Down come the leaves, down comes the sun, down comes our vitamin D levels and down plummets our mood. After a dreichit weekend of sorrow and eating enough roast potatoes to keep a primary school full on carbohydrates for an entire term, this weeks post shall be quarter vent, quarter self - therapy, quarter research and lastly to shoehorn "build a fort in your livingroom with the cushions" into an article (all will become clear).
In these soggy autumnal times we are all aware that little droplets of joy aka a cup of something hot, can turn into a pool of contentment. Based on this theory we decided to share our list of little things to keep us buoyant during the Summer to Winter transitionary "cagoule" period. As Mr RnB King Usher says himself 'Its the simple things in life we forget", which should hopefully justify the ridiculous whimsical list that is to follow....
1. A Bus Run: Never knock the chance to see your city for £1.50 on a comfy, musty bus, worst case scenario the windows are too foggy to see out of, and you can chat to one of the lovely elderly ladies as they complain about the amount of coffee chains taking over.
2. Wearing Yellow: Don't sneer, it has the same affect as buttercups and brightens up your face.
3. Macaroni Cheese: The stodge, the endless amounts of cheese, the crispy breadcrumbed top, the holes in the pasta filling up with sauce, the references to Gary the Tank Commander, the delights are just endless.
4. Halloween costume planning: From Zombies to zebras get your creative juices flowing, we have just found a new list of feminist character costumes that we shall be consulting. If, like us, you don't have a party to go to, trumping the trick or treaters' guises and lone dooking is surprisingly satisfying.
5. Bonzai Trees: Bringing the outdoors in, and as an added bonus you can trim them into rude shapes.
6. Affogato: Coffee with a tasty scoop of ice-cream, the perfect seasonal transition drink. N.B. Fishing the ice-cream out can be sloppy.
7. Hunt: Treasure hunts in the woods, sounds ridiculous, but it really does bring out that ounce of childish glee and summer sizzle left in you. Little clues of brown labels hanging off trees and a tiny posh sachet of hot chocolate at the end of the search. Weather permitting.
8. Massive Jumpers: We don't know what it is, they just feel all protective and snuggly.
9. Bath Bombs: Watching them fizz around just has something magical about it, although we've found heavily scented ones can bring on migraines.
10. Nest: As mentioned previously, build a fort or nest in your living room with parts of the sofa and anything soft, fill with copious amounts of snacks, some hearty reading material, pretend you can't hear anyone else in the house and "bed in" for the evening.
If all of these fail there is a Youtube video of a child falling over in a minion costume, we demand that you watch it.