Category: Five Things

Always look on the bright side – the things that made me smile in February.

With Winter almost over the horizon and turning to give its last wave until it sees us again at the back end of the year (or sporadically from August if you live in the north), Spring had undoubtedly brightened things up. So, last month had a few more than just the regular five things to smile about!

My birthday. One of the first things I had to smile about was my birthday. I normally don’t really care about it that much and find that the family make much more of a fuss than me, which in its own way is of course very nice. However, this year felt different. Firstly, we didn’t make any plans to go out because there was torrential rain for the whole day. In turn, that made things all the more relaxing. One of my presents was tickets to see The Shawshank Redemption at a theatre in Leeds, which I was really pleased with. But then I realised that I’d never watched the film. None of us had. And so, we spent my birthday afternoon together, snacking and watching what is largely felt to be one of the greatest films ever released. It was a wonderful way to spend my birthday.

Local paper steals my headline! I could have got quite annoyed about this, but in the end it just made me smile. It came about because a local journalist put a story out on Twitter (sadly now X) about Newcastle’s Champions League tie in Baku. The story referenced a song that our fans have been singing for years, to the tune of Que Sera, Sera – ‘Tell me mam, me mam, I won’t be home for tea, we’re going to Wembley’. So, a celebration of a certain achievement where the ‘tea’ and ‘Wembley’ rhyme. But for his headline the journalist had just ended it with Azerbaijan, which doesn’t rhyme with ‘tea’…or with much at all! So, I left a comment saying wouldn’t be better as ‘scran’ (a dialect word for food) instead of ‘tea’. The journalist got back to me saying that I was right. Later however, the newspaper that said journalist writes for sent out a link to an article about our fans being in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, using my version of the song as their headline! Have a look for yourself!

Abandoned island for sale. This was a story I read about an island that has been put up for sale. It’s in the Dwyryd Estuary in North Wales, very close to where we go on holiday every year. Apparently there are 17 acres containing a farmhouse that is in need of major renovation. Had I have been 20 years younger – and a lot richer – I’d have been tempted to have a look and maybe even put in a bid!

Spring. Plain and simple. The nights are getting lighter. As are the mornings, come to think of it. Having had the last few months where I’ve been leaving for work in the dark and then heading home in the dark, it’s very much smileworthy to not have to do it anymore! Spring also means that I can see new life everywhere and – old romantic that I am – I really like seeing buds come back on to plants, flowers appearing and the like. They’re just a sign of better things to come.

The Alternative Guide to Qarabag. As I mentioned previously in this column, Newcastle United played a Champions League tie in Azerbaijan recently. And, as I write for a Newcastle fan site, I was inspired to write a piece on this. However, rather than write a straightforward preview of the match I wanted to do something different. Many years ago I wrote for another Newcastle website and what we wrote was largely silly, imaginative (made up) pieces that looked at the club in a very different way. So for my Qarabag piece I decided to write an alternative guide which mixed a small amount of factual stuff with loads of made up bits about Qarabag. It was just a piece that I hoped would raise some smiles and maybe even a few chuckles. More than that though, it gave me the chance to write something completely different as well as rolling back the years a bit and remembering writing in my twenties without a care in the world. The piece is on the link below if anyone fancies a read.

NUFC in the Champions League – The alternative guide to Qarabag.

The Qarabag result. Qarabag 1 Newcastle United 6. The game was played over two legs and we won by an aggregate score of 9-3 in the end. However, that first game was superb and we were absolutely ruthless. Suffice to say, after all of the build up, it left me with a big smile on my face!

Marsden Moor. At half term me and my son ventured out past Huddersfield to take a hike across the beautiful Marsden Moor. It was a cold wet day, which was bad enough, but when we got up onto the moor it wasn’t long before we encountered snow. We were well equipped for what we were doing though and so the snow didn’t really provide an obstacle. What did hinder us was some badly worded instructions and a wrong turn that not only took us about a mile out of our way, but also led to us tackling some very narrow and steep paths. And of course it was at this point that the rain decided to properly lash down as well. Despite the conditions, despite painful feet and ankles from my boots and despite how tired we both were, the day was brilliant. Spending that time with my son was time incredibly well spent and there were smiles throughout the day.

Jigsaw puzzle lovers raise £15k for charity. This is a great story. During the first Covid lockdown Lynn Pearl and her husband Gideon started a puzzle library where people could lend jigsaws. This has now grown from the 80 they started with to over 3000 mainly donated jigsaws that are lent out at £1 a time. On average 40-50 jigsaws per day are loaned out at their village hall and this has led to them donating over £15k to local food charities across the years.

Chris Ramsey. Chris Ramsey is a fantastically funny comedian and we were lucky enough to go and watch one of his gigs last month in Halifax. Obviously you’d judge a comedy show on how much you laughed, but when you come out and your face aches with laughing, you know it’s been a brilliant night. Handily, I’ve added my review of the gig below, if anyone wants to find out about the gig! Comedy Review: Chris Ramsey at Halifax Victoria Theatre.

So, lots of positives found in February, which was a good job because the weather was horrendous! I hope some of it made you smile too. On to March and to see how much I’m smiling once that’s out of the way!

Always Look on the Bright Side…Five Things That Made Me Smile in January.

So, a new year comes round again and for lots of us it’s time for major change…at least for a month until we get bored and go back to being our usual selves. Well, there’ll be no New Year, New Me here! But what there will be is the usual monthly feature looking for a few positives in life. So what turned my frown upside down in January?

Photographer recreates that iconic ET moment. This was a story from Wales where a photographer and his mate spent almost two years trying to recreate the iconic ET and Elliot flying across the moon moment. Michael Meighan and his mate Nathan Edwards had patiently tried everything to get the shot just right over the years, but something always got in their way. And with only twelve full moons per year, chances were limited. Eventually though, with Nathan pushing his bike – complete with taped on teddy bear covered in a blanket as E.T. – and Michael over a mile away watching through a viewfinder outside his house, they got the perfect shot as you can see below!

The Fast Show. The Fast Show was a huge influence on me in my twenties. A sketch show that just made me laugh and laugh. Full of ridiculous characters and catchphrases that just became part of everyday life in our house and in every workplace that I entered during that era. So, it was great to read about its new found popularity in January. Apparently, due to internet clips and an ‘An Evening with…’ tour by most of the stars last year the show has reached a whole new audience. Too right, as well. Whether it was Ken and Kenneth, two overly familiar gentlemen’s outfitters, Bob Fleming coughing his way through another show or even a Peruvian flute troop cropping up in the most unusual places, it was always my favourite show.

Tynemouth Igloo. As a native of the North East of England I’m always on the lookout for local news, even though I haven’t lived there for almost 30 years now. The North East will always feel like home. So in early January, when there was a lot of snow about, I was instantly attracted to a news story about someone building an igloo in Tynemouth, a coastal town near Newcastle. Two brothers, Isaac and Jakob had spent 15 hours building an igloo using plastic tubs to help with building blocks. The result was something that it seemed like the whole community would use over the next few snowy days.

Care Home Residents’ Podcast. This one really made me smile. Three residents of a care home in Birmingham have developed a podcast after a member of staff told them they’d be great at it. Doreen (92), Maureen (88) and Anne (92) now host ‘Do You Remember the Time?’, talking about just how life has changed over the years. And despite their initial reservations about the technology involved, they’ve found out that it’s just like having a chat with friends over dinner. As someone who’s fast approaching my retirement years it’s good to know that the future might be a bit more fun than I’d imagined.

Amazing miniatures. Having spent hours of his childhood making Airfix models, Lee Smithson has turned his hobby into a business and now makes miniatures that bring other people’s memories to life. And they’re amazing! Lee now runs Sheffield Miniatures, taking commissions to make everything from a recreation of someone’s front room to their local butchers and even a steam engine from way back in Sheffield’s history. What caught my eye though was an allotment he’d done for someone. My father used to have an allotment and had taken some photos of it and asked my daughter if she could do him a painting of it. However, try as she might she couldn’t get it quite right. A miniature would have been fantastic!

Try as I might I couldn’t think of many smiles that were personal to me for last month, but I hope you like the stories I stumbled across!

Anyway, keep looking for the positives, however tiny they might be!

Always Look On The Bright Side – Five things that made me smile in December.

A bit of a different one for this feature this month. It has to be said that December was a bit of a disaster for me personally. It became clear that from pretty much the start of the month that I was poorly and this developed and stayed with me for almost the whole of the month. A lovely chest infection coupled with a sinus problem! So, moments of happiness were in short supply!

So, where were those few smiles?

Sunrises. Winter seems to bring with it some spectacular sunrises and I’m lucky enough to be able to catch a lot of them on my way to work. This December was no exception. I only have a short commute; about 7 minutes. This means that there’s not a lot of time sat in traffic, which means that I don’t get to enjoy the scenery or the sunrises. It also means that the car never has long enough to heat up in winter, but that’s another story! Brilliantly though, there’s a point in my journey where on either side of me is just beautiful countryside and when the sun is coming up and there’s no cloud it can be quite spectacular. Luckily for me, there were a number of those moments last month.

A giant advent calendar. This was a story I read about a charity advent calendar in Chorley, Lancashire that was made from 24 shipping containers. Each day a container of gifts was donated to a local charity as part of the Cash for Kids Mission Christmas campaign. I mean, what a wonderful thing to do. The kind of thing that helps you restore your faith in humanity. It couldn’t fail to make even the biggest Scrooge smile, could it?

The end of a long term. The first term of an academic year is always tough. And I know that people love to moan about teacher’s holidays – another thing that never fails to make me smile; if you’re so infatuated with our holidays, train to be a teacher – and I get that when we start again in September it’s off the back of 6 weeks off over summer. Still, that first term back is always a hard one, believe me. So, after 15 weeks of a term I was fully ready for the Christmas break and a glorious two weeks off. Smiles aplenty!

Family. I’ve lived away from my family in Newcastle for just over 30 years now and distance and busy schedules mean that I don’t get to see them very often. Christmas gives me that opportunity and even though we only managed a day this year due to my daughter’s busy work schedule, it was precious time spent with my closest family. It’s always lovely to see my parents engaging with with my kids – their grandchildren – and it always makes me smile. It was also good to see that my sister was healthy after a difficult year for her. And I must say, I enjoy giving presents, so watching my parents open their gifts is always good, especially my dad’s reactions; opens gift, looks at it for approximately 4 seconds, puts it down and just says ‘Aye’. The same every year!

A brass band! Every Christmas my local supermarket gets a brass band to come in and play carols on a Saturday morning close to Christmas. It’s always such a wonderful sound and that, plain and simple, is what made me smile!

And that was that for last month. I was poorly for almost the whole month and although I enjoyed the whole lead up to Christmas, there just weren’t as many smiles as usual!

Here’s hoping that January perks things up a bit!

Always Look on The Bright Side of Life; Five Things That Made Me Smile in October.

October was a bit of a funny month. While there was plenty to keep me optimistic and to make me crack the odd smile, it also signalled the closing weeks of that tough first half term of the academic year. So even smiling felt like an effort! Anyway, here’s what made me make that effort last month!

A groundsman’s pitches go viral. As someone who used to coach football teams, this one caught the eye. I never had to cut the pitches, but was responsible for marking the lines out every once in a while. However, this was a story about Joe Mecke-Davis, the groundsman at Westfields Football Club in Herefordshire. Because his club isn’t professional there are no rules as to how he cuts his pitch and so Matt has let his imagination run wild over the years. Now, his designs are in the running for an international award after images of his pitches went viral. Have a look for yourself…

The joy of a free book and a writing workshop! Every year at the school that I teach at each student in Year 7 gets to choose a free book. It’s a sponsored thing designed to promote reading. And if you didn’t know, reading figures are dropping fast. Obviously, as an English teacher and a fairly prolific reader, I find this trend really worrying. Naturally then, I think the scheme where kids get a book for free is just a fantastic idea. But the thing that made me smile more than anything this year was the enthusiasm of the my students who were desperate to get a look at the choices and haven’t stopped asking when they’re going to get their book ever since! Alongside this, recently I had to nominate 5 students to take part in a workshop with a visiting author. I decided to nominate a couple of really shy, quiet boys because I thought they might benefit from working with a writer for the day. We had to give out little tickets to the event as well and so I kept my group of five back at the end of the lesson to give them their tickets. Both of my shy students looked like they thought they had done something wrong, but the smiles on their faces and the expressions that said ‘Me, really?’ almost made the whole slog of an 8 week half term worth it!

Dinosaur Discovery! I read a brilliant story concerning a discovery of dinosaur footprints last month. They’re part of the longest trackway site ever discovered in the UK. They were originally found by a farm worker driving a digger and since their discovery archaeologists have been excavating the land bit by bit. Now, they’ve unearthed five different trackways of massive footprints that go on for 150 metres and are thought to have been made by both sauropods and a Megalosaurus, the largest predatory dinosaur known in the UK during the Jurassic period. I find things like this fascinating!

Divers discover $1 million worth of treasure. Another article that I read last month told of the discovery of treasure found on a centuries old Spanish shipwreck off Florida. It’s thought to be part of up to $400 million worth of treasure that was lost in the same hurricane, which divers are now frantically hoping to find more of! I used to collect old coins as a school boy and loved finding rare ones, so this story couldn’t have failed to make me smile!

Finally…half term! I’m writing this after work on the final day of the first half term of the academic year. It’s been a long, gruelling 8 week stint, marked particularly over the last two weeks by massive bouts of illness across the school. On at least two days this week we’ve had over 100 students off ill. So partly, I’m happy that I seem to have avoided it and also I’m just thrilled to bits that I now have a week off! The next one leads us right up to Christmas; something else to smile about!

I hope you enjoyed my reasons to smile this time around. There’ll be more at the start of December. Hopefully November is full of positives!

Always Look on The Bright Side; Five Things That Made Me Smile in September.

It’s that time again! Time to remind that despite the gruff exterior, there are occasions that make me crack a smile! I write this piece every month in order to remind myself and anyone else who needs it, that there’s always a reason to smile. September was a decent month too, so there are more than just the usual five too. You might call it a bumper edition!

Period 6 Frees! As a teacher, I sometimes find myself living for my free periods. The job is never not demanding and having my room to myself just to sit and work is always a blessing. This year, I’ve been rather fortunate, depending on your point of view. We have 6 lesson days at my school and on three of those days I’ve been lucky enough to be given the last lesson of the day free! I love it! Firstly, it gives me a goal to get to. I’m in my 50s and this job tires me out, so if I’m finished teaching before the end of the day that is just wonderful. I can relax and just get stuff done and this also means that I spend a little less time after work planning and marking. I also get to avoid some of the worst behaviour of the day too! And the best part? I have last lesson on a Friday free…all to myself…just me, the radio, an empty classroom and as much work as I can get through to start with planning for the next week.

Fantastic Forests. I’m a sucker for a lovely view. And I love a walk in the forest, having sampled a fair few across the world over the years. So an article on the BBC website about the most fantastic forests across the globe was right up my street last month. There were some that I’ll never actually see; the Jiuzhaigou National Park in China and the Amazon are either too far away, too dangerous or both for someone who might only explore them in retirement. However, the Hallerbos Forest in Belgium with its bluebell woods is close and very appealing.

The end of the Transfer Window! As a massive Newcastle United fan it felt like the whole focus of this year’s summer transfer window was on us and the sale of Alexander Isak, who memorably sulked and went on strike in order to force a move to Liverpool. A great role model for today’s youth, right there! Every day of summer was dominated by the story and it became quite exhausting really. In the end, he was sold for a British record transfer fee and, to be honest, it was just a relief in the end. Good riddance!

Couch to Team GB! This was the story of mum of two, Emma Broadhurst who recently captained the Team GB Triathlon team at the European Triathlon Championships in Turkey. Now that might not seem like that big a deal until you find out that Emma only started exercising again a few years ago after putting on weight having had two children. However, after not being able to stick to her exercise schedule she then entered a triathlon and joined a local triathlon club. With the camaraderie and support that she received Emma found that she was doing really well and then, two years later, found herself being called up to Team GB having finished second at an event in Cardiff last year. Emma is only 35, yet still a bit of a veteran in athletics terms and so this was a story that was bound to make an oldie like me smile!

Wor Flags. For the uninitiated, Wor Flags is a fan funded group that organises flag displays (tifos) at Newcastle United home matches. They’ve been going for a few years now and have held some incredible displays that help with the atmosphere in the ground on matchdays. Basically flags of all shapes and sizes are dotted around the stadium with frequent appearances by themed surfer flags that can sometimes cover entire stands or levels of stands. In my humble opinion, Wor Flags create the best displays in the UK. The one that made me smile last month – and once again feel incredibly proud to support my club – was displayed before the home game against Barcelona in the Champions League. Rather than banging on about it, I’ll just post the photos below. A thing of beauty.

Colourful towns and cities. I read an article about towns and cities that don’t shy away from a bit of colour and it made me smile. To get to our favourite beach when we’re on holiday we have to walk through the harbour of said town and most of the houses are painted different, vibrant colours. It’s just a lovely, lovely place. Then, about a week after reading the article I read that they were bringing back the children’s TV classic, Balamory. If you don’t know of it, Balamory was a fictional Scottish town full of happy-go-lucky characters who lived in a place where the houses were painted different colours. There was a lot of singing of catchy songs too. Again, just the mention of Balamory and the thought of all of that colour and remembering singing the songs with my kids when they were much younger made me smile!

And there we have it; a bumper (2 smiles more than usual!) edition of ‘Always look on the bright side…) and hopefully at least one thing to make you smile. Until next time; keep smiling!

Always Look on the Bright Side; Things that made me smile in August.

August is a month where I fall out of routine. As a teacher, I’m enjoying the summer break; six weeks of work free bliss. And because of that, I rarely remember to keep up with the routines that I establish during term times, including looking for the little smile worthy positive moments in the news. So, this month, my bright sides are a bit more generalised.

Summer and a bit of a heat wave. Now, I feel it’s best to quantify the term ‘heatwave’. I live in England which is never particularly warm in comparison to a lot of other countries. However, this year, for a week or so we had a bona fide heatwave and temperatures that at times became unbearable. Why smile then, you might ask. Simple. Being without work for 6 weeks meant that I was free to sit out in the garden on such hot days and chat to family or read a book or even, if I was feeling a little more ambitious, do a bit of gardening. And it’s wonderful just to feel the warmth of the sun on your skin. In the north of England it’s easy to get used to the wind and the rain and so it’s always a reason to smile when the sun gets out in summer.

We’ve got a clean patio! Having had a lovely family holiday in Wales we returned to normal life that included the added bonus of a patio now full of weeds. We’d done some work getting them off before we’d left but when we got back home after a week it was like a mini jungle. Now, after much trowel work, boiling water pouring and sweeping our patio looks lovely and it’s been fantastic being able to sit there in the sun without wishing it wasn’t a mess. Sometimes, it’s the strangest of things that can raise a smile!

My son’s GCSE results. Despite the fact that it feels like mere minutes ago that I was regularly picking my kids up from their primary school’s after school club, they’re in fact both finished in regular education. The youngest, my son, finished Year 11 in July of this year and so picked up his GCSE results near the end of August. He passed everything, which was great, achieving excellent results in Maths, English Language and i Media. It’s obviously really stressful for everyone, especially him while waiting for the results, so knowing that he got through it all so well was more than enough reason for a bit of a smile. It’s nice to know that he’s got that particular hurdle out of the way. Now he’s just got to do it all again with 2 year’s worth of A-Levels!

Newcastle. My home city, the place I was born and raised and unfortunately, somewhere I left when I was in my early twenties. Every August gives me plenty of time to visit home and catch up with family and friends. And this August I was lucky enough to be able to visit twice. Firstly, I took my son up to watch a Newcastle United match. Just a friendly game, but it was the first time I’d been in a while and it felt wonderful to be back in the stadium, being part of a fabulous atmosphere and just being able to watch my team. A week later we visited again for a couple of days in order to see family and friends, catching up with everyone that we wanted to see and having a great time. My dad hasn’t been in the best of health for the last year and so it’s good to check in with him and see that he’s gradually getting stronger again. He’s not quite the same, but it’s comforting and more than enough to bring a smile to my face to see that he’s getting better.

Running. I’ve had a strange year with fitness and have never quite got myself to the levels that I want. It’s been very ‘stop, start’ with illness and injury dominating, meaning I’ll get out for maybe two or three runs in a row and then suffer some kind of setback. However, towards the end of August I felt like I’d made a breakthrough. Having injured my back and worrying that I wouldn’t be able to run for at least a couple of weeks, I recovered within less than a week and was running again. Fingers crossed, everything’s been fine since and although I’m not running with a smile on my face – more a grimace – I’m finding a little bit of consistency. There’s always a positive to be found!

So there we have it; another month, another five things to smile about. Hopefully I’ll have lots to smile about in September, despite having to go back to work!

Always Look on The Bright Side – Things that made me smile in July.

So, here we are again. Back searching for the various positives in life and sharing them with the intent of possibly brightening someone else’s day. A piece I write every month, usually with the aid of a few notes written on a scrap of paper kept on my desk and added to every time I find something that makes me smile. Here’s July’s good bits!

The world’s strangest houses. I read the BBC website most break times at work, just to take me away from thinking about work, marking, the next class and stuff like that. Their Uplifting Stories section always has something to raise a grin. Last month featured the world’s strangest houses and as someone who always wanted to live somewhere cool, but ended up in a dull brown box – not literally, don’t worry – this caught my attention. The houses include a tiny wooden structure built by teenagers on a rock in the middle of the river Drina in Serbia, the mushroom house in Cincinnati which does exactly what it says on the tin and the Llama house in Argentina, which is quite an unusual building anyway, while also having a massive llama sculpture right outside which is as tall as the house itself. My favourite though had to be the Bug House in Albuquerque, which looks kind of buggish, has a library and a gallery as well as being ‘guarded’ by metal stegasaurus sculptures.

The end of the academic year! Quite simple, really. If you can’t get on board with smiling at being finished work for 6 weeks, then we probably can’t be friends. Anyway, it was a really tough, but thoroughly enjoyable year which I’ll write more about soon, but being free to not have to get up for work for ages and ages more than helped and definitely made me smile!

I painted our bathroom ceiling. Sadly, the summer holiday doesn’t seem to be allowing a great deal of holidaying as we work like trojans trying to go through the whole house sorting things out, completing long overdue jobs and throwing out stuff that causes clutter. But it’s ultimately ok, because I can get up when I like and I don’t have to go to work. One of the jobs I’ve done is painting our bathroom ceiling which, preparation included, took a whole afternoon. But every time I go in there now, I smile!

Lemur babies in Telford. Another story from the BBC. Ring tailed lemurs are a critically endangered species so although these two babies were born in captivity, it’s still great news. The babies were born to different mums, Rakoto and Abi, but have the same dad, Alfie…which to be totally honest raised another smile entirely! Here’s one of the babies below. Tell me that didn’t make you smile!

Our holiday in Wales. It’s not particularly glamorous and we go there every year, but I absolutely love it. To be sat on one of my favourite beaches makes me feel completely relaxed. I can read a book, chat to one of the family, play games, go for a walk or go for a bit of a paddle in the sea and I don’t think of any kind of worries or stressful stuff at all. We go to a village on the Llyn peninsula in North Wales and for me it’s one of the most beautiful, unspoilt and unfussy places going. And this year I managed to go for an early morning run down one of the longer beaches, ending by clambering over some rocks at low tide and over onto one of our regular almost hidden coves completely on my own. What a way to start the day!

And there you have it. Five more reasons to smile and five more reminders to me that it’s great to be alive! I hope you enjoyed my little bit of positivity.

Always Look on the Bright Side: Five Things that Made me Smile in May.

So, here we are again. Delving into the everyday positives that can be found…even if you tend to wander round with your head in the clouds like me! It doesn’t take much to find something that will be sure to make you smile.

So what did the trick in May?

Toddlers named World Puddle Jumping champions! I mean even without the detail there’s enough to raise a smile even with the headline alone. However, last month I read about Eli and his twin sisters Maia and Neeve from Northampton whose mum had submitted a video of them jumping in puddles to the organisers of the World Puddle Jumping Championships. The championships are run by Wicksteed Park, a tourist attraction in Northamptonshire, who decided that these muddy puddle loving siblings were the winners. There’s no trophy; winners receive a cuddly toy and tickets for a family day out at the park. Let’s hope it’s raining that day!

Star Wars Teabag art! This was such a great story! Artist Caroline West has been busy making miniature paintings of Star Wars scenes on tea bags. As someone who loves a bit of art and is also a Star Wars fan this one was always going to make me smile. Caroline first dries the teabags out, empties them and then irons them flat before painting her masterpieces. And they really are fantastic. Apparently she has created 30 tiny paintings and given them all Star Wars themed names like Brewbacca and R2Tea2.

Another artist! Drawing London using a fine liner. I’ll say it again – I’ve always loved art. I was reasonably good at it as a kid (and can still turn my hand to it a little bit nowadays) but I really admire people who can paint, draw or even take great photographs. This time it’s an artist called Jack Nolan who has drawn the whole of central London using only fine liners. And he’s spent nearly 1000 hours doing it! This raised a smile mainly because of how good it looks, but also for the amount of skill and dedication involved in getting it just right. Have a look for yourselves!

My daughter arriving home. Not as simple as it sounds, this one. She hasn’t just got the bus back from work or something. I’ve mentioned in a previous ‘Five Things’ how proud I was that she’d sought out adventure in her gap year by travelling to South East Asia and exploring Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore. Well, in the middle of May she returned! There were lots of tears (not mine!) and laughter when we picked her up from the airport, but mainly this was just an enormous reason to smile. Not only is she safe and well, but she’s been through a whole raft of enormous experiences that, as she enters a bit more of the adult world, I hope will stand her in good stead for what she’s got to come in life.

I became a superhero…finally! I started a new job at the beginning of this academic year. It’s an all boys school in an entirely new academies trust after I left my old place having become frustrated with the trust that I was working for. I didn’t feel valued, which struck me as a strange way to treat someone with nearly a quarter of a century of English teaching experience. I was assured by friends who worked at my new place that our trust was vastly different and it didn’t take long for me to realise how true this was. Within a couple of months I was more happy than a middle aged man should have been to be named Star of The Week at our school, with the Head teacher waxing lyrical about me in our meeting. He’d sat in on one of my lessons with a particularly difficult group, so it was great to hear so many positives. And it’s continued with plenty of people having good things to say about my teaching over the last few months. A couple of weeks ago though, things got even better when I was named as a ‘Staff Superhero’ on a document that was sent across the whole trust! Again, lots of nice things were said about me and even at my age it’s lovely to get a bit of credit for hard work. Such pats on the back are not why I do the job, but still, it’s nice to feel valued at any time, really. I’m still waiting on my cape and lycra costume though…

So, there you go; proof once again that even though you might have to upturn a few stones and look a little harder than you might like at times, there are always positives to enjoy and things to turn that frown upside down!

Always look on the Bight Side; Five Things that Made me Smile in April.

This month’s ‘Five Things…’ is a little bit different in that I haven’t really had time to make my usual list. Add to this that for two weeks I was on Easter holidays and out of my routine and it means that this wasn’t something that I gave much thought to. So this month is a little bit off the cuff. But I hope it still serves to show you that we can usually find something to smile about, however simple.

The first thing – and the most obvious – that had me smiling was the Easter break. As a teacher I get a two week end of term break at Easter and this year, because of the timing of the holiday, I also got an extra day for Easter Monday. Now, I know lots of people complain that teachers get too much time off, but I have a number of responses to that. Firstly, I’m presuming that as a child, you went to school. Therefore, you know the drill. When a term or a half term ends, there’s a break. It’s not new. Secondly on this, if it troubles you that much, do the training, invest the time and become a teacher. Thinks of the holidays! But, I digress. Two weeks off gives a person time to rest, relax, reset and reflect. And while sometimes my life feels far too busy and chaotic, rest, relaxation, the chance to reset and reflect are more than enough to make me smile.

My fence. The first week of the Easter break was almost entirely spent in sunshine. And so, being in my middle age that was the cue to do lots of things in the garden! One of these things was to start painting my fence, which hadn’t been painted since we had even better weather during lockdown. Suffice to say that by the end of the break the view into my garden was way better than it’s been for years! Boring, I know, but sometimes – especially at my age – it’s the simple things that raise a smile!

The Bluetones. The Bluetones are one of my favourite bands and have been for around 30 years. If you don’t know, they’re an indie pop band who were big in the Britpop scene of the 1990s and they make wonderful, thoughtful indie pop music. Anyway, I went to one of their gigs last month, in York. They were brilliant, as always, which was reason enough for a bit of a smile. If you’ve never heard them, then I implore you to check them out. However, it was a consequence of writing a review that made me smile even more. Having posted my review on a Bluetones fans group on social media it started to do really well in terms of views. Always a reason to smile. People were leaving positive comments. More smiling. And then, one comment really caught my eye. It was from the father of the singer in the support band, Balter, who said that he was thrilled to see that I’d mentioned them and that his son, the singer was chuffed too. So pleased were they that they actually asked if they could use my comments in their promotional material going forward. I can’t lie; I was delighted! They’re @balterband on Instagram by the way, and well worth checking out.

It’s Spring. The weather’s getting better, the days longer and lighter, the birds are singing and everywhere you look, something is in bloom. Just last night I was able to come home from work and within about half an hour was sat in my garden reading my book and enjoying the sun. So despite the stress of life, Spring and all that it stands for can really make a difference.

Ballpoint pen artist. This relates to an article I read about Cy Baker, a wildlife artist who has partnered with the Wildlife Trust to produce 16 drawings on canvas of various British wildlife, using only black ink. It caught my attention – and made me smile – for a number of reasons. Firstly, I studied Art at school and had a little bit of a talent for it. I still enjoy dabbling every once in a while, although I’m really not that good. I’m keen though! Art kind of runs in the family too, with several cousins and at least a couple of uncles displaying genuine talent for drawing, painting and photography. Closer to home, my daughter is a really talented artist, although like me, is a bit lapsed. I hold out some hope that it’ll be something that she goes back to though. I really admire people who can draw and paint though as I realise what a skill it is having struggled manfully with it for years! So to see Cy’s talent is really quite the thrill. The idea that a person can produce something as amazing as the image below using just a biro is quite incredible to me and a real inspiration.

And with that, and the face of an incredible biro drawn badger, I’ll say, hope you had a great April and have a great May too. Keep smiling!

Always look on the bright side: Five Things that Made Me Smile in March.

Despite March being a bit of a dull month, there have actually been more than the usual number of things that have made me smile this time around. So, it’s a bumper month for this particular series, which may or may not make you smile in turn.

My daughter’s off travelling. A double edged sword this one. In actual fact, it’s made me a bit sad. She’s a bit of a whirlwind, my daughter, and so the house is far less noisy and chaotic without her, which is both a blessing and a curse. Put it this way; she’s easy to miss! Essentially though, my little girl is far out of reach and that is a huge worry, as well as being something that I admire her for. I’m very proud of her for doing something so adventurous and so brave. So, it makes me smile. In the build up to going travelling she’s worked three jobs (if you include her successful social media career which does actually bring the money in) in order to save up the funds for the trip. She’s gone with a friend and despite the fact that it feels like maybe they should have done more research and it’s all very scary as a parent, they seem to be coping with life in South East Asia and it makes me smile that they’ve had the guts, determination and imagination to get on and do this. Just under two months until we see her again though…

Applestump Records. I read a brilliant and rather inspiring story about record collector Steve Cook on the BBC website this month. As COVID restrictions hit and Steve and his wife were no longer able to indulge their hobby of touring record shops in the pursuit of elusive vinyl, they came up with a plan; bring the record shop to them! Initially they started a website with just 80 records to sell, but when a chance to sell at a pop up market came along they realised that they might well be able to start a shop. And so, Applestump Records was born and now sells not only records and merchandise, but also stages intimate gigs too. Once upon a time, I’d wondered about starting up a book shop, but never did, preferring the safe option. Steve’s story made me smile…but I probably won’t be following his example any time soon. Not this close to retirement!

Youngest Brit to surf the infamous big waves of Nazare. I’ve been fascinated by surfing for as long as I can remember. I even tried it a few times while on holiday in the Algarve. The waves weren’t the best – more like big ripples at times – but for a few days a bit of a storm hit and we were treated to something that made things a bit more of a thrill. Mainly though, my interest was limited to reading books and articles as well as watching documentaries and films dedicated to surfing and surfers, which is how I happened upon the story of Garrett McNamara and the 100 foot waves of Nazare in Portugal. If you haven’t seen it, Google him and Nazare and have a watch. Anyway, to cut what could be a very long story short, 18 year old Robyn Larg from Scotland recently surfed Nazare becoming the youngest British person to have done so. If you’re any kind of fan of surfing you’ll understand the achievement. If you have five minutes to Google ‘Nazare’, you’ll be amazed by its story.

The Wakefield 10k. Another race done, another step taken in adjusting to life with a pacemaker. I didn’t run as fast as last year, but have been shaking off the effects of a winter bug for what feels like a couple of months. However, I was less than a minute slower than last year’s time, so I’ll take that as it was way faster than I expected. I don’t really care what people think about me banging on about my health or running; every time another race gets completed, I smile because it’s nice to still be alive.

The Dropped Wallet Experiment. I watched a short film the other day that really gave us all cause for optimism. A reporter in Belfast decided to conduct and experiment to judge the levels of kindness in the city. In each wallet he left his phone number on a note to ask people to call it if they found the wallet. Soon he was taking calls from concerned members of the public who’d found his wallet. When asked why they’d called the number the overwhelming response was that they wanted to be kind or that it was the right thing to do. So, the first thing we find out here is that there are definitely kind people around. In fact, all 10 wallets were returned, which is a definite reason to smile. This made me think of a recent time when I lost my credit card. I hadn’t lost it at all, just misplaced it in my wallet. However, when I asked staff at the shop I’d been in I found myself passed from department to department, all seemingly not too interested in helping. Having finally got a security guard to review his camera footage, I made one last check in my wallet and found the card behind another in a totally different part of said wallet. Suffice to say, the kindness that I witnessed on film from Belfast didn’t seem to exist in my corner of Leeds. I still managed a smile though…this time at my own stupidity!

A rogue ‘eagle’. This one comes via a local Facebook group, so given the extent of the madness found on these, we can reserve judgement on whether it’s true or not! However, having read many of the comments, there have been numerous sightings. Anyway, apparently an enormous eagle type bird has been spotted close to our local area. People assumed it was a red kite that we see locally on a regular basis, but apparently it’s not. It’s actually around where I work, but that isn’t too far from home. There are various reports of various sightings, ranging from just flying around to swooping down and eating local cats. Who knows the truth? Anyway, whatever the truth I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled, scanning the skies in the hope of seeing it. So far, just the usual sparrows, magpies and pigeons though!

Michael Sheen. Michael Sheen is without doubt an excellent actor and frankly, a bit of a national treasure. But a story I read this month has elevated his status even more. Sheen has been busy setting up a debt acquisition company in order to help people in Wales. He used £100,000 of his own money to buy debts of £1m and then just write them off, saying that it seemed like ‘a good thing to do’. Apparently the debts are often ‘bundled up’ and sold off for less than their worth, so Sheen realised that he’d be able to help out. What a fantastic thing to do! Not all heroes wear capes.

And so ends another edition in this optimistic series of blogs. A bumper one too, with 7 stories for the price of 5…which actually cost nothing anyway.

It’s brilliant to find out that there are so many good things going on and so many good people to be thankful for, when at times the world can feel like a cruel, harsh place where only the heartless seem to thrive. I hope you enjoyed reading!