Tuesday 26 January 2021

Joyful Things by Shirley-Anne McMillan


It has been a stressful few days but I don't want to talk about it, or to write about it, mainly because the stress has come from an accumulation of the most boring things ever- an unpicked row of knitting, having to redo a video that I liked best the first time around, the wifi misbehaving and losing some work because of it... I can't complete this list as I can hear myself snoring.

So anyway! Here are some of the things that brought me joy recently:

  • My sister and her partner's rendition of Bernie Sanders via the medium of snow (see above)
  • This video of ice-skaters skating to Metallica in New York
  • This story of two incredibly nerdy men high-fiving one another once a week for six years, brought to my attention by my friend David Dark who has a wonderful newsletter called Dark Matter
  • The scene in Hairspray where John Travolta and Christopher Walken dance together through the laundry in the back yard (just the whole film actually)
  • New books! I'm almost finished reading Liz Kessler's excellent When The World Was Ours and although it is a sad story I feel so glad that it's in the world. If you need to do further research on why 'Own Voices' is important, or why 'issues' books need to be available to young people, then have a look. Next on my list is Keren David's What We're Scared Of. It feels like a good idea to read both books together.

The only thing missing from this list is new stationery, so I'll need to sort that our immediately. Recommendations welcome!

Hope you're all OK this weather x






2 comments:

Anne Booth said...

That snow man is brilliant! I want to read both those books, and the young skaters are amazing. You are right that we have to celebrate joyful things in these days!

Roy Evans said...

If you feel like pushing the boat out, get yourself a new guillotine; there's little more satisfying than using a new guillotine. Or a new laminator, the king of stationery items.