There is a school of thought that contends that a positive attitude in life will provide you with all kinds of benefits. 

Among the suggested advantages are that you will lower your levels of distress and pain; increase your life span; lower your chances of suffering from depression; and fight off deadly infections. 

Sounds like a good idea, right? So I thought I’d try it last week, and kept a note – a journal, if you will – of at least one positive thing that happened to me each day. I knew it won’t be as easy as it sounds, what with the budget coming up and the World Cup starting in Qatar. But there has to be at least one incident per day where I could think “yes, I’m glad that happened,” so stay with me while I list them. You’ll feel better for it, or so I’m told. 

MONDAY

If you’ve read any of my other blogs, you will know that I love my job. And this morning I was reminded of one of the reasons why that is so. Two of the younger children on my taxi were discussing in an animated way whether a bird that they saw over the weekend was a pheasant or a duck. “PHEASANT!” shouted one of them. “DUCK!” retorted the other. I like the sound of happy kids on their way to school so I distracted them by pretending to duck every time the word came up. It took them a minute to realise what I was doing, but the disagreement melted away to be replaced by laughter at the sight of this old fool playing up. The fact that they continued to shout “DUCK” at me for the next five minutes didn’t stop me chuckling. I was still doing it when they got to school twenty minutes later, despite the fact that they’d moved on. I can laugh at my own jokes for hours. 

TUESDAY

One of the families on the farms that I visit every school day had a beautiful young ginger and white cat that was a real character. He would insist on being picked up and cuddled whenever I arrived to collect the children to take them to school, and because he was so cute and friendly the family loved him. I was saddened to learn yesterday that he hadn’t been seen for three days. But today, as his contribution to this positive blog, he reappeared. He was hungry, and a little thinner, and refused to say where he’d been; but he’s a lovely cat and I was almost as pleased as the family to see that he had come home. Even if he does try to hitch a ride on my taxi once in a while. 

A couple of other events put a smile on my face today. On the way back from school, the sky was very dark but there was a crack in the clouds where the sun peeped through, and the result was a pretty spectacular rainbow which stretched right across the view in front of me. 

And finally, I got a question right on University Challenge, only because I recognised “Moon River” as the theme to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Still, I’ll take the point!

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday mornings and I used to be great enemies. I’d be on a train, or in a traffic jam, cursing the fact that I had to sit in a grey office doing a job that I didn’t enjoy. But now Wednesday mornings and I are the best of friends, and as if to prove that we went out for a coffee today and read a book for half an hour. The book wasn’t exactly a laugh a minute (“Travellers in the Third Reich” by Julia Boyd) but the surroundings were lovely and the coffee was lush. He’s still not as much fun as his cousin, Saturday morning, but not every day can be as exciting as him. He’s just  a show off.  

THURSDAY

I think I had one of those “rites-of-passage” events today and I liked it. It wasn’t my first kiss, or my first pint, or even my first time at a football match. They all took place several decades ago, with varying degrees of success. But they all fade into insignificance when I tell you that today I had my first “Nana Nap.” Or I suppose, a grandad nap? Whatever it’s called, I believe its a popular pastime amongst gentlemen of a certain age, and I am pleased to report that I can now count myself amongst their number. I woke up after an hour, feeling ready to run a marathon. But unfortunately, I had to go to work. 

FRIDAY

Nothing like having friends round for dinner. It used to be all the rage in the seventies, when these events were called ‘Dinner Parties,” and if you believe the social commentators of the day the talk would revolve around property prices and the amount of traffic on the local A roads. In certain areas, where the houses were so expensive that they boasted driveways and Jensen Interceptors and Ford Capris occupied those drives, the evening would end with car keys being thrown into a fruit bowl.

No such activities in our house of course, but we had a lovely time tonight with friends who we have known for ages and don’t see nearly enough. It all ended with me losing at “Articulate”, but as my competitive spirit is less than zero, it didn’t manage to spoil the happy feeling I’d built up throughout the evening. And no, I wasn’t drunk.

SATURDAY

I got talking to a woman in Costco today. I’d joined the very long queue for coffee and pizza slices that was largely composed of bored children and tired mothers who had had enough of wandering round the Christmas decorations, TV screens and boxes of oranges etc that the cavernous store offered, when a voice behind me said “Isn’t it exciting when you get to the front of the queue?”

I turned to see a woman of about fifty, sporting a thick grey bob and an embarrassed smile. She had, like me, got to the point when her phone no longer held any attraction and decided in the early Christmas spirit that was being promoted by the shop, to have a conversation with her temporary neighbour – me. I forget what we chatted about now, small talk of course, but I do remember she made me laugh and I thought afterwards how a chat with a stranger can really lift my spirits. 

SUNDAY

A few days ago, my hearing aids stopped working, so I thought I’d better go and get them repaired as I missed appreciating the musical nuances of Beethoven, The Beatles and AC/DC. My musical tastes are pretty eclectic. I headed off to Specsavers in Hexham to see what they could do about it having first mortgaged the house and promising to sell a kidney when I got back to pay for the repairs. They are very expensive hearing aids, not only helping me to hear what people are saying in crowded rooms, but also have a bluetooth facility which means I can listen to podcasts or BBC Sounds whenever anyone is asking me to lend them cash. 

So imagine my delight when they told me that not only would they replace my aids free of charge as they were under warranty, but also that the test revealed that my hearing isn’t getting worse as I had feared. I actually danced out of the shop when I left, to the amusement of the staff there. At least, they were professional enough to pretend that they found me funny.

SUMMARY

I realise that these events apply only to me. And there were other times this week where I was irritated, or unhappy, sad or angry; but that wasn’t the point of this blog. I hope I’m not being too naive when I say that, if you look hard enough into your own circumstances, there will be some occasions that put a smile on your chops. And they’re worth remembering.