Things that made me smile today

100 days

Yesterday marked 100 days of this Smiles experiment. My goal was to do it for 28 days and then see where it would take me. I think 100 days has been pretty golden and I feel it’s a good place to stop.

Thanks for reading everyone :) I really didn’t expect it to have the positive outcome on others as it has. It’s been pretty choice.

Here’s a list of things I’ve noticed/learned from the past 100 days:

• Smiles instantly increase the moment I get out of the house — even if it’s just for a run.
• I hit double smiles when almost all of my favourite people were in town.
• Even on the shittiest day, there is always at least ONE smile.
• It’s easy to forget what made you smile. I probably hit double digits many days.
• Sharing your smiles, even if you’re not smiling AT someone, seems to have a positive effect anyway.

This has been a most-interesting experiment. I encourage you to give this a go. You don’t have to make it public. You don’t even have to do 28 days. Maybe just a week. Or two. Who knows. Maybe you could get your kids into it.. it could look interesting as they get older :)

Thanks again for reading! Really appreciate it :) And to finish, here’s something that never fails to make me smile.

xo

4 things

1. Woman sitting on a bench feeding the neighbourhood ducks.
2. Ayako’s apologetic email to me (she keeps putting off doing something for me and I keep being grateful and saying she can take her time): “This is no longer about you, Sam! It’s about me! I have to prove myself!”
3. My gran finding some old photos (that’s her up there sitting on the chair, sixty-odd years ago) and reminiscing about them. “Your aunt says ‘where are the photos of me?’, but she doesn’t understand — when you’ve got two, things are manageable, but THREE? Taking photos just becomes such a pain, y’know?” [dodgy Cantonese translation]
4. Finding that my word count [edit: for my next column] is exactly 500. Not sure why that pleases me so much.

1 thing

1. Watching old episodes of Absolutely Fabulous. It’s so much funnier now that I get more of the UK/London references!

6 things

1. Beautiful singing from this morning’s birds.
2. Kim’s cheesy status.
3. Tobe’s debut in The Japan Times.
4. Jen’s g’bye dinner and drinks.
5. Meeting fellow Malaysians and reminiscing about the awesome Taranaki St. food court (RIP).
6. Stars in the sky (speaking of cheese). Seeing Orion’s belt (or for me, “The Disgruntled Face”) always reminds me of Sini, who pointed it out to me while we sat on the beach in Paraparaumu back in… ‘96? Good times.

3 things

1. Puj bringing this Turtles song to my attention. Hilarious (if not a little lazy) lyrics! “You’re my pride and joy, et cetera..”
2. Remembering that there’s an episode of Game of Thrones waiting for me! I wonder what the boob count will be on tonight’s episode.. hopefully low. [edit: boob count low, but cringe count HIGH]
3. My gran using my screenshot instructions on how to use the iPad. Slowly, I will turn her into an iGran (that’s ‘i’ for ‘independent’).

7 things

1. Another lovely Wellington day.
2. An email from the lovely Taz.
3. One of our soon-to-be neighbours quoting a friend talking to her husband (a husband who recently retired and started hanging around the house a lot): “I got married for better or for worse. Not for lunch. Get yourself a hobby.”
4. The possibility of being able to rear chickens at the new house! Chooks! Chicks! Cheep!
5. The seriously awesome guy that runs a small business in China selling legit (!) Mandarin-dubbed DVDs. So, SO helpful and generous. I need to deal with another person like him to help me get over losing my AWOL shipment of things I sent from Hoi An.
6. Jussi’s hilarious link to Animals with Stuffed Versions of Themselves. Kiitos! Look at that pug’s face! It’s all like, “Are woo going to weplace moi?”.. aww.. so sad.. and so hilarious!
7. After months doing very limited reps of angled press-ups against a bench, today I tried doing a full press-up (on the ground-styles) and was surprised and overjoyed that I could do a whole ONE. And then I did another 9 more. Not quite Wonder Woman, but I never liked that outfit anyway.

4 things

1. Loads of great music on my FB feed.
2. Baby fest at Stacey and Phil’s. So many well-behaved, lovely babies, toddlers, kids, teens and adults. And much cake.
3. Stacey and Phil’s curious alpacas. They were cute. And they didn’t look as scary as the ones in the pic above.
4. Mayumi’s email. I love that feeling when you understand humour well enough in another language that you laugh.

8 things

1. This blog having a positive effect all the way in Finland!
2. Sharn’s link to the Top 10 Dowager Countess Moments from Downton Abbey.
3. Watching part of The Fellowship of the Ring with my gran and now knowing the Mandarin for “You shall not pass” — could come in handy when queueing, or receiving unwanted attention?
4. Friendly, trendy (frendy?) sales peeps at several Cuba St. shops.
5. Gatecrashing Jen’s work drinks.
6. Reading WIRED mag’s take on future board game films.
7. Two girls on my bus getting a massive case of the giggles to the point that one of them got the hiccups.
8. Being reminded of how great The Cure are.

3 things

1. One spoon.
2. One jar of Nutella.
3. Multiple amusing status threads on FB.

2 things

1. Nerdtastic! Quick-sort a la… a Hungarian folk dance! Why couldn’t they have taught CompSci. like THIS at Victoria. Thanks Sharn!
2. My sweet onion lentil stew which turned out nothing like the photo above, but was still damn tasty — and I have extra to give to Steph! I’m going to miss not living in the same ‘hood as my buddies… :(