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Topic: Staying happy through the london winter!  (Read 2266 times)

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Staying happy through the london winter!
« on: November 21, 2002, 01:42:22 AM »
Thought we could share some ideas to remain inspired as the three month stretch of grey sky is nearly upon us.

I'll start it off...Recently went to see Michael Moore (Stupid White Men, Bowling for Columbine) at the roundhouse theatre in london. Very entertaining and thought-provoking. Highly recommended.
Also signed up this weekend to attend a comedy workshop... comedians teaching regular people and wannabe's how to be funny. Should be good for a laugh, although i'm sure my accent is bound to single me out for harrassment![smiley=uhoh.gif]

Anyone else?

Allison


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Re: Staying happy through the london winter!
« Reply #1 on: November 21, 2002, 09:30:29 AM »
I think seeing Michael Moore would actually depress me. Not that he isn't clever and witty and entertaining, but that he would bring to my attention what's wrong with the world. I get overwhelmed by these things. The mother in me wants to heal everything. Wants everone to be happy and play nice. And I am very naive to think that when you pay someone to do something, they actually do it, and do it with pride and within the timeframe they said it would be done, and aren't just doing it to grab your money. Michael Moore may be a champion for this and other issues (I sure wish he'd take a camera or two into the faces of some of the builders I've been dealing with!) but he also brings up the painful fact that that problems exist outside my own front door as well. It's just way too stressful for me to think any problem is rampant.

Ah, but my own personal view. Getting out and seeing any show (we recently saw Bombay Dreams) is a fabulous thing to do.

But, I really like your idea about the comedy thing. Whoa! What a brilliant thing to do! With suggestions like this I wish even harder that Melksham was closer to London.

Oh, but you asked for ideas of what to do on gloomy wintery days like this.

The quickest way to get me out of a funk is to force myself to listen to uplifting music. Granted, sometimes when I feel in a funk I don't want to leave it just yet. I want to wallow in self pity. Churn it around for a while. This is why I have to force myself into a good mood.

Another thing I have done is to get out in my car and drive. No destination. Just drive until the mood starts to pass, then turn around and come back.

Sometimes when down, I will do something to actually accentuate it, like watch a really sad film. This gets all my tears out. There's something very relieving about getting it all out.

Reading gets my mind off things, forces me to concentrate about something else.

My mother once told me she could always tell when I was sad or upset about something because I would sleep more. Maybe it's my body saying "don't think about it and I will try to solve your trouble in your dreams".

But I do agree that getting outside can play a major role in getting one's spirits up. Fresh air. Open spaces. Take a walk. Go for a run. Do some gardening. Clean out your gutters...
Married to Graham, we run our own open-source computer training company in beautiful Wiltshire out of our 1814 Georgian Regency home (a former lodging house and once featured in Antiques Roadshow)


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Re: Staying happy through the london winter!
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2002, 11:33:55 AM »
By taking part in doing the horizontal bop as much as possible!!  ;D  ;)
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile--hoping it will eat him last."Forgiveness is up to God. I just hope we hurry up the meeting." 02.08.03, Gen. Schwarzkoph It's the SILENT MAJORITY that COUNTS not the LOUD MINORITY that CONSTANTLY WINES! http://www.leftnuts.com/images/fu_marines1.jpg
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Re: Staying happy through the london winter!
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2002, 12:01:52 PM »
Quote
By taking part in doing the horizontal bop as much as possible!!  ;D  ;)


You know, back during the long hard winter of 1997 I took this exact same advice, ie 'horizontal bop'......know what it got me ?   TWINS!!!!!  ;) ;) ;)

Careful Yvonne, or they'll be altering more than just the hem on your wedding dress honey  [smiley=laugh4.gif]

May I suggest Pictionary as an alternative ?  [smiley=devilish.gif]

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Re: Staying happy through the london winter!
« Reply #4 on: November 21, 2002, 01:08:14 PM »
Quote
By taking part in doing the horizontal bop as much as possible!!  ;D  ;)


LOL!!!! :D
I'm done moving. Unrepatriated back to the UK, here for good!

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Re: Staying happy through the london winter!
« Reply #5 on: November 21, 2002, 01:33:16 PM »
I ditto what NYSOM said.

We're newlyweds after all.
There are two things in life for which we are never truly prepared:  twins.


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Re: Staying happy through the london winter!
« Reply #6 on: November 21, 2002, 01:53:07 PM »
Oh! Oh! I have a great suggestion! When it is pissing down rain, go see The Sunshine State - if it's still playing! It's a movie by John Sayles* (Lone Star, The Secret of Roan Inish, other great movies) so it will probably be playing in your more arty theatres, but if you've got the grey blues (er, you know what I mean), seek it out!

I recently saw it with a friend of mine, on a rainy dark afternoon. It's set in Florida, just about life there, looking at the lives of two women going through similar things, that is, asserting their own lives from the lives their parents wanted for them. And these are women, not girls in their 20s. Angela Basset is one of them, I wasn't familiar with the actress who played the other, but she was good - all the actors were. You get blasted with about two hours of pure Florida sunshine, and a nice, funny, slow (makes the sunshine sink in) story to go with it. I was so involved with the movie, when we left the cinema I was shocked to be back in Belfast in the rain. It kinda sucked (to be back in the rain) but the movie is a real pick-me-up if you need a fix of sun.

If you can't find that movie, then rent a sunshine filled movie to watch. Although to get the full effect it's probably better to see a sunny movie in the theatre.


* John Sayles is very good at capturing the feel of whatever place his movies are set in, and he succeeded with capturing the pace and feel of the small town in Florida in this movie. He also has a way of exploring the different cultures and race relations in the States that is worth watching and thinking about. I can't say enough about his movies. Everyone of his I've seen has been wonderful.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2002, 01:56:58 PM by MaBear »


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Re: Staying happy through the london winter!
« Reply #7 on: November 21, 2002, 04:33:58 PM »
ROFL....horizontal bop indeed.  ;D  

wench

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Re: Staying happy through the london winter!
« Reply #8 on: November 21, 2002, 08:23:58 PM »
Quote


Careful Yvonne, or they'll be altering more than just the hem on your wedding dress honey  [smiley=laugh4.gif]  [smiley=devilish.gif]

Red


Hehehe, hey I'm 34 and will be going on 35 by the time we get married... I guarantee I wil be giving birth by June or July of 2004!!  Can we say honeymoon baby!!  :D  

As for winter here in London, (take notes as Yvonne is going to say something she thought she would never say....) I would take it hands-down here any day vs. a winter in NY.  It's miserable walking in NYC in the dead of winter when the it's -5 f and the windchill factor makes it feel like -15 or -20F...  Eeewwww..  You breath and the little hairs inside your nose freeze..  :o
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile--hoping it will eat him last."Forgiveness is up to God. I just hope we hurry up the meeting." 02.08.03, Gen. Schwarzkoph It's the SILENT MAJORITY that COUNTS not the LOUD MINORITY that CONSTANTLY WINES! http://www.leftnuts.com/images/fu_marines1.jpg
www.protestwarrior.com Proud Member of the V.R.W.C.


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