Without actually manually checking I think I started writing the blog in around 2011 or somewhere around then.
We’re pushing towards 3500 blogs, but we missed a few here or there so that’s probably about right.
One of the things I’ve talked about here on quite a lot of occasions is a little project I have running with one my best friends, Stuart Reekie, called ‘cinema club’.
Cinema club started around about the same time that the blog started (again can’t quite remember and wish I could) but the concept of cinema club is that it’s restricted to 2 members only.
There is an unlimited waiting list which are welcome to join but you would only really be considered for entry when one of the founding members passed away.
There are certain rules that apply to cinema club like all good clubs and these are as follows…
Based on this concept I would estimate that I’ve now seen over 100 films with Stuart, and I used to blog about the films here providing reviews.
I also tried to keep a detailed list of the films that we’d seen but again (as is my nature) I fell off that wagon and it has been intermittent.
It’s fair to say though that cinema club is one of the great joys of my life and that, in all of this rambling, is actually the point.
The regularity of cinema club arrived after I had read ‘happier’ by Tal Ben-Shahar. I’ve written about that process lots of times but it’s really worth returning to it again for anyone who might not have heard that before.
It’s also worth returning to it for the people who might have forgotten as I often do.
Happier is an extraordinary book written by an extraordinary individual which explores very simple concepts for providing more contentment in your life.
One of the great principles of the book is ‘happiness boosters’.
A happiness booster would be something that you like doing that you scheduled into do that you could look forward to and then revel in how much you enjoyed it and then do it again.
It could be a walk in the park with your dogs, swimming in the sea, book club, or your cinema club.
It doesn’t matter what booster you pick; the point is to try and do it regularly and to go through the process of looking forward to it, doing it and then thinking or talking about what you’ve done.
So, this is where the recycling bit comes in because the other night after we’d watched ‘Living’ by Bill Nighy (which was extraordinary) we returned back to my house for something to eat.
It was only me and Stuart and Callum and Alison, but we sat in the kitchen after tea and for one reason or another started to go back to the list of the films that we’d seen (at least the ones that I have).
We spent some time trying to repopulate some of the list and Callum was actually a brilliant help with this because he has the most amazing memory and while the list is incomplete there are a lot of films on there.
And so, we started to talk about the films that we’d seen and started to recycle the happiness from cinema club from months and years ago
I really wish I’d kept a list of every single one, but it doesn’t really matter.
I’ll try to be better again for the next 10 years as we head towards 200 movies watched but the point is there is something for you in this, there is a format of doing things with people that you love, that you enjoy and that you can look forward to and talk about afterwards.
Shopping online, on your own or scrolling the gram just isn’t quite the same.
Blog Post Number - 3276