Here are some great suggestions from Ellie at Inward Singing.
- Discover a new band… listen to one of your favourite musician’s songs on YouTube and click on any other random video to the right of the screen. Keep going until you find something you love, and don’t be afraid of venturing into the dark depths of YouTube where you have no idea what you’re watching or what it means; that’s all part of the fun.
- Whilst listening to your newly discovered music, bake a melt in the middle cake. Just make up a simple batch of chocolate cake mix, then spoon half of it into your cake tin, throw in a whole load of something gooey (like Nutella, mmm) and then cover it with the rest of the mix. When baked you’ll have an incredible gooey centre of whatever you threw in, so there’s no need to ice the cake or anything, just shove it in your mouth. So far I’ve tried Nutella, jam, sliced bananas, peanut butter, apple sauce… pretty much anything you can think of that would be good with a cake is even better when its baked into the middle.
- Whilst your cake is baking go find an animal to talk to. Sit your dog/cat/hamster down and tell them about your worries. It worked for Doctor Doolittle. If they’re good pets they’ll look up at you with big loving eyes that say ‘It’s okay, buddy. I’m here for you.’ And then think about what advice they’d give you if they could talk. Maybe they’d relate back to their own life experiences. ‘I know you’re upset about that guy who never called, and I totally understand. You remember that dog whose butt I sniffed last week? Yeah, well now she won’t look me in the eye, won’t even give me a slight wag of her tail. But don’t worry about it, we’ve got each other.’ If you don’t have your own pet to talk to use someone else’s. Your bound to bump into a cat prowling the streets or a dog chasing a ball in the bark. Or maybe a squirrel in your garden, or a mouse in your outhouse. The possibilities are endless.
- Write a short story based on your animal friend. The sillier the better. If you usually write serious fiction take this opportunity to unleash your childish imagination; don’t worry about whether the plot makes sense of the characters are believable, don’t think about it too much at all. Don’t even read it over and edit it, just let it be as it is, as it was when you were five years old and you didn’t care for grammar or spelling or even real words.
- Chow down on your cake as you upload a new WordPress post which includes a video of your new favourite music, your personal melt in the middle cake, a picture of your animal buddy and your silly short story, and let’s all revel in the joy of cake, music, animals and childishness.
