I am writing this in lieu of reading Joanna’s 100 favourite things and for the same reasons; the idea that I can barely think of 10 of my favourite things makes me sad so multiply that by 10 and hopefully that will balance out to a feeling of 100% content once I’m finished. Here we go:
The way my brother’s hand and mine fit perfectly onto one another
Egg being given a treat and running away to eat it
Sadie’s face after I ask if I should make tea
David Byrne
Mashed potato
Surfing on a stormy day at the end of August
Dancing in the kitchen to techno while I make breakfast
Aimlessly scrolling through my photo library on the toilet at work
Train journeys to new places
Banana shaped wet floor signs
Eating with friends
Sadie’s enthusiasm for animals
Dreaming dreams that make me wake up feeling changed in some way
Northern Soul (all of it)
Snoopy
Calvin & Hobbes comics
The idea of painting
Carving out an evening to cook
Dance classes
Making & consuming memes
My grandma’s notes to herself
Crying in the cinema on your own
Egg (not boiled, scrambled, poached or fried but instead in the form of a white rabbit)
This leaf
A rainy day in August after weeks of relentless heat
The feeling of autumn approaching after summer
Sharks
Shark eggs
When cartoons and real life mix like in ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’
The everlasting debate I have with myself as to whether ‘Once in a Lifetime’ by the Talking Heads is a song about being grateful for everything you have and feeling undeserving of it or feeling confused as to how your life ended up the way it was and being disappointed in that thought
Morse code diagrams
Dance diagrams
Temporary mending on statues using plasters and tape
Any occasion to wear a suit
A cold glass of water
When I surprise myself
The colour gradient of worms
Chocolate hobnobs
How Mica Levi used a hoover to make a tune of ‘Turn me well’
Listening to movie soundtracks
School gymnasiums and their equipment
The smell of school gymnasiums
The smell of eggs & sulphur
The smell of cow pat (not all 3 at once)
The cracks in the Derby ram where the parts have been fused together
Iceland
The insides of bowling balls
The facts shown on the TV screens at bowling alleys
Alan Johnson in ‘Peep Show’
Pickled onions
Funny chess drawings by Alexander Calder
The story about the two headed calf
Boots selling bones for £2.30 in Derby
The opening to Paul Auster’s ‘Winter Journal’
Swimming / being in water
Memories of having a fire at peck wash and cooling our drinks in the dirty river water
Soderbokhandlen in Stockholm
The line ‘we haven’t known each other too well over the years’ from John Williams’ Stone
r
Experiencing something that makes you cry
Treating myself to new clothes
Treating myself to an iced coffee
Folding zines for No Jobs in the Arts
Overcoming obstacles and realising you can grow into the person you want and deserve to be
My last therapist and all of our sessions
All Swedish food for any occasion
Deep fried oysters
Memories of my Grandma’s caravan in Mablethorpe where we would visit with all her sisters who also had caravans on the same park
Derek Jarman’s ‘Prospect Cottage’
Seeing friends after not seeing them for a while and realising nothing’s changed
This picture of Max
Jacob and the Angel sculpture at Tate Britain
Being by any coast
Long car rides
When life feels it is going one way but suddenly it goes another and that other way is way better than the first original way
Finishing a book
This part in a trip to Brighton where we went swimming in the cold sea
How curly my hair became in my 20s
Sticky toffee pudding
The first time I ate at Bancone
This photo when my Dad & I reconnected after not speaking for some years at a pub
Checking the live webcam in Reykjavik to see how it’s all going
Objects feeling like people (is this just commodity fetishism?)
Reading a book that makes you want to read a million other books
My constant and undying faith in Derbyshire
Legs feeling like jelly when you get into bed
Going to bed early and waking up early
A dream I had about 2 sharks kissing
Music festivals & concerts
Shashiko stitching
Lines in school gymnasiums & playgrounds
How quiet it is when it snows
Patti Smith
Growing older with friends
Being in love in a way you couldn’t have imagined
Archipelagos
Playing both Zelda games on the Switch
The feeling of endless possibility when you get sent home early from a shift
A bagel with melted butter & salt on top
Making & consuming carrot cake
Writing these 100 things and realising how nice life is