Fran Whiting: What makes us happy? The definitive list

Frances Whiting asked readers a simple question, and the answers will make you smile.

So, how is everyone going in isolation land? I continue to vacillate wildly between moments of unfettered despair to a quiet acceptance and a new-found, deep appreciation of the manufacturers of board games.

How’s your endless Monopoly game progressing, by the way? Ours is going well, as is my decision to steer my teenage son away from a university degree or a trade and towards a real estate career when all this is over.

Fran Whiting: My epic home school fail

Fran Whiting: We will kiss and hug and laugh and love again

Only one dealing in elite properties, however – he only likes Mayfair, Park Lane and all the other premium sites, and won’t go near Whitechapel with a barge pole. Actually, to be fair, no one will – Whitechapel and Old Kent Road are the orange cremes in the Roses chocolate box of the Monopoly board, aren’t they?

Columnist Fran Whiting at home.

Anyway, because I suspect quite a few of you are experiencing some pretty dramatic ups and downs during this time, I asked my friends on Facebook a question recently, specifically so I could share the answers with you. I did so in the hope that when you’re feeling a bit down, a bit meh, a bit Angel Islington on the Monopoly board, you might look at this list, perhaps even add your own entry, and feel
a little better.

My question was this: What makes you happy? I received hundreds of replies, and here are just
a few of them. Hope they give you a lift.

● Fresh sheets on a bed.

●A cup of tea made for me.

●Hearing my children’s laughter from another room.

●Walking in sunshine.

●When I can help someone.

●FaceTiming Nana and Pa and seeing the joy on their faces when they see their grandchildren.

●My grandchildren.

●Watching birds not self-isolating in my back yard – noisy, happy buggers.

●Dance music – up really loud, preferably ’80s.

●Hearing little kids giggling at the teddies on our gate.

●Air, not just any air, the tiny little balls of air that zizz and pop and race erratically upwards … usually in a glass, or flute … OK, champagne, champagne makes me happy.

●Being genuinely surprised by anything.

●Singing with a friend.

●Sitting on my front steps with
a coffee in hand watching the dog roll on the grass and kick his legs in the air.

●Living a slower pace of life with my family. I haven’t seen so much of my 19-year-old since he left school.

●Harvesting my vegie patch – snow peas today, life is good.

●My child writing letters to his mates for the first time. It’s kind of adorable.

●Opening the first page of a new book, the start of an adventure.

●Not wearing a bra (I hear you, sister).

●Straddie! (We’ll get there again,
one day).

●Spending time with my lovely hens and collecting their perfect eggs.

●Giggling.

●Trees, love their changing bark patterns and the colours, how every day they present differently depending on the season, the direction I approach them from, or the strength of the wind or light.

●I’m walking 20km most days, I feel like Forrest Gump.

●Seeing the smiles on our residents’ faces when I sing silly songs to cheer them up.

●The feeling that just keeps growing on our street, in our neighbourhoods, our city and throughout our state that we really are all in this together. And chocolate, obviously.

Frances Whiting.

There’s many more things people said make them happy, and I’d like to add my own – the feeling that this too shall pass and that one day our lives will all be hazelnut swirls again, and not an orange creme in sight.