My Most Favourite Things in the Whole Wide World

The last 3 days in England have been hot, hot, hot! It’s been glorious, with wall to wall sunshine (!) and the thermometer reaching 25 degrees. I know that some of you live in countries with much warmer climates, and I envy you, but the weather here has been perfect recently.  English folk sometimes feel the need to write about it, and the weather is an infamous staple of conversatio, because the sun is conspicuously absent for the majority of the year. We tend to root around in the back of our wardrobes for the dusty pair of shorts that haven’t seen the light of day for the last 3 years, just because we get nostalgic for a bit of warmth.

Anyway, it’s now started to rain. And yet, the smell of the rain and the way it feels on your skin after a hot day can be a sensual feast – fresh and cool. This is one of my favourite things, and here’s a post about my ultimate list of nice stuff :

• The sound of my children’s voices when they come home after a weekend away with their dad.
• My partner. His lovely face and his calming nature.
• My pets with their funny antics, and the way my cat comes and lies with me in the morning, cuddles me and purrs.
• My children’s achievements when they’ve been nervous about something.
• Painting in the garden on a hot summer’s day, drinking a glass of coke.
• Seeing an old Volkswagen camper van
• A baby’s feet
• A man wearing a pair of black jeans and a perfect white shirt
• Anyone with a Scottish accent
• Receiving a gift at random
• Watching any of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy
• Starting to read a book and becoming so engrossed with the story, so that I cannot put it down
• Listening to a children’s choir
• Any train journey; the longer the better
• Looking at my children’s baby photos
• Going away for a weekend to a historic city
• My mother’s help and encouragement
• Reading anything by Bill Bryson
• Being told that I am loved
• Giving my children a present when they don’t expect it
• Being on a diet and being told I look slimmer
• A kiss on my forehead or the back of my hand
• Visiting London for the day
• Spending the day at the beach with my family and eating candy floss
• My neighbour sending me over an authentic Gujarati curry with chappatis
• Having a snowball fight with my children and building a snowman
• Having a big tight hug from my partner

I suppose if we took more time to reflect, there are many other things in our lives that we could say that we adore. For me, the list above doesn’t really involve spending any money, maybe only on the trips. The far more important ones involve the people I love.

What are yours?

X Pip