Archives For Tiny Tales

Inspired: A thoroughly Good Week!

Jennifer D Begg —  June 22, 2012 — 8 Comments

This week’s Feel Good Friday is dedicated to (and inspired by) A Good Week (thanks Lesley for the heads up!).

A Good Week is part of a global celebration of good stuff. They’re not prescribing what good should be, but their website is full of ideas and events for you to get involved with.

The A Good Week Launch 2011 from A Good Week on Vimeo.

My GREAT week started a little bit before Monday with a visit to my cousins with my dad.

Me & Dad

Dad looking slightly bemused

It was a year ago this Monday that my big cousin Graham was killed in a motorbike accident. I didn’t spend nearly enough time with him, geography and life meant we only caught up every couple of years. That didn’t matter though because when we all got together we always had a brilliant time, followed by us all promising to keep in touch more.

Graham & Rachel

Since last year, my cousin Helen, Rachel, Jack, Harvey and all the Evans Massive (I’m including Claire, Louise, James, Brenda and all the gang in this by the way) have done a much better job of keeping in touch (Facebook has been a great help!). So, when we got together last weekend it was with great festivity and family friendship that we celebrated life, love and my truly excellent cousin.

Father's Day fun

Fathers Day: Not sure how they managed this after Brenda’s HUGE breakfast!

 

At the Park

And this was before the Bouncy Castle. Rain can’t stop us!

As you can see, we didn’t let a bit of wet weather stop us. We had a great time running around, drinking, laughing, making new friends and catching up with old ones. Now that for me is A GOOD WEEK!

If you haven’t had such a Good Week, here are some things for you to enjoy and share:

And of course, there are always the other #FeelGoodFriday posts if you’re stuck ;)

So – What kind of week have you had? What made it A GOOD WEEK?

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Evening Standard Cover pic

Urban Exploration for Wimps

Jennifer D Begg —  June 21, 2012 — Leave a comment

I usually avoid the Evening Standard Magazine, it doesn’t really float my boat. However, last Friday I was enticed by the cover shot of a Batman like figure looking over a beautiful view of London.

Definitely potential super hero storyline right here.

Definitely potential super hero storyline right here.

I managed to flick past the society updates reasonably unscathed (seriously Donna Air, what happened to you? You’ve changed) and was rewarded with a brilliant article on Urban Exploration.

This idea really appeals to me. I love imagining myself sneaking into awesome buildings like a cat burglar (I’m thinking Cary Grant in “To Catch a Thief”) with nothing but my wits, my camera and other cool, edgy types, Oceans 11 stylie. However, there is a problem. I am in fact a huge wimp. I could never do this:

Crack The Surface – Episode I from SilentUK on Vimeo.

So, here are my Urban Exploration for Wimps top tips:

  1. Make friends with people who work in cool buildings and offer to make them cake in exchange for an evening office sesh
  2. Go to a museum super early and spring between exhibits as if you’re Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible
  3. Up the adrenaline factor by going in just before closing time and trying to evade security guards for as long as possible.  Don’t get locked in though because you’ll miss your dinner and that would be rubbish.
  4. Hire a crane for the day, park it somewhere inspired then sneak back and pretend to break into the cab (remember to wear your cat burglar clothes)
  5. Stand in a subway tunnel (the more it smells of wee the better) and pretend you’re deep in the sewer tunnels under the city

There. Easy.

For more information on Urban Exploration (for real, not my pretend kind), check out Bradley L Garrett’s site Place Hacking where you can also download Bradley’s PHD thesis on the subject. Other sites mentioned in the ES article (though not linked to from their website – naughty Evening Standard!) are 28DaysLater, Guerrilla Exploring and Ejectable.net – Enjoy!

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Stella the dog

We could be HEROES!

Jennifer D Begg —  June 14, 2012 — 5 Comments

Following “If Nothing We Do Matters” post from last week, I thought I’d make it easy this time and ask you to nominate your heroes. So, here’s your chance to share the people you think make the world a better place. Plus – excuse to open a post with David Bowie = WIN

Here’s mine (in no particular order):

Jimmy O’Neill (AKA Jimothy / Mr Spiller). Jimmy is the loveliest, funniest and most generous person. He’s also been a fireman for more than 16 years which pretty much means he’s a superhero in my book. Plus he let’s me call him Jimothy. Nuff said.

Joe Manganiello

This is how Jimothy looks to me

Simon (AKA Husband / The Mrs). When I uttered the imortal words “what I’d really like to do is build a school“, Simon didn’t even blink before saying “Do it!”. Simon’s my hero because he makes me feel like I can do anything. He’s also a much better feminist than I am which I think counts as another of his super powers.

Simon

Simon *ahem* saving Ally…

Jonathan Emmans (AKA Secret Millionaire… not really). Some of you may have heard the story about my twitter friend who surprised me by donating his pay rise to Janie’s School, well, that was Jonathan. Say hello, he’s really nice. I particularly like having him on my list because then we can have Stella the dog as his sidekick!

Stella the dog

Stella springing into action as Jonathan’s sidekick!

Father Coyle (AKA Santa. Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s blasphemous. But he does have an awesome Santa beard!). Father Coyle made it fun to go to church when I was a teenager and never shied away from my constant questions. He’s also never lectured me about not going to church and is a constant and valued friend. I defy anyone not to love this man. He is a true super hero, running to the rescue of those less fortunate (actually, running’s pushing it… I’m still trying to convince him he needs a stair lift but he’s having none of it). Think I might have to get him a cape though *gets craft kit out*

Paula (AKA Supermum / my big sister). I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who is quite so oblivious to how great she is (actually, I’ve met at least 4 other people like that… see above). I don’t know what I would have done without her when mum died and I can’t thank her enough for the way she keeps an eye on my dad (you know you need the watching father *pointy finger, teacher face*). Superpower = Hulk like ability to lose her temper

Wonder Woman

Paula could totally pull off this look, she just wouldn’t want to show the rest of us up

*all of these people (with the possible exception of Simon) will be horrified to be on this list and therefore definitely deserve to be on there!

So… who are your heroes?

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