Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Many of us have an inner child.  It is that part of you that bubbles-up inside with innocent excitement. I associate it with the warmth of the colour yellow.

On the plane back from India, I was reminded of my inner child. Curious about all the fuss at work around yellow creatures called minions, I watched one of the minion movies. In our frenetic world, we have been schooled to think we need to be busy at all times.  Being on a plane gives one the opportunity and excuse to do nothing or watch silly movies, like a minion movie. There is nothing else one can do once the cabin lights are dimmed except sleep, eat or read a book in poor light. On our flight, there were more than 200 movies we could watch. My husband squeezed-in 3 full-length movies. If it were not for me, he would still be sitting there buckled-up watching movies.

The minion movie had me giggling for over an hour. Bursts of yellow fun, creatures with a bizarre language and at heart, a story of good versus evil.  To push my smile button, all I now need is to see a minion picture.  Who says one is too old to enjoy animations? There is no cut-off age for laughter and sources of laughter.  Escape to another world where nobody gets hurt and there are no swear words.

When we got back from India, we escaped again to another world: we went to the new Hamleys store that has opened in Cape Town. The first one in Africa. It was a treasure of toys, teddy bears and tiny cars.  My husband got stuck in the model airplane aisle and I found a dinky car area. For quite some time, we were like two children in a candy store. Big eyes and laughter.  Transfixed by the colours of childhood. Taken back to years gone by when there were no cellphones and iPads.  Those were the years when I made mud-pies inside my garden wendy-house. The years when I played card games with both my grandmothers and hunted down my grandfather’s cats in his garage workshop.

We left the store armed with one toy each: me with a Mini dinky car in Monte Carlo racing green and husband with a World War II model airplane. Husband is still putting the plane together (I should worry about the slow progress but I have learnt to be an observer) and I happily admire my tiny Mini (thankfully it was bought assembled).

If you were fortunate enough to have a happy childhood, think back to the simple moments of joy you had. Was it being pushed in a go-kart, listening to Julie Andrews sing “raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens”, eating sandwiches made from marie biscuits and margarine, or walking in cheap slip-slops to the beach with bucket and spade in hand? It helps to have these mental bookmarks, proving that Julie Andrews was right when she sang: “when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I am feeling sad,  I simply remember my favourite things, and then I don’t feel so bad.”

Extract – verse 1 from “My Favourite Things” (from: The Sound of Music)