The 'feel good factor' thread.

[SteveHopwood]

I wrote in my Thingies thread earlier that we all need a bit of a lift. That is a locked thread because I want it devoted only to the lunatic thingies that happen to me as a piano teacher.

Here is different.

There is only one rule. What you post must be uplifting or funny.

I will get you started in post 2.

[SteveHopwood]

Here is the latest from my Thingies thread:

Nothing to do with teaching but we all need a bit of a lift these days. One pleasant and one lovely incident from a few minutes ago.

Village people tend to be friendly. We are few and far between,so there is no competition for space as there is in the cities. We do not have the stress of continually needing to dodge others as we walk along the pavements.

I decided to stroll to the Coop this evening. The road crosses the canal. It swings around a sharp bend at the crossing and there is no pavement,so there is a foot bridge that allows walkers to cross safely.

I was approaching the bridge when a young man on a bicycle came around the corner and I heard him call back behind him, "There will be someone on the bridge."

I guessed there was a runner following on behind - it is a way to keep female runners safe by being accompanied by a male on a bike. I hung back and a young lady runner appeared around the corner. I moved well aside from my entrance to the bridge and gestured her forward, to save some extra metres of running.

"Thank you," they both called out as they passed.

"My pleasure," I called back to them. "Enjoy yourselves." "You too," replied the girl.

I reached the Coop just as a dad and his young daughter cycled into the car park - about 8 years old I am guessing.

Some of the staff at the Coop have been working there almost as long as I have been a customer. Linda is one of those. We enter through the bottom of the building and exit through the top after paying at the tills.

The little girl who just arrived on her bike appeared at the glass exit door, doing a double armed wave. Linda waved back and said, "That is my grand daughter."

"I will let her in," I replied and approached the door so that it would open from the inside. "Ehup sweetheart. Do you want to come in?"

Came the cute reply, "No thank you. I have to guard the bikes."

Leaving aside that there is no need to guard anything from anybody here, this little dab would be unable to guard the bikes from anyone over the age of 7. Her dad was waiting to pay when I got back to the tills, so I grinned at him and said, "That is one dedicated little girl you have there."

He grinned back and replied, "Yep, and it stops her following me around the store demanding that I buy every piece of rubbish that her little eyes alight upon."

A dad with sense.

I was stood on the bridge on the way back, watching the ducks. Dad and Bike Guarder cycled past me on the way home. I called out, "You did a great job of bike guarding sweetheart." She called back, "I know. I am a master bike guarder."

Awwwweeeee

[SteveHopwood]

Another one from tonight.

It is peaceful in the countryside, yes?

No it bloody well isn't.

We have the cows in the farm a few hundred metres away bellowing to be milked. They have got bellowing down to a fine art.

There is the bird 'song' in the evening. Deafening.

The local dog kennel likes to join in from time to time.

And that is before we include those bloody DIY enthusiasts. With their power tools. Endlessly.

At least they used to go to work and leave the rest of us alone for 5 days a week. Not any more.

Then we have the dawn chorus. The only protection from that is triple glazed windows. Mine are only double glazed.

And then we have the Crows' Nest. More of them to come.

Chris and I moved to a rural area initially, from the outskirts of a city, 25 years ago. We swapped the din of the outskirts of a city for the din of rural England. We would sit in our unpolluted garden and and bellow at each other, "PEACEFUL IN THE COUNTRYSIDE, ISN'T IT?"

"PARDON?"

OK, so I exaggerate as usual. Would I swap the cataclysmic din of the countryside for the roar of vehicular traffic? Get stuffed. Try it folks. You will not be sorry.

[SteveHopwood]

More about the Crows' Nest I talked about in post 2.

I have this thingy that I do at this time of year (May/June) here in the UK. I call it, "Putting the birds to bed."

Now, much as I would love to read chicks in their nests a bed time story, I am not entirely sure that mum would welcome my intrusion.

So what I love to do at this time of year is sit in the garden with something suitably alcoholic and listen to the late evening bird song. The Blackbird song is especially poignant, but she is not alone.

Then the thugs in the Crows' nest come thundering back in from where ever they have been infesting for the day and bugger thingies up for at least half an hour. Hey ho.

As I used to call to Chris, "QUIET IN THE COUNTRYSIDE, ISN'T IT DARLING?"

"PARDON?"

I got my own back on them one year, You know how no Amazon picture looks like it is in real life? I ordered a rechargeable torch. It looked small in the picture. It was the size of a car battery.

The damn thingy would have made a WW2 searchlight give itself a stern talking to, and resolve to do better next time around.

I would sit in the garden and listen to the Crows buggering up the peaceful song birds doing their best thingy. The Crows would stop. The last few song birdies would go to sleep.

As some former dimwits here have discovered to their cost, I am a deeply vindictive person. I shone the searchlight on those damn Crows' nests and drove them bonkers.

I am not proud of myself.

It was fun, though.

[Wavegarrick]

Hi Steve,

I must tell you that I am a great fan of your piano lesson thread and the thingies that come up in your endeavors with the kids. Very enlightening and as I have hinted to you before, I am the happy father of a just turned 3-year-old daughter, well let's say not of my own making. My wife and I adopted her from birth, a privilege we never ever had. While mommy goes to work dad has brought her up. I know everything about changing diapers and making bottles. Crumbs never thought I would do this at my age, but well worth it.
Dad has taught her to say the ABC up to Z and she counts up to 12 flawlessly. If she can't go with mommy to the shop, she knows it is because of the corona. Tough times indeed and I cannot wait to take her to the kiddies park and the beach when lockdown ends. She understands now after much explaining.
Steve, I must say that she loves your avatar, and I usually get the "robot, robot" from her coupled with some robot moves when I log in . Simply great to look at her developing mind.

Anyway, in these dark times, there is much hope for all of us.

Be safe
Cheers,
Leon

[SteveHopwood]

Hi Steve,

I must tell you that I am a great fan of your piano lesson thread and the thingies that come up in your endeavors with the kids. Very enlightening and as I have hinted to you before, I am the happy father of a just turned 3-year-old daughter, well let's say not of my own making. My wife and I adopted her from birth, a privilege we never ever had. While mommy goes to work dad has brought her up. I know everything about changing diapers and making bottles. Crumbs never thought I would do this at my age, but well worth it.
Dad has taught her to say the ABC up to Z and she counts up to 12 flawlessly. If she can't go with mommy to the shop, she knows it is because of the corona. Tough times indeed and I cannot wait to take her to the kiddies park and the beach when lockdown ends. She understands now after much explaining.
Steve, I must say that she loves your avatar, and I usually get the "robot, robot" from her coupled with some robot moves when I log in . Simply great to look at her developing mind.

Anyway, in these dark times, there is much hope for all of us.

Be safe
Cheers,
Leon

Loving parents all over the world are applauding you wildly right now.

We look forward to your tales of taking her to the beach and to the kiddies' park.

[SteveHopwood]

I took a stroll down to the canal again this evening. It is a gorgeous evening.

On the way back, two little girls appeared outside their garden gate and stopped uncertainly. Clearly sisters and definitely no older than 10 and 8.

I moved into the middle of the road and called out,"Don't worry Angels. I will walk around you." "Thank you," they chorused cutely and made their way towards the Coop. I guess they were Going On An Errand.

Letting two little girls loose alone here is not as irresponsible as it sounds. The village is full of adults who would cheerfully kill to keep them safe. There is nobody other than staff setting up for the following day in the Coop. There is nothing on the roads. Those kids were as safe as it is possible to be outside of their home.

Those of you who follow my teaching blog viewtopic.php?p=84559#p84559 know how much I dislike being addressed by the kids as, "Sir". Would you believe it, but I missed it when those two little dabs called out to me without the, "Sir" on the end?

I can't wait to get back to school and the monumental lunacy of the teens. It is not happening any time soon.

The birdies continue to entertain. A Starling arrived on the patio with a fledgling in tow. I suspect that kids of all species all over the universe have the same guiding principle: never do anything for themselves that they can get mum to do for them.

So, mum would hop off and pick up beak fulls of food. Fledgling would peck happily at the food on the ground whilst mum's back was turned. The moment mum turned back to child, said child would bellow piteously for food. I guess there are going to be some fairly forceful tweets coming from adult to child soon.

[SteveHopwood]

One from earlier that I forgot to relate. I drove to the Coop before my stroll to the canal. I needed stuff that would be hard for me to carry back on foot. Sorry, but I am 68 and am a bit of a softy, muscle wise.

I have an immune system system that should be donated to medical science come my eventual demise. 40+ years of sitting inches away from those thingies known as 'kids' AKA 'germ factories' have left me with an immune system that deals with everything. I never get ill these days.

A looooonnnnnggggg time ago, I had a ferocious cold that turned into pneumonia. I have remembered the symptoms ever since. They are obvious on the lungs once you have had these symptoms.

Early in the epidemic here in the UK, I felt these pneumonia symptoms on my lungs. I had a dry cough. I never ran a fever - I bought a good temp gauge early on and so could check.

I went to bed that night with the phone beside me in case I awoke unable to breathe. Come the morning, my lungs were clear. The cough disappeared during the day.

I might have had a mild dose of the virus. I might not. What the episode has left me is feeling neurotic about the possibilities of being asymptomaic.

Which leaves me to my visit to the Coop earlier. This store draws from me the desire to cough.

Imagine standing in the queue at a supermarket checkout,and someone coughs?

There are staff at the Coop who have been there nearly as long as I have been a customer. Linda is one of them. We know each other. I have found her niece a guitar teacher.

I said to Linda, "You know what? Whenever I visit this store, I feel the overwhelming desire to cough."

Linda pierced me with the sort of gimlet glare that I always wished would have worked on the likes of Gabby and replied. "Cough, and I will come out from behind my protective screen and knock you out of this store>"

Yes Linda

[SteveHopwood]

Mushrooms do not tend to be expensive when talking about bog-standard mushys.

I am proud of two total £8 mushrooms - two of them costing £4 each.

Back in the early 1980's Chris and I bought a mushroom grow bag. This damn thing sprouted so many mushrooms that we became thoroughly sick of them and went off them for years.

I have since returned to my fondness for them and so decided to repeat the experiment and got Amazon to send me a grow your own pack. In round figures, the pack cost £8. I have had two mushrooms from it in the three months since, hence the cost of £4 a mushy. It has dried out, so I just gave it some water on the off chance that something more might happen. I am not optimistic.

Hey ho.

[SteveHopwood]

I have been watching recordings of Junior Masterchef USA.

For those of you who have never come across it, MasterChef is a competition where chefs at various levels of expertise compete for the title of "xxxx MasterChef of the year."

The one in question is fronted by Gordon Ramsey and Christina Tosi and is open to child chefs from the ages of 8 to 13 inclusive, in the USA.

Wow. You should see the food these kids produce. I could not dream of producing anything remotely as good. I have never been to a 'fine dining' restaurant. These kids produce stuff I have never even heard of. It looks amazing.

The MasterChef kitchen was designed for adults. Some of the kids have to stand on boxes so they can reach.

Put a lot of determined kids into a competition and you see something wonderful. Yes, they compete. Yes, they want to win. Yet, they become fiercely supportive of one another. I have seen it often in my own professional sphere. It is a joy to behold.

The ones who reach the televised rounds are: searingly bright; highly competitive - they usually compete in dance, music and sports events as well; enthusiastic and full of energy; articulate; stunningly good at producing wonderful food - and I mean stunning; funny. Above all, funny.

Each show includes short interviews with the kids taking part, usually just a few seconds in length. I watched one today where they were required to produce a balanced meal where: half the plate contained vegetables and/or fruit; the second half contained a balance of protein and dairy. I might have got the plate wrong apart from the first half but that does not matter.

The programme cut away to an interview with an 8 year old boy. I am paraphrasing the first part of what he said, but the last sentence is accurate. Here is what he said. "Vegetables? Really? Kids hate Vegetables. You want me to cook them? No way. Vegetables are evil.

He did a good job though.