The Grand Essentials Of Happiness

In a Child’s Head

Children make you want to start life over. ~Muhammad Ali

I went to visit my brother and his family on one of those winter days. Since I couldn’t take my nephews outside due to the snow storm, I ended up spending my time on watching Cars (2006) cartoon movie with my nephew who is only 2 ½ years old.

In one of the scenes the hot shot talking race car named “Lightning McQueen” fell into mud and mud went into his mouth. My 2 ½ old nephew was so absorbed by the movie and he took part as one of the cartoon characters in the movie. He started to spit all over the living room thinking that mud went into his own mouth. Oh god… I should have video taped that scene to show it to his parents.

He is a funny kid. I couldn’t control my laughter. Only when the car comes out of the mud, he stopped spitting.

Children are fun to hang around with. They always do something that reminds us that they are still kids. By watching them to do whatever they do, give us the joy.

Keep laughing. Even if there is nothing to laugh about, laugh on credit. Always keep your mind worry free.

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Road Trip Tips

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~St. Augustine

The best part of the road trip is actually preparing for the trip and the traveling itself; not the destination. When you take a road trip, it’s better to avoid driving along the highways for a long time. You can take local roads for a change. It actually helps you to bring the road trip spirit up. You will be more relaxed and enjoy the view while roaming. Both passengers and the driver will enjoy the break from highway. So it’s a good idea to figure out few exits and local roads as part of your trip.

You can stop at each cities along the way and take few minutes break; remember! Reaching the destination is not that important; traveling should be fun as well. You should plan the trip very well; otherwise you will be frustrated. Having a GPS helps a lot, but taking a city map or province map will come handy most of the time.

My friend and I planned to take a road trip to city of Ottawa from Toronto on one of the summer weekends. The distance between the two cities is almost 456 km and takes more than 5 hours of continuous driving with the speed of 100km/h. I made list of most interesting places that we wanted to visit in Ottawa. I wrote down the addresses for those place, map and hours of operation, contact information, admission and other specific details about the places of interest; and made a reservation at Holiday Inn a week earlier.

We left from Toronto around 7am, and we had coffee and a breakfast at 8:30 am. We hit the road earlier so then we can arrive earlier than getting burnt in the afternoon sun. We arrived around 1 pm and parked the car at a parking lot located in Metcalfe and Queen Street. Luckily parking is free on weekends.

We walked in the downtown area to find the places that we suppose to visit. It was a fun day. If you are one of those people who love to drive, you can go road trip with your family. You have control over your time and places where you want to go. If you take a bus or any other transportation, you don’t have any control over it.

Here are few tips that you need when you plan to take a road trip:

Preparing for the trip:

• Gather maps, brochures and guides of the itineraries; and make your hotel reservations 2/3 days earlier than the arrival.
• Always keep your phone, blackberry fully charged; keep the chargers with you in case of emergency.
• If it is a rental vehicle, understand the discount privileges. Are they charging for number of days that you are renting or are they charging you for how many kilometers you drive? If the deal is based on number of kilometers it is not a good idea for a road trip. ( when we rented a car, it was based on the number of kilometers and at the end we had to pay lot more than we expected, so keep that in mind)
• If it is your own vehicle, check to make sure everything is fine. Check your lights, signals, radio, fluid levels, belts, tire pressure, spare tire, wiper blades, and filters; and prepare an emergency road kit.
• People usually take candle, lighter, flashlight, blanket, First aid kit, some sort of cutting device in case of emergency, duct tape, tool kit, gloves, extra shoes, 2 gallons of water and towel as their emergency road kit.
• Take enough healthy snacks which needed while driving (fruits, carrots, cookies etc.); keep blanket and pillows for passengers; wear comfortable shoes and clothing; and take books that you like or song CDs that can uplift your spirit.
• Stop every couple of hours to relax and stretch.

Have a great summer road trip. Take every opportunity to explore the wonders of the world. Go out there and there is always lot to see. Collect your wonderful memories.

Remember! Our job in this world is to be happy and make others happy. Write your own experiences, don’t just read them from books.

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Just For Laugh

My friend and I went to his sister’s house located in Toronto Ontario. He just bought a white hyundai accent 2008. It’s very small in size. When we were about to leave their house, his sister came to the door to say good bye to us.

She saw the car and said “this car looks like a white chicken in my yard”. I started to crack up. She is right. It does look like a big white chicken for some reason. Since my friend likes his new car a lot, he is kind of irritated by his sister’s sarcastic comment. For his defend he said to his nephew “Josh… Look closely for big white eggs after I move the car and give it to your mom.”

They are very funny family I thought. Sometime it won’t sound funny to you, because you have to be there at the moment to feel the tensed up situation to feel the humor.

Funny things always happen in families and are told to others for many years repeatedly. Making your guests and friends laugh by telling your jokes is a good way to spread the joy.

That why the wise people say “Seven days without laughter make one weak”

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Butterfly Conservatory In Cambridge, Ontario

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is a breath taking exotic butterfly conservatory located in 2500 Kossuth Road, Cambridge, Ontario, and it’s called “Wings of Paradise”. They are open 7 days a week from 10am to 5 pm. They have 2000-3000 live free flying butterflies on exhibit with other birds and living insects.

The place is filled with tropical rain forest plants. There is a small waterfall packed with variety of fishes and turtles; and the view was magnificent. I went there on one of those hot summer afternoons and I really enjoyed that day with full of inner peace and joy.

They also have other exhibits of bugs, bees, butterflies and other insects. It is one of the best places to visit with your families and friends; especially with small kids.

If you really want to go somewhere quiet and peaceful, this is one of those places you would love to visit again and again. If you want to get married in one of the tropical countries, you can choose this place as well. “Wing of Paradise” also has facilities for arranging receptions, wedding ceremonies and wedding photos.

You get to play with those free flying butterflies; and most of the visitors hold those beautiful multi coloured butterflies to take pictures. It is pretty amazing to see how we humans construct the habitats of those insects and attract people to view them.

Going into the woods to get a sight of a butterfly is not possible for those who live in developed countries, but at least having a great collection of exotic species are very fascinating to get a glimpse of. If you are one the nature admirer, you would love to visit this place.

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Here and Then

The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you the knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination. ~ Elizabeth Hardwick

I do not know your passion on paranormal, fantasy and romance novels of Linda Lael Miller, but I was really fascinated by her writings. It usually takes weeks to finish a novel, but I finished “Here and Then” by Linda Lael Miller in one day. She is one of the New York Times Bestselling Author and her “Here and Then” is a great fantasy novel about time traveling. Filled with full of suspense and you can’t put it away. Every single page contains unimaginable twist and turns. It is one of best stories that I have read.

When you watch a movie visual effects are there, but your imaginations are limited to what you are watching. But when you read a story book, the visual images that you are holding in your mind are more thrilling and terrifying than what you see in movies. That is why they say films will not live up to the magic of the books.

In this novel “Here and Then”, protagonist meets his soul mate in the wrong place at the wrong time. She volunteered to find her missing cousin and ended up in the last century without knowing the magical power of her grandmother’s gold necklace.

After reading one of Linda Lael Miller’s writing, you can contact her by clicking this link: http://www.lindalaelmiller.com/author/contact.asp

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Horseback Riding For The First Time

I never went for horseback riding before. But whenever I see horse races on TV, I sometimes imagine how it would feel like if I can ride a horse.

One day my friend and I decided to go for a horseback riding. We called Wildwood Manor Ranch, located north of Georgetown on the Fallbrook Trail, Ontario, Canada and book an appointment for a Trail Riding. We were very excited and at the same time scared. What if something goes wrong? We got there an hour earlier than the scheduled time.

Our Trail Riding started at 2pm and there were 30 of us. There were more than hundreds of horses available for us to pick. Unfortunately,  only 4 guides available for 30 people. Few of us are first timers. We are going to ride on it first time without having someone to hold the horse. Hmm… how frightening it is. May be you are an expert on horseback riding, well I’m not.

One of the guides brought a dark black stall for us. It was very tall and I didn’t really want to get on it. So my friend; dare devil decided to take a ride on that horse called lucky. They brought another brown horse; same height as the lucky. But it’s a mare and looked very calm, so I decided to take her. Her name is Star.

Although it was kind of frightening at the beginning, I was very comfortable after a while. They told us to walk for few minutes; then we started to go jogging. It was very fun and I really wanted my Star to go faster.

Trails were filled with maples, oaks, ponds and other tall grown deciduous trees. It was very beautiful landscape. I was really ready for a horse race after jogging on the Star for an hour. I didn’t know that I am capable of riding a horse. Now I’m more confident and I really want to find out other things that I am competent of.

This horseback riding place is not far from our place. It’s only an hour drive by car. But we never thought of going to this place until now. There are many places that we can enjoy, but sometime we don’t think about them.

We decided to come to Wildwood Manor Ranch every summer. I recommended few of my friends to go take trip as well; especially for first-timers.

Here are few horseback riding tips that I found more useful for first-timers:

1. Always wear helmet for protection.
2. Wear comfortable shoes and clothing
3. Always keep your heels down to secure your position.
4. Keep your head and shoulder up and sit straight up and down or lean slightly back. Down hill-lean backwards, up hill- lean forward
5. The left hand cues for a left turn and use right rein on your right hand to cue for right turn.

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