Day 79 - stories and snowmen and agriculture and everything else

I mentioned yesterday that there were 19 celebrations going on today. I found another two this morning so make that 22! A few people mentioned to me that it is International Day Of Happiness. This is a simple day to try to celebrate being happy. This is a chance to think about what makes people happy, maybe doing something as simple as smiling, it's contagious. I try to make people happy every day by bringing a little more yay into their lives through the medium of blogging.  There, that made you smile didn't it! I said SMILE!

I look forward to days like World Storytelling Day as it's a good excuse to try to force my stories onto the world at large  Today I uploaded a bonus chapter of my serialized story about an alternative reality where Morris Dancers are the peacekeepers in a world where serious crime has been vanquished. I accept that it is a fairly niche area but hopefully a few more people may take an interest before I start thinking about adding "extra gratuitous scenes" to boost the global appeal. That could get quite messy. I also used this as an opportunity to enter a short story competition with the aim of winning a pewter tankard (ooooh). As an extra, I read some if Tom Fletcher's "Brain Freeze" to the kids. They seemed to enjoy it. Maybe chapter 3 tomorrow.

There was another fortuitous event today.  Some time ago I organised a meeting at work with the theme of farming and guess what, it's Ag Day! What day? Yes, Ag Day. Not Ag as in the chemical element (I know you were thinking it too) but short for agriculture. It's a day to celebrate the agricultural industry. Helpful eh? Tick.

Food wise today is Ravioli Day. My lovely wife ordered some Pumpkin and Ameretti ravioli for today. She had to eat her rice and bean whilst I tucked into Tesco's Finest pasta. It was actually quite nice. Filled pasta is a standard quick meal but regardless of the filling they always taste the same - pesto. I went for butter and black pepper instead today and I was pleasantly  surprised. I think that I mentioned before that my home made pasta is usually rubbish, far too thick, so this was a tasty treat. Why somebody then thought it would be a good idea to overcook the pasta and stick it in a tin with an overly sweet sauce I'll never know.

I was hoping to celebrate Bock Beer Day but I couldn't find any. Shame. May have to have a Guinness instead. Does that count? Any beer experts out there?

I briefly celebrated Won't You Be My Neighbour Day which is about Mr Rogers, an old American tv program.  I tried to watch an episode on YouTube but it was like sesame street without the songs , the puppets or the sense of humour.

I'm sure that you know that today is the equinox but that also makes it International Day Of Nowruz and Snowman Burning Day. I suggest you Google the former if you want to know more, it's about spring.  The latter maybe needs some explanation,  it's an effigy of a snowman which needs to be burned to say goodbye to winter. I'll try to burn one and add a picture to the Facebook page.

There were too many other days to celebrate today to mention so I'll finish with French Language Day. I had the chance to speak French for the first time in years when we went to Paris in December. I expect that the locals were laughing at my ridiculous French accent behind my back but I enjoyed it. To celebrate I'm off to see if there is anything French to watch on t'interweb, or maybe I'll listen to MC Solaar, my French rapper of choice. I may have to fall back on Jean de Florette if I can't find anything. Keeping with the french theme, tomorrow is French Bread Day. Please don't mention it to the wife! She's a fan.