Bad Days: Good Moments

Fellow SolSat readers, I have just had one of those days. The kind of day when you’re late for work, and your Ipod runs of battery. Everyone seems to be out in the sunshine loving life and you’re stuck in the cold forgetting what made you upset in the first place. The little bullshit things have a habit of building up during the day and making you wish you had an emergency stash of energy and happiness somewhere in your body. I thought, to counteract the silly shitty things that happen, maybe I’ll make a list of the tiny good things, the things that sometimes have the ability to make your day the best in your life so far. So I did this, and I was surprised to see my mood elevating even at the mere thought of these things. Here is my list of my personal favourite little feelings, and if you’re someone prone to letting the little bad things effect you I’d suggest making your own.

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(All gifs by Pusheen Corp.)

Washing your face: At the start of the day, after you’ve slept on your face all night and built up sleep in your eyes, nothing beats clearing it all away. It’s especially nice if you have a wash with those micro-massaging beads, and it’s a bonus if it smells like honey or vanilla or any other heavenly scent.

Every sip of coffee: It doesn’t matter if it’s strong and black or milky with five sugars; you have it the way you want it, and the way you want it is delicious. Especially on icy mornings, when you can’t find your slippers and your feet have to brave the cold tiles of your floor. It’s okay. Coffee is your buddy, it’ll warm you up from head to toe. tumblr_m0afdxYVEw1qhy6c9o2_250

The best part of a song: Generally any song you enjoy listening to will lift your spirits, but I find the most satisfying listen to be with so-so songs. Songs that you’re only listening to for that one part in the middle or towards the end; a breakdown, a guitar solo, a shift in key. Maybe you listen to the entire song, you wade through the average parts all the way to your favourite bit; and the pay-off is oh-so-sweet.

An I love you: You could go through a lot of these in a day. Most of the time it’s uttered as a habit when you’re saying goodbye or writing it at the end of a birthday card. But the spontaneous and meaningful ones can make a day. When someone looks into your eyes and says it, with no infliction, and not even needing you to say it back. Or when your mum calls and she says it, but she draws it out, and you find that if you don’t hang up straight away neither will she. tumblr_lkv2y2zagH1qhy6c9o1_400

Making something well: A dish you make might be good, it’s good that you even know how to make it, but sometimes it is magical. You take the first bite and finally think: yes, this is it, I have perfected this. I get the same relief when writing, after working on a piece for months and suddenly realising that in your fourteenth draft you can’t find any errors. It’s finally ready. That is one moment I wish there were more of. 200-1

Money in hand: That feeling at the end of the work week when your boss drops some fresh cash into your palm. After you’ve soldiered on, gotten up early, turned up on time every day and tried your damned hardest all week. Slacking off at work will never bring the same triumphant feeling. It’s great when your hard labour is rewarded.

These are just a few that I try to think of when I’m down. Not all of them are achievable at any given moment, but just knowing that it could happen sometime in the future is such a sweet thought.

(For more Pusheen: http://pusheen.com)

− by Josefina Huq

It’s the Little Things

Living in such a fast-paced, busy world, it’s bound to happen that the small things that make your life so much better will go unnoticed. An alarm, for example, is a lifesaver – if it weren’t for that annoying sound constantly going off until you whack the button to tell it to shutup, I would guess that 98% of people in the world would have lost their job ages ago.

Because really, how good is toothpaste!

Because really, how good is toothpaste!

I’m quite hippy in the fact that I like to take the time out of my day to stop and appreciate the small things in my life that make it so breezy; I don’t do it as often as one should, but I’m only human with a much busier schedule than I’m used to.

This one instance I always refer back to was one day when I woke up – as usual – took a shower – as usual – and then went to brush my teeth. I had a different toothpaste than what I’m used to so, without too much thinking, I used it. Can I just say that it was the most amazing toothpaste that I have ever used? It had those little breath strip things within the toothpaste and it just done its job so well and much, much more. The usage of this amazing toothpaste literally made my day so much better than it would have been if I had used my normal, boring toothpaste.

Without spending too much time writing about the intricacies of toothpaste, instead of pondering about these little things, I decided to write something about it and name a few inventions and other tidbits that make my life so fantastical.

Drive-thru
I was getting Maccas the other night for dinner because I couldn’t be arsed to cook myself anything, and I was sitting in the drive-thru line which was pretty packed. I could see in my rear view mirror that the person behind me was getting rather impatient and here I was sitting there quite calm and reserved. Why? Imagine if there was no such thing as drive-thru and you had to get out of your car to get your fast food just to get back into the car and drive back home. Like, who has the time for that? Drive-thru is also handy for people like me who tend to drive half-naked so it saves you from getting out of the car. I get that I am praising an invention that was designed to make lazy people even lazier, but still, it’s handy, no?

Skype and other video call technologies
My brother, sister-in-law and nephew live in Brisbane, my oldest sister lives in New Zealand and one of my best friends is currently touring Europe by herself. While phone calls, Facebook messages and other forms of textual communication come in handy, there is nothing better than hearing them speak whilst having visual images to support that. I for one am so glad that Skype was invented so I get to see how big my nephew is getting without him actually being there and the opportunity to chat to my sister about pointless things.

Car phone chargers
I depend on my smartphone as much as everyone else does, maybe even more. So when I went to Hunter Valley for CMC Rocks for 3 days – which was absolutely amazing, by the way – I had to face the dilemma of ‘how exactly was I going to keep my phone charged, in a camp site, with no apparent method of charging’. The solution was simple once I thought about it – I sat in my car with the engine turned on to charge my phone. While I looked anti-social and somewhat materialistic, at least I had a way of documenting my time at CMC Rocks with pictures, notes and phone calls to my family.

Da Police
One thing I am absolutely sick of are people complaining about the police. Yes, there are some shady police workers out there, but there are shady workers in every work industry. It’s bound to happen. Human beings aren’t perfect. So when I see people complain about the efforts of police or the ethics of police, I sit there and think ‘Sure, that’s all fine and dandy, but if you have a teenage daughter who comes running to you saying that she was raped, who are you going to go to for help?’ Unless you’re Batman, you’re going to go the police you just damned for eating donuts on their well deserved break.

Clothes hangers
No one necessarily cares about clothes hangers… until you need them. Nekk minnit, you’re running around like a headless chook looking for spare hangers. As a compulsive shopper with an overflowing wardrobe, one can never have too many clothes hangers. Unless you’re perfectly fine with leaving your nicely ironed clothes on the floor in a messy-folded heap.

I could go on and on and point out more little tidbits in life that make the world a better place, but you’d be here for days. I implore you SolSat readers to stop and smell the daisies, for lack of a better phrase. It may even make your outlook in life way more positive.

– by The Black Widow