Reasons to be cheerful: Part one
These days you have got to take pleasure where you can. I’ve started doing something really simple with my daughter and without sounding like I’m a ‘The Secret’ groupie – it really works. It’s called ‘The Thank You Game’. You take it in turns to say thank you for things. For instance, I would start off with ‘Thank you for that tree with its lovely pink blossom.’ My daughter would then says hers – something like, ‘Thank you for the cake at the party yesterday.’ I guarantee that if you start doing this when you leave the house on the school run feeling all crotchety, by the time you get to school the mood will have changed and you’ll all be skipping towards the gate.

Laugh ‘til you cry
When I heard about Laughter Yoga, the newest (and oldest) craze, I had to try it. What could be more natural! And with scientific studies showing that laughter is as good for the body as exercise I was Google-ing to find my nearest class. On the way to The Academy of Dreams, I had a minor disagreement with my husband so I wasn’t in the most open of moods but everyone was very friendly, so friendly I had to look around to see if they were talking to someone else behind me.

After a bit, we put our grapes and warm water down and sat in a circle. We introduced ourselves and told the class the name of the animal that we most felt like today. The grumpy late 50s’ ex-roadie said today he was a lion. We were told that for the rest of the class we would use no words just laughter. The Laughter Yoga motto is ‘Fake it Fake it Fake it ‘til you make it’. We then launched into a series of exercises starting with … pretending we were laughing on our pretend mobile phone and taking it to the other class members and getting them to listen and laugh.

By the time we are throwing our laughs into a pretend parachute, and then pushing the parachute through the air so the laughs would land on someone's head in London, I was planning how a coughing fit could get me out of the building. It was me I’m sure. The teacher was lovely and delightful and everyone else seemed to love it. After an hour and 20 minutes we wound it up with a final 10 minutes’ laughter meditation lying on our backs. The teacher thanked us and then asked us for a one-word description of how we felt. The old rocker said he felt really annoyed. One person didn’t want to categorise their emotions in just one word, and I said ‘desperate’.

Boobs
I just had my bra fitted. It was free. It is free to get it done anywhere. I’m totally and utterly blown away. Picture the scene. I’m in the changing room waiting for the lady to come to see me, feeling slightly embarrassed as I don’t ‘do’ changing rooms generally. I know everyone bangs on about getting bras fitted but I’m feeling ‘I’m sure it won’t make much of a difference to me’. My boobs are just not pert so they do just look like this.  Childbirth is a downer like that.

The lady comes in and gasps. I always have my bra strap quite high up my back.
I just thought that was just the way it was. “Oh my dear … you must have terrible backache,” she said practically salivating. I presume I’m wearing a size too small but I’m totally blown away when she measures me and says I’m not 40 inches around the chest but 30 to 32. I can’t believe it even more when she tells me I’m not an F, I’m a J or a JJ. I can’t help but laugh. I’m Jordan. I literally have her boob size. But mine are real so not quite so perky. Oh my goodness. She puts on the right size bra for me and I can hear Alexandra Burke singing ‘Hallelulyah’. I feel like crying and shouting out across the rooftops. I’m pert, I’m separated, I’m firm and I immediately look slimmer and much curvier. I felt like buying one in every colour available – but they only had it in flesh so I settled for that. For sports bras check out
www.shockabsorber.co.uk/bounceometer/shock
www.boobydoo.co.uk

www.sweatyBetty.com 

Bathing beauty
Bathing makes me happy. Having a long bath in the evening makes me feel like  a normal person again. Candles, music, a magazine with the pages soaked at the bottom. Ahhh nothing beats it. My current favourites are Ren Moroccan Rose Otto Bath Oil, This Works Deep Calm Bath and Shower Oil and Aromatherapy Associates Deep Relax Bath and Shower Oil.

Cheap and cheerful time savers
My idea of saving time is walking up the road to my car in the rain wearing 1cm thick salon polystyrene flip-flops.
Here are some more successful ones.
• Dry nail varnish quickly Give the polish a minute and then put it under the cold water from the tap.
• Water, water, water Dr Hauschka facials are amazing and they are all about hot water and flannels. You put one in hot water, then put on your face for a minute and do it a few times. It plumps up your face and you feel so clean.

happiness is ...

New scientific findings have shown that people who have about 10 friends are the happiest people around. If that is the case we all need SKYPE. Easy and brilliant to see and speak to friends and it is free. My husband as a surprise arranged for me to talk to my sister and family on Christmas day and it was better than any other present.

My iPhone makes me happy every day because it is simple, beautiful and logical – so much better than all the other phones I’ve had. You can download lots of amazing applications, like turning it into a flute or just watching your favourite film. Available O2 network.

My Satin Pillow from www.satinsilk.co.uk is so soft and luxurious that I drift off peacefully every night safe in the knowledge that it is helping me not get wrinkles. And the Savoy range of bed linen at c thewhitecompany.com makes me feel I’m at Babington House every night.