im incredibly boring with little/no romantic life but the most beautiful experience i think of my life was at Glastonbury in 2000. We'd just been wowed by the final performance of the night. It was 4 years ago so i dont remember. I Do remember leaving and getting a bite to eat. As usual with Glastonbury, theres a bit hippie(ish) colony there and the most visited spot in the colony is the "stone circle" a scaled down stonehenge on the side of the hill. To get to it you need to pass all the druid shops, herbal fires, street performers and carnival areas, make your way up a stone path, thru fields of jovial types and there's just a big field with this stone circle in the center with fire jugglers, dancers, musicians and friends all gathered around small camp fires, singing and having a good time.

Me and my friends arive at the field and make our way up to the circle, buying some narcotics off some random bloke that was selling them and carryed on. At the top we turned around and looked down across the festival. A red glow hung in the air from the home made candle street lights, touched by a mist that captured every other colour imaginable. As far as the eye can see, specks of light from lams lit up the grounds and i just thought it was the most beautiful sight i had ever seen.

I have a thing for scenery, i adore great views. Dawn and Dusk are my favorite times of the day and i could just live a lifetime in a sunset y'know? Ive also got a thing for skies. Whenever i see a great sky i just cant stop looking at it. Clouds, sky, the sun, i love it all.

@archie ****! one of the best experiences of my life involved that stone circle. Myself and a friend arrived to Glastonbury 1994 on the tuesday night before, camped in a field overnight and went in with the staff on the wednesday morning. We pitched our tents in a prime spot and headed off the stone circle with a bag of food and a big bag of something illegal. We sat there from wednesday afternoon until friday night and I can't explain the experience enough. We watched the stages being finished off, the food tents setting up, the entertainers arrive. Thursday comes and people start to arrive, but the best experience was to come on Thursday night. As it got darker camp fires started to light, deep red glows against the clear night sky, thick black smoke drifting across the mammoth site (anyone who hasn't been, the glastonbury festival is approximately a square mile in size). People arrived through the night so gradually more and more camp fires were lighting...people carrying fire torches started to climb the hill to sit with us. The only way I can explain it is it was like watching a medieval city build overnight. The smell of smoke with a distant tinge of exotic food cooking. The sound of drums getting louder and louder, eventually climaxing in a 20 strong drumming group beating out tribal rythmns sat with us at the stone circle.

Its an experience I will never forget....and one that I think I could not repeat. A true moment of happiness....

I haven't had experiences like that for years and can't really remember what it felt like. Goofy rushes of emotion like that i just don't do. the kids being born was about the best I've got that I remember clearly, but I don't think that counts besides once i got to No 3 and No 4 it wasn't exciting at all anymore. First times the one that counts.

When i thought I'd been shot comes to mind (i had been shot but with a plastic bullet fired by a pongo) or rather when i realised I hadn't been shot!

First time I won on the National Lottery, not one of the big prizes obviously.

First time I got me end away

even those don't really do it. I don't have a "happy" place. Actually I think it's a load of self-delusive claptrap, but that's just me, I'm deeply cynical. And don't give me the Glastonbury guff and stone circles, Arch and Grom, you were monged off your faces and having a whale of a time, nothing special involved at all.

Actually I dont have so much a happy place as a physical state I go to withdraw from the chaos of the world. Diving takes me where I want to be which is totally devoid of contact with anyone or anything else. Wonderful silence with only your own thoughts and the sounds of your own body for company. thats the nearest i get to being happy.

About 1 month ago,a sort of chilly morning here in the bush. At 5.20 am I head outside, vodka bottle in hand. I walk to a nearby hill and watch the sunrise. I don't know exactly how but, for just one moment, one barely noticeable moment, everything seemed right in the world. All thoughts of war, elections, and my neighbour's little white dog left my mind. It was as though that one second lasted for hours.
Then some goon comes driving along the nearby road and yells, "what are you doing!", I turn around and throw the vodka bottle at his junk car, causing several parts to fall right off. I went back home, and that day, that one day, was undoubtedly the best ever.

Until that evening, when my neigbour's D*MN WHITE DOG STARTED UP AGAIN!!!!

@taw you may be deeply cynical, but your diving in a way sounds exactly what I was originally talking about. When I started this thread I was talking about personal time...it just developed into "experiences". I think there is more to be said for 60 seconds of personal contentment than people normally give.

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And don't give me the Glastonbury guff and stone circles, Arch and Grom, you were monged off your faces and having a whale of a time, nothing special involved at all.

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true as that may be...its an experience I'll never forget. I spend half of my life monged but I know when I see and feel something amazing.

I've always worried for not to get out school the same time my friends do (aka go a class again), and i am not much off a sporter. But, yesterday, i got up at 5:30, packed some clothes and got out running. After that, i went swimming. After reading Chetnik's thread (yeah, i've thinked about taking my life for ages, and i have somtimes been sooo close to jump in the front of a train) i decided NOT to do it. It's not worth it. I think taking your life, is kinda running from your problems, so i've slowly beginig to open my eyes, if you know what i mean. I am going well in school now, and i always get out running and swimming on the mornings, four times a week and im accyualy going to Salzburg in Austria on Saturday, to ski. Soo to all you out there, who thinks about taking your life and things like that, its not worth it. A few weeks ago, i got my friend, who thought about jumping from the shool roof, not to do it. And now i feel really proud of myself

Edited by - Orillion v2 on 2/11/2004 12:40:37 PM

oh ok sorry grom i get it now. i thought you were being all wooly-bunny-fluffy back there

@Grom, thanks for starting another happy thread! We need one methinks!
@Arc, I'm a total sucker for scenery too, that's one reason I love mountain biking.

Last time I was happy was walking home in the rain after a rugby match, kinda wierd huh? The andrenalin and endorphins are starting to wear off after sitting in the coach on the way home and the pain and injuries are starting to kick in. I tell you what, I never feel more alive than when I'm hurting a little, i'm not some masochist, it's just that you know you're really there, it's real wierd to explain.
The coach drops me off at the school at the top of a hill and its midday, the sun's out but there are also bunches of rainclouds roaming around the horizon. Really tall ones too, the ones that me dad always goes on about them reminding him of S.Africa, and as the light reflects off them, they almost look like oil paintings. You can see the rainfall under them as a slanty patch of grey and you know its gonna come your way.
Well, just walking under one of these rainclouds, the sun still shining through one side, creating the hugest rainbow I'd seen in a long time, was a real happy moment for me. I'm by myself, I'm not having to put up with any **** from anyone else, there's no-one around cos they all think its too cold and wet outside, and I can just stand there in the middle of the road staring at the sky with just me n my thoughts and some pretty huge spectacular scenery going on over my head, even in the middle of one of the most ****ing boring suburbs in the country.
I really enjoy being by myself and on the move, if I can do it in beautiful scenery, it's even better. I can just do my own thing, I don't have to worry about what others think and I can do my own thinking and go and do what I like. I divorce myself from society for a while and I'm free!
I swear, if I don't get much organised for this summer with my friends, I'll probably save up some money, take a tent and my bike and just wander around the English countryside for a couple of weeks.

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I am the signature virus! Copy me into your signature so that I can take over the world! Moohahahee!

strange thing is, i feel happiest on the tube in london O_o

Even as a jammy tourist git, I thought the tube was one of the crappiest places on earth. Especially the last one of the night crammed in there with 10,000 other pissheads, I think I sweated off about 20 pounds.

Let's see happy place, that would have to be the fishing shack that my brother, my dad and myself own, it was originally built in the 70's by my grandparents. My grandmother wanted to build it there because it reminded her of scotland (where she was born). So I've pretty well much grown up there and developed my sea legs over the years. Anyway all my folks friends have followed suit and built or bought places down there, so we are fairly prominent in the area. As an added bonus two of the owners are phark off rich, so they have these awesome boats that make for excellent fishing platforms for the poor and downtrodden (ie me!). My old boy bought a boat as a back up but it's got nothing on these behemoths. So you could say my happy place is out on the ocean, even if im catching jack squat I still love to be out there. It's so easy to launch the boat at 7am and go through to 5 pm without even realising it.

Thanks, Grom. Your thread is really depressing me because I can't think of any "happy stories" to relate. *sigh* I'm sure one will come to me...

I am sorry That I didn't mention it, but here is my happy place,
The places of my birthground is where I will allways feel happy, I did virtually everything here it is such a nice place.

Grom&Arch: That Glastonbury sure would be something to see

Esq, don't think of one, remember one. Remember the place that has the most joyous (sp?) memories to you, don't be sad.
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Oh, dear, How sad, Never mind!!-Battery Sergeant Major Williams

'Cos it's strange innit??, whenever you stand in a Library and go AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH,
People stare at you, Whenever you do it in an Aeroplane everyone joins in.. - Tommy Cooper


Edited by - Locutus on 2/11/2004 3:44:50 PM

@Grom: nothing compares to just watching the place come alive. You know that every living soul a mile in every direction is just the happyest guy your ever gonna meet. Its not the drugs, its not the drink, its not the music, its the happy vibe, the good karma that gets passed on that means no matter who you talk to, your gonna meet someone interesting and happy.

I literally sat in the stone circle until everyone around me was asleep and didnt think it was more tahn about 3 minutes.

@Loc: Glastonbury is so much more than a music festival, to try to ecapsulate the experience in a conversation or a television highlight show is just not possible. For 5 days a year, the best town in the world is built on Michael Eavis' farm and i challenge anyone to find a more interesting, exciting, and beautiful place in all the world.

I know it makes me sound rather loved up, but i'd love for everyone to go there. If i could make it happen, i'd get all of you tickets and flights over here to experience something that changed my life in a heartbeat.

I went in '82 and had a rotten time. err actually it might have been Stonehenge, i can't remember now!