Seeds of Happiness? Aye, Right...

BRITAIN could be a happier place next week, thanks to a unique psychological experiment aimed at spreading smiles around the country. For five days, starting on Monday, thousands of people will be invited to go online and try one of four proven mood-boosting techniques.The idea is to plant seeds of happiness, which then "infect" others, sending waves of cheerfulness across recession-hit Britain. Polls conducted before and after the experiment will assess whether it has worked.Professor Richard Wiseman, who is leading the study, has high hopes that it will, if enough people participate.

From The Scotsman

Waves of cheerfulness? As I write this, it's the last day in July. It's raining, far too dark for our supposed summer and the weather forecast is for more rain. Having spent far too much money in Dublin a couple of weeks ago I'm financially embarrassed. True, the football season is just around the corner but the European results of Scots clubs this week gives fans in this country sweet FA to look forward to. In any case, Hearts are being threatened by the Tax Man. To be fair to the man from the Inland Revenue he does have a soft side. He sent me a letter a few weeks ago telling me my tax return was outstanding. Which I thought was particularly nice given I couldn't remember sending one in the first place. But I digress...

Waves of cheerfulness? Try being in Edinburgh when the bloody Festival is about to start. And the city has even more bloody tourists than usual. Try going to work in the morning and fighting through dozens of non-English speaking visitors to the capital who are trying to work out the best way to get to Princes Street. Not on my bloody bus, mate.

Waves of cheerfulness? Try being in Edinburgh while striking binmen refuse (see what I did there?) to clear debris from the streets and the rubbish piles even higher and the seagulls swoop incessantly. And the city centre resembles the biggest building site in the world all in the name of bloody trams.

Waves of cheerfulness? Try working in the Human Resources profession when it appears about every second person in the company you work for claims to have bloody swine flu. Try working your backside off when you may have something ten times worse than swine flu - Man Flu. That's even more difficult to diagnose as men generally don't complain when they fall victim to this - we just get on with things as I'm sure the female readers of this blog will concur.

Waves of cheerfulness? Try being treated as a human assault course by four year old and soon to be two year old brats - sorry, loveable grandchildren.

So, Professor Wiseman, I suggest you take your seeds of happiness and stick them where the sun don't shine. Which, this summer, could be anywhere in Scotland...