Fat Gourg

What's good just at the moment

Here's what's good right now:
1. Working at home today and tomorrow
2. DS back safe from his trip
3. A great walk among the snowdrops on Saturday
4. Hot tea when I'm FREEZING!
5. Booking a hotel for our Silver Wedding anniversary in the wonderful place we met...
6. It's cold but we're not snowed in!
7. Working with my sister
8. Going to crack on and work hard in a minute and today is going to be WORTHWHILE!
9. Classical music on Classic FM
10. Tuna for dinner tonight...

My favourite colour

Blue is my favourite colour. That unimaginable blue of the sky – how does it get to be that colour? What is it about the sky that makes you able to look and look and look and never have enough of that endless blue?

Blue is water too. I love water. Water baby, that’s me. Never happier than when I’m floating, sculling gently, buoyed up in warm, preferably bubbly water. They say "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" – well I think I am not quite a fully evolved human because I think I was made to be aquatic.

Mostly you’ll find me in the bath. That’s where I have all my good ideas. That’s where I relax, that’s where I unwind, that’s where I create. A good book, a glass of wine or G & T and bubbly water…

Making your mark

In her autobiography "The Little Way", St Therese of Lisieux wrote about the simple spirituality of doing ordinary things with extraordinary care.

Most of us never have the opportunity to do extraordinary things, to make a sacrifice or have an impact on the world in more than a very small way. We cannot all be a Mother Theresa or an Aung San Suu Kyi.

We all, however, have influence on the people around us, even if that zone of influence is just our families, freinds, workmates and/ore neighbours. To dedicate yourself to the benefit and happiness of just one other person is worthwhile.

I have a few people whose lives I aim to make easier and happier, and sometimes the way to that is not some grand gesture or difficult and elaborate action but simply doing ordinary things with extraordinary care.

Mosaic with the theme joy...

1. The look of joy, 2. The Look of Joy, 3. Joy, 4. Jump for Joy, 5. Happy Frog...., 6. Jumping for Joy on a College Campus, 7. Poppy - Klaproos, 8. From Cookham, Berkshire, 9. pumpkin joy, 10. FONT JOY, 11. Joy. Say it often, say it loud :), 12. Joy, 13. Joy in a Bottle, 14. JOY, 15. Joy of Youth, 16. Joy Theater sign, 17. He is Our Joy - S3isJoy, 18. The Joy Journey, 19. Maximum Joy, 20. JOY

How we are in Italy...

http://www.infonegocio.com/xeron/bruno/italy.swf

A simple but very amusing Flash animation comparing Europeans generally with Italians. To be honest a lot of it could apply to Brits!

GCSE results day

Last year it was A-level results we were waiting for, and it was a bit of a fraught day, which ended happily, praise God.

This year, we are waiting on an early GCSE result (most will be next year). It can't have been just me in tears this morning watching the youngsters live on TV having their results read out by the headteacher. The thing about exams is that some people have to fail, and it's distressing to think how young lives could be blighted by missing a hoped-for result.

Still, life is full of pressure, successes and disappointments. You can't go through life without encountering them, so young people have to learn how to cope. A lot of youngsters these days (well, middle class ones) are so coddled they have no opportunity to experience life's ups and downs - and yet there are others who suffer...

Perhaps that should be a curriculum subject - coping with life's ups and downs!

Update will be posted when the result comes in...