THE LITTLE GYM — My friend Nic likes to say “I think nice is over-rated.” But I know she doesn’t mean it.

We have been running a survey this past week that asks about people’s relative sense of happiness. I have to admit it’s not the kind of survey that I am immediately comfortable with. But we have had some very interesting results.

My favourite has got to be the person who called up and said “thank you for sending me this survey. I hadn’t realised that I AM actually happy, until you asked me.”

That’s a funny response, isn’t it? It makes me a bit uncomfortable. But it’s a great result in these times. So far we are also quite surprised by the number of people who have said they’re happy… Even when their work and life seems a mess.

Nice is another question. We can’t completely agree, but we think that customer service in Britain has improved as the economy has worsened. In Curry’s, in Homebase and in supermarkets people are being nice to me!

I’m not used to it. But it’s sure if nice. It makes me happy.

/df