Archive for the 'Fun and Laughter' Category
Time to De-clutter your Life and make Space for more FUN!
It has already been a week since my last post – amazing how quickly the time is going!
My days seem to be going so quickly since I continue to have as full a life as ever. As Einstein once supposedly explained about time and the theory of relativity – 2 hours chatting with a pretty girl will seem like 2 minutes, whilst sitting on a hot stove for 2 minute will seem like 2 hours!
Leap Year Day - Time to Grow Up?!
It is February 29th, leap year day.
Regardless of their physical age, some people just don’t “grow up”. Just how old are you emotionally, mentally and spiritually?
The phrase “grow up” is a bit of a misnomer - it implies that there is something wrong with not being group up - and also that being grown up is our ultimate destinaiton.
It is about GROWING, not being grown up.
Let today be the start of a new you. Time to start growing!
It’s a Dog’s Life - Love Yourself Uncondionally!
A few days ago, I came across the above couple in Regents Park. They were literally taking their dog, Dino, for a ride around the park.
Dino the huskey dog is now 15, which apparently makes him over 90 in human years! Suffering from arthritic knees, he now gets treated like a king every day.
Talk about unconditional love! This reminds me of a great book by Don Miguel Ruiz called “The Mastery of Love” - and he talks about how your pet such as a dog never holds any grduges against you, is always excited to see you and totally loves you unconditionally.
Now what would it be like to love everyone unconditionally? Would you ever be mean to your loved ones, if they were your pet?!
And who is going to cart you around the park, when YOU are 90?!
Time to Make Things Happen again in My Life
It has been two very surreal and eventful months.
After the sudden and untimely death of my father, where do I even begin to descibe the last few weeks?!
Suffice to say that it has been like being in a dark fog for weeks on end, interspersed with the occassional bit of light heartedness and fun.
But sooner or later, I know that I have to move on with my life, not withstanding the gnawing pain and the sense of great loss.
What has been amazing and so heartwarming has been the support from family, friends, and strangers. I will write another post another time about the messages of hope, kindness, love and sympathy that I have received.
My Key Lesson from 2007
As seems to be the custom at this time of the year to review the year just about to end, I am very clear about the biggest lesson I have learnt from 2007.
This was a year when I lost my best friend in June in tragic curcumstances in the USA, only a week after he had been with me in London.
Then in December I lost my father very suddenly after a short illness. Though it all still seems rather surreal, I am gradually coming out of the “fog”.
During 2007 I also attended two weddings of close friends and they were both wonderful events filled with a crecendon of love and happiness.
So it has been a year of contrasting emotions and a rollercoaster time. The common thread through all this time and my key lesson has been to spend more time with my loved ones - as I just don’t know when I will be going this way again.
In short I would like to urge everyone to spend quality time with the people you care for in your life.
Also, make everyday a big celebration of life - and not just at weddings!
What would your life be like in 2008 if you spent each day with lots of special moments (why not special hours?!) with your loved oned. And if each day was a special celebration of love and life?!
How amazing 2008 will be for everyone if we all lived like this in the New Year!
Happy New Year!
It’s a Wonderful Life!
It is a Christmas Day and what better way to spend some of the time today than to watch one of the best movies ever made.
If you can spare two hours today, then watch It’s a Wonderful Life! free online on Google video.
Reckoned by many people to be one fo the greatest movies ever made, though released in 1946, it still captures the hearts of new viewers over six decades later.
This movie is also a wonderful metaphor for your power to change your life and change the world. In the film, the main character George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) spends his entire life giving up his big dreams for the good of everyone else.
Make this Christmas your Best Ever.
Is Christmas a joyous time for you? Or are you stressed?
Overspending on presents, pressure from kids and other loved ones, prolonged and close proximity to difficult family members and loneliness can all build up your stress levels. Christmas can also be very demanding on your relationship as you spend a lot of time together with family and inlaws.
However, it doesn’t have to be so. Christmas is meant to be fun and joyous. This year take charge and make it work for you.
Make this Christmas the best ever for you and the family. Sit down right now for half an hour and decide for yourself what YOU can do this year to make it so. And here are my tips for making this Christmas your best ever:-
Join the Cactus Plants for an early Xmas Party!
Earlier this year in March I wrote about how my Xmas cactus plant was blossoming with flowers, 9 months too early.
Well, I noticed a week ago that the plant was flowering again, 5 weeks before Xmas!
10 Tips to have the Joy of Diwali all year!
Last weekend, I celebrated Diwali with my family and some friends. It is always a special time, though like at Christmas it can have its challenges too.
“Diwali” means the festival of lights and it is a time of rejoicing. It is the holy hindu tradition that symbolises the victory of light over darkness and also traditionally marks the beginning of the New Year.
Do the Gratitude Dance to Make Things Happen!
A while ago I wrote in detail about living with an attitude of gratitude.
Gratitude is a way of reaching back to our natural state of happiness. You get to notice what’s right instead of what’s wrong and begin to see every “problem” as an opportunity for growth and development. Is your glass half full or half empty?
Are you grateful for your life? Or do you whinge about everything?
Gratitude is all about appreciating the things you have in your life. Are you aware of all the goodness around you? One major way of making positive things happen in your life is to cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Even the rainiest day brings forth the water that we need to sustain life. In the same way, a rainy day in your life also brings some gifts, sometimes to be revealed later.
Yet we all tend to forget to live in a state of gratitude. Well, today I have just come across a way of changing all that - the gratitude dance!
I challenge you to look at the video clip below and NOT smile!
From now onwards, instead of focusing on what your life is missing, be grateful for what you DO have and do the Gratitude Dance!
Go forth and make things happen.
When God paints, She uses all Her Colours!
Our world is so beautiful, we just have to look for all the beauty around us and in us.
For the beauty of nature just check out the awesome picture above and the ones below.
From a gorgeous day in London, this article needs further words except thanks to the friend in Belgium who kindly sent me these wonderul pictures:-
Telling the Banks what to Do!
To end this week and this month on a light hearted note, here is a wonderful story about how a 98 year old woman told her bank what she thought of their service. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the Times Newspaper.
As more and more companies become aware of Corporate Social Responsbility (CSR), this story serves as reminder to companies that their customer is their most important asset and not someone to be simply pushed around:-
Time to Smile!
What a wonderful picture!
I bet it brought a smile to your face 
I have featured it here for that very reason - we all need to smile much more. And what better way to get us all smiling than a funny and genuinely warm picture from the animal world?
Turn the World Green in the Blink of an Eye!
We are all increasingly become more aware of our responsibility to the environment and the need to save our planet.
Being “Green” may just be in vogue for now, or indeed we may have all embraced this positive change for good.
Hold your own Friend’s Picnic anywhere in the World :-)
If you are not able to attend my annual “Friends and Friend’s Friends Picnic” on Sunday 19th August in Regents Park, London, then how about organising your own?
No matter where you are in the world, it will be a great way to bring together friends, old and new.
Time for “Friends and Friend’s Friends Picnic” 2007 :-)
Everyone one of us has many gifts for the world. And one of mine has always been the ability to get people together. A few years ago, I decided to get all my friends, contacts and acquaintances together in one place for a picnic.
I called it the “Friends and Friend’s Friends Picnic”, held every August. It is now time once again for this annual gathering in Regents Park.
It is a crime to go around with a miserable face!
In one of my articles last week, I talked about joy and spreading it. This reminded me of someone I met a year ago.
Every now and then, I come across someone who truly inspires me through their work, their words and most importantly their way of being.
Comedy show marriage proposal - Love is all that matters!
On Sunday evening I went to the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park to watch their annual comedy show. This event featured players from the famed Comedy Store.
I have managed to watch this show every year for the last few years and is a highlight of my social calendar.
But this year was even more special, as just before the interval, the MC announced a very special request. Alex Sperling had requested permission to propose to his girlfriend, Mel, during the show and it had all been pre-arranged to happen just after the first half of the show.
Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon!
A couple of days ago I wrote about cooking with love.
Love and food are so intertwined. Maybe one can’t even have one without the other. To love someone is also to want the best of everything for them - and that includes the best food and nutrition. So how would you go about cooking for the love of your life? And how indeed do you LOVE that special person?!
What is Globalisation?
I have just received one of those emails which seem to go around the world with a quirky message.
As the world seems to get smaller and smaller, it is amazing how intertwined our lives have become.
This email posed the question:-
