Q: Are there good things in the world to think about?

I’m grateful for Victoria Coren Mitchell. The writer and presenter summed up a national mood in a piece she wrote in The Observer this weekend just gone, that I’m sure many writers and bloggers – present writer included – are feeling countrywide at present.

Political uncertainty and general turmoil following a snap general election, and a succession of horrific terror attacks in both London and Manchester – sadly ongoing it would appear, with the events in Finsbury Park – and suddenly, it seems too awful that all anyone wants to do is keep our heads in the sand. 

But as she so poetically put it, when there is not enough sand for everyone to bury their heads, we have to face it head on, but suddenly discussion of trivial matters are hardly fitting either. Hence she listed, instead, all the good things that she could think of when she didn’t want to think about bad things. Hence my blog post today, which is attempting to do the same in honour of Ms Coren Mitchell.

• Repeats of Dad’s Army on Saturday evenings.
• Kermit the Frog singing Rainbow Connection in the original Muppet Movie.
• Anything that stars Emma Thompson (especially if she’s written the screenplay. Sense and Sensibility, hello to you).
• Eddie Izzard’s description of religion in his stand up show Dress to Kill.
• The wings off a just out the oven roast chicken.
• The view from the top of Edinburgh Castle on a clear day.
• Popping a fried egg on top of a savoury dish, if ever in doubt.
• The arrival of a new Lakeland catalogue in the post, which I promptly spend hours highlighting and putting sticky notes on only to buy nothing from it. Not even the pop art Marmite jar biscuit tin.
• Simon and Garfunkel singing Homeward Bound.
• Ant, Dec and Cat hosting SMTV Live and CD:UK in the late 90s/early 00s.
• An impromptu dinner or drinks invite.
• Scraps at the bottom of a fish and chip box.
• Dermot O’Leary’s weekend show on Radio 2.
• The first carpet of just bloomed daffodils in a country park in March.
• The same country park being carpeted in ruby red and amber orange leaves in October.
• A charity cake sale or coffee morning in a church/village hall.
• The word “homogeny”.
• Any song written by Cathy Dennis.
• Stevie Wonder singing Sir Duke.
• Apple crumble and custard.
• The Eurovision episode of Father Ted where they sing My Lovely Horse.
• Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain.
• Finishing a crossword.
• Scented candles, generally.
• Devouring an entire bowl of blueberries in one sitting.
• An early finish.
• Kirsty MacColl singing Don’t Come the Cowboy with Me, Sonny Jim.
• Panini sticker albums.
• Extra squidgy chocolate brownies.
• The crust on a pork pie.
• T.S Eliot poetry.
• The sketch on Smack the Pony where Sally Phillips and Doon MacKichan, dressed as factory workers, attempt to out-sing each other.
• Michael Palin travel documentaries.
• The bed on clean sheet night, when it feels like a delicious new bed.
• And, when all else fails: puppies.

So, I ask my question again. Are there good things in the world to think about? Always.