Pleasures change with age but sources of joy stay same

What makes us happy? That differs by the individual but also by the generation.
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I think it is brilliant that Gulliver’s Valley is now open and delighting young children from across the region. Hats off to everyone who must have worked incredibly hard to get the attraction open so quickly after lockdown restrictions were eased.

Children love theme parks and it is great that we now have one so close and easy to reach. Even youngsters who don’t like the scary rides, enjoy a family day out of fun. I know plenty of adults who love the fast rides and don’t even pretend that they go to such places for the sake of the kids. Me? I’ll try anything once but the older I get, the less inclined I am to go on anything that is specifically designed to scare you witless. I used to make excuses about staying with our littlest child but at the age of 8, it is no longer so easy to find an acceptable reason not to join the rest on a white-knuckle thriller.

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Gulliver’s is designed for younger children but from what I hear, there are plenty of rides that I might end up avoiding. Long may this great new South Yorkshire venue prosper.

Apache Falls.Apache Falls.
Apache Falls.

There has been other things to cheer us up this weekend. The football results for both Sheffield teams were certainly worthy of note. However, unlike theme parks, devotion to sport is just as likely to make us cry as it is to put a smile on our faces. Oh, how we missed the ups and downs of football; how we are looking forward to not only getting back into stadiums as fans but also see a return to training for enthusiasts of all sports in the coming weeks.

As we continue to see restrictions lifted, let’s also make sure we don’t forget the things that made us happy during lockdown – or at the very least the things that we most missed.

We all loved the chance to get closer to nature and we all appreciated the slower pace of life, even when forced upon by the cruelest virus.

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It is important that we remember how we vowed to take more time to appreciate our friends and family, because not being able to see them made us so miserable. We will need to keep our guards up against coronavirus for a long time yet but we must also try to remember the lessons we learnt about what makes humans happy – at no financial cost.