The Museum of Happiness

I was lucky enough to score some tickets for the pop up event "The Happiness Museum" that was based in spitalfields market over the weekend.

I finally managed to get James out of bed after not sleeping all night, after missing our 10am start and replacing it for 2.30pm and we turned up to see a mega queue and hopped in, assuming it must be for people who want to be happy.

During the queue, James turned to me and said "I was surprised you wanted to come here, I was a little taken aback" I inquired why, to which he replied "... Well, it's interactive right? I'm surprised you would want to be in that situation"
It was that point he realised I had no idea what I had got myself into.
I had read happiness, museum, and colouring somewhere and bascially thought I knew what was going on and was down for it. I was wrong.

Turns out my friend Claire and her boyfriend Rob had already arrived there and Claire was texting me about having to hug everyone in the queue with a free hug sign. This automatically made me want to leave and I couldn't think of anything worse.
James was winging about being hungry and it was freaking freezing.
So far, neither of us were happy, but we were laughing anyway.

We finally got in to be greeted by some overly happy people which terrified me, to be told to go to the back of the event where a workshop was starting. This "museum" was outside, not a museum and it was about 6 metres to the back of the event. If you hadn't picked up on it, this wasn't what we were expecting.

Everything was completely packed full of people in search for a little more happiness to leave with, and I had never wanted to leave somewhere more, apart from one time I was in an interactive dungeon and also in a cave when I was like 8.

We made our way to the back to which James started giving me the "Please don't make me fucking do this" eyes. We had a look around and some chairs were set up so you could sit with some strangers and talk to them. Before we had a chance to escape, a host approached us and asked if if we would like to join, though it didn't sound like a question. I said "apparently not" whilst looking at James as if I was blaming him, even though I pretty much agreed with him, and still we were ushered /  gently encouraged to some seats.

It was called "Tea with strangers".
It's bascially what it says on the tin, (but without the cups of tea?! heartbroken)
We sat down and the basic premise was  "no small talk". We discussed where we had travelled, what we thought about compliments and what they mean and how well we recieve love and critisism within 15 minutes to complete strangers. It was a really cool idea and I really enjoyed it. I flipping HATE small talk so aside from the people thing, it was right up my street.

After we all said bye to each other, we went on to a letter station where you wrote a stranger a message with kind words, hung it up on the line and then took one off. Cool as shit.
They gave you pens and stickers and bascially allowed you to unlock your inner child which is what all my drawings look like anyway.
I opted for motivational quotes because I am a big believer in validating my life through them, slightly sad but positive atleast. James opted for a ramble about his pen, how he hadn't slept and then ended with the profound wisdom of "just be happy innit, everything will be alright".

Our cards back were really nice. I got a motivational paragraph about being loved and to let my worries go and James had something to do with a fluffy squirrel which i think he was cool with.

We left and went for blueberry pancakes and hot dogs and then met our new friends for a cup of tea.





www.teawithstrangers.com