A piece in The Independent today pointed out that we live in a frenetic, throwaway society and that we don’t take enough time to do things slowly and really enjoy them. They suggest the good life – the elusive happiness we all crave, apparently – can be achieved through celebrating ten simple pleasures of life.

How many of these have you done recently? I wonder if this is the path to happiness:

Roasting a chicken - the smell, the slow cooking, the crispy skin. And the accopanying trimmings.

Going for a walk - recharge the batteries through exercise and appreciate your local area.

Caring for clothes - a sense of achievement through fixing something rather than buying new.

Cleaning the windows – let the Spring sunshine into your home.

Servicing the car - er, like the clothes, I suppose. Not sure it would make me that happy.

Baking a cake - the smell, the satisfaction, the icing. And a cup of tea with it.

Making sloe gin - expectation as it matures in the bottle infront of your eyes.

Reading a map - I don’t understand this one. Just use google.

Brewing a cup of coffee - another aroma one. They like smelly things don’t they?

Or just doing nothing - personally, I find this one terribly irritating.

I can see where they’re going with these ten steps, but I’m not sure they’re necessarily a recipe for happiness. And it’s not a great path to the good life if you’re a wheat intolerant, sober, vegetarian, caffeine-free cyclist who lives in a windowless space and hates baking – but there’s got to be something that makes you happy.