Now Say Hello Back - MAKING LONDON MORE SOCIABLE ONE HELLO AT A TIME

In lots of places, lots of people are doing some extraordinary things. This morning, after a good long Skype with my sister in New Zealand, I knew I wanted to do some blogging, find some new stuff, get on twitter, snoop around the internet a bit. So here's a great thing I found:

Now Say Hello is a one-man mission to make London more sociable via a bicycle.  Bruno Clarke cycles a lot and has created a point-scoring system for human interaction whilst on his journeys:

Me saying hello – 1 point
Getting a response – 5 points (unless it’s aggressive or rude)
Getting a conversation – 10 points
Getting a joke – 20 points


He's noting down his efforts and scores on the blog, like this:

Saturday 10th July

60 points – ok so it’s a slightly made up number, but I think it’s fairly representative of the day.  I cycled 117 kilometres to Brighton with many a country hello and nod along the way.  Was a lovely ride.  It’s no Tour de France, but I was still pretty please for a lone effort on a hot day.

Thursday 8th July

5 points – after my fellow cyclists, a lady in red, was barked at by an enfuriated oncoming rider, we shared a little “well good morning to him too” as I cycled past.  A jolly end to an aggressive start.  Some people just get on the wrong side of their saddle don’t they.

I'm inspired by this and want to start my own mission - both whilst cycling around Bristol and walking around, and I'll even count when I'm in my car - most people have their windows wound down in the sun.

Join in yourself. Lets collate results.

Follow on Now Say Hello on Twitter - @nowsayhello
Follow on me on Twitter - @lucybarfoot

Interviews and Questionnaires

Blimey, I'm on fire with my blogging today! I received an email asking me to complete an artist's questionnaire online, which is funny because I am collaborating with my lovely friend Samuel Rogers in an interview. Coming soon!

So this website is: Whohub and I have started answering questions, you can see my own little page here: Lucy Barfoot at Whohub. How I love free publicity! It's interesting reading other peoples answers too

Also, I came across Authentic Happiness which has lots of tests to "Develop insights into yourself and the world around you through these scientifically tested questionnaires, surveys, and scales." There are so many to do. You have to create an account to take part, but this allows you to keep a lot of the results, to easily look back on.

Tests which measure: Overall Happiness, Depression Symptoms, Current Happiness, 24 Character Strengths, Appreciation about the Past, Character Strength of Perseverence, Optimism About the Future, Forgiveness. It's so interesting to know these things, from a scientific point of view. Here are my results for the character strengths. I'm flattered!

Top Strength: Perspective (wisdom): Although you may not think of yourself as wise, your friends hold this view of you. They value your perspective on matters and turn to you for advice. You have a way of looking at the world that makes sense to others and to yourself.

Appreciation of beauty and excellence: You notice and appreciate beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance in all domains of life, from nature to art to mathematics to science to everyday experience.

Capacity to love and be loved: You value close relations with others, in particular those in which sharing and caring are reciprocated. The people to whom you feel most close are the same people who feel most close to you.

Humor and playfulness: You like to laugh and tease. Bringing smiles to other people is important to you. You try to see the light side of all situations.

Kindness and generosity: You are kind and generous to others, and you are never too busy to do a favor. You enjoy doing good deeds for others, even if you do not know them well.