Happy Post!

A little reminder of why I do this. The premise is simple. You donate to a childrens charity and comment on this blog about the donation and what you wanted to be when you were 8. Want to know more? Please read the About Lesley page….

I was at a mini school reunion a week or so back. One of my friends was home from Australia for a short visit so a few of us met for dinner. It was good fun reminiscing and agreeing that we didn’t feel any older even when our children were taller than us.

However, one small comment brought me up short and I have been pondering it ever since. I post this blog on Twitter, Facebook and Google +, you need to get your blog out there if you want people to read it. My friend reads the blog from Facebook and said ‘Lighten up Lesley, it has been too dark for a while’. In my head I think that it is difficult to be light-hearted when I am trying to get people to donate to a childrens charity but in my heart I know Aileen could be right. I need to bring some light into the blog every now and then.

So the theme of this blog is what makes me happy. There are many, many things that make me smile but I will share a few today….

Travel. I love going to new places but I love going back to some places again and again. I may have mentioned this before but my favourite place is Rome and specifically two places, the Pantheon and the Palatine Hill. The Pantheon boggles my mind, such a feat of engineering from ancient times. Every time I go to Rome I go there, I love to simply look around me. As for the Palatine Hill it is harder to describe. All I know is that I feel peaceful there, I will not analyse it further and risk spoiling it for myself.

My thanks to Wikipedia

Cooking. When I want to think about something then I cook. There is something very satisfying about making pastry, if you haven’t tried it then you really should. Sweet or savoury, you choose, you will feel proud of yourself when you have a completed dish. In chilly weather like this soup is also great fun. Chopping vegetables and simmering gently gives the kitchen that aroma of nominess to come. Today it will be French Onion, one of my alltime favourites:)

Laughter. Although the blog is normally serious I confess I am not. Smutty jokes, wordplay and the odd prank will have me chortling.  My daughter has been a source of some inspiration all her life, she will not thank me for sharing but hey-ho, I will take the grief. The daughter is famed for some of her malapropisms and tangental views on life. She was branded the Malteser by her friends, blonde on the inside (apologies to blondes everywhere). The day she told my mother that her brother was ‘such a homophobic’ had my mother quite shocked. When asked what she meant she said ‘He always thinks the slighest wee pain means he is really ill’. I am glad to say that she now knows her hypochondrianc from her homophobic. She also held a firm belief for many years that you shouldn’t eat red apples as they weren’t ripe like the green ones. Eh???? Unfortunately, I know exactly where these tendencies come from. Me. People have been known to look at me quite oddly when I come out with one of my random thoughts. I remember watching Kiss of the Spider Woman, great movie. There is a scene early on when Luis Molina and Valentin Arregui meet. When Molina is asked why he is in prison he says it is for interfering with minors. I was very puzzled and said ‘Why would he be jailed for messing with men who wear Davy Lamps?’. Not perhaps my finest hour but by no means my worst.

My children. They have always made me happy, even at their most naggy and whiny, every parent out there knows what I mean. They are kind, beautiful and funny. They make me smile, I am proud of them every single day.  They are also sarky, lazy and thoroughly messy. I would say I wouldn’t have them any other way but I would love them to be tidy, please!

Lastly, new donations on the blog. I remember clearly the first donation from Lynn who donated five pounds to CLIC Sargent, I smiled for a week. Every new donation, every new charity, produces the same feeling, it never diminishes. I also love the wacky 8 year-old ambitions. So, come on then punks, make my day:)

Hope you like this post Aileen!

I close, as always, with this:-

• Donate to a valid children’s charity of your choice.

• Visit this blog and comment about your donation. Please also tell me what you wanted to be when you were 8. I still want to collect those tales and hope that some child will read about your words and deeds and want to do the same when they are old enough.

I will:-

• Add your donation to the Totals page on this blog, totals are updated weekly.

• I will also write some words about the current donations and the charity

• Store all comments so that everyone can read them.

Thank you for reading.

Lesley