“I hugged a very girthy tree!” Get off screens, write letters, and paint

0:00I urge you today, if you're near a tree, to go and hug it. I think everyone's got an arty bone in them somewhere. We searched for the biggest tree we could find. It was a girthy old guy. This is going to be a curveball you didn't see coming. Harry Hill swimming. We should have an art club. Happy Place Art Club. Hannah is livid that people don't RSVP to plans. I get it. That usually lasts about half an hour before my true self emerges. And that true self is someone that doesn't like to leave the house. Harry Hill is apparently ripped. Hello everyone and welcome to Happy Place. I hope that you are good today.

0:37I'm in a relatively cheerful mood. Maybe you can tell because I'm wearing all red like a little cherry tomato. But I hope that we find you well and happy today and if not, don't worry, you will come out the other side of it. We're going to talk about things today that make us happy and not so happy as we have been doing and there's some good ones. I want to kick straight off slightly self-indulgently with my own because we'll get to other members of Team Happy Place in a bit. But last night I pushed through a sort of a bit of social anxiety which I was feeling. I go through definitely periods of wanting to hibernate at this time of year and yesterday I was feeling really fatigued and knackered and I couldn't deal with seeing other humans but I was and I sound like an absolute twat even deliberating whether I was going to go to this or not because of course I did but I got invited to a documentary premiere at Windsor Castle and it's this amazing documentary that the king has created all about the environment and I think you can watch it on Prime pretty soon and it's an amazing documentary I loved it and actually I had a jolly evening I sat next to Hannah Fry who I'm sort of mildly obsessed with feeling like really stupid all night, your insecurity starts peaking when you're chatting to someone really clever.

1:58Her brain is outrageous. But anyway, we had a little gossip. We watched this brilliant documentary and it's all about harmony and harmony in nature and harmony between us and nature. And there were several things that I liked about it. One was that it wasn't a documentary that put all the emphasis on us as individuals, like you should be doing better. You need to recycle everything you're failing you're ruining the planet that wasn't the feeling of it at all if anything it was certainly his royal highness the king saying you know this is what i'm trying to do and he even was saying you know in his small way but the things that he's done for the environment are quite exceptional if you watch this documentary you'll see some amazing projects like Dumfries House which is a great example of community and environment being intertwined And looking at other projects globally where, you know, huge amounts of land have been changed from arid soil to beautiful, lush, verdant green meadows.

2:57It was astonishing and it was hopeful. That's what I'm getting at. It was a hopeful documentary about the environment, but it didn't exclude the horrors that we know exist and the decline and climate change, etc. etc so me and my friend Claire the other day with this in mind because I knew I was going to this documentary had a really nice walk and it was sort of it was dusk I like walking at dusk the sun was setting you know as early as it is at this time of year and we were mooching through this very dense bit of woodland and Claire said I think she was sort of half joking she's like should we just go and hug a tree and I was like I would love to go and hug a tree I don't know if I've ever actually done it.

3:40It's sort of like, I don't know, perhaps seen as like a cheesy naff thing to do. I urge you today, if you're near a tree, to go and hug it. We searched for the biggest tree we could find. It was a girthy old guy. And we found this big old tree. And we both hugged it. And there was something so calming to my nervous system about wrapping my arms around this beautiful, big probably you know 100 year old tree and just being near it it was so lovely and we take trees for granted we just walk past them on a walk don't even talk about them acknowledge them and they're doing all of this beautiful work the whole time communicating with other trees you know going through all of the seasons and shedding leaves and growing buds and we could hear all of these parakeets that were tweeting there's lots of parakeets near where I live and it was just a beautiful moment and something very, very simple.

4:34So I urge you, don't worry about what other people think if they walk past you and you're hugging a tree. Go for it. Trees this week are making me very, very happy. Now, what's making Team Happy Place happy? Lana from Team Happy Place, who is the most efficient, organised person I've ever met in my life. Everyone needs a Lana. She is really enjoying at the moment, painting by numbers. And again, a simple pleasure, something that is methodical and calming to the nervous system to get us to slow down a little bit. And more importantly, Lana says, to get us away from screens. Lana is on her laptop a lot, coordinating all the stuff that we're doing at Happy Place.

5:19So for her to have a little moment of calm in the evenings, I think pretty much all weekend she did painting by numbers. It's just a lovely way. And also painting by numbers is really good if you don't feel that you're necessarily artistic. I think everyone's got an arty bone in them somewhere. But if you don't think, well, you've never tried painting before, I would say paint by numbers is a really good place to start. My mum is another good example of someone who uses painting to feel mentally better. My dad is an incredible artist. He was a sign writer for his whole career. He's exceptionally talented at painting cars and landscapes.

5:58My mum didn't ever feel like she had any sort of artistic qualities, but they started going to an art club together. I think it was a couple of years ago now. And it's so adorable. Every week she sends me a little picture of what she's painted. It's usually people. So I think, was it Vivian Westwood last week where it was someone, or maybe it was Twiggy. She likes painting sort of iconic women in fashion or just iconic women. And she's getting so much from learning techniques and just giving it a go and painting is always I mean I love painting painting is always wonderful because there's something to see at the end of it and it doesn't matter if it's of a you know in inverted commas good standard or not it's like did you enjoy making it there is something really special about having a finished product at the end and it's a big reminder to me Lana saying painted my numbers that I need to get my paint brushes out because I've not painted probably for about a year now, which is too long.

6:56And I get so much from painting. I love painting portraits. I've posted a couple of them on my Instagram page over the years, but I get a massive kick out of it. And there's probably not another activity that can make my brain almost flatline where I don't really have many thoughts. I'm just so in this focused zone of concentration. So I would say this week, hug a tree, get your pens and paper out or your paintbrushes and do something arty just for you. We should have an art club, Happy Place Art Club. Am I just like putting more work out there that nobody else wants to be doing? We should do a Happy Place Art Club where you send in your pictures that you've painted.

7:39I'm putting that out there. Keep this in the edit and let's do Happy Place Art Club. We need another Instagram handle. Oh, my God. I'm so sorry, Team Happy Place, but I think we should do it. Also, can I just do an aside, something that's making Amelia, who's giggling in the corner, happy this week? This is going to be a curveball you didn't see coming. Harry Hill swimming. I can hear Basil laughing behind the wall. In Amelia's words, fit. Harry Hill is apparently ripped. I mean, look at this picture. It's a ludicrous picture. He's got his goggles on. It's just so unexpected. It's just unexpected, which is really presumptuous of us.

8:25Of course, 61. Look at those biceps and those shoulder muscles. We're objectifying Harry Hill right now. I didn't even know I was going to do this. Here we go. Took an unexpected turn, this podcast. Go on, Harry Hill. Right, let's talk about things that we're not happy about. Let's start with Team Happy Place. Who said people not RSVPing to plans out of the team? Is that Hannah? So wonderful Hannah runs Happy Place Book Club. And if you're not a member of our book club, join. It's really simple. You just need to follow us on Instagram at Happy Place Book Club. And we do a book a month. And Hannah runs the whole operation.

9:03She's exceptional. And she's always passing brilliant books my way. Hannah is livid that people don't RSVP to plans. I get it. I don't like that either. I'm someone, I'm a Virgo, whether you believe in the Zodiac stuff or not. I think many Virgos like order and we like to know this is what I'm doing on Tuesday. This is how Wednesday is going to run. Are we going out Thursday? Now, what I've had to get better at myself over the years is saying no to things that I know I don't want to go to. because what I've done previously, and this has probably been not the case for the last year because I'm trying to change for the better, but I used to say yes to everything thinking, I should go, I might, you know, it might further my career or I should go because I might meet someone interesting or I should go because I feel bad letting them down, like whatever reason, it was rarely because I wanted to go and I would say yes and then I'd get to the day and then I would start dreading it and thinking, how do I get out of this?

10:04Should I say I'm ill? I've got a migraine. I need to go and get one of the kids from school. I think of every conceivable excuse and then let that person down, which is so much worse than just saying no in the first place. Also, sometimes, and this was kind of like the Windsor Castle thing, sometimes I RSVP when I'm in a social mood. Like every now and again, I'm in a real like peopley mood. I'm like, that's exciting. I'm going to wear that dress. This is going to be fun. That usually lasts about half an hour before my true self emerges. And that true self is someone that doesn't like to leave the house.

10:37And then I've got to deal with either just pushing through and going or letting people down on the day. But at the very least, everybody, can we just RSVP? Whether it's a yes or a no, don't leave people hanging. It's bloody rude. All right. RSVP all the way, especially for Hannah. So if Hannah Twig invites you out, just say yes or no. The other thing that I'm going to put out there is the death of letter writing. That's my thing that's making me sad this week. Now, my friend Claire, who is a brilliantly intelligent, loquacious woman, she loves to write a letter. Whether I've bought her a gift or we've been out for dinner or we've had a lovely day together, she always sends me a thank you note.

11:22but she's probably the only person that does that and I'm not throwing shade on all of my other friends but it is such a lovely thing to receive in the post and I'm trying to get better at it myself writing people little thank you cards writing people just little notes to say I love you I'm thinking of you it's just it's actually very nice to do it yourself to sit there with a pen. I'm like, how do I hold this thing? Crikey. But to write with actual handwriting on either a beautiful card or buying some lovely writing paper. But my God, it is so amazing to receive a letter in the post with a handwritten envelope.

12:03You instantly know this is not a bill. I've not done something wrong. This is not something from the council about some annoying building that's going to be built at the end of my road. It's a lovely letter from somebody that loves you. So I'm sad about the death of letter writing. And also Jilly Cooper, who died last year, was a big, big letter writer. Claire, my friend actually received a letter from her because Claire used to work at Tatler many years ago. And Jilly is, she was like a serial letter writer. So Claire's got many of these letters that were written. And I think she had very, very tiny and quite erratic handwriting apparently and she had headed paper that may have had dogs on or animals or something and one of my other friends Georgia received a card from her last year before she passed away and it was a cat card with like a miniature card inside it but she would constantly be writing letters and I think an ode to Jilly should be that we get out some nice writing paper and today we make a patch with ourselves that we're going to write at least one of our friends a letter and we can keep the Royal Mail going as well then can't we?

13:13Like get some stamps, post that letter off. I think it's a lovely thing to do but to be the receiver, the beneficiary of a letter, I don't think there's a better feeling. So the death of letters is making me sad and that is an issue that we can very easily rectify. Let's have a quick breeze through the list to see if there's any other moans that we've got on our team at the moment. People who don't cover their mouth when they cough on public transport or just in general is that you amelia has that been something that's been bugging you this week every day it is gross because i also you don't want to see into someone's mouth let alone the germs that are quite literally spraying across the room who does that by the way we can see you and we can hear you there's many techniques to covering your mouth when you're coughing keep your gob shut is the other one keep your gob shut mate coughing with your without a hand over your mouth is grim is that really riling you yeah no and there's a lot of I mean I had some awful fluy thing uh over new year I felt like shit so I thought I'm in the clear I'm fine I'm not going to have any illnesses and then both my kids were quite ill last week and you know when you feel on the cusp of getting a cold.

14:31So I have been absolutely plowing through the vitamin C and I think I'm on the up again. I'm going to be okay, guys. I know you're worried. I'm going to be fine. But what we don't need is idiots coughing in our faces. Okay. So a simple tip from dear Amelia. Amelia runs, by the way, Happy Place social media, just so you really get to know the team. Basil, who I keep referencing out there. Basil, what is your official job title these days? he doesn't know he does sound and camera stuff we have producer anushka who is very heavily on sound and editing of this podcast as well as helping us get the scripts together for all the advertising i'm probably going into too much detail here uh basil he's a bit of um you're a jack of all trades aren't you baz um he or let's call you a polymath how about that um he's doing it all cameras setting up editing video um so hopefully during these episodes you feel you're getting to know our amazing team more and more there's more members they'll come into play at some point um I love team happy place so much I'm so lucky best team on the bloody planet so we will continue doing these episodes where we talk about things that are putting us firmly in our happy place and the things that are really taking us out of our happy place if you've got things that you want to vent things that are making you feel great and buzzed up or things that are making you feel like shite let us know you can head to the main happy place instagram which is at happy place official and let us know how about that alongside our new art club one that we're going to start doing exciting I think we're going to do it uh guys thank you so much for listening I love you all dearly goodbye

16:22Thank you.