More Pillow Book

A few more lists from Sei Shonagon*:

64. Surprising and Distressing Things
While one is cleaning a decorative comb, something catches in the teeth and the comb breaks.
A carriage overturns. One would have imagined that such a solid, bulky object would remain forever on its wheels. It all seems like a dream--astonishing and senseless.
A child or grown-up blurts out something that is bound to make people uncomfortable.
All night long one has been waiting for a man who one thought was sure to arrive. At dawn, just when one has forgotten about him for a moment and dozed off, a crow caws loudly. One wakes up with a start and sees that it is daytime--most astonishing.

148. Pleasing Things
Finding a large number of tales that one has not read before. Or acquiring a second volume of a tale whose first volume one has enjoyed. But often it is a disappointment.
Someone has torn up a letter and thrown it away. Picking up the pieces, one finds that many of them can be fitted together.
A person of quality is holding forth about something in the past or about a recent event that is being widely discussed. Several people are gathered around him, but it is oneself that he keeps looking at as he talks.
I am most pleased when I hear someone I love being praised or being mentioned approvingly by an important person.
When one is competing in an object match (it does not matter what kind) how can one help being pleased at winning?

And another from me:

Things that make you feel virtuous
Having broken shoes repaired
Making and then drinking tea
Using an off-misused word correctly
Crossing something off a list
Throwing/recycling away empty shampoo bottles

*Ivan Morris translation