the existence of The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments.
Debugging to the complete collection of A & B sides of every e.p. and 45 put out by Mungo Jerry. Alrightalrightalright.
(Only recently discovered) Standing stark naked in a field at 2am, having a much-needed pee in the middle of a raging thunderstorm. (Elemental, my dear Watson)
Living in the house where you don't resent housework.
Having next door's cat (called Yoda) come in and plonk itself down in the kitchen as I make breakfast. I mustn't feed it; it's not mine, more's the pity.
Coming home to the new house that's got better views than some of the places we stayed on holiday. The seasonally changing landscape of fields and trees, four new wind turbines in the past two weeks, but no sea view.
Going for a seven mile sprint on the bike on a sunny September evening, just because.
Hearing the Great African Belly-laugh.
The Red Arrows performing nearby.
Looking at things through binoculars.
The earthy smell and steaming stacks of the sugar factory 3km from the back of our house (and part of our view), which has started up again with the start of the local sugar beet harvest. It'll run until April.
I daren't mention Wales beating England at rugby, as I know it's not an everyday thing, even though it is rather satisfyingly frequent.
That first glass of red wine after a long, crap-awful day
Long phone call last night which means that friend I've had since I was 11 and her family are coming to the Netherlands spend New Year with us.
Muscovado sugar. Very naughty stuff. Too bad.
Harassing marine invertebrates in saltwater tidepools.
Watching puppies sleep/lie down peacefully.
Finding my "other" glasses.
A smile from my grandson
[Phil] Is that first one? Discovering I can write on my new tablet using my fat finger, even the HTML.
[pen] Yes, and what a smashing one he is too.
[Phil] Noo, I mean the first smile!
[pen] Ah, no it's not. They're much more regular now though :)
Dog hiccups!
YouTube Fail Videos, especially the ones in which a dog gets the short end of whatever. Cats pushing dogs downstairs, dogs running full-tilt into glass storm doors, dogs being sucked into black holes. That sort of thing.
Every time I hear the phrase "There's more than one way to skin a cat. It reminds me of the good times.
[Stevie] Dogs in boots!
The smell of tattooed tree corpses.
(Stevie) Try chimps, gorillas etc and mirrors.
A seafood platter on a Spanish beach front. (Why does eating seafood in Spain feel better than anywhere else?)
Watching Maggie Smith on Downton Abbey. Wait, what? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
It's Easter!!!
Space 1889 and Delta Green. Reality. Who needs it?
Sitting in a ball chair. I found one in a flea market, of all places. I've wanted one ever since seeing No.2's chair in "The Prisoner" and discovering it was a real thing, and I was very tempted, but it wouldn't really fit in my house anywhere.
[Raak] Change your house! (I mean rearrange/reorganise the furniture) It can always be changed back if you change your mind. Things can always be bought and sold.
[pen] I also discovered that you cannot read in a ball chair, unless I installed some sort of interior light. Can't really listen to music either without a set of speakers in there as well. But for shutting out the world and relaxing, there's nothing like it.
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