My Adventure in Happyland

We all imagine what it would be like to live in Happyland. We know that there's an extreme likelihood that it's never going to happen, but we always hope that one day everything will be just right from then on. I found a range of toys featuring Happyland, with hedgehogs, dinosaurs and penguins all living together in perfect harmony. There's a picture on the box of all the Happyland toys like the school and the playground, and the police station. But why does Happyland need a police station?

I asked around a few people who were also stumped by this; until someone pointed out that someone from outside Happyland (eg the plastic burglar) could easily sneak into your happy house. So for that reason alone, Happyland itself doesn't exist. Mind you, you could always train the hedgehog to eat the burglar.

Sorting out the weirdies

I've waded through quite a bit of my backlog today; trying to establish what campaigns we need to get involved in; what we need to delegate and what to throw out. Some of the suggestions are quite alarming.

For instance, I recently welcomed the introduction of minimum pricing of alcoholic units in the supermarkets. It makes an easier playing field for pubs to compete with; and if people want irresponsible street drinking then they can pay for it thanks very much. You're more likely to find nicer folk in the pub than carting trolleys of slabs of cans of El Largerino from McTesbury's. Hopefully it's a wake-up call to those who get tanked up before heading out to our pubs in a fuzzy daze; putting more strains on the licensee and bar staff. A little step maybe; but it at least makes an effort to stop irresponsible drinking.

There seems to be a general backlash to this despite an agreement made seven years ago (which no-one can find); with someone even suggesting that under 18s can drink a beer in a pub so long as it is accompanied by a guardian and that the beer is under 5%. Barmy. And they've wrote bloody pages of this, thinking our sole mission is to convert people to drinking real ale. There's pages of sums and calculations of how it won't save pubs and money, but no-one seems to think how much nicer it would be.

New Year Resolutions

So OK, it's time for more frequent posts. And I know I said that last month with the app and all, and I have. But still not as often as I'd like.

But then 2013 kicks in, it's the year of change. A year that I'm going to climb out of the hole. Change my life. Save a tree. Make Progress. Except that I have to work first thing. And get up late because of last night's party. But it's OK as everyone's always tired and hungover on New Year's Day (apart from the bloke who wanted blood for that printer we didn't have), and so resolutions officially don't start until tomorrow. And the strange thing is, people ask: 'Did you have a Good New Year'. On Day One. It's like Bilbo Baggins wishing Gandalf a good morning all over again.

But when the time comes to change, when it's actually time for action, you just know that however hard you try; there's always a limit. We always rely on each over to achieve our goals, in the smallest way possible, and, somewhere, where you least expect it, there's always some Gremlin that's going to get in your way. And that's just life folks.

Have a good one. And make it count. Show no mercy on those that become your Gremlin...