Doom and gloom

Following on from yesterday’s gloomy commuters, today was a ridiculous day of misery. I always try and stay happy and cheerful, hoping to spread a bit of joy around but sometimes, like today, it is very difficult.

I had a Talking Newspaper to present and, while it was the usual fun, one of the readers was a bit of a trial. She was terribly negative about almost everything. I gave up trying to cheer her up since I figured she was happy being unhappy.

Then, shopping at Waitrose, I went to the check out manned by my friend, who I haven’t seen for ages. She asked where I’d been and I smiled, happily saying Australia. I told her what a great time I’d had and how the weather was perfect.

She then started a diatribe about everything that had happened to her over the last two months. And what an awful time she’s had. I won’t bring anyone else down by going through her litany of gloom but, suffice to say, it left me feeling awful.

I really need to stop talking to miserable people. The gloom and depression they spread affects me. I almost feel I take on their problems and this makes the world look a little less shiny, happy. And it thoroughly annoys me.

And while I’m at it…something else that annoys me is the misuse of language and the wonderful topsy turvy nature of people to use a word to mean the opposite of what they think it means. My favourite is ‘factoid’. People think this means a small fact when it actually means a spurious bit of information that is presented as fact. This always makes me laugh but, a small part of me, despairs.