Jen’s Happiness Ten: April 2015

It’s May! And we had a bank holiday to welcome it in! And it’s gonna be warm now yeh?

Hmmm… moving on swiftly to the joys of the past month, then.

1. The Disco Shoes

Ahhhhhh the disco shoes!!!! Bringing me joy for 30 whole days now. Some context here to justify the excitement – everyone at my work LIVES in trainers. Nike Air Max to be precise, and I’ve tried. I’ve tried to rock the Converse and the kicks and the knits. I just ain’t that lady. I wish I was, in the interests of saving my feet a lot of pain over many years. So when I panic purchased these shiny silver babies ahead of my holiday to Malta for the grand total of £14.99, I figured they were a one week only, disposable thanks-for-the-memories-festival kinda purchase.

NO, dear friends. These were the trainer destiny I was born to fulfil. They’ve now been to Malta, Switzerland and the dizzy metropolis of Basingstoke, and they’re still having a wonderful time. They rock. And they glitter. What’s not to love?

2. Friends Becoming Friends

I can talk about how funderful Malta was as a little (not that little) Easter getaway but you get the vibe – booze, DJs, lovely food, lovely times. BUT staring back at this photo I just keep getting the ultimate case of the warm and fuzzies and ohhhhhh let me tell you why. Well, I’m going to tell you anyway, despite your obvious misgivings. On the left there, behold Dee and Bronagh, who I met back in 2009 on my post-grad, bombing around Leeds pretending we were professional journalists and shoving a microphone into the face of anyone who would talk to us. We finally all live in the same city, six years later and it’s supremely incredibly gratifyingly special. Then on the right – Jenny and Pip, who I met through Radio 1. I also lived with Jenny in a sequin-filled haze for pretty much the most glorious year of my life, until cohabiting with a boy beckoned.

Now, what can I tell you about these ladies? They are the kind of people that make you weep because you never thought you’d find kinder, stronger, more positive and supremely generous human beings that get you. I mean, GET YOU. Get you and love you despite all your kooks and quirks and irritating traits. You know the ones? Well I’ve got four of them right here. And as this photo illustrates, they are now friends, and that is something pretty special. At the end of the day, when you’re sat crying into your Pinot Noir for reasons you’re yet to understand, I can only hope you have people like these to call. Because they’re bloody brilliant and I think I’ve expressed that to you now but I DON’T CARE because everyone should be as obsessed with their friends as I am with these girls.

Gushing over. For now…

3. Hid-In

Ohhhhh YEHHHHHH this one makes me want to do cartwheels down the street. Here we have, ladies and gentlemen, a Grade A Example of taking a piece of shit disease, adding your skills into the mix and creating something positive from it. Basically a life mantra for all. Katie, a designer with a malfunctioning pancreas created these sleek multiway pump straps, bands and pouches to wear under your clothes and keep your pump in place, enabling you to feel less like a robot on the occasions when you don’t particularly want to feel like a robot. As Katie puts it, ‘It’s my belief that pump accessories should be more at home in an underwear drawer than a medicine cabinet’. You can even order them to custom match your underwear. Sadly (?!) I have no need to wear one with a patch pump, but if that ever changes I’ll be giving Katie a call.

4. International Type 1s

As mentioned here, on the social meeds and elsewhere to pretty much anyone who wanted yet another picture of the Alps shoved in their face (sorry guys), I went and had a glorious time in Switzerland thanks to Ypsomed, who flew me out to hang out with the other members of the mylife Diabetes Network, ingest superior Swiss air and talk all things type 1 for three days. I met Andrea, Tine, Ilka, Matt, Matt, Max, Sascha, Finn and the lovely Ypsomed team who kept us entertained, fed and safe. Product demos and insight aside, I just found it incredibly fascinating to connect with type 1s from other corners of Europe for an extended period of time. To compare notes on access, outlook, perspective, treatment, and blogging really made me (indulgently) step back from where I was at in my own type 1 world, the amazing things I have access to and just how much we’re actually all here for each other. Basically I’m now on a quest to meet type 1s from across the globe IRL as much as possible…

5. Writing and Making Plans Plans Plans

My head was busy in April! With good, good things. I have been writing furiously behind the scenes to other people, for myself, and hatching plans. This means absolutely nothing to anyone at the moment (it’s not even fully formed in my head), but it’s brought me a lot of joy over the past few weeks, and in my mind if it makes you happy KEEP BLOODY DOING IT. Feed your passions, give energy to the things that drive you and feed you and help you learn and grow and evolve. Because otherwise, what the hell are we doing here?

6. Laura Jane Williams

I want to give a shout out to this lady (I didn’t realise April was such a love fest!). She’s a blogger who has absolutely nothing to do with diabetes, but writes words that I can read and read and read and just feel like I’m getting a big lovely sisterly high five/hug/squeeze with every sentence. She writes with fervour, authenticity, and such fire and passion that it all but shakes your soul as she surrenders hers. When she secured her book deal I couldn’t help but reach out via Twitter, because we gotta celebrate each other’s achievements in this tough little world right? We’re now emailing as actual human people, as she moves from Bali to train as a yoga teacher in India. I wholly urge you to go and find her words for yourself.

7. Tribal Trousers

*Cue The Jungle Book theme tune*

Just like the aforementioned trainer tribulations, I am not one to wear jeans too often to work. In all honesty, I simply don’t work as hard! Now, it’s not like I’m rocking up in a three piece suit of a Monday morning (I think they would pretty much revoke my pass, this is meeeeedia after all) but sometimes I just don’t want to wear another skirt. Short of turning up in my gym kit I stumbled upon these glorious, fun time tribal trews in H&M and SWEET JESUS I feel like I’m going to work in my pyjamas, while at the same time being exactly at the point of fun-smart-casual that I pretty much aim for on a given day. You can SIT CROSS LEGGED AT YOUR DESK, folks. I cannot get enough of them. An actual revelation for £12.99.

8. TED Radio Hour

Podcasts are my commuting jam. After Serial took over everyone’s lives last year, I have not stopped the podcast voyage of discovery. Reading a book while trying not to eat someone else’s ponytail  or ingest their breath on the tube is a taxing time for many, and so podcasts are the answer. And the TED Radio Hour is giving me all the feels because I am getting my mind proverbially opened as I embrace an education on the way to work, for a glorious 30 minutes, twice a day, every day. It feeds my journo love of hearing about people’s lives and the way they think, and challenging the way we see the world – on topics like love, compassion, courage… all the things that we cannot tangibly grasp, but can appreciate and understand. Basically if they want to offer me a job that’d be great news. Do yourself a favour and get your ears around it.

9. Shiny new Ray Bans

The moral of this story: DO NOT LEAVE ME ALONE IN AN AIRPORT WITH TIME TO KILL.

I’m not a frivolous person in any way when it comes to material goods. I’m head to toe Primark most of the time, and I have owned about two designer items in my entire life – one that was bought for me, and one that I bought when I was tipsy on prosecco (story of my life, folks). But give me a bit of time in the airport with cash in a currency that I can’t use when I get home and I WILL forget that it still counts as actual money out of my bank account. But… ohhhhh shiny. Tortoiseshelly. Summery.

10. #FindMike

Strictly this belongs in May’s Happiness Ten as it’s a documentary that aired on Monday evening, but I was so moved by both the story itself and the way it was captured that by telling you now it means you might be able to grab it on catch up. The Stranger On The Bridge is the inspirational true story of Jonny Benjamin’s search for the man who stopped him from jumping off Waterloo Bridge back in 2008, after he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. It captured people across the globe with the hashtag #FindMike (who actually turned out to be Neil) and really hit home to me just how important it is to try and open our eyes and look up from our phones to take in the world around us, because you never know who might need you in that moment. I think it’s done huge things for raising awareness and tackling stigma around mental health and I was entirely gripped from beginning to end. I think there’s room for us all to try and be a bit more ‘Mike’ in our lives.

Happy May lovely people xx