A recent research article titled “happiness depletes me,” found that trying to be happy (which is defined as striving to experience as much positive emotion as possible and avoid negative emotions) leads to decreased feelings of happiness, and increased levels of loneliness and low energy.

The basic idea is that trying to deliberately change your thoughts and behaviour to be happy means you tend to overlook small naturally occurring moments of happiness. The effort leaves you drained and more likely to make poor decisions such as overspending or overeating, which in turn make you feel unhappy.

Not a new idea – brought to prominence in a book in 2007 by Russ Harris called “The Happiness Trap”

So if your life isn’t going to be focused on finding happiness what should it be focused on?

Happiness Trap suggests:

1. Accepting that negative thoughts and emotions are natural and part of life, do don’t fight against them

1. Enjoy positive emotions when they do occur, and pay attention to the small things in life

1. Live life by trying to act in accordance with your values. One way of identifying core values for you is to ask yourself how you would like other people to describe you in 3 words. The 3 words you choose probably reflect your values. Use these to guide how you live your life. Happiness will occur at times as a pleasant side-effect but life overall will be more worth living.

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We are now in Autumn and that means some wonderful vegetables are needing to be sown or planted asap.

Here in Canterbury, I germinated a row of seeds of French beans – a few weeks ago. They came up pretty quickly and hopefully our late summer will be better than our “summer summer” (which was pretty awful with lower temps and less sunshine than “average”).

In the North Island Your final call for these beans is now. Well-drained soil, nice and moist and in a sunny warm spot, 10 cm separation and keep the weeds under control.

Late summer is also great for peas. Honestly, these are going a lot better when it gets cooler, but seeing we have a longer day-length compared to the early winter situation, you’ll be able to harvest them in large numbers. Mind you, Peas can be planted through autumn and early spring. Their seeds contain a lot of “reserves” to grow in the cooler months; well-drained soils, friable and with compost. Chuck some pea-straw over the soil to help them along.

But I am trying to get ahead of schedule to get some early peas.

Broad beans, similar gig! Plenty of growth potential and they might ripen quite early too

These are good greens for the winter (if you like them)

Broad beans with pretty crimson flowers

Carrot seedlings will also germinate at lower temperatures; Remember to create a soil that is free of lumps and stones, so that the carrots keep straight and do not “fork”.

An extra handful of Phosphate will give them the impetus to grow nice roots.

I start early so we’ll have carrots continuously for the next few months.

Using the carrot “seed-tape” makes sense: they are nicely spaced and can be thinned when they take off,

Julie seems to prefer the thinner, young carrots, whereas I cook the bigger ones as vegie strips in my Nasi Goreng.

Broccoli is another suitable winter vegetable that can be planted now – in fact while there’s still some temperature in the soil they’ll grow well in the next few months – even if they slow down afterwards, you’ve got more than a month’s worth of advance before they start taking it easy – slow ripening means that they don’t all ripen at once, so pick the biggest ones as they mature.

Most other cabbage varieties will also grow from now on

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Is cash a good gift for children? 

Personal wealth educator Lisa Dudson unwraps the idea with Jack Tame, and gives her tips on the best thing to teach our children about money. 

LISTEN ABOVE. 

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Skype is shutting down on May 5.  
It was the OG video calling app, but now Microsoft is all in on Teams. Microsoft has developed a way for users to port their Skype account over to a free version of Teams, or to export their data. It's nice that they're making the choices and options clear. 
There's one big piece missing though - the ability to call people using phone numbers. 
This is probably a good thing.. Microsoft has multiple services - Teams, Skype, Lync - over the years that have all largely done the same thing, but are just integrated into the wider ecosystem differently. 
They bought Skype in 2011 for $8.5b - 14 years ago! 
 
Katy Perry is going to space! 
She'll be flying on Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin rocket in the next few months. She's making the trip with Jeff Bezo's fiancé - Lauren Sanchez - along with newscaster Gayle King (who is Oprah's best friend), a research scientist, a film producer and a former NASA rocket scientist. 

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Toxic Town - (Netflix) Based on a true story and featuring an all-star cast, this British drama follows the story of three mothers involved in the Corby toxic waste case as they battled to hold those responsible to account.

The Mission - (Netflix) A documentary series that sees reporter Marc Fennell investigate a 1980s art heist in the Australian Outback, unravelling a true-crime story of bizarre revelations.

Running Point - (Netflix) Kate Hudson stars in this American sports comedy about a reformed party girl who has to prove herself when she’s unexpectedly put in charge of her family’s basketball team.

LISTEN ABOVE. 

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David Wenham is an Australian actor who has really made his mark.

From Lord of the Rings, Van Helsing and Lion, he has a new film out, ‘Spit’.

The film is a sequal to the 2003 movie ‘Gettin’ Square’.

David Wenham talks to Jack Tame about the role.

LISTEN ABOVE.

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Kevin Milne had his first experience with an online art auction. 

He said it was better than the movies … although unsuccessful. 

Kevin told Jack Tame about how one piece sold for more than double the expected price. 

LISTEN ABOVE. 

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As a sports fan, I suppose it was actually a genuinely meaningful moment.

I was sitting on the couch last night. 7.28pm. Sleeping baby in my arms. Remote in my hand. A decision to make.

Do I watch Moana Pasifika play the Highlanders? Neither of which is my first choice team but Super Rugby is Super Rugby and it was a local derby, no less. Or do I switch channels and watch the Phoenix play Melbourne City in the A-League? Again, not a result I was particularly invested in or angsting over but a game I knew enough about to at least know it was being played.

It’s kind of ridiculous, the extent to which our household has been caught up in the Auckland FC ride. After we attended the first couple of games – and loved it – my wife ended up splurging on memberships for the rest of the season for me and our 8-year-old boy.

From a live sport perspective, they’ve absolutely nailed a couple of fundamentals. For starters, there is an amazing family atmosphere. They’ve had various play areas for the kids: blow-up football arenas, a huge artificial beach behind one of the goals for the kids to make sandcastles, and an enormous blow-up slide stretching the length of the northern embankment, sliding down which on day one I very nearly lost my shorts. Games kick off at 5pm so you’re home with the kids by 8pm at the latest.

I think one of the most under-rated qualities is the stadium. Warriors fans know this, too. Go-Media (Mt Smart) was a sell-out last weekend for the derby. 27,000 people. The atmosphere was incredible! And while most games don’t get quite that many fans, it’s always closer to full than empty. You never get that feeling you sometimes get in big stadiums, when it feels like you’re watching a game in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. I really hope sports administrators take note: it is so much better to watch live sport in a full mid-size stadium than to watch it an empty big stadium.

Anyway..back to my decision. My vote with the remote.

In some ways, I reckon the real measure of Auckland FC’s success is the stuff on the periphery. The stuff that’s bigger than the team. I’m not naïve enough to think they’ll keep winning forever!

Since the start of the A-League season, our boy has become obsessed with football. He spends hours in the backyard practising skills and accidentally kicking his ball into the neighbour’s swimming pool. He went and picked up ‘The Encyclopaedia of Football’ from the library, and makes me read to him as his bedtime story the excruciating detail contained within. Last week I had to read a whole chapter on football pitch turf preparation techniques. He’s eight! He sat there, transfixed, as I ran through a paragraph on the drainage system at Wembley.

And, if I’m honest, I have been affected too. At least I realised I have, last night, when instead of picking the game I would’ve picked to watch every Friday for the last thirty years, I switched from an exciting, close game of Super Rugby to the A-League instead. I switched from an exciting, close game of Super Rugby to the A-League instead. I wonder how many households in New Zealand might be doing the same.

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Groove Armada are legends of dance and electronic music.

Tom Findlay and Andy Cato make up the duo – and have been pumping out tracks for over a quarter of a century, building a reputation as one of the best.

They’ve captured the magic... they’ve reached iconic status... they’ve had to cancel gigs because they were scared too many people would turn up.

And they’re coming back to New Zealand to round off our summer with a bang.

The pair are set to play at Auckland Domain next weekend before heading down to Queenstown, Christchurch and Wellington.

Ticket information can be found at endeavour.live/groovearmada

LISTEN ABOVE.

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On the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for Saturday 22 February 2025, Groove Armada are bringing their genre-defying discography down under and catch up with Jack to chat raves, record deals and regenerative farming.

Every parent has a birth story - and now Jack does too.

Making the most of stone fruit season, Nici Wickes share a delightful peach and blueberry tart recipe.

Tara Ward dishes all on the brand-new season of The White Lotus.

And, Chris Schulz took one for the team and danced the night away at Australasia's biggest two-day festival Electric Avenue. He gives some insight into the spectacle.

Get the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast every Saturday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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