Tiny things please tiny minds
Tiny things please tiny minds.
This is something the teachers in primary school often said to any of us in class who weren’t paying attention because we were fiddling with a rubber or a drawing pin or making a tiny doodle in the margins of a textbook.
Back then, grown-ups would often mystify us by speaking in strange codes that we had to learn to crack. Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. I’ll give him a flea in his ear. There’s no point having a dog and barking yourself. What were they talking about?!
Now, I use expressions like these regularly and the response from younger colleagues or members of the family has always been ‘Huh?’ and a mystified expression.
The way that familiar idioms and sayings can bamboozle you if you don’t know them plays a part in my next novel – Love Letters.
Although not a sequel to Happy Families, it is a story about a family who appear briefly at the end of that novel. Sixteen year old Asta discovers a cache of lost love letters under the floorboards of her new home. They turn out to have been written by her dead grandfather to his lost first love. Newly bereaved, she determines to keep his memory alive by tracking down the mysterious ‘Ela xxx’.
There is an implied insult in having the sort of tiny mind that can be pleased by tiny things, of course, but another thing that grown-up life has taught me it’s sticks and stones can break your bones but names will never hurt you. Hmmm, this expression may need revising in the 2020s but it still holds largely true. Tip: don’t go searching out people who badmouth you on social media.
As everything starts to get a bit more fraught in the run-up to Christmas, I thought I’d share with you some of the tiny things that have pleased this tiny mind this year. May they give you a moment of pleasure before heading out into the fray!
The Guy Who Sings Your Name Over and Over
This is wonderfully silly. Just tap ‘guy who sings your name over and over’ into your search engine and add the name of your choice to hear it sung over and over again in a way that you will not be able to get out of your head. If you’re regularly disappointed because they don’t have your name on the personalised key ring stand in the service station, you won’t be here.
Two films that inspired Love Letters
The Shop Around the Corner is perfect for anyone who loves It’s a Wonderful Life but wants something a bit different in their Christmas dose of James Stewart this year. It’s about two anonymous pen pals (remember those?) who are soul mates. What they haven’t realised is that they work together in real life and don’t seem to like each other very much.
If you live in London (I don’t), the BFI is having special seasonal showings in December. Otherwise you can find it in all the usual streaming ways. At just 98 minutes long, it is a tiny film by modern standards.
Years later, Nora Ephron remade it into You’ve Got Mail, also well worth a watch.
This!
What is it? Why is it? Whatever it is, it’s mesmerisingly disgusting.
Surprises in my own pocket.
Have you ever put your hand into the pocket of a coat or jacket, possibly even one you haven’t worn since last winter and discovered something (good) you left in there? This could be anything from a £2 coin, half of a packet of softmints or a small bouncy ball.
Well, you can control this by deliberately putting things into your pocket for you to find next time. After several rather chapped dog walks, I’ve sneaked a lip balm into every coat and jacket pocket and even though I know I’ve put them there, it’s still a thrill to be able to reach for it over the cold weather this past week.
Anyway, that’s enough about me. What about you? What have you been up to and got anything planned? I’d love to hear from you!
Wishing you all the Christmas you’re hoping for. If you’re at a loose end on the big day itself, please have a think about taking part in Sarah Milican’s #joinin on Twitter. It’s a chance to link up with others on Christmas Day, some of who are having a tough time and some of whom just want you to see their Christmas pyjamas!