Bambi and Penguins.

So, it's one o'clock in the afternoon and I have nothing to do. TIME TO BLOG!

Recently I went to Scotland...Dundee to be precise. Whilst there I saw some of the stranger
sights of last month. Dundee itself was lovely - the majority* of the people there were incredibly friendly. (*With the exclusion of one craft shop owner who was too busy crouching to examine the floor to deal with customers.) But at the same time there were several memorable things about that trip, the first of which was...

Room Service.

So the first night there, not wanting one of the over-sized meals of the restaurant downstairs, I thought I'd just order something small..."one cheese sandwich" to be precise. Instead, what arrived at the room was a tray so large that it barely fit through the door. Not that I'm complaining, but it does explain why the "sandwich" was so expensive.

The Penguins.

One of the things I learnt about Dundee during that brief visit, was that the town is full of statues. My personal favourite (and one I know my friend Eli - aka @gay_pride_girl - will love) is that of the penguins. Yep. Penguins. It was pretty amazing, especially when a pigeon perched on one of their heads.

An infinite amount of burgers and Disney-themed waiters.

In between looking at penguins and buying hiking socks (despite having never hiked in my life), we went to a restaurant that took pride in the names it gave to the (many) burgers on the menu. A few of my personal favourites were "The Flying Scotsman", which as the title suggests contains a lot of haggis, "The Jumping Jack Flash", which was possibly the most alcoholic thing on the menu, and finally..."Who Killed Bambi?", which I think is fairly self-explanatory.

It was also had the most interesting staff; our waiter was closer to seven-foot than six, but that's not the interesting part. The bit that intrigued me was the massive tattoo of the clock from "Beauty And The Beast" and Pinocchio on one arm, and a plethora of other smaller Disney characters on the other. To complete this look, he had "LION KING" tattooed across his knuckles. Win.

There was a lot more, but I won't bore you with the details. So farewell, from me and the Letter-Stealing Monkey. :)

Start off as you mean to go on: Five reasons why optimism is awesome.

So, pessimism is quite popular at the moment. It's in the news ALL the time, it's frequently used by artists to give them "depth", and it's slowly becoming part of our daily routine. Well - fear no more! Here are the top five reasons why life can be pretty damn amazing...and why optimism needs to make a swift comeback.

First things first...You stop taking yourself so seriously!

Once you realise how vastly overrated "dignity" and "embarrassment" are, things can only get better. You are allowed to enjoy yourself, you know. Do something you love; dance around your room to your favourite song, or bake a skittle-cake...whatever you enjoy, just do it!*

(* unless it's illegal, obviously) 

Negativity will get you nowhere

So, ever had a coversation-starter like this?
"Hi, how's things?"
"Oh, you know...crap."


Is this you? Well then, get out of that mentality you fool! Next time someone asks you how you are, tell them things are actually pretty good. In fact they're better than good, they're downright awesome. Trust me, providing nothing horrific happens in the next ten seconds, then it'll definitely set you in the positive mindframe.

Taking joy in the little things

Okay, so I'm going to go a bit hippy on you now. Taking a more positive stance and you'll learn to appreciate the small things in life that simply make you happy. Can't really see it? Well, let me just give you a few examples: A hug from a friend when you're down, opening your curtains first thing in the morning to see the sunrise, or the ability to see an infinite amount of pictures of Johnny Depp/Robert Downey Jr/*insert attractive human here* simply by googling it...the list is endless.

 

Smiling = Happiness

 

Yep, not only does it make you look a lot more attractive than if you were frowning (or God forbid, doing the "duck face"), smiling actually releases serotonin in your brain - actually making you FEEL happier. (BAM science!)
On top of that, smiling is VERY infectious, and come on...what's nicer than making other people happy as well as yourself?

Bacon.

Bacon is the food of optimists. Spam is the food of pessimists (and people during WWII).

And there you have it! Now go, and be awesome.