Have you ever been called a ‘sticky beak’? I am told that it can be a bit nasty – meaning you’re a bit of a busybody… but I like to think of the word as a verb.   Indeed, I often think to myself, “I’ll have a bit of a‘sticky beak’ at that later” – meaning I’ll give it a quick squiz.  So what’s worth a ‘sticky beak’ rightnow?  I’m on the hunt for reasons to be happy.  Don’t you think we need more?  I mean birthdays are fun (especially if you don’t count the candles too hard) and quite a few religious dates are reasons for being happy – like Christmas.  There are lots of other times during the year to have a party or at least a morning tea. But sometimes not enough.

On my travels I’m always on the lookout for GOOD reasons for celebrating: for fun festivals and special events.  The Swiss are very good at celebrations and seem to have special occasions very frequently. I know a nursery school in the USA that celebrates every festival of all their little students' cultures - they have special food or drink or gifts every week! So my goal is to find a reason to have fun or at least have a cake every week.  Start with your family andfriends and fill out a quick calendar with reasons for having fun and being happy.  That got me quite a lot of celebrations – then you can add those extras like Mothers’ Day and Valentines and my personal favourite – Halloween. If you are still stuck try thinking of places you’d like to visit or have already visited and celebrate their national day with a special meal or their sort of drink.  My two favourite nations have the same national day – January 26^th – which is a bit of a shame in one way but I do get two GREAT meals that day: wiggity grubs and then curry.

Of course then you might begin to feel a bit guilty about all the cakes – so you have to find good causes for cakes &celebrations.   I found agreat reason and 80 different suggestions for celebrating saving theworld.  Tomorrow (5 June) is World Environment Day - WED.  On the WEDweb you can find 80 ways to celebrate WED http://www.unep.org/wed/2008/english/Information_Material/Alphabet.asp.  If you want to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions AND eat chocolate, there's now a choc bar that helps http://www.terrapass.com/lp/index.chocolate.html.  This enterprising "ClimateChange Chocolate" bar might help to save the Earth and leave you with a stickybeak.