As a strain of humanity, first-world peeps are a funny bunch. Never quite satisfied with the here-and-now, we are always looking across the fence at greener grass and believing that if we could only have A, B and C our happiness would be complete.
When I left for my holiday, I was over it. Over work. Over home. Over life.
I had the grungy winter blues and just wanted Europe to sort it for me. But not surprisingly, you can't escape yourself when you escape from home, and changing location doesn't necessarily change your attitude.
But as one week dripped into two, three and finally four, I realised that happiness was at home all along. It was hiding in the small unobserved moments between the things you think matter and the things that don't matter at all.
Happiness (for me) is snoozing the alarm for one more round so I can snuggle up to the warm back of the man I love. It is getting soaked by the dog when she runs out of the ocean and shakes herself dry. It is realising how lucky we are in New Zealand to live in a house with grass out front and be able to get to work without breathing recycled air in a crowded subway.
I've come back with a renewed vigour (happens after every holiday) to look at Facebook less and see my (real) friends more. But this morning I had a wee lapse and stumbled across an increasingly rare thing: something genuinely interesting and inspiring in my newsfeed.
It was an article from the Huffington Post listing the habits of supremely happy people (Google it). In the pursuit of true happiness it never said "go on an expensive holiday" and it certainly didn't say "return with five new pairs of shoes".
Among the line-up of usual suspects like "looking on the bright side" and "surrounding yourself with happy people" there were some surprisingly simple (and scientifically proven) tips on being happy; smile only when you mean it, cultivate resilience, log off, lose track of time, give more than you take and trade chit-chat for meaningful conversations.
But my personal favourite was so simple I suspect most of us would overlook it; try to be happy. Yes, folks, that's all. Studies show that if you are feeling sad, just trying to be happy will most likely do the trick. And just like we all learned at primary school, if at first you don't succeed, simply try again.
It sure is cheaper than a holiday.