Positive things that just happened thread

An affair?

Enjoy! One thing I regret is not doing that often enough before kids came along. In fact, my wife and I have only done 2 overseas holidays by ourselves in 20 years, that weren't visiting her parents in France. And none in 14 years since the eldest came along. Sigh.

Ha, yeah, we realised very early on that a) it was far too expensive, especially as limited to term time as wife is a teacher. And b) my kids are somewhat challenging so have kids will travel wasn't worth it. Plus it's not really a holiday with kids!

Good luck with the treatment! We got as far as clomid before it stuck and that was stressful enough.

They do happen! Fingers crossed for you also.

As a kid I only remember 2 overseas holidays and a handful of trips to see the grandparents.

Before kids I started travelling at every opportunity and have been to all sorts of places.

These days we’re on holiday every chance we get, even if it’s a weekend away. Wife hates having the kids just sitting and watching tv so we have to come up with something to do most weekends.

There haven’t been any overseas trips since the youngest due to her being awful in the car for the first year, then covid then just not going. October is the first time on a plane in 6 years.

I just love going somewhere different, even if it’s the U.K. the change of scenery is great.

And yes I know I’m extremely fortunate to be able to do that.

(Still in the nail bar... Who fucking knew it took so long lol)

Hey man, you got this.

Another related positive from this holiday...

About 10 years ago, pretty much out of nowhere I developed a flying phobia. I'd been to China, Australia, the States etc, prior to that, with little issue beyond a natural disdain for the boredom it entails.

Gradually I got worse to the point I was really not dealing well with it. Anxious weeks ahead of a flight, despite being a boring scientist and know about the probabilities of such and such, etc. It was quite eye opening realising just how detached my emotional state could become from the rational part of my brain when during a flight the intensity of it all felt overwhelming.

I went on an easyJet fear of flying course at this point. There were people asking questions like: "is it true you can get sucked out of the toilet when you flush it?!". I thought jesus, at least I'm not quite that severe. Anyway, there were A LOT of people on this course. Like almost a thousand. It's quite a common issue really, but I think there is a shame being twitchy about flying. Anyway, the course was helpful. I got to Hawaii soon after it. But it still didn't fully sort me out. I then even tried EMDR therapy, which was wild at recreating the feeling of being in a plane, but sat in a therapist's office staring at a light moving horizontally back and forth vocalising a flight and the sensations I feel during one. Unfortunately it got curtailed with COVID. Anyway, I kept going on flights albeit maybe once a year at most. Partly because of not going on holiday much, but also my own reluctance.

This trip I'm on is a mate's wedding. I've also been prescribed diazepam for several years now purely for flying. At times I find it helps and others I don't. Hard to tell for sure, but I think it's net positive.

Anyway, this latest flight was definitely my best in last 10 years. I've always hated looking out of the windows on planes, the reminder of being in a can in the sky too much to comprehend. But this time I just stared out of the window for about 45 minutes during and after takeoff and it was great. Same for descent. Somehow it gave me something else to focus on rather than worrying about everything else that races through my mind during a flight. It was quite zen just watching the ground (very) slowly move relative to me.

Obviously, different strokes for different folks. And perhaps I'll be a wreck on the way back lol, but I'm hopeful.

No one asked, but other useful things in my experience if anyone is interested:
- put a plastic cup of water on the tray in front of you and watch how little the water moves. Now think about if you did the same on a car dashboard and how wet you'd instantly get.
- next time you're on a train, assuming you are comfortable with train travel like me, close your eyes and feel how much your body moves about, compared to being on a plane.
- distract yourself with anything you can: crosswords, sudoku, music etc. Simple breathing exercises can genuinely be helpful
- if it gets too much, and you're on a long haul, go talk to the cabin crew. I've spent 3 hours talking to them before. They are usually full of interesting tales, super friendly and open to a chat on a boring flight they've done hundreds of times.

Good luck and enjoy your trip!

Great post, thank you.

I'm not entirely sure I'd have even set foot in the place and would have been ensconsed in the bar opposite!

I think we both thought it would be 30 mins job

If they had a serving hatch between the two buildings you'd have been landed.

Mis-read that as "Tumescence" and instinctively did a sharp, sympathetic intake of breath.

I'm on the bus, and have just been drawn into a random woman's video call because I'm 'handsome' and she wanted to show her friends.

TBF her English was pretty bad, so she may think 'handsome' means 'mutant' or 'freak'.

Google appear to have gone mad and given my £300 for my Poco on trade in. Mental.

Not complaining, mind you.