What with the economy tanking and sugar prices rising, not to mention cutbacks in the NHS and eighteen rare Bengal tigers shot in Zanesville, Ohio, the news seems to be almost all bad this week.* In an attempt to be positive, I offer you the following list of things that make me happy, in the hopes that they might inspire you to compile your own list.

So:

1. Writing (when it's going well).

2. A completely free day (oh rare pleasure).

3. Macadamia nuts.

4. The English countryside, preferably viewed from horseback.

5. Jeans that fit perfectly. (Yes!)

6. My daughter's passion for PG Wodehouse.

7. The sea. Always.

8. The BBC.

9. Steve Jobs not wanting to be the richest man in the graveyard.

10. Coffee in bed.

11. Seven people in my tube carriage yesterday engrossed in books.

12. True Stories Told Live

13. Being able to make a living without working for a sadistic lunatic (other than myself, obviously).

I won't bother with the obvious tandem post to this one, ie, reasons to be bloody miserable. You can write that one yourself.

*I don't count Gaddafi, preferring to retain the right to worry about outcomes of ex-dictatorships.