Do you have a Cheer-Up Box?

Uplifting messages, each in its own envelope

One of my friends is a little depressed these days, so I decided to make her a Cheer-Up Box.  I hesitate to make a post about this, because it is such a commonplace thing to do, but just in case there is anyone out there who doesn't know about this custom yet I will write about it anyway.  Who knows, maybe one day I will get one myself!

Take a largish box, and fill it to the brim with lots of little, individually wrapped gifts, of the kind you have reason to believe the recipient will find comforting and uplifting.

There is no point, for example, in giving bottles of booze to teetotalers, or chocolates to someone who is depressed over their weight (unless they are underweight, rare these days, of course).

You have to put some serious thought into this!

It usually takes me at least one day of shopping to accumulate enough present to fill a Cheer-Up Box; a dozen presents is the minimum, though I think twenty are a good number.

Every present has to be wrapped nicely, of course - there is nothing cheery about a badly wrapped up gift!  And do not use last year's Christmas wrapping paper, either - it looks like you can't be bothered to go out and source non-Christmas wrapping paper (so NOT a sign that you care!) and anyway the recipient may feel  guilty about opening the presents - it would feel too much like opening Christmas presents early!

Mountain of gifts

Next come the up-lifting messages!  You will need to get as many little cards with envelopes as you have presents, and possibly one large card where you explain what the package is about - you don't want the recipient to open all the gifts at once!!!!

Having obtained the cards, you need to compose those up-lifting messages.  If you run out of cheerful things to say, you can always google for appropriate sayings and quotes.  Make sure you use your best handwriting, there is nothing comforting about a message that is impossible to decipher!

Having written your cards, and sealed them in their individual envelopes, you put them together with the wrapped presents into the box and convey it to the intended recipient.

From now on, until the box is empty, the recipient will go to the box every time s/he is sad, pick a card and a gift, and open both. If you have done a good job, the recipient will cheer up a little and find the strength to live another day.  Task accomplished!

Now where is my box?

Legal Irritations & Floating Literature

London's book-barge, Word on the Water

I had a mixed day in London yesterday.....

First off I went to an induction day for my new legal studies; I have decided to get some law under my belt, and found a study programme that suits my needs.  I can do one module at a time, on-line, with exams at the end, and do them as quickly or slowly as I please.  If I do five modules I get a certificate, and if I do fifteen I get a diploma, and if I hang in there even longer I will end up as a legally qualified professional - highly unlikely, but you never know.

Anyway, yesterday was the day to find out all about it.  My plan had been to mop up as much info as poss and get out of there armed with all and any knowledge necessary to start my studies.  Unfortunately things didn't go as I had planned.  Instead it was one of those socially heavy occasions, where one was expected to interact with others, and people asked intimate personal questions, like what my name was and where I was from - Oxford! I said.  Yeah but where are you really from? - Oxford, I said, extremely strictly, so they flinched and backed off.  Bloody nerve!  Who are these people, immigration officers?

There were the usual group exercises and idiotic quizzes as well, and I was told to do an essay on-line, to check whether I could write a 500 word piece - just to make sure, like, that I was able to string a proper sentence together.  There was even an induction manual, extremely confusing - I knew less when I left than when I arrived.  On one page they wrote one thing, the next page the opposite.  When I queried this, I was told that the second version was a test - without any sort of indication that this was the case.  Basically, the entire day consisted of little team exercises, the teacher giving us some basic info, and then forcing us to do a test to check whether we had paid any attention.

I should have suspected this sort of thing right from the start of the day, when I noticed that all participants were women aged 25 to 35 - eager to please and easy to subdue.  All the men and older women had skedaddled, presumably to watch the Olympics on the telly in the student area, having been tipped off by the chap at the info desk.  Luckily at 11:30 there was a break, and I checked my mobile telephone, and found an urgent message, so had to make my excuses to the teacher and hopped it.

Having thus liberated myself, I nosed around Spitalfields Market a bit, and then tried to get to King's Cross, because I wanted to visit the famous floating bookshop in Granary Square.  Sadly there were some roadworks or strikes or whatnot, and it took me four changes of transport to finally get there.

But all was forgotten when I finally arrived at the square, which is located just behind the Eurostar Terminal.  It was lovely weather, sunny and warm, and there were loads of people out and about enjoying themselves.

The square has only recently been developed, every time I go by it looks a little more gentrified, and now that the book-barge is moored there it is definitely worth a visit. The book-barge used to be located in Paddington Basin, and almost had to lift anchor and float away, but in the nick of time was offered a permanent home at the Granary Square.

https://twitter.com/wordonthewater?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Granary Square on a sunny Saturday afternoon

 

The kids had a lot of fun with the multi fountain

The book-barge is behind the railing

When it is cold there is a fire

Amazing how many books you can get in there

Plenty of reading room to sample potential purchases

A tranquil little place, despite lots of visitors

Lots of quirky decorations

 

 

 

There are other barges in the area, too

I always like to have a look at the plants people keep on their boats

Texting down the road ....

This morning I went to the market for a chat about scarves with Charlie, who turned out to be away on holiday, so I returned home.

On the way home an unkempt young man, who was walking and texting and not giving any heed to others, bumped into me.  Instead of apologising, he accosted me with some very unoriginal swear words.

I don't mind swear words if they are appropriate to the occasion, or unusual.  My father had some very interesting expletives, like 'Does grass grow in my pockets?' - I never dared to check, and 'Heaven arse and twine'?!?!?  But this young man's language was very common indeed.

So I told him to button his lip, adding, 'Would you talk to your Mother like that?'

'My mother was a whore,' he replied.

How does one respond to such an assertion?

'I'm glad I am not your Mother', said I.

'I am not,' he said.  'I needed a Mother like you, someone strict with high standards, not someone who let me run wild and turned me into a loser.'

Then I smiled, and he blushed, and we went our separate ways.

I still feel kind of strange ......

Out and about in London - Waterloo Bridge & Roman Bath

Today was a beautiful day, so I took a nice long walk in my lunch break, taking photos as I went along.  I looked around Waterloo Bridge, and on the way back stumbled across the Roman Baths!  Locked up, unfortunately, but thrilling nevertheless.  Enjoy the photos!

I love these details - so much nicer than modern things!

A little pond in a little park near Victoria Embankment

I love these la Bourboulian railings!

Roman Bath - one can peak through the windows!

Looks edgy, eh?

Palace of Justice - reminds me of the Gare du Nord