“Wear the OTT dress!” Fearne’s got wardrobe and dating advice

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2:31Fearne Cotton: Hello, everyone. How are you? I'm Fern Cotton. Welcome to Happy Place. I have had four seconds sleep, so I feel deranged today. Like everything's slightly hazy, but not in a good way. Sometimes I don't mind that hazy feeling where you're just floating through the day. But today I feel just sort of weirdly out of it. But look, let's buoy each other up by talking about things that we really love, things that are making us happy, as well as things that are making us feel like crap. Because we've got to get it off our chest. It's good to vent. It's good to rant. It's good to have a place for these words and feelings.

3:07Fearne Cotton: That's what this is all about. And you can always let us know yours too. If you head to our Instagram, you can tell us what is floating your boat, what's making you feel great and what is making you feel like shite? Like not sleeping but I'm not going to bore you with that one because I wang on about not sleeping all the time. It's bloody boring. Let's have a look at what you lovely lot have sent in. So let's start with likes because it's nice to be jolly. Nicola says the thought of going away with my sisters for a girls weekend. Oh is there any better feeling? No. I'm so due this. Me and my old schoolmates try and go away together, maybe twice a year if we can.

3:46Fearne Cotton: I mean, we didn't go at all last year, which is a crime. We're all dotted around the place. One's in Newcastle, a couple are in the countryside, a couple are in outer London, one's in New York. That's a real issue. But when we have those weekends where it's just us being silly, we regress back to being 14 and everything is okay in the world. So you've really reminded me that that trip needs to be booked. Let's move on to Team Happy Place. I'm going to begin with Penelope aka P from Team Happy Place. Penelope is great and always has exceptional nail art like the greatest nails once she and she does it herself once she made each fingernail look like a miniature strawberry and they were textured how?

4:32Fearne Cotton: Also I have no patience so never gonna happen. Penelope says talking to strangers My natural constitution is shy, but this summer I discovered how much I love talking to strangers. I was inspired by the Southern hospitality in Nashville and Austin on a trip earlier this year. And now I can't stop. Since then, I found myself chatting more with neighbours, people on trains, in queues and of course at the Happy Place Festival. I agree and I think it's something that we've really lost over time in such a sad way because of phones we're all just stuck to our phones or sometimes we build a whole cocoon around ourselves with a hat a hood sunglasses earpods and then we've got a phone so we are totally shutting ourselves off from people and it is a lovely thing I mean sometimes when like you're in a mood like I am today where you're fucking knackered and you can't be arsed.

5:30Fearne Cotton: Maybe it's a big arse to then strike up a conversation with someone. But if you're in a good mood, there is something so wonderful about chatting to someone in a queue or just having a random moment of kindness. Do you remember I told you that story a while back about Dennis, who's a lovely older man who I bumped into in a cafe, and he wrote a poem for me and my daughter. And it was just this spontaneous moment of chatting to a stranger because it was pissing with rain outside and we got chatting and he wrote us this gorgeous poem and it honestly made me and my daughter so happy for like the rest of the week so Penelope I wholeheartedly agree that it is a lovely thing and if you can force yourself to like I don't know if you're on the train sit there without looking at your phone you might end up like clocking eyes with someone having a chat back in the day, I'm talking like the 90s, I met a boyfriend on the train because we didn't have mobiles that had anything on them then.

6:28Fearne Cotton: It was just like an hour to send one text message, like three presses for the letter C. You couldn't even be asked. So I was like sat on the train. I looked at him. He looked at me, didn't see him, didn't speak to him on the train, but then bumped into him again at a pub that week, ended up being a boyfriend. That rarely happens like ever these days because we're all literally like this. So Penelope, I agree. Now, what is making me happy this week? I would say it's the notion of wear the thing. Okay. So we've all got in our wardrobe, probably this thing that we bought ages ago that we're not wearing because we've not got a place to wear it to, or it feels a bit extra, or what will people say it could be like a hat but you never normally wear hats but you bought this hat or it could be a dress that's like really out there or it could be a pair of shoes and you just think oh my god everyone's going to be staring at me wear the thing wear the jazzy shirt wear the ridiculous hat like do the thing I bought a dress two years ago because I fell in love with it and it's this big red floofy thing.

7:45Fearne Cotton: I don't know how to describe it. It's like a meter wide. It's wider than it is long. And I've been putting off wearing it like, oh, I've got nowhere to wear it to. And then I went to a party. I nearly wore it and I chickened out. What if everyone stares or what if people think I'm attention seeking? Anyway, the other day I just thought, fuck it. And I put the dress on and I wore it to a party and it was the best night ever. I was spinning around in circles because this dress like I almost took off like that's that it has a wingspan this dress. I had the best night in this outfit and I'm so glad I wore it.

8:24Fearne Cotton: So push through the feeling of awkwardness, the feeling of slight cringe and wear the thing. Wear the thing, just do it. shall we move into the territory of venting because I need a good old vent today crikey some stuff not podcast friendly so I'll just leave it for my mates but we shall vent together if you've ever got things that are pissing you off or things that are just making you feel sad things that are making you feel low and down tell us about it you know I don't think on happy place a brand that has the name happy in it we should always talk about happy stuff I think we need to get real and talk about stuff that's really impacting us in a negative way too so you can always get in touch and tell us so let's go to you love you lot first because again we're up for you sending in your dislikes of the week mark said that and this is what i'm talking about like real life stuff we've all got real life stuff going on it's really easy to go on instagram and go oh everyone's having a wicked time it's only me that's struggling i'm not saying that is a bad thing we we all do it.

9:30Fearne Cotton: We all, we all assume that we're having the shittest time. Everyone's going through something, whether it's privately, publicly, people know about it in their friendship circles or not. But Mark is really going through it at the minute. Mark's mum had a stroke recently. And that is obviously a bloody stressful thing. Many of us who are watching this now, listening to this now are of an age where our parents will have ailments. One of my best mates at the moment has got a really poorly parent and it's taking up so much of their time and life. Obviously, they want to be there for their parent, but it is so stressful.

10:06Fearne Cotton: So Mark, all of us at Team Happy Place are sending you so much love and so much strength and your lovely mum too. We sent her a huge, huge amount of love. Let's move to Team Happy Place. Jenna. Now, Jenna does a PR for Happy Place. So she gets the word out there. She really helps us get people hearing about the Happy Place Festival before it happens or the podcast or the guests we've got on the podcast and she's fucking brilliant at her job. Jenna says, what's really making me upset this week is when I see an elderly person taking their time driving and I can see other drivers getting irate with them.

10:47Fearne Cotton: Now I need to read that because I can sometimes be the irate person, if I'm really honest, on the school run. We're in the summer holidays right now, so I don't have to do the school run, which I'm loving because my kid's school is like a 20 minute drive, which is really annoying. So if I am even a tad late, it just throws the whole morning off. And if someone's driving badly or slowly, I can be very like impatient, tapping the dashboard, sometimes swearing when my kids are in the back. It's not great. So Jenna's message has reminded me of this. This is Jenna's PS. We will all be old at some point.

11:27Fearne Cotton: Let's always please remember that. And isn't it better to be safe than sorry than rushing for no need? That could be your grandma or granddad. So let's always think from that perspective. You're so right, Jenna. I haven't got any grandparents left, but my nan Ruby drove a car until my dad had to quite literally take it away from her. She was in her 90s and my dad was like, this is not good. This is not safe. I mean, we're not just talking like driving slowly. And also her brother Hayden, my great uncle, who was a beautiful influence on me and my brother and cousins. He was an amazing, amazing man.

12:03Fearne Cotton: He was actually in the episode of Who Do You Think You Are that I filmed about, God, it's probably nine years ago now, because we followed the story of my nan and her brother Hayden's dad, who was an amazing man. And Hayden, again, well into his 90s, was driving a car. And when we shot Who Do You Think You Are? he refused for me and the crew to get a cab and said he'd pick us up from the train station in Limington. And we're all in the back going, ah, we're kind of driving onto incoming traffic and there's a tractor, Hayden. Can you see the tractor? Hayden, Can you see the tractor slow down? It was one of those hairy car rides.

12:46Fearne Cotton: But I love that both Hayden and my nan Ruby drove a car until they were quite literally told you're not allowed anymore. So if you spot an elderly person and they're driving slowly, well, let's be honest, slightly recklessly, have patience, as Jenna suggests. Remember that we're going to be that one day and we don't want people beeping horns and swearing and being assholes. So Jenna, you've reminded us of something very important. Thank you. My dislike this week, and if you've got a 10-year-old child at the moment, you will go, oh my God, me too. And that dislike is slime. Okay. So I went through this with my stepdaughter over 10 years ago now.

13:31Fearne Cotton: She's about to turn 21. So I've done slime. I've already done it. And now I'm doing it again. And if you don't know what that involves, let me tell you. Every sink in the house will have dye in it. And I'm talking like bright blue dye. Every tray that you've ever owned has got shaving foam in the cracks and what's the other side? Glue, PVA glue. And then you have to go in specifically by slime activator. That's a thing. that is everywhere that is in every bowl in every tray that you own sometimes when we've run out of trays baking trays come out and it ends up in there which is really fun to clean out also I've got fake grass so when I often say please go and make slime in the garden it's then in the grass and you can't get it out of the fake grass unless you want to give it a haircut and like get scissors out.

14:25Fearne Cotton: It is everywhere. It stinks of shaving foam, obviously, pungent, pungent smelling. And it's just also it's like bad for the planet. We all know that. And it's the toss up of, oh God, this is bad for the planet. But oh my God, it's the summer holidays and I want an easy life. So yes, I'll buy you some more activator. It's a parental conundrum that most of us are in. So if you are at that stage of parenting and you're this deep into the summer holidays, and let's face it, all rules have gone out the window. Are they sort of mainlining biscuits for breakfast at this point? Yes. Are they going to bed way too late?

15:05Fearne Cotton: Of course they are. Are they on their iPads too much? Sure thing. That's the point of the summer holidays we are at. So it's slime central and we're going with it, but it remains wholeheartedly a huge dislike. like. Oh, I feel better having that off my chest. I really do. I feel lighter. I could float out of the studio. If you've got any likes that you really want to shout about, this is also an opportunity for you to big up someone in your life that you love. It could be like something lovely that someone's done for you. We want to hear that good news. It could be your personal good news, whatever it is.

15:41Fearne Cotton: We want to hear about it. We want to shout about it. So let us know. On Instagram, we're at happyplaceofficial. Or you want to get something off your chest. You want to have a pop at something, this is the space to do it. Let rip. Let us be the conduit and let rip here on Happy Place. Thank you so much for listening and enjoy whatever you're doing for the rest of your summer. We love you.

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