Well, it had to be done 🙂
Beyond immediately family type stuff.
For me;
1) some landscapes - in the right weather on the right day you just feel yourself soar as you look across them.
2) People doing extraordinary things in society - those US kids who organised the anti-gun protests recently, those who went home to Ireland to vote to repeal the 8th.
Seeing someone indicate left to come off a roundabout.
[edit] plus the number of people who will respond with "immediate family stuff" 😉
Feeling hungry, then remembering that the place where I'm working at the moment has a Greggs 50 yards away
The STW that isn't Singletrackworld 😀
Seeing people smiling.
At the risk of being accused of a humblebrag or blowing my own trumpet yesterday was a very hot day at work ( I look after very unwell and dying people) We the staff got icecream cones for everyone and also got as many patients as possible out in the sun. The smiles we got from the patients really made my heart sing and I will remeber yesterday for a long time because of those smiles
Happy people, especially children.
Being in the forest or hills.
Climbing into clean sheets for a sleep.
edit: TJ's ice cream story.
Big skies. Curlews. Meeting someone coming the other way who's clearly enjoying it just as much.
The first slug from an ice-cold drink on a day like this. Sitting down with your legs humming after a longish ride.
Nice one TJ 🙂 that sounds like a "real" job
Also the big skies. big scenery and seeing eagles and other rare wildlife.
One of my best ever days was watching a pair of Golden eagles teaching a juvenile to hunt.
My kids, for the most part. I know it can sound cliché, but it's true.
And I'm with wwaswas on the landscape thing. When I go out for a road ride, and find myself looking over some exquisite place, it makes me feel at a loss for words.
This, very much this too;
Watching my daughter sing her head off or just playing with her friends, she has a tough life being Ti diabetic and being jabbed 20 times a day, the fact that she is always happy is testament to her character.
That first cold pint after a long ride on a hot day with friends, always tastes the best.
Top of a Scottish mountain just surveying the land around me, the harder the effort to get up, the sweeter the view always seems.
"Ace of Spades" or "No one knows" played really loud so i sing like i'm 18 not 43!
Yay! Told ya! 😆
Tearing it out at 115% age related heart max on long off-road climbs.
Music. Right now Hallelujah by Can as I collapse in the sun with a pint of Thatchers.
Dogs with their daft heads stuck out of the windows of moving cars.
Walking the dog at lunchtime down our quiet road with a deep blue sky overhead and the sun making everything the brightest possible version of its colour it can be - the yellow flowers bright yellow, the tree leaves bright green etc - and seeing the chipmunks charging across the road with their tails up like miniature dodgems.
Admittedly I sometimes have to consciously stop and think "this is pretty awesome, y'know, you should make an effort to appreciate it ya grumpy b'stard"
Ok ..so no family related stuff ..
Dry dusty trails when everything is running sweet ..
Hills & Mountains and the scenery that goes with it ..
Wildlife..
Clearing a tech section with everything still intact ..
Music
The first pint with mates after a hot & dusty ride.
Random strangers playing acoustic guitars.
Good clean surf. Like this morning.
Temple Newsem woods earlier. No one around, I stopped my bike for a bit and just listened to the noises. It was pretty amazing.
The seaside in a storm is also another that I love.
On a personal note though. I just watched my lad play rugby. First time I've been able to see him play. He dropped off the first tackle and I offered a bit of advice. He didn't miss another tackle and had a really good game. They lost but they all grew into the game and were playing better the the other team by the end.
🙂
Wwaswas that vid is magnificent. Especially the giggle at the end.
Oooh, that moment in a tight twisty section of singletrack where you know you're not going to make it round a turn without having to unclip a foot, until the back wheel unexpectedly skids round to make you feel like a riding legend.
And just the brief moments when you're skimming along a trail, sun filtering down through the trees, the smell of pine needles rising off the ground, and you see a deer peering at you.
human connections when you aren't expecting it. I was going into a horrible junction behind a lorry on my bike last week so I stayed back but in view of his mirror. He then moved a bit to give me more space, stopped in the junction until I was completely clear of it and then moved on himself. Made me very happy
my mum's face in the face of my kids. (she passed away 3 years ago and never met my youngest)
When you meet a mate out on a ride rather with starting with them, you pedal up the hill and they're there waiting for you and on time, wayhheyyy!! you both cheer and trade insults.
strangers saying hello.
All the usual stuff, nice views and having time to appreciate them.
And getting laid. And making it down a hill without crashing (badly). And getting a good feed when I'm *really* hungry.
Sunshine.
seeing people smile
hitting a section of rooty twisty Singletrack at the exact speed to feel exciting, not too fast or slow
that kid drumming in the video above.
that first beer after a long hot ride
Wild things
1979 sg2000 + marshall 100watt head, presence base middle treble preamp @ 11 master @ barely + 4 x 12 inch cab.... it even makes me sound good.
Singing Birds
Wide open spaces
Seascapes
Waves
Wind on top of Cliffs
Dance Music
Beautiful People (not the made-up overly posing types, just normal subtle beautiful people)
Single espresso in the morning
Signing off meetings on Fridays with a “thanks for attending, I hope you all have a fabulous weekend”
Getting away on hols with the family with no tv or Internet so we have to actually talk and interact with eachother
riding the bike
meeting up with mates down the pub on Friday’s after work
watching the guinea pigs frolicking in the sun in the new run I built (completely over engineered. It’s great!)
Just being in the mountains with the sun on my face.
Lol @perchy 😁
This.
I love to make people laugh. It’s like having a superpower, albeit a shit one.
Ducklings
Making my friends laugh.
The smell of pine resin when riding on a hot day.
Ladies' bottoms.
I was going to say something profound, like waking up in a tent and going outside on a sunny, dewy morning.
But it’s predominantly boobs.
Making pine resin laugh.
The smell of ladies' bottoms.
Riding my friends on a hot day.
Hearing a helicopter land on the rig when it's your turn to go home.
Some forms of motorsport
Being outside on a nice day
Looking up at the sky in the middle of the night from my bivvy/tent out in the mountains (especially if there’s a nip in the air and it’s clear). Followed by an early morning start on some singletrack...
seeing a wren bippity boppiting at the edges of the garden.
Been taking an elderly neighbour to see her hubby in hospital for the last couple of weeks. They’re both 90 and fairly knackered.
On a trip back home the other day and having walked her to the porch, she was telling me about the time she let off a valentines ballon and it ended up in Norway and that a family wrote back to her. She asked if I wanted to see pictures. I’ll be honest, it was late and I wasn’t that arsed about seeing 40 year old pictures, but obviously I said yes.
She then proceeded to reach into her handbag and pull out the pictures. They were from this year 😔
Thankfully she called me last night to let me know he’s coming home. It’s bizarre, and a lesson for me that two such frankly decrepid people are still so in love and a man that can barely talk still gets his wife a valentines balloon, as he has done forever apparently. I’m so happy they’re going to be together again.
Just wish they wouldn’t ****ing paint their house pink.
Sitting outside the back of the house with our neighbours, drinking wine and talking bollocks. The perfect end to the week
That magical moment when one fires off an unexpected ultra-phantom-poo. No sweat. No flush. No scent. No wipe.
The only evidence that anything happened here is an ineffable lightness of being...
... and a song in the heart.
Massive farts! Proper window-rattlers! There’s surely nothing more rewarding?
The bike...
There are times when all it comes together perfectly and you soar up hills and bank round corners, and it doesn't stop.
Being alive.
(genuinely - the good, the bad, the happy, the sad. It's all gravy)
Sat in the pub, drinking beer and eating crisps, after another Monday Night Pub Ride, everyone ripping the piss.
life-affirming stuff
dont know what I’d do without it
For years it’s just been what we do on a Monday night. Why? Because Andy’s wife changed the night of her Acid Zumba class, and inadvertently started an institution
