Geez people are cranky.
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Before you get all uppity with me, I get it. I get why everyone is out of sorts.
We are stranded in Sour-Puss Central. It doesn't help when we are served a daily cocktail of disappointment mixed with frustration and general confusion, all topped with a flourish of rapid-set cement and a liberal sprinkling of anxiety about the future.
Dealing daily with unprecedented events and worrying about the new normal is doing everyone's head in. Actually, "unprecedented events" and "new normal" are two of the phrases adding to the gibber that seems to have ramped up this month.
I'm calling it Gibber June.
Like the Prime Minister, who appears to be Gibber June's mascot, I'm going to repeat my nifty little slogan until it drives everyone to distraction.
Gibber June.
OK, I'm already over it.
Distraction, now there's an idea.
This week, I reached my limit of bad, bad stories from Australia and the world, so I hit the off switch on the news.
I was going to do the same thing with social media, until something made me send a message into the Facebook ether.
I posted to my friends (aka The Network) "Has anyone got any happy news? I'll take anything". I shared with The Network that I was eating chocolate and watching National Lampoon's Vacation.
I've lost count of how many times I've watched Clark Griswold and family's epic tale of travelling to Wally World, but it has never failed to make me laugh like a moose, and sometimes sing (a tone-deaf version of Carly Simon and James Taylor's Mockingbird anyone?)
I'm happy to report that the response from The Network to my desperate plea was, well, happy.
I didn't think anything else could make me happier until someone shared a clip of a man and a chihuahua doing yoga.
Far from the bitter cocktail of past weeks, it was a sweet and bubbly elixir concocted from shots of fun. Like the Griswold cousin's Kool-Aid, except if it was shaken, not stirred with a bare hand.
It seems there is a lot of chocolate being consumed at the moment.
Some of the Cadbury delights making The Network happy include Old Gold Caramel, Old Gold Rum 'n' Raisin (that was mine), a "small Cadbury block" that was on special (my friend told me she bought four though) and a Tropical Pineapple block. I made a note to seek out the latter the next day.
I was also alerted to the fact that July 21 is World Lamington Day and July 23 is Peanut Butter and Chocolate Day. My eagle-eyed informant commented that it was certainly a fine time to be alive.
Thankfully, there is also a bit of time to plan how you are going to help raise awareness of these important taste sensations.
Someone else mentioned they had only just realised there was a Mulletfest held in Kurri Kurri. She was happily engaged looking at photos of past events. Hopefully she'll book a post-COVID visit.
In the natural realm, a friend reported seeing dolphins and whales daily in her corner of NSW. Meanwhile, in NZ, a little Kiwi was clutching at straws by reporting that Wellington enjoyed "six minutes of sunshine last week". But, it is a beautiful place I believe, so there's a bright side.
Over to the US, and a mate reported it was warm with blue skies. He had gone for a morning run, taken a dip in a friend's pool and enjoyed a beer.
I didn't think anything else could make me happier until someone shared a clip of a man and a chihuahua doing yoga. For the record, both yogis in the video are cute, so it's a double delight.
I posted my go-to happy clip, Hamster on a Piano (Eating Popcorn), as there's always a lot of fabulousness to digest when you watch it.
The best thing about my request for happy snippets is they are still trickling in. The most recent response was a nod to possibly the happiest movie ever, The Castle (pictured).
The comment was: "I dug a hole".
The bloke who wrote it certainly did dig a hole. A big hole. He's an excavator operator. I think he dug two holes.
Too funny. I'm still chuckling at my little network of happy helpers.
Ahhh, how's the serenity?
So much serenity.
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