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In my regional language, there's a very good idiom which literally means...

'X' was already my favorite dish and a doctor advised me to be on 'X' (this 'X' diet/dish)

Now the context.

This idiom is used when someone wishes/likes something and on top of that, legally/officially he's asked to do that!

Example:

"Jack is not a dedicated person. He never likes to work."
"I know...but do you know he's been offered a field work."
"What? a field work? Oh my god! So now, he'll simply roam here and there!"
Yeah... [Idiom here] meaning he already love wasting time by not doing work and now he's offered a field work where no one will keep a watch on him. At least, in office, he was doing something as everybody watched.

To make it clearer -

It does not matter whether what you wanted/liked/doing is a bad thing or good. The idiom has nothing to do with goodness or badness. It's just what you already wanted/doing/liked, it's (by luck?) told/permitted/asked to do -all official and legal!

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    The question a little bit strange to me because you already mentioned "officially". And, my first choice for that "[idiom here]" is: "Now it's official!" ;-)
    – Damkerng T.
    Apr 7, 2014 at 18:39
  • @DamkerngT. wow! +1 though it's not exactly what I am searching for but I just replaced that idiom with those three little words of yours and it almost worked. You are too good at reading between the lines lol.
    – Maulik V
    Apr 7, 2014 at 18:46

4 Answers 4

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It's not common enough to be an idiom, but I've heard the expression, "getting paid to eat ice cream", though only in the first person and only concerning employment. So,

"Did you hear? I've been offered a field job!"

"You always did like travel."

"I know, right? I'm getting paid to eat ice cream."

The origin may be a quote from musician Bob McQuillen, the biography of whom is titled "Paid to Eat Ice Cream", after something he said about being a professional musician.

You know, it sounds like your language has a very handy idiom there, for which there's no direct English correspondence. English being what it is, if you shared the literal translation, it might rapidly become an English idiom.

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I would use He has fallen on his feet.

It implies the best possible outcome of bad news - a fall.

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  • no no... that'd be something gaining with good efforts. Read my translation carefully.
    – Maulik V
    Apr 7, 2014 at 12:30
  • @MaulikV that'd be something gaining with good efforts On the contrary, it usually means the person was lucky - luckier than they deserved, perhaps.
    – starsplusplus
    Apr 7, 2014 at 13:03
  • However, I'm not sure it's perfect here, either, though. There needs to be some kind of bad news or bad luck first, and I don't think that "being offered field work" fulfils that.
    – starsplusplus
    Apr 7, 2014 at 13:06
  • @starsplusplus correct. This does not fit there. It's something like you got something that you already liked/have been doing and now you are officially permitted to do that! Forget that you liked a bad thing or good thing. The idiom has NOTHING to do with it.
    – Maulik V
    Apr 7, 2014 at 13:09
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Your reference to "luck" brings "fortune" (or "Fortune") to my mind, as in

"a hypothetical force or personified power that unpredictably determines events and issues favorably or unfavorably"

and the idioms

"fortune smiles on him" or "fortune favours him*"

It's not that he has been lucky or successful, just that things happened to go a favorable rather than an unfavorable way.

Similarly, "coincidence":

"the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection" + "the state of two or more things being the same"

or "accident":

"an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance" or "lack of intention or necessity"

To show the fact that it involved something he liked, you could say "It was a happy coincidence" or "a happy accident".

All of the above can be used to describe a fortunate but unplanned event. For something more neutral, you could use "happenstance":

"a circumstance that happens by pure chance".

or just "chance":

He liked to eat strawberries, and, by happenstance or by chance, this is what the doctor ordered him to eat.

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I can think of something like "the planets aligned for him" meaning an entire sequence of unique events occurred independently and exactly the way he would like. This doesn't carry the "legally required to" aspect, though.

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