10 Wonderful Things About Hannah

"What shall I write a bloglet about this week?"

"10 wonderful things about Hannah."

Ask and ye shall receive, Hannah.

Please note, this is by no means an exhaustive list: there are millions of wonderful things about Hannah.

1. Time and place of birth
Just as the Earth is ideally placed in its distance from the Sun in order to support life, so the timing and place of Hannah's birth was crucial in our becoming friends. If, for example, Hannah had been born too early (let's say for argument's sake in the time of the dinosaurs), we would never have met and become friends. Also, due to a distinct lack of humans at that time, Hannah would have been born a dinosaur and if, by some miracle of time travel, the two of us had met, she would undoubtedly see me as a snack rather than a potential friend. Similarly, if Hannah had been born too late (let's say in a time in the future when robots rule the Earth), our friendship would meet a rather large stumbling block inasmuch as I would have died before she had been born. So, in summary, Hannah was born at the perfect time in order for our paths to cross.
In addition to being born at just the right time, Hannah was clever enough to arrive on the planet in the same location as myself (namely England), meaning that the likelyhood of us meeting each other was much greater than if she had chosen to be born elsewhere.

2. Singstar
Many a happy hour was spent playing Singstar at university and in our house the provider of the Singstar was Hannah. Without this marvellous karaoke machine we would not possess hillariously embarrassing footage of us 'putting our pride on the shelf' at the YMCA, or being continually made to 'feel ill' because of Pink's pill. We also would not have the glorious memory of shout-singing so loudly that students from the next street came round in their pyjamas to complain about the noise.

3. Palindromic name
As well as rhyming with 'spanner' and 'banana' (it does if you say it right), the name Hannah is also a palindrome, which means it reads the same forwards and backwards. There is something intensely satisfying about this for me, not to mention the fact that the word 'palindrome' comes from Greek (palin = back/again, dromos = running).
Bravo on an excellent choice of name, Hannah.

4. Obsessive nature
That sounds quite bad and like I'm making some sort of strange diagnosis, doesn't it? 'Obsessive nature'. Don't forget, folks, this is a list of wonderful things about Hannah, so don't worry, this is a positive trait. Let me explain.
If Hannah likes something, she REALLY likes it. This is particularly true of television shows. This meant that we had 'Charmed' marathons at university (surprisingly we did find time to study between the lengthy karaoke and TV sessions and we both graduated). If you have never had a marathon DVD session of Charmed, Star Wars or whatever takes your fancy, I suggest you pencil in one for the weekend because it's absolutely ace.

5. Leadership qualities
Within our group Hannah is basicallly our leader. She might not know or wish to believe it but she is. She's usually the one to come up with the good idea and see it through. I'm fairly sure Hannah was the driving force behind our trips to Rhodes and Poland, both of which were fantastic, and I have no doubt that she'll be the one who comes up with brilliant ideas of places we could visit in the future. No pressure ;)

6. Tiffin
Hannah's mum makes the best tiffin on this (and probably any other) planet. Friendship with Hannah has blessed me in a number of ways, not least of which in being granted access to the tiffin. Hannah is also one of the few people who knows the secret ingredient (apparently it's not love: I've asked).

7. Video camera
As mentioned, Hannah was the provider of Singstar at university. She was also the provider of the video camera, which we took great advantage of during our time at university. Without Hannah's video camera we would not have:
- The Gareth murder
- Crotch hand and various 'special' effects
- Singstar footage
- Dangerous BBQ falls from the sky
- Death-defying stair stunts
- The calzone cookery show
- Flying jelly
- Falling down a hole at the beach
- G'day Bruce
- Ro-DAY-o
- And many more which I can't remember at the moment

8. Excellent taste in television
Who else can I discuss Sanctuary or Wild at Heart with?
By the way if you don't watch Sancutary or Wild at Heart you should. Sanctuary because it's ridiculously amazing and Wild at Heart because it's amazingly ridiculous.
See what I did there? Clever huh?

9. She knows about the BRAIN
Hannah studied psychology at university (yes, obviously she gains points for it being a Greek word - did you need to ask?) which means she knows tonnes of interesting stuff about the brain. Stuff which I don't ask her about often enough, actually. She understands why people act in a certain way when they've experienced a specific head trauma, she's read loads of fascinating case studies about real things which happened to real people (as opposed to reading epic poems which may or may not have been written by one person) and she EVEN knows the posh names for the bits of the brain, like the hypothalywhatsit.

10. She's one of my best friends
I can vividly remember meeting Hannah for the first time (Hannah doesn't remember meeting me: I just wormed my way into the friendship group until it was generally accepted that I couldn't be got rid of). At this first meeting I genuinely remember thinking to myself, 'I hope I can be friends with her' and wondering what I could do that would make her like me.
I know, 18 year-old me was weirdly clingy and needy, wasn't she?
I don't remember a single point in time when I felt like I'd achieved my strange, obsessed-fan like goal, but I do remember, a couple of years later, remembering the memory described above and feeling extremely grateful that we'd become friends.
I still feel exactly the same way today.




That was a really nice exercise. If you're having a bad day (or even if you're not), why not choose a friend and think of 10 wonderful things about them? It's guaranteed to put you in a good mood :)