The South West Coast Path

The South West Coast Path starts in Minehead in Somerset. It follows over 600 wonderful miles of the English coast line across 4 counties: Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset. You can walk the whole way if you have the time. Some people chunk it up and spend years of their holiday life 'bagging' parts of the path.

At the beginning of the path in Minehead, there's a fabulous sculpture designed by Sarah Ward depicting a pair of hands holding a map.

12 happiness-enhancing activities

These 12 activities were published in the Guardian this weekend. I thought I would jot these down for us all to remember and work towards together.
1. Express gratitude.
2. Cultivate optimism: visualise a future in which everything has turned out the way you want it, then write it down.
3. Avoid obsessing over things or paying too much attention to what others are doing.
4. Practise acts of kindness - more than you're used to.
5. Make time for friends; be supportive and loyal.
6. Develop coping strategies: write down your feelings when you're feeling upset and try to see that traumatic events often make us stronger.
7. Learn to forgive.
8. Immerse yourself in activities and be open to new ones.
9. Savour life's joys - linger over a pastry rather than mindlessly consuming it.
10. Work towards meaningful goals.
11. Practise religion and spirituality.
12. Exercise.

All words courtesy of Sonja Lyubomirsky (Professor of Pyschology, University of California)

Walk on the Wild Side by the BBC

This is so bleeding funny, it had me crying with laughter. Can't wait till I next speak to my Brother. Me and my Dad have a plan to bombard him with this when we speak to him on return from his holiday. Alan! Al! Al! Alan!

Not the Balloon festival

There's been quite a lot of festivals in Bristol over the summer as usual. This photograph was taken at the Harbour festival which happened the weekend before the internationally acclaimed Balloon festival. Although you could be mistaken for thinking otherwise.