Favourite Things

English: Apple II Plus computer. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today Lorelle on WordPress had a nice blog exercise.

Like the song says, “Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…these are a few of my favorite things.”

In this blog exercise, you challenge is to write a “favorite things” post.

She goes on to say:

We all have favorite things. For a reader, it is one or more books, a series, or an author. For a knitter, it could be yarn or needles, or a favorite pattern that you can never do enough times and be satisfied. For pet lovers, it could be a favorite pet that changed their lives, or a breed they are passionate about. For a stamp or coin collector, it could be a specific item with a personal history for the collector. For photographers, it could be the techniques behind photography or the viewing of beautiful images. For a massage therapist, it could be a type of body oil. For a fan of WordPress, it could be a Theme or Plugin.

It made me think about my favourite things and to realise that I have a list as wide as Maria’s in the song and what that says about me.

The last two weekends I’ve had the pleasure of taking part in two of my favourite ways of spending time. The first was to go to the theatre and see some wonderful acting – Cate Blanchett on the stage. Then on Saturday night I joined some friends at a well run dance party and danced until my legs refused to go any further.

When I got home in the early hours of Sunday morning I spent some quality time with three more of my favourite things. My nice thick doona, my electric blanket and my cuddly teddy bear. I love snuggling into my warm bed on a cold winter morning and cuddling up to my bear.

Sunday I had a quiet day with a brand new book from a great author, Neil Gaiman’s new novel “The Ocean At The End Of The Lane”. I love reading and a good book is certainly a favourite thing.

The computer I’m typing this on is definitely a favourite thing. my 13″ MacBook Air. I love it so much that for six months now I’ve put up with three broken keys as I’m not prepared to give it up for three or four days for Apple to fix them (I use software to remap around the broken keys). An Apple computer changed my life many years ago. Back around 1980 my Dad bought me an Apple II computer and I discovered that I was good with computers and enjoyed it, after a few years teaching myself programming my career started and people have been paying me money to program, install, fix and write about computers ever since. It was a favourite thing for quite a while.

I also love some of the things I do on my computer. Writing and programming are definite favourites.

Writing hasn’t changed my life but it does provide a handy outlet and sometimes even a lifeline. Sitting down and writing is a great way for me to both rid myself of dark thoughts and to relax. I almost don’t need an audience for my writing – I say “almost” because I do enjoy the “likes” and comments from the audience I am building up here.

Programming is a funny thing. Sitting down and writing some computer code is both frustrating and fun. I love the creativity of it and the sense of satisfaction when you have taken a difficult or boring task and distilled it down to some well written code.

Maria, in the song, likes brown paper packages tied up with string. I have to admit to loving gift wrapping. I enjoy giving people gifts, I try hard to find people things they will love and the experience of wrapping them is so much fun. I have a wide selection of nice paper or sometimes I use brown paper and then decorate it with a sliver of fine paper or japanese tape, stamps or stickers, ribbons and bows. It’s not uncommon for me to spend an hour carefully wrapping a gift – even at Christmas when there can be a lot to wrap.

Oh, I can’t forget a good coffee. Sitting in a coffee shop with a well made double macchiato watching the world go past is the best. Of course travel is high on my list so perhaps the coffee shop could be in Florence.

Then there are the personal favourite things. Making my daughter Jessica laugh. Having a quiet drink and a meal with friends. At the moment I’m single but when I did have a partner she offered a few on the list. Giving a woman flowers. Waking up next to a warm body. Snuggling on the couch.

You know looking back at that list I think I left the best few to last. The really important favourite things are not the objects, not the places or the playing but the small and the personal. So my all time favourite thing would be a smile on the face of someone I love.

Related articles

• Blog Exercises: A Few of My Favorite Things (lorelle.wordpress.com)