Interlude: "Smiling, regardless" week

Somewhere, once, I read that one of the best things we can do for our bodies, physiologically, is to smile. Smiling, apparently, has various good effects on our physical, emotional and mental health, whilst making others feel good. So, this week, dearest daughter and I have embarked on 'family smiling, regardless' week. Half way through- it's good. My greatest concern (being a person who takes things Far Too Seriously at times) has been that my smile is genuine, not fake- it isn't 'grinning maniacially' week; so looking for reasons to smile to allow my smile to be genuine, is very rewarding in itself. Other benefits arise too: a bus driver I smiled at on Monday stopped his 18 bus on Tuesday evening to let me get on at a zebra crossing. Coincidence? I think not.

The greatest challenge to my efforts so far has been Diego Maradona....but then he will always remain a challenge for some of us; but even that obstacle was overcome by the Today programme this morning with a poem by Elvis McGonagall. Whenever I think of the 'Hand of God' in future, I'll think of that poem and smile. When they put the poem on iplayer, I'll trancribe it and share.

edit: found it!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7736000/7736264.stm

Words Week 2- 2

every line of this one, it would be wrong to try to single one out.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=My9I8q-iJCI&feature=related

Words Week 2 - 1

Brian Wilson is a genius, pure and simple. Went to see him in concert and it was the greatest concert I've ever seen, no equal. However this lyric in "Cottonfields" is just so simple, but so true:

'you know, there's just no place like home'

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=K8NkQQ6oMtc

Words Week -2

who doesn't know this feeling? so true.

I can't sleep tonight
Everybody saying everything's alright
Still I can't close my eyes
I'm seeing a tunnel at the end of all these lights

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8vIHsKKv_CI&feature=related

Words Week -1

Technically, they are lyrics, but on a Monday morning my alliterative skills aren't up to much.

So, I was singing with Pumpkin yesterday, and having exhausted nursery rhymes, turned to youtube for inspiration, and found myself singing songs with/to him which have lyrics which make me go 'aaaaahhhhhh'.

Here's the first of the week. So simple, yet so...um...'aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh'.

(btw, the instrumental on this song is also an 'aaaahhhhhhhhhh'- but that doesn't count)

'Even if you cannot hear my voice, I'll be right beside you, dear'

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-praJ5iqaG8

We will remember them

The Memorial to The Missing, Tyne Cot Cemetery and Memorial, Ieper

Commemorated here is Corporal Frederick Henry Murphy of the Royal West Kent Regiment, killed in action at Passchendaele on 20 September 1917, aged 32. He left a mother, a widow, and three children under the age of 5.

A clerk in a shipping office in peace time, resident in a small terraced house in Tooting, London, my grandmother's first husband was typical of his time- a quiet man whose letters home show he missed his family, protected them from the horrors he was experiencing, was commended in writing by his commanding officer for his bravery and example of leadership, gave his life in a conflict which had little bearing upon his immediate circumstances, and was denied the privilege of burial as his remains have not yet been identified.

I stand in awe of him, and of the millions like him; and also of the wives and mothers and sisters and daughters who watched their menfolk march away, not knowing if they would ever return.