Reasons To Be Cheerful (i)

There's been plenty of moaning and misery on this blog over the last few years. In an effort to turn that around, here's a new occasional feature wherein I post three things that cheer me up, along with related tunes. If this blog were a radio show, I'd introduce this feature with a short burst of Ian Dury.

Might be extremely occasional, depending on how things go...

1. That first sip of coffee in a morning

I make myself a coffee before I leave the house and take it in the car with me in a travel mug. It takes it a while to cool to a temperature that's drinkable (bearing in mind that good coffee should always be on the verge of burning your mouth), and I usually take my first sip just as I hit the traffic jams on the outskirts of Leeds. That first sip is always amazing.

Here's someone else who likes his coffee hot. Useful when you're driving through the snow to the Overlook Hotel...

2. Sunrise 

My commute is an hour on a good day. Half an hour to the motorway, half an hour on the motorway and into the city centre. After driving most of that in the darkness for the past few weeks, I'm starting to see daybreak along the way. Last week, the sun was fully out by the time I hit the motorway. Even before I took that first sip of coffee, I was feeling good.

No question which song I was going to choose here...

3. The new job.

'Nuff said, really. Everything I hear from The Bad Place confirm that things have got even worse since I left. (My replacement went off on long term sick after a few months. Two other English teachers left, and they can't replace them because nobody is applying for the money they're offering. Etc. Etc. Etc.)

It still feels weird to not spend most of my weekend dreading Monday morning, to actually look forward to going back into work...

The late Mark Sandman (that appears to be his real name, which is amazing) was the lead singer of Morphine. Treat Her Right was another band he played in. Their rule was: "Keep it simple at all costs. Resist the temptation to add. If you're going to do something to a song, subtract."