Day 2: The Happiness Project

field
The wilds of inner city Leicester

 

It’s Day 2 of my attempt to find something that makes me happy for 100 consecutive days.

Today was a bit easier than yesterday to find something suitably happifying.

The sun was shining and the tree blossoms were perfumed and billowy rather than sodden and thudding to the ground in sad clumps. We went for a walk into town, en route to lunch with a family friend we last saw in Canada in Autumn, before Thwacky was born. It feels like a long, long time ago.

Above is a photo of wilder part of the New Walk, a paved foot path that quite possibly used to be a Roman road and then a Georgian one, and which weaves downhill past really lovely old university buildings and houses into the city centre. It was sunny and bright today, with squirrels and birds and whatnot bopping about.

And then this was lunch at Kayal,  a restaurant near the bottom of the walk which specializes in dishes from the Kerala region of India-

 

photo 1
The crunchy Keralan tea house special at Kayal, with mango, lemon and coconut chutneys and pickles.

 

photo 2
And then there was lunch, which had a dosa the size of a toddler and a gorgeous selection of nibblies in tins.

 

The baby didn’t howl, we had good grown up conversations and I got to eat my whole meal without being interrupted too much by baby needs- albeit awkwardly and one-handed, with him sprawled across my lap, drunk on milk and fresh air.  Some rice ended up on him, but nothing too embarrassing. I’ve learned how to eat with my non dominant hand and how to minimize spills when the table is a baby’s width away.

Small pleasures.

Aiming for more and bigger.

 

The whole Happiness Project collection of posts can be found here.

 


by

Comments

2 responses to “Day 2: The Happiness Project”

  1. Kirstin Avatar

    That indian food looks amaaaazing! I remember fondly taking Darwin out to eat when he was still just a nugget. Korean restaurants were my favorite because we usually sat on the floor, and when Darwin took a nap I could just throw down a coat as a makeshift bed. Of course, I only feel like I can look back fondly on these things because he’s grown way out of that stage.

  2. Theodora Avatar

    I always put Zac on the table when we went out for dinner. It looked a bit weird, but freed up hands, and he felt in the middle of everything, as he was, so didn’t whine.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.