Not the funniest thing ever...But close

Laughing my ass off at, or with, my wife Faith is something we try to do a lot. With is preferable, however often it is at due to her having done something kooky thing, or suffered some humorous misfortune that deserves to be laughed at.

Don't worry though, it's not all one-sided...I've had my fair share of mirth-inspiring incidents and am often saying and doing stupid stuff so Faith get's the chance to laugh right back at me.

We've built our relationship around being open and honest with each other and over the thirty three years we've been together that focus seems to have paid dividends.

That same openness and honesty permeates through all areas of the relationship and it means we can often be found laughing together over some misdeed, misfortune or mistake that is laughter-appropriate of course.

I took the two images below on a recent trip to New Zealand.

This is a playground in Oamaru, the largest town in the Waitaki district, South Island. It's known for it's very cool Steempunk museum and the Victorian Quarter, a district made up of all the old Victorian buildings...It's very cool and you just got to visit if you are down that way.

The playground is right on the edge of a little harbour and isn't the sole domain of kids...It's for adults too. (Who are just kids that are bigger than some other kids who are small, and therefore not adults, like the adults who are bigger than kids, but are kids at heart. You dig? Lol.)

Anyway, in it we found this big hamster-wheel thing; I'm not sure if that's what its called but you know what I mean right? You get in and walk and the inside part rotates as you walk.

Faith, to my extreme pleasure decided to give it a go.

Knowing what was likely to happen I suggested she leave her bag with me, but of course what do husbands know, and she took it with her.

The result was predictable...She started walking and the wheel started to turn...She picked up speed as she had no choice but to keep up with it...And to her credit she did a marvellous job...Until it was moving so fast one would need to be an Olympic sprinter to keep up and she fell over and ended up doing (almost) complete loops of the contraption until it slowed and she finally came to a rest.

I could have done the chivalrous thing, jumped in and helped slow the crazed wheel and extricate my wife from the torturous turning...But actually, I could not.

You see, I was too busy laughing...You know that sort of laugh when your sides hurt and you can't breathe? That sort of laughing. Tears, gasping for breath and loud noises and all...The whole shebang. I think the funniest part was when centrifugal forces ceased to pin her to the planks and she sort of just slid downwards like in the cartoons! Hilarious.

After an indeterminate period of time my laughter subsided enough to see if she was ok...She had tears in her eyes and was laying sprawled at the bottom of this wheel thing also laughing uncontrollably. That was fortunate, because if she was hurt I would have probably copped a hammering for laughing at her, not helping.

About ten minutes, some more laughter and a little re-enactment or two, later it was determined that it was my turn.

Forewarned, my effort was less funny, much slower and only quite brief. No laugher...Well, there was but it was at my wife Faith's attempt and some additional re-enactments I did, not my attempt which was flawless and perfectly executed of course.

I had intended to take a few pictures but was laughing so much I was unable to so we staged these two afterwards knowing that I'd tell the story at some point and would want images of the contraption.

I don't know about other people's relationships but in mine laughter plays a big part. It attracted us to each other initially and has endured throughout our relationship. We aren't the types to laugh at other people's misfortune, but life and laughter seem to go together for us and it's something we foster.

Life isn't always funny, but it's not always serious either. Laughter can be many things in life including a cure, a buffer between a person and an event and even just a simple, enjoyable act.

I'll leave you with a quote from fellow Australian, actor Cate Blanchett:

"Who would want a face that hasn't seen or lived properly, hasn't got any wrinkles that come with age, experience and laughter? Not me, anyway."

Laugh y'all.

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Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.

Be well
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