What makes you feel good?

[Bubbles]

Taking this thread from a line Eric said yesterday....'I feel good today, how about the rest of you....'

So, apart from the obvious reasons, you know, family and partners in good health, having enough money to get by, sex!!....etc etc.....

What is the best thing that makes you feel good....

For me it's a good book to read, sat on the settee, fire burning in the grate, cup of tea and a bar of chocolate on a howling cold winter's night.

Or....

Going for a long walk up in the mountains around here, climbing above the trees, sitting down and looking over the valleys to the sea. Sometimes you get to see hawks swooping....other times you get crazy sheep who come to bother you....they think that you have food (or perhaps they think you ARE food, I don't know.) But it's the sound of the silence and the low noise the wind makes when it doesn't have to whistle high sounds to get around buildings. And the sun when it breaks out from behind the clouds and you get to see the beams hit the ocean. Fantastic.

Right, I'll shut up now. It's a freezing cold day here in the UK, not even 2 degrees, grey and still. My cat's doing a good impression of a demented creature on the windowsill outside and has taken to trying to put on her cutest faces in the hope I'll let her in, but I won't for a while. She spends about 20 out of 24 hours asleep, then another one eating. At this rate her friends will forget her and she'll forget how to catch mice or chase birds. I can't have a wuss of a puss as a pet, so she's out for an hour. That'll tougher the old girl up..........hahahaha....(I love her really and will capitulate in about ten mins I suppose.....)

Now I really will shut up, lol.

Bubbs.

[Plavt]

Bubbles how jealous you make me, I love wide open spaces and natural spaces you describe. Having originated from Wiltshire I am ill designed for living in a city even though I have been here since 1981.
Who wants to listen to stereos played at absurd volumes at all hours of the day and night along with low flying police helicopters (seems this is their 'favorite' area), badly behaved school children rude and aggressive people. These points all mean that when you live in a street here you become very anonymous as nobody bothers with each other as you do not know who you can trust anymore.

Must be good to be a cat - especially yours


Plavt.

[Bubbles]

Hi Plavt

I'm not sure which city you're in, but let's say it's London (though just the same can be said for Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast etc)....but London especially.....you see, I think there's a great myth going around about living in London. Yes, for sure, it's an exciting place; you get everything that's new, you can eat anything, visit the spectacular sights, get great artwork to look at, the cinema, the theatre. Of course, those are all givens.

When I lived in Amersham (50 mins on tube to central town) I promised myself I'd go once a week into town to 'see the sights, do the culture' etc. In the three years I lived there I went twice.

What people forget about big cities is the money it takes to have a good time there. Yes, fine if you're rich and live in Kensington, Chelsea, Primrose Hill etc., but it's ridiculously expensive. A tenner for a drink is not unusual. £5 for coffee, in a nice place. Designer shops etc. Yes, sure you can find cheaper stuff, but generally London is very, very pricey.

But, it's not only that. We tend to get a very glamourised version of living in the city from the television, or films. The reality is much different. Flats above take aways, streets divided up into bedsits where you never get to chat or gossip. Dangerous times on the street, and to top it all, there's the pressure to be better, younger, richer, more beautiful, more successful.

I am NOT saying that it's the fault of Londoner, or Manchurians...or is that Mancurians, whatever.....I'm saying it's just different there. People are busy, wary of terrorism, pushed to perform.....

I think I have the best of both worlds. I live just outside Cardiff, in the country. If I want to pop to London, I go on the train (£28 return if you book a week ahead, so not bad)....spend the day there and come back on the train, after 6.30pm. You get to go to all the shops, galleries, whatever....and then you know you can come home.

The tube/train travelling is hell. I know, I did it for years in youth, and in the end you feel yourself to be part of a little 'army' of Londoners who fight each day to come and go. Sort of hardened townies. But for me, there has to be the country. I mean, the real country, not Hyde Park, or Green Park, or Primrose Hill. They are beautiful for sure, but there is never any quietude. Somewhere, as Plavt said, there's a helicopter, or a siren, or the police zooming by, or tons of people skateboarding, or rollerblading, running, picnicking....as they should. Where is the quiet, the big winds, the huge panorama of the sky? Yes, London sky is there, but underneath it there are millions of humans, with their needs, their police, their music, their food......sending up a miasma of chatting sound.

I love London, I love the buzz, I love Londoners...yes, they are a type....but for me it's the country.....(but with a town near, I mean, how could I live without M&S and Tesco?).....lol.

Bubbs.

[Saint]

Bubbs, I think you've expressed exactly my feelings about London. I work up in the City, don't have much choice in my line of work, and after work I can't wait to get out of London!

Ok Aldershot not the best of places, but it's clean, cheap and 5 minutes from lovely countryside.

Mrs S loves popping up to London for a bit of a shop and a wander, but she knows I wont go with her.

We did however go up to town last Sunday for CNY (Had to do the dutiful hubby bit) and my god, Chinatown was manic, never again

Give me a £2.80 pint of Stella, A Chinky takeaway for 2 for a Pavarotti and a 5 minute walk home any day

And It's just started snowing up in the City

[Plavt]

Just a reminder Bubbles, I do live in London (work on the London Underground) in a none too select area to put it mildly.
As you and Saint say the prices are ridiculously high trouble is I would have to become a profesional criminal to be able to afford to live in Kensington or Knightsbridge. I remember looking at the rent for some flats in central London - literally thousands per week. I wonder who has that kind of money just to pay the rent?


Plavt.

[stefania]

Oh i'm on a totally different mode here (!) but here goes....

What makes me feel good (now)?

After a tumultuous year in which a million things that could go wrong went wrong and just when i thought it was gonna get worse....things are starting to look better and i'm having a much more positive outlook on things. The thought of just that makes me feel good.

[Baron Greenback]

Lovely post Bubbs.

I find the things that make me feel good, and I mean really good, that the world is a great place and all are the little things.

For example I was in a local supermarket, Shop n Save, on my way home picking up a few essentials, milk bread etc. In front of me at the checkout was an elderly Chinese woman who was buying a lot of washing powder. At the time the supermarket was offering loyalty stamps, collect 10 get $5 off next purchase type thing.

The woman was talking to the checkout girl & obviously didn't collect these things & after a bit of muddled translation found out I did & offered her stamps to me. Great, marvelous, the human spirit is alive & well, generosity to a stranger etc. But how could I thank her in a way that conveyed how generous I thought her gesture was? I added the stamps to my card, which was now complete, swapped them for the voucher & handed it over to the old lady. The smile on her face was form ear to ear, a connection had been made.

I left the shop & I felt really good. I had done my good deed for the day & smiled all the way home.

Other than that - coffee & chocolate make me feel good as well

[Wind In My Hair]

that's a really nice story baron.

lots of things make me feel good. the most recent was when i was walking my dog a few days ago and saw a pigeon huddled up against a wall, obviously injured and defenceless as it couldn't fly. i was with my little nephew so took him and the dog up, then came down again with a box to put the bird in so a cat wouldn't get it during the night. my sister's maid did the honour of examining the bird as silly me was afraid of handling a wild bird ( i know i know, it was only a pigeon, i'm so silly). it had been attacked and its wings were torn and one leg was bent.

anyway we gave it bread and water and checked on it every now and then. the next day the guy who cleans our estate saw me peering into the box and asked about it and was keen to take the bird home to look after it so i said ok. last i heard the bird is walking again though it still can't fly.

it was just a bird but somehow i felt good, thinking i had probably saved its life.

[sapphire]

Lazing...

[Global Citizen]

There is a guy who's polio ridden and sits in a wheelchair on a pavement by a traffic junction where drivers pass by. Sometimes some drivers stop to give him some money, and sometimes they don't. He never ever asks for any outright and regardless of whether you give or don't, this young man has always got a lovely greeting or a wave for them including me when he sees a familiar face. This guy makes me feel really good. What I've noticed about him is that he affects most people the same way because of his cheery persona and smile.

My son who prepares Mother's Day breakfast for me without fail whenever we're together and who presented me with a watch on my birthday with his first decent paycheck from his part-time job. This almost made me cry when he said it was the least he could do for me. 2005 had been a somewhat difficult year for him and he wanted to show his appreciation for me for being there for him and this was one way.

[tiki]

...when you're in the glum and nothing seems to be working out, you realise, there are people out there who love you and care.

[cheatercock]

[samantha]

Whenever i start up a controversial debate... Or when i buy a new history book...

(My life is a little meaningless... But its alright.. I love it as it is.. )

[Bubbles]

I tell you what I think......we should all really try to just enjoy the 'now' I'm not psychobbabbling....I mean it.

You never know how good now is, and all the small things in your now, till up comes some sodding great boot from the Gods to squash things.

It's fine to strive, to want, to get, but what about a quiet look around on a lazy day? The 'look I'm alive, and not homeless, and isn't that butterfly wonderful, and this grass is so green' sort of thing.

It sounds all 'group hug' type stuff, but truly, we are so very lucky aren't we? Come on, admit it, we are.

Bubbs....who's gone all 'far out and cool man' or whatever!!! No, I am not on anything.....except Alka Seltzer for last nights indulgence. (Shame on the hussy I say.)