Store Your Happy Memories Here:

[Croix]

Dear All~

What this place is for:
This thread is a tool, a resource, and also I guess a dash of entertainment.

I’ve found that when life is grim that sometimes thoughts of past happiness can create a chink of light in the grey overwhelming press of down. They can help occupy the mind with lighter reflections.

With that in view I invite people to set down a brief passage describing some happy event they look back to with fondness and peace.

They - and others too - can then return to it when they feel the need to glean a little warmth.

It is not a place for gloomy or dire tales, those can go elsewhere.

What to do:
Just set out, as simply as you like, your recollection of some past experience that means something good to you, something you enjoyed, something from safe times.

It can be, like my story below, anything – from an account of visiting grandparents to simply cooking and eating a melted-cheese sandwich in a favorite kitchen – you get to choose.

How to do it:
Write. Write enough so someone else can feel the mood, know what happened, find the goodness. (stop at 2,500 characters please!)

Grammar, syntax, spelling, punctuation are not compulsory, just write as you can – the only important thing is the content - not literary merit. Short or long - it does not matter.


I hope you enjoy, contribute and find a little distraction here when you need it.

Croix

[Croix]

Dear MK and ER if you are in range, plus everyone else.

(This is my second attempt at this post as the internet swallowed the first one:(

I agree that reading under the blankets is uncomfortable, stuffy and not in the least ideal, however htat is all I had. Turning on the light would have risked my parents' ire so I was stuck

The discomfort was well worth it though, giving me a glimpse of a big world outside the  British Public School system.

There were no transistor radios, in fact all I could get hold of was a cabinet model with a "Cat's Eye" (Just think of that MK) tuning system. Plus of course there was only BBC1 and BBC2 and that was it. The only pop station was Radio Luxembourg, which faded in and out with atmospheric conditions.

Later on of course were the pirate radio stations based on ships and old WWII forts outside the 12-mile limit in international waters. I beleive Kenny Everett started his career as a DJ on one of them.

Croix

[Eagle Ray]

Hello Everyone,

 I’m back in range this evening. In line with this thread, I feel like I’ve been making happy memories. I’ve been exploring inland lakes and salt marshes and eucalypt woodlands. I’ve seen many different birds and got some good photos. I got very excited when I saw a colourful parrot I hadn’t seen before. I thought maybe it was something rare, but I discovered today once I had internet access again that it’s a mulga parrot. They are not rare but just so beautiful. I was driving slowly on the gravel road when I first saw the male. He flew up to a bush with a female who has duller colouring. I didn’t try to follow to get a photo as I prefer to respect the space of birds/animals when I see them. If they come closer to get a better look at me, then great, I might get a photo and often a better one because they are curious. I walked up the road instead to look at the woodland. I was then seeing little birds in the canopy and gazing upwards when I heard cute chirping noises across the road. The pair of mulga parrots were now over there feeding on seeds on the ground. So I just sat down where I was and watched them. I tried taking some photos from there and got one reasonable one, but again didn’t try going closer as didn’t want to frighten them. I must have hanged out with them for about an hour. It was a remote road and apart from bird calls there was the deepest silence and complete stillness. Then eventually I heard the roar of a vehicle. A woman zoomed by at high speed and the two parrots fled. I reflected on how disruptive us humans can be. But I loved my time with these two cute characters plus all the other lovely birds I’ve met along the way. I’ve met some interesting human characters too including a friendly fellow in his 70s in a country pub yesterday, travelling around Australia with his cat.

So many more memories from the last few days but not enough space to write it all. I enjoyed reading about you reading in bed with the torch Croix. I feel like reading as a child is the most magical thing, opening us up to so many wonders in the world. And MK, I got a small radio when I was 9. I absolutely loved it. I then discovered I could records songs off the radio with a tape recorder, thus creating my own mix tapes. I also remember putting the tape recorder in front of the TV and recording Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton singing Islands in the Stream. The radio was another portal to a wider world.

[mmMekitty]

Oh so lovely, ER, until the vehicle disturbed the parrots. I very much enjoy how you see so many beautiful animals & the bushland around you.

I remember making tapes using a radio/cassette player/recorder, having to sit there, listening for when the DJ at the radio station would announce a song I wanted to record, then hope he (not many women on radio then), would stop talking so I could press the record button quickly enough, within a tiny silent gap before the song began.

& how the tape would sometimes be 'eaten' by the cassette playe, & trying to carefully remove the brown tape from the machine, to try to save it, using a pen or pencil in the hole & twirling it while carefully guiding the tape back into the cassette, so it would be wound neatly, & not too lossely either. Sometimes it would break & then we had to splice ends together. Terrible to lose a song like that, but if it was near the end it might not be so dire.

I asked my support worker if she ever used a torch to read by & she remembers doing that too. It made her smile to think of it, so thanks Croix, for reminding me as well.

Hugzies everyone

mmMekitty

[Doolhof]

Hi All,

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your story here Eagle Ray. I also like the comments about the radios and reading by torch light. 

I was given a transistor radio as a child, I used to like taking it down to the coast at night time, for some reason I could pick up a greater variety of channels there.

I recall a friend of my husbands used to connect with radio stations all around the world and received "calling cards" from them. He was part of a club, I don't recall what they were called now. 

My new happy memories these days relate to our newly adopted cats! We are all learning about each other. I discovered one of them liked the idea of shredding my yoga mat! Only one ornament has been broken so far! They are amusing and have lots of energy.

[mmMekitty]

Oh, lovely, new kitty-cat friends! Wonderful, Dools. Maybe try to interest the one interested in shredding your yoga mat, interested in something else to claw & shred. Mekitty had enjoyed scratching & clawing the hessian-type reusable shopping bags. (But don't use those with a plastic linin, unless you want to supplement the diet with plastic... No? I didn't think so.)

[LRC winks, let's go zoomie, through every room! 💨Zooom...slide(turn a corner), zoom...(turn another corner) zoom!....grinning all the while]

[Doolhof]

Hi mmMekitty and all reading'

We have 3 different scratching poles for the cats. I am thinking of other things to use, so thanks for the idea of the hessian type bag. I'm thinking of trying one of those old fashioned rough door mats, not even sure what they were made of, some kind of natural fibres.

I used to have a cat that loved water! If I was having a bath it would try to jump in. It likes to run around in the hand bowl and wash trough once water had been in it and liked to play in a 2 litre ice-cream container with water!

[Eagle Ray]

Hello All,

MK, I have those memories too of fiddling about with cassette tapes and trying to press record at exactly the right time. And Dools, I wonder if your husband’s friend was listening to short wave radio? My brother and I found we could pick it up when our family got a new radio/dual cassette player. It was fascinating listening to all these stations from around the world in languages we couldn’t understand. Being pre-internet days, it seemed amazing to hear stuff from across the world.

Dools, the mention of your cat shredding the yoga mat reminded me of a time I was housesitting 14 years ago looking after a very elderly cat. It was a cold winter and I found it good to do yoga in front of the heater in the nice, carpeted lounge room. I found the cat liked to join in too and would do his stretches alongside me as I did mine. This was even though he was quite arthritic. He also had the loudest meow as he had gone deaf and didn’t know how he sounded. He would wake me up with this torturous sounding meow at about 5am 😂 He was a great character.

A couple of years ago I found out about goat yoga and chicken yoga - doing yoga with goats and chickens! I haven’t tried it, but there are YouTube clips of it online. I wonder Dools if your cats would join in doing yoga stretches with you?

[mmMekitty]

Hi Dools, ER & everyone

Mekitty didn't use the scratch posts I'd bought for her. That's why I tried the bags or rather, she discovered them for herself.

I wonder if you, Dools, are thinking of coir mats? Or maybe made from jute?

ER, I suppose being able to listen to radio broadcasts from around the world is about as wonderful as seeing & hearing dozens of choir members from many places,, simultaneously onscreen perform a song together. It amazes me how so many people can learn their parts at home, then come together online & be able to blend their many voices so well.

Listening & seeing (though not very well), these choirs online during COVID lockdowns was a tonic for me - so beautiful.

Hugzies, & a big very loud meow to all cats out there! The 'meow' is my second favourite sound - purring is my first. Then there is bird song & the sounds of many musical instruments clamouring for third. 

mmMekitty

[Croix]

This is not seeing them on screen but holds true anyway:

"I love to hear a choir. I love the humanity... to see the faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music. I like the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when I see them cooperating like that."

Paul McCartney 

[Doolhof]

Hi Eagle Ray,

I had a laugh about the cats joining me for yoga sessions, as I bought the mat to snooze on outside! Not a great deal of yoga or other exercise happens on that mat! Maybe it is time to try some yoga and see how the cats react to that.

We used to have pet chooks as children and ducks. A friend had a duck that used to drive around in the car with her and she would take it down to a river to go swimming with her. 

Yes, I think it was short wave radio the guy listened to.