• “A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience” (Oliver Wendell Holmes)
• “Without wonder and insight, acting is just a trade. With it, it becomes creation” (Bette Davis)
• “There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
• “The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers” (R.W. Hamming)
• “I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children” (Arthur Conan Doyle)

Borrowed with pride from all over the place.

Disney recently reported that the top 5 everyday pleasures were:

1. Finding money
2. Freshly washed bedding
3. Not having to queue
4. Someone smiling at you
5. Helping someone

Obviously we couldn’t take this at face value and decided to conduct our own research in the office – we’re obviously a very happy bunch because this generated a very long list!

So read on to find out what makes Value Engineers tick (and perhaps some will bring a smile to your face too!). Some of these are more ‘free’ than others though…

• Someone offering you a cup of coffee when you are busy
• Random acts of kindness
• Sound of leather on willow on the village green
• Seeing a dog leaning out of a car window, loving the wind in its hair
• The beach
• The first signs of spring – the first snowdrop
• Wafts of other people’s BBQs
• The smell of freshly cut grass
• The perfect picnic spot
• Kicking a pile of leaves
• New born baby
• Eating cheese
• Walking around for fresh air even with a Ferrari in the garage
• The relief that comes after visiting the loo!
• The wind in your hair dinghy sailing on the Thames at Hampton on a beautiful sunny day
• The view from Waterloo bridge at sunset
• The sound of a wine cork popping / beer cap hiss
• Pottering around the garden
• The paper, cappuccino, Andrew Marr’s paper review and porridge with banana in bed on a Sunday
• Cooking anything nostalgic – pancakes, scones, Christmas cake, sponge cake
• The sensation of Life!
• The cold side of the pillow
• The Today programme on Radio 4
• The smell of rain on warm concrete
• The taste of a cold beer to quench a thirst, (‘free’ if someone else is buying. A perfect ‘Ice cold in Alex’ moment)
• The sound of waves exiting a pebble beach
• The sight of the first migrant spring arrivals
• The four seasons of the year: The colours of autumn, the joy of people in summer, the first signs of spring and the first snow of winter
• Fresh and pure air
• A nice dawn at the beach
• To enjoy a good dance
• The smile of child
• To meet and old friend and realise that nothing has changed between each other
• Your first kiss
• To fall in love
• To laugh
• To love someone and being loved
• The first smell of the day of coffee brewing
• Stepping on a perfectly crunchy leaf
• Unexpectedly bumping into an old friend
• Coming into a warm house from the cold outside
• A hug
• Your head touching the pillow after a really long day
• Taking off a pair of killer heels
• Being the first person down a freshly pisted or snowy run
• Reading a book by a log fire
• The first waft of a glass of heavy, red wine
• A freshly brewed cup of tea 

A few weeks ago I incorrectly forecast that it would only take me a few days to post the answers to a trend quiz I set. It goes to show you can’t even trust the sceptics. The quiz challenged you to overcome the trend tricksters’ abuse of the nominalist fallacy by correctly identifying the real trends among the false ones simply by reading their names and a short description. Here’s a quick reminder (the answers are at the bottom):

• A) “Sleep is the new sex”: increasingly over-tired and over-stressed, people now think of sleep every 7 seconds and love a good quick one (a nap, that is)
• B) “Back-clash” : a growing surveillance culture, health & safety overload and crap X-Factor music leads to a return of punk values
• C) ”Tech fatales”: they’re out of the closet and driving marketing decisions, this is the emergence of sultry, nerdy chicks who dig gadgets
• D) “Geriatric-olescence”: the rise in third and fourth age rebels who forgot they were too old and start to revive some teenage habits
• E) “Screenagers”: the rise in kids who celebrate more over scoring a Pro-Evo goal than one they score on the school pitch

And the real ones are: A), C) and E). How did you do?