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Happiness & Joy

Be Creative Everyday

By Amazon, Books & Authors, Creativity, Happiness & Joy, Inspiration, Journalism, Thinking2 Comments

Recently I’ve been thinking about being creative, but not actually doing anything creative. Creativity should be something I do everyday, as it has so many benefits, including:

  • It lights up my imagination, giving me pleasure and increasing my happiness.
  • It motivates me.
  • It is good for my mind, heart and soul. It makes my mind more active, my heart beat faster and enriches my soul.
  • It helps me deal with my feelings, good and bad. It also helps me to express these feelings.
  • It makes me a better problem-solver. When I’m feeling creative, I can come up with better solutions to problems.
  • It allows me to explore ideas.
  • It enables me to look at events, situations and people in different ways.
  • Helps me to hope for and imagine better or alternative futures.
  • It gives me hope, at times when I feel that I need it.
  • Other people’s creativity inspires me.

The way to be more creative, is to play, as children do inhibited. So when I was at Waterstones at the weekend and saw these books, I just had to pick them up. Here’s my opportunity to play and be creative:

642-things-to-draw-book-cover 642-things-to-write-about-book-cover

I picked up both of these books along with a pack of felt tip pens. I’m going to draw or write something in these books at least once a day. I’ve already started.

I’ll be posting my progress here by sharing a few scanned images. Don’t expect any drawing I do to be an artistic master piece (for that see my fabulous Illustrator friend Sye); or that any writing I do will be literary genius. Just take it for what it is – me playing. I’m aiming to post a progress update once a week.

Blog soon,

Antony



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100 Days Together Photo Book – My Surprise from Boyfriend-A

By Happiness & Joy, Life, Love & RelationshipsNo Comments
100-days-book-boyfriend-a

Photo Book: First 100 days together by Boyfriend-A

I arrived home from work today, checked my mail and found this. A surprise from Boyfriend-A. It’s a photo book, kind of like a diary documenting our whole relationship so far.

Inside the book is a series of visual representations of our first few months together in chronological order. Including: key dates, screenshots of messages we’ve exchanged, maps of places that we’ve been to together, photos of things we’ve done together (such as Manchester Museum, Lancashire Science Festival, Blackpool: Madame Tussauds & Sealife Centre, visiting Rivington and Liverpool Pride), photos of gifts we’ve got for one another, Facebook status updates, screenshots of some of my blog posts, screenshots from Skype, photos we’ve messaged one another on WhatsApp and it ends with a really romantic hand written message.

I had no idea that he was collecting memories, as I am, or that he’d do something as wonderful as this.

Both the photo book and surprising me with it were: Romantic. Awesome. Terrific. Clever. Original. OK, I’m going to stop now, otherwise I’ll run out adjectives.

I wont be showing the inside the book on the blog, as it’s far too personal and for our eyes only. Our first few months together have flown by. And do you know what? I cant wait for the next few months and beyond.

This photo book is one of the loveliest things a boyfriend has ever done for me. It’s amazing how someone relatively new in my life can mean so much to me.

Write soon,

Antony

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Manchester Museum – Lots of History to See

By Adventures, Happiness & Joy, History, Love & Relationships, Nature2 Comments

The other weekend Boyfriend-A, his housemates and I visited Manchester Museum. Manchester Museum is on Oxford Road, in the heart of Manchester City Centre and has free entry. It has lots of history to see including (click on any picture for full size image):

Manchester Museum Gorgosaurus Skeleton

Gorgosaurus Skeleton

Manchester Museum Gorgosaurus Information Board

Gorgosaurus Information Board

Manchester Museum Mammoth Skeleton (front)

Mammoth Skeleton (front)

Manchester Museum Mammoth Skeleton (side)

Mammoth Skeleton (side)

Many vases, bowls, etc. to view

Many vases, bowls, etc. to View

Manchester Museum A great Classic Weapons Collection

A great Classic Weapons Collection – If there’s ever a zombie apocalypse, I’m looting my weapons from here.

Manchester Museum Slavery Chains

Slavery Chains

My two favourite sections were the Egyptian section and Geology section. In the Egyptian section I was fascinated by the Soul Homes (photo below) and creepy looking mummy (also photographed below):

Egyptian Artefacts Manchester Museum

Egyptian Artefacts

Egyptian Soul Homes Manchester Museum

Egyptian Soul Homes

Egyptian Sarcophagus with Mummy Manchester Museum

Egyptian Sarcophagus with creepy looking Mummy

In ancient Egypt soul homes were for people who couldn’t afford a tomb to be built. Somewhere for their soul to live during the afterlife. Boyfriend-A couldn’t believe how bad my geography was, after I thought Egypt was in Europe. Apparently it’s in Africa.

We moved on to Geology section, with this rather nice quartz crystal cluster that I wanted to take home:

Geology Section Manchester Museum

Geology Section

Geology Section: A Large Quartz Cluster Manchester Museum

Geology Section: A Large Quartz Cluster

We finished with the main attraction a complete T-Rex Skeleton:

T-Rex Skeleton Manchester Museum

T-Rex Skeleton

A Random Room-sized Fish Skeleton Manchester Museum

A Random Room-sized Fish Skeleton

There’s lots of history to see at Manchester Museum, but more interactivity e.g. videos/staffed tours would have added to the experience.

Even so we had a great time. If you’ve never been, go and check it out. Oh and it has a good gift shop that is reasonably priced to.

Blog soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Lancashire Science Festival 2014

By Friends & Family, Happiness & Joy, Life, Love & Relationships, Reviews, Technology, The WebNo Comments
lancashire-science-festival-2014

Lancashire Science Festival: Sign.

Last weekend I dragged boyfriend-A along to Lancashire Science Festival. We arrived, signed in and were given a programmes, maps and visitor passes. It was being hosted by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN), which had a special significance for me as UCLAN was where I completed Nursing studies sometime ago. It was nice to see that the campus has developed, while at the same time keeping some of the buildings that I studied and lived in. Walking around triggered many happy memories for me, but I wasn’t there for a trip down memory lane. We were there to explore all things science. All things geek.

Which started with Titan, a singing, dancing and joke-cracking robot. See photos below (click any image for full size photo):

lancashire-science-festival-2014

Lancashire Science Festival Selfie with Titan.

lancashire-science-festival-2014

Titan The Robot.

lancashire-science-festival-2014

Titan 2

lancashire-science-festival-2014

Titan 3

lancashire-science-festival-2014

Titan 4.

lancashire-science-festival-2014

Titan 5.

lancashire-science-festival-2014

Titan 6. Mr Red Eyes.

Then boyfriend-A and I listened to a fascinating talk from @Drsurvival entitled Power Up Your Brain. I enjoyed the talk, but it would have been great to have two talks: one aimed at children & families and one aimed purely at adults. This was because I would have liked @Drsurvival to go into more of the biological and physiological detail.

We discovered a hall that had so many activities from a wide range of science and engineering organisations. My particular highlight was the CSI tent, where we learned more about the process of investigating crime. Then it was time for lunch, followed by Jo Blows Stuff Up!

Lancashire Science Festival ignited my imagination for everything science, engineering and technical. There was so much to get round, we spent most of the day there and only got through a small fraction of the activities on offer. I would have loved to have more time to do: the Science Dome Planetarium, Zoo Bus and Flash Bang Science. The free talks were over subscribed meaning that even pre-booking I couldn’t get tickets to attend Davros – An Audience with Davros and Science of Sherlock free talks. But I’m sure we’ll get around to some of these activities and talks next year.

Lancashire Science Festival is free fun for all the family. There were loads of young children there, loads of activities for them and they looked like they were having a fantastic time.

My advice on how to work the day: Arrive early and do the open activities in the morning. Then pre-book a talk or two for the afternoon.

Write soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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