What Would Ted Lasso Do?

I happened to stumble across the TV show Ted Lasso during a challenging time in my life. Meeting the character, Ted, and others, has really helped to change my perspective on things. It is an inspiring TV show and I have loved it.
I ordered the book, ‘What Would Ted Lasso Do?’ because I loved the series so much. I wanted to read more about Ted’s positive attitude and have a permanement reminder of the lessons I was learning in the show.

If you’re a fan of the show, or if you love the idea of a positive approach to life then the book is worth a read.

Believe
One of my most loved concepts from the show is the idea of ‘Believe’. I now have a Ted-style poster on my home office wall. Believe is about believing that something great will happen. Right now I need to believe that everything will work out in my life. I have to believe.

Be Successful
This chapter focuses on Ted’s use of Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success and his belief that winning isn’t important – it’s about helping his players become the best versions of themselves that they can be. When I was a headteacher this was always my philosophy – by motivating and encouraging people to be the best versions of themselves then this would result in success for the school. And it worked.

Be Curious
Ted describes a quote from Walt Whitman – be curious, not judgemental. This is really powerful – if we all did this the world would be a better place.

Be Optimistic
Ted says, “I believe in hope.” Being optimistic is a choice and it will improve your mindset the more you do this.

Be a Do-Gooder
Ted loves to help other people. I need to try to do this more. I have thought about volunteering but not sure yet what I want to do.

Be Open to Therapy
Recently I have had some counselling sessions. I enjoyed them but I wasn’t sure if they were what I needed. I still have a couple more to go and I will be more open-minded with them. This chapter also reminds me of the importance of talking.

Be A Good Parent (to Yourself)
This chapter reminds us that people’s behaviour is often the result of poor parenting. We can work hard to show that we can improve as people by learning from good people – and that we can try to do for our own children by modelling the right sorts of behaviour.

Be More Like a Woman
This chapter reminds us about toxic masculinity and how to avoid and remove it from our lives.

Be Forgiving
Be a goldfish – they are always happy because they have the shortest memory span. I love this concept. It is hard to forgive. Recently I have been put through the biggest trauma in my life. Forgiving is my next step, but staying angry forever is not something I am prepared to do. I am trying to be a goldfish.

Be You
“Listen to your gut, and on the way down, listen to your heart and between those two things, they’ll let you know what’s what.” Sounds like more great advice from Ted. Be yourself.

Be Kind
This short chapter reminds us to be kind to everyone else. That’s what Ted does. That’s why people love him. And I love how, in the show, this kindness is paid forwards by everyone he meets. Something else for us all to try to do – be kind.

I know that I’ll watch the show again and again and will read this book everytime that I do!

Neighbours: The Celebration Tour

After Neighbours ended in 2022 I was devastated. I know that people think that watching Neighbours is sad and something you did when you were a kid. But I was someone who loved the show and its characters and watched it every day. One comfort was knowing that I had managed to book tickets for the Farewell Tour in March 2023.

Fast foward a few months later and the news broke that Neighbours would be returning and the Farewell Tour would be revamped as the Celebration Tour! Absolutely amazing!

We watched the live show in Manchester at the Bridgewater Hall. The show was presented by Leah Boleto who was a brilliant host – she came over as a genuine fan as well as a competent presenter.

During the show we met each star in turn – Ryan Maloney (Toadie) then Alan Fletcher (Karl Kennedy) and then Jackie Woodburne (Susan Kennedy). They were then replaced by Annie Jones (Jane Harris), then April Rose Pengilly (Chloe Brennan) and finally Stefan Dennis (Paul Robinson). They each shared some great memories from the show and shared insight into the characters they played.

After the interval all of the actors returned to the stage whilst they played some clips and discussed moments in the show. Of course, they discussed how they found about about the news of the cancellation and then the excitement of the show returning!

Alan Fletcher and Stefan Dennis were always going to be my favourites on the stage and they were really funny. But all of the actors were fun, insightful and really interesting to listen to.

The tour has made me really excited for the show’s return – which they will apprently start to film three weeks after the tour ends.

Paul Mort’s F*cking Unstoppable!

Discovering Paul Mort’s content has helped me through a really difficult period in my life. I read his latest book, F*cking Unstoppable! and here’s what I thought.

Discovering Paul Mort’s content has helped me through a really difficult period in my life. I read his latest book, F*cking Unstoppable! and here’s what I thought.

I first heard about Paul Mort when he appeared on Sean Spooner’s podcast, Life and Lessons. His say it as it is approach really resonated with me. The timing of the episode was ideal – I was going through an extremely tough time, and his straight talking approach encouraged me to pick myself and get on with things. I immediately purchased his book, F*cking Unstoppable!

Since reading his book I have been trying really hard to put his ideas into practice. I have been a million miles from getting it right, but the approaches he describes are things I’ve been trying to use each day since reading it.

He describes five elements to our lives that if we are aware of, and set goals and outcomes for, will make a real difference to our lives and the people’s around us.

The five areas (he calls them the F5) are:

  • Focus
  • Fitness
  • Family
  • Finance
  • Fun

Focus: this relates to your mindset – the ability to deal with stress, chaos and anxiety and coping with all those negative thoughts that can distract you from your life. I have been very conscious of my thought processes and tried hard to keep a daily journal where I explore my thoughts and feelings and how I want to feel. I dabbled with meditation but need to explore this more

Fitness: “If you feel like shite, you will perform like shite.” Simple advice. Since reading the book I am keeping better tabs on what I eat and drink, especially the amount of water I drink, the amount of sleep I have and the exercise I take part in. Walking has really improved my wellbeing recently.

Family: Spending time with my family and friends has been absolutely wonderful lately. During this difficult period, everyone has been so great at looking after me and I have never valued them all more highly. I am determined to spend quality time with my family and friends and the book has encouraged me to make this a resolution.

Finance: This is an extremely difficult time of my life financially and I am fearful for the future. Paul Mort has encouraged me to be more aware of the importance of finance and to set goals. I am taking this F more slowly due to the uncertainty in my life. But I will get there.

Fun: I have tried hard to build in fun into my life. We have planned fun things to look forward to, and also learned to find fun in simple things like tidying the house, doing jobs around the house

I am now setting goals for each of the F5 and I believe in doing so it will make me a better person.

The book is well worth reading and you can purchase it here.

Yellow Cars in 2022

I counted every yellow car that I saw in 2022.

Yes, it’s ridiculous, but I am addicted to counting yellow cars. I count them whenever I see them and add them to my counter which is permanently in my car.

As you can see the average became fairly constant from around June onwards. The average was around 37 yellow cars each week. There are certainly more peaks during the BST months, with most of the below average weeks coming during the beginning and end of the year.

The highest weekly total was 81 which came in a week with a visit to Llandudno and a residential visit to York. It’s no surprise that the highest totals always come during the weeks with long drives, and particularly those into cities.

You can probably spot the weeks that I was off with covid (which I managed to catch twice in 2022).

If I could live anywhere…

This is a totally hypothetical wishlist. We cannot afford to move house and, even if we could, the places I’ve picked carry an upmarket premium which means a move to these places could never happen. But if I could live anywhere else, these places are on my list of places where I’d love to live.

Tarporley
Tarporley is a weird one to include on my list as it is only up the road. I’m not entirely sure I’d want to live there as it is very snobby, but there is something so appealing about the village and its community feel.

Lymm
Such a picturesque village with lots of quirks and interesting history. I would love to live in the village!

Whitby
Whitby is one of my favourite places in the world! It really is beautiful. As a tourist I love it, but I get the impression that it is a really lovely place to live.

Scarborough
After our holiday where we stayed there in 2021, I would happily live in Scarborough. I love Peasholm Park, the beaches and the atmosphere. It is nothing fancy, but I am sure it would be a nice place to live.

Conwy
Conwy is such a lovely place to visit and I there is something about the town that feels so homely. It is definitely somewhere I’d live, although the roads in the area would annoy me.

Saundersfoot
Such a lovely village – I’d opt for Saundersfoot rather than its more famous neighbour Tenby. Saundersfoot seems, at least to me, more of a home than a place to visit.

Wells-next-the-Sea
I fell in love with Wells on our recent holiday. It is definitely somewhere that felt like it had a community feel. There seems enough for people to enjoy as holidaymakers as well as residents. Fabulous place!

St. Alban’s
We stayed in St. Alban’s recently and loved it. A small but beautiful city. Verulanium Park would be worth living there for alone (the park is shown in the picture for this article.)

Savings Challenge

At the start of 2021, I saw this post from @moneysavvymumuk on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJgeVqMlfQd

I adapted the idea to make my own as I figured that £1000 would be a struggle over the year. I turned it into £750 over the year and instead of saving, I would use this to pay things off, paying off additional amounts each week.

I am pleased to say that I managed it and paid, in fact, more than £750 off over the year. This made a real difference to my finances. It is definitely worth thinking about if you want to save some money, or pay something off a bit faster over the year.

Here’s the record of my payments over the year – ignore the colours. I was originally going to keep a record on my computer, but decided having this in front of me in my office each week was better. I was going to highlight each week but decided to put dates instead of highlighting – this is better to look back and reflect on when good times are to pay.

Best TV shows of 2020

I don’t watch enough TV. I have, however, loved some TV shows this year.

The Mandalorian
So, the quality of The Mandalorian is incredible. Each season is like an 8-hour film. I love how The Mandalorian is connected to the Star Wars universe but has a completely different story. If only the sequel trilogy had attempted the same thing then it would have been so much better. Apart from the cuteness of Baby Yoda, the action is the best thing to watch. The episode where Baby Yoda is kidnapped by Dark Troopers is ace!

The best thing about The Mandalorian is probably its legacy – so many quality programmes are now being made in the Star Wars and Marvel cinematic universes now that Mando has convinced everyone that it’s possible.

The Great British Bake Off
It’s cheesy but I almost cried when the Bake Off was announced as returning. There is something so comforting about this programme. It is perfect escapism TV – for an hour or so each week COVID didn’t matter. All that matters was if Peter could bake a cake. A brilliant series!

The Fall
Ok, so The Fall wasn’t released this year, but this was the year that we binge-watched it. It was totally captivating. Incredible programme.

Neighbours
I don’t watch any other soap so Neighbours is a totally guilty pleasure. Each day it is reassuring and entertaining. There have been some brilliant plot lines this year. The only problem has been that we have not been able to watch as many episodes this year because of COVID!

This Country
This year we fell in love with This Country. The show has flown straight in as one of my favourite comedies ever. It is hysterically funny!

The Last Leg
The Last Leg is the programme that has summed up the year. In January/February it laughed at the idea of COVID. Then by the end of the series there was no audience. It returned with Adam Hills in lock down in Australia and Josh and Alex presenting from their homes via Zoom. It returned again in a socially distanced form at the end of the year. That they awarded Dominic Cummings the Dick Of The Year Award over COVID tells you how much we all hate Dominic Cummings.

Gogglebox
Quite possibly the best programme ever. Entertaining, uplifting, comforting and awkard every single week, the stars have really cheered me up this year.

The Stranger
I’ve already written about how much we enjoyed The Stranger. It was awesome.

Favourite Tunes of 2020

2020 hasn’t been a vintage year for music but were are a few gems.

The Weeknd – Blinding Lights
Ok, so this was technically released in 2019 but it enjoyed most of its success this year. The song is, excuse the pub, an absolute blinder! It sounds fresh every time you hear it, yet also sounds it was released years ago. I’ve not really enjoyed much of The Weeknd’s music before – part of this was stubbornness not to engage because I hate the way he is too lazy to spell his name properly. But between Blinding Lights and In Your Eyes, 2020 has been a vintage year for him. Both tunes are amazing, but Blinding Lights is phenomenal!

Ella Henderson & Roger Sanchez – Dream On Me (Roger Sanchez Remix)
Ella is such an amazing singer. She has released so much good music but has never really followed up on her initial success with Ghost. However, in 2020 she released some crackers and it was hard to choose my favourite. I have gone with Dream On Me as it samples one of my favourite songs, Another Chance. However, I could have chosen Take Care Of You as that is fantastic too!

Purple Disco Machine & Sophie and the Giants – Hypnotized
Before streaming became the thing, the hype around Purple Disco Machine would have been huge. His Nineties-revival remixes are amazing and this remix of what I assume is a Sophie and the Giants song deserved to be massive, like the Robin Schulz remix of Prayer in C was in 2014. Hyponotized is brilliant and is well worth a listen!

McFly – Tonight Is The Night
I love McFly. I really enjoyed the documentary All About Us in November. Tonight Is The Night is such a good tune, I listened to it on repeat after watching it!

BTS – Dynamite
All I know about BTS is that they are Korean, they usually don’t sing in English and that girls love them apparently. Yet, somehow this year they released Dynamite – one of the best pop songs of the year by a mile. I don’t know how they managed it, but fair play.

Yellow Car Punch

Yellow Car Punch has become an obsession and I play it all the time!

Around eighteen months ago our children and their cousin started playing Yellow Car Punch in the car. I had never heard of this game before but it kept them busy on journeys, so why not. They weren’t actually hurting each other and they were mostly quiet – seems like a good idea. I assumed at first that they had made the game up!

It wasn’t long before I was involved in the game too. I then did some research and discovered this wasn’t just something they had made up. Yellow Car Punch, or The Yellow Car Game, is a well known pastime!

We play in two ways – both rules are really simple.

The first way is to be the first person to spot a yellow car. When you do, you shout, “Yellow Car Punch!” and lightly pat the other person. So far the children have obeyed the rules and haven’t hurt each other.

The second is to count as many yellow cars as possible. My record in one day is 21 – the best places to spot them being Llangollen, Rhyl and New Brighton.

I am now totally obsessed. I count yellow cars all the time. I know when I am going to spot them on my journey to work. I shout, “Yellow Car Punch!” whether there’s anyone else in the car or not. I once shouted it during a work-related call I was making in the car – embarrassing!

There is actually a website which explains the rules and describes the history of the game!

Do you play?