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Friday Thoughts 56 - Mrs Brightside

Writer's picture: EAWEAW

Updated: Feb 6, 2022

Friday again. Another glorious morning driving or, more accurately, being driven! It’s been over ten years since I’ve had a solo commute to work and time to ponder. The last time will have been when I was living in Hertford and the commute to my last job before I left England. I always listened to the radio in the car while driving and used to have a guilty pleasure of enjoying the Chris Moyles breakfast show combined with Radio 4. Now that I am not driving myself, I am able to use the time more productively to catch up on emails and social messages. I’ve also rekindled my love for the radio and I’ve been trying to experiment with listening to some new podcasts; some self-discovered, others recommended.

I’m not a massive TV person, never have been, but I do like the radio on in the background and especially people talking (it was always Radio 2 when I was growing up, then Radio 4 or Radio 5 in my own home). I like music to work to, when I am concentrating but at home it’s people chatting. One of my favourites has become Susan Calman’s Mrs Brightside. She is a Scottish comedian who I came across on the Radio 4 News Quiz. Apparently, she was also on Strictly, however many of you may have no idea who she is! Anyway, she interviews fellow comedians and quite often there are discussions related to performing at the Edinburgh fringe and they mainly talk about various aspects of mental health. The final episode of the series was with Marcus Brigstocke another comedian I really like really quite like. He talks about his highly addictive personality and how this impacts his mental health. He also talks about how he overcomes this on a daily basis by being grateful and making a gratitude list. My interpretation of what he is saying is that it really focuses his mind on being satisfied and being grounded. Many of the comedians I have listened to talk about their self-criticism and how they experience a ‘crash’ following the euphoria of being on stage. He said he’s learnt different mechanisms for dealing with his inner voices and how that has to some degree transformed his life. The idea of being grateful isn’t anything new; it isn’t anything that many of us haven’t heard before, but I think when as with so many things it comes from you when it comes from inside when it comes to your desire you drive to do something, to make a change then it is all the more powerful.

So I have been pondering what I am grateful for; many things it turn out, some bigger than others. One, however, is my home. I can’t honestly say that I’m enjoying getting up at 5:15 to get into work at the same time I used to, however I can say that I’m incredibly grateful to be living where I am. I always remember looking at buying a house in a place called Watton at Stone in Hertfordshire and was before we made the decision to move to teach internationally. House prices in that region were, and still are, really quite high and the mortgage payments would have been massive. Anyway, we were going for a second viewing at this house and I still remember the estate agent’s advice. He said that because the cost of a house is such a significant proportion of an income, you have to be able to come up to it and be happy that you go to work to pay for it. This flicked a switch and, not only did we not buy the house, but we also eventually decided to move to follow a long-held dream of teaching internationally.

I know I don’t finance my home monetarily; however I do pay with my time. I equate my commute with a mortgage and I have made the choice to spend some of my valuable downtime commuting and the feeling of belonging when I walk into my new home fills me with both joy and happiness. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I’m grateful for that. I’m grateful to have been able to make a choice and I’m grateful that I knew what was right for me and to trust those instincts.

Despite the fact that I wrote this around 6:30am, I’m only just managing to finish! It’s the welcome back pool party tonight so I’ll be skipping straight from after-school duty hence the early addition of Westwood’s Friday thoughts and the last Friday Thoughts for September. Not sure how I feel about Thursday Thoughts next week, we’ll see…

I’ve only just put music on this morning and my Spotify music playlist is Frankly, Mr. Shankly by The Smiths. A recommendation no less, and definitely one for those of you who like The Beautiful South.

Happy Friday everybody and let’s hope the sunshine remains!

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©2022 by Elizabeth Westwood

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