Introduction

Fun is peculiar. It can suddenly pop up in places you’d never expect it to, like supermarkets, waiting rooms or petrol stations. On the other hand, it can be totally absent from places that were conceived to conjure it, like fairgrounds, nightclubs or holiday camps. Fun is thoroughly unpredictable.

It ought to be relatively straightforward to predict whether an activity will be fun, but it isn’t. Putting the CDs on your shelf into a different order* might be more enjoyable than going out to see a band playing covers of the music that’s on them. Running home through cold rain might beat dozing on a warm beach. Fun is tricky like that. The things suggested here might be fun, but there aren’t any cast-iron guarantees.

Why does fun appear in these unanticipated corners of our lives? I don’t know. Surprises can be fun, but that doesn’t mean that fun has to be a surprise. I think that attitude is very important; if we’re as open as possible to having fun, I think we’re closer to finding it.

This is a list of ideas. Some are cribbed directly from elsewhere; some are adapted from their sources; some are from my memory; others are from my imagination. You might enjoy thinking about a few of them. You might enjoy trying them out too. Maybe you’ll be inspired by a couple of them as they are.

Some of the ideas might tickle you, but not be entirely what you want. Feel free to modify any of them as you please! Change, adapt and mutate them! Crossbreed them, con-join them, disguise them and invert them! LTLYM #18, for example, could refer to a grandparent’s painting instead of teenager’s poster, or the first birthday card you remember. Elements of some of the ideas might appeal to you, and send you off in your own direction – that’s all part of the process.

Have fun!


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*Ordered on a continuum according to traits, for example, like coolest at one end, and most embarrassing at the other. Or try most feminine to most manly, with androgynous cats like Bowie in the middle. Best carried out in the company of an argumentative music buff, in my opinion.