idioms, meaning "be happy"

[Olenek]

Hi everybody,

There are several idioms, meaning "feel happy":

To walk/ tread on air
To feel on the top of the world
To be on cloud nine
To be in seventh heaven
To be happy as a sandboy
To be happy as a Larry
To be happy as a clam
To be happy as a king
To be happy as a lark
To be happy as the day is long
To be happy as a pig in muck

Which of them do you use? Or do you know another one?

Many Thanks to everyone!
And be happy!

[SanMar]

To feel on the top of the world
To be on cloud nine
To be in seventh heaven
To be happy as a pig in (muck) -sh*t (muck is politer but I've never heard it used that way)

I don't really use any of these expressions but they are well known in "my" part of the world.

Tickled pink is also well known although I don't think I've heard anyone actually use it.

Not a teacher.

[Vidor]

To be happy as a sandboy
To be happy as a Larry

Never heard either of these. Don't even know what a "sandboy" is.

[Mehrgan]

Chuffed to bits?!

[Olenek]

To be happy as a sandboy
To be happy as a Larry

Never heard either of these. Don't even know what a "sandboy" is.

happy as a sandboy - Very happy and content.

Origin

American readers will probably be more familiar with 'as happy as a clam', which originated in the USA in the 19th century. The Australian version is 'as happy as Larry', which (probably) originated there. Other creatures that are reputedly more than usually happy are larks, dogs with two tails and pigs in shit.

The word 'sandboy' brings to mind images of a child playing on the beach, making sand-castles and the like. In fact, sandboy was the name of those who delivered sand to public houses, theatres and homes in the 18th and 19th centuries. Children were used in that trade, but most sandboys were adults. This use of 'boy' has frequently been used for low-status male workers, as in tea-boy, barrow-boy, house-boy etc.

The use that the sand was put to was as a crude floor covering - a precursor to sawdust in what later became known as 'spit and sawdust' establishments - public spitting wasn't then reviled as it is now.

The earliest printed citation of the phrase that I can find is from Pierce Egan's Real Life in London, 1821:

"...appeared to be as happy as a sand-boy, who had unexpectedly met with good luck in disposing of his hampers full of the above-household commodity. "

Charles Dickens made an oblique reference to the variant form of the phrase, 'as jolly as a sand-boy', in his 1840 novel The Old Curiosity Shop, in which the inn The Jolly Sandboys features. The original printing of the book included etchings, one of which shows the 'sandboys' in party mood. Dickens describes the place like this:

"The Jolly Sandboys was a small road-side inn of pretty ancient date, with a sign, representing three Sandboys increasing their jollity with as many jugs of ale".

Carting sand may have been hard and dusty work, but the sandboys' reputation for happiness seems more straightforward than with clams or 'Larry' - they were often intoxicated.

As happy as a sandboy

[Verona_82]

to be full of the joys of spring
I'm wondering if anybody uses this expression

[strangerinmoscow]

Walking on sunshine.

[mara_ce]

over the moon

[Tdol]

Be on cloud seven- a largely forgotten variation of cloud nine.

[KJM85]

jumping in the air of joy