Happy talk

I'm very happy to be hosting the latest leg of the Steve Stack mighty world tour, to promote his book, It is Just You, Everything's Not Shit, copies of which should be in everyone's stocking this Christmas.

IIJYENS (actually it took me longer to work out those initials than if I wrote it out in full but never mind) is an alphabetically based response to the question posed in the book, Is it Just Me or is Everything Shit?, and is a collection of everything Steve Stack finds good in life. Now we like alphabet books on this blog so Steve was on to a winner immediately. Even more so, when I started my own dialogue with the entries. Chinese chips I can understand (yes, yes, yes, at last I find my soulmate) but several entries (model villages!!!!) leave me cold, but that's the fun here. I have ordered several copies with personal dedications for some family members and am looking forward to some enthusiastic disagreements.

Anyway in lieu of pinching Steve Stack to find out if he was always as cheerful as he seems, I asked him some questions (oh but hey, we have the same initials so I can't do that SS to SS thing):

Sarah: What does happiness taste like for you?
Steve: Cake

Sarah: And what does it feel like?
Steve: Bubble wrap

Sarah: Sound like?
Steve: Church bells

Sarah: Smell like?
Steve: Play-doh

Sarah: Look like?
Steve: The woman I love

Sarah: Do you think it would be boring to be happy the whole time? If so, what's your favourite sad thing?
Steve: Oh god yes. Life needs its comparisons. Happy isn't happy without sad alongside it. My favourite sad thing is probably the final scenes of Life Is Beautiful but remember, it is only sad because of all the happy scenes that came before it.

Sarah: What's the best way to cheer up winter?
Steve: A log fire and lots of hot buttery crumpets

Sarah: Can you describe the happiest day of your life?
Steve: For legal reasons I probably shouldn't go into too much detail but it involved chorizo, a European capital city and a bed with flashing lights.

Sarah: Don't you think - in your heart of hearts - that there's really something creepy about model villages?
Steve: Not at all. When I see a model village I think of Camberwick Green
(Hmmm, still not convinced, Steve. all those puppets appearing from and disappearing into that 'magic musical box' used to freak me out a little)

Sarah: What is the question - on your world tour - that you wish you'd been asked? And what would your answer be?
Steve: Would you like a cup of tea and a slice of cake? To which I would have answered 'yes please'.

And no sooner said, than done. (although don't tell Steve but the tea is actually whisky so I can find out more about those flashing lights...)

The grumpiest celebrity?

Steve Stack is conducting a poll to find the grumpiest celebrity over on his blog. Vote now! I was very worried about someone nominating Gryff Rhys Jones because he always seems so jolly, but when I googled him a minute ago, I found someone's 'claim to fame' was that GRJ told him to piss off in Ipswich. Fame indeed.

When it isn't just you...

Life has been a bit shit recently, as some of you may know, so it's nice that some bits of it are starting to slowly work well again. Even better when I told someone about something good that has happened recently and got this in return which made me laugh so much:

And so you should feel special. Like a princess. Or like a princess who's had to work Very Hard at becoming a princess and hasn't simply been born into such splenderous situations. And who must have already had a predispositional princessy talent for becoming one.

You see, this is absolutely why I love other writers. None of this 'good for you' or 'pass the tea' monosyllables for them when several hundred glittery metaphors will do the job just as well.

Makes me wonder what personal dedications of similar flamboyance I can ask Steve Stack to put in my Christmas copies of his book, It is Just You, Everything's Not Shit. He's offering to sign them via his blog. The book - and the blog - is 'A Guide to All Things Nice' from Aardvark to Zebedee and his Sons (or really small kids shouting BOING! everytime he's mentioned in bible classes), dropping in on Sunday lunch, chips from Chinese restaurants, falling in love, drawing pictures in steamed up windows, breaking the ice on a puddle, unicycles (part clown, part Lance Armstrong), watching television sideways, and marbles along the way.

We've all been taking it in turns to read this book in my family and pick out different things each time. To be honest, it's not so much a guide to 'nice things' as a time capsule of British eccentricity. It's definitely a book for someone who already has "a predispositional princessy talent for becoming one", although disappointingly tiaras aren't mentioned. Maybe Steve's saving them for the next edition?