{"id":137,"date":"2013-04-20T11:20:03","date_gmt":"2013-04-20T11:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/?p=137"},"modified":"2021-06-08T11:20:35","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T11:20:35","slug":"happy-coaches-for-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2013\/04\/20\/happy-coaches-for-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Coaches for London?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Happy news! Harrogate, North Yorkshire \u2013 where I live \u2013 is officially the happiest place the UK. This is according to the\u00a0\u201cHappy at Home Index\u201d 2013.<\/a>\u00a0The local media made a lot of this. It may well have only stayed local news, however, Ant and Dec featured it as a quiz question on their Saturday evening TV show \u2013 so now everyone in the UK knows. This success needs reinforcing \u2013 perhaps the Town Council should consider changing the town\u2019s name to \u201cHappygate\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My daughter came back from University a couple of days after the announcement of this very prestigious honour. It was \u2013 quite understandably \u2013 the first thing we discussed when I picked her up from the station. We decided to enjoy and experience some of this happiness. We started waving at other car occupants as we drove to Sainsburys. Unhappily, nobody waved back. We then looked for people in Sainsburys with that air of happiness. We stopped looking after a couple of minutes \u2013 and came to the conclusion that all the drivers and people in Sainsburys must be from out of town \u2013 coming to try and take in some of this happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week I am working in London \u2026 for a full seven days. I have written before about my love of London <\/a>– and in particular its Tube and DLR system.  I am currently staying locally, and travelling to a place of work each day on the Tube. Living like a Londoner for a few days \u2013 and I\u2019m like a kid in a toy shop!  I love the Tube \u2026 I like the smell, I like the names of the stations, I like watching the people \u2026 but I do think I\u2019m in the minority.  Judging by the people on the Tube, their city probably didn\u2019t come too close to Harrogate in the Happy League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, I mentioned this of the Tube to a couple of Londoners about a fortnight ago. One responded that this was because I didn\u2019t use it every day. I then mentioned how fascinating I find it watching how people know the best carriages to be in to use the shortest cut-throughs at particular stations.  The two people then started discussing how they have particular seats; \u201cFor me the third seat in on the left from the middle double doors on the Metropolitan Line, but on the District Line I usually sit \u2026.\u201d It was something like that, anyway. I have to admit that I did start to lose interest in the conversation, until one of them then said, \u201cBut the Olympics \u2013 that was the worst time. Everyone was so happy. People were smiling and some tried to talk to other people \u2013 sometimes it was difficult to avoid them. Didn\u2019t they realise some of us were going to work and not meant to be happy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried to picture the clash of cultures. Happy people on the way to the Olympics and unhappy people on their way to work. I assume there was only one winner \u2013 as there usually is where majority and minority cultures meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, could it be different I thought? We know that happier people live healthier lives<\/a>, and recent research has shown that those people who live together in a relationship tend to live longer <\/a>than those who live alone. And we all know people who if they haven\u2019t spoken to somebody for 10 minutes need to go and find someone to talk to \u2013 the extreme extraverts (how do they cope with a 45 minute Tube ride surrounded by people but with no one to talk to?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On some main line train services they have \u201cQuiet coaches\u201d \u2013 perhaps there could be a \u201cHappy coach\u201d on each Underground train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What will be the benefits? Well, they would include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n