I can’t help it, but driving home from work last Friday in the daylight for the first time in five months just made me feel better.

What’s more, everyone else that I spoke to that evening felt exactly the same. So, I thought I would pursue this line of enquiry with my assembled chums which consisted of a doctor, a solicitor, a banker, a gardener, an architect, an IT expert and a pensions man.

All of them were optimistic about the economy and the property market in 2010, but for different reasons.

One chum maintained that 2010 being World Cup year would be good for business, another claimed that having a General Election was good because it reduced uncertainty, while my gardener friend maintained that the recent increase in sunspot activity was good for growing and therefore good for the economy!

For my part, the fact that we are technically out of recession (just!) is great news, and driving about the county I can see signs of activity all over the place, not least in Bradford city centre.

As the evening gathering progressed in conversation, our doctor pal was challenged on the merits of homeopathy and his reply was, I think, salient. Who cares what route to better health a patient takes, as long as they get better?

My feeling exactly with the economy and the property market, whether it’s sunspots, football or Quantitative Easing As long as we are feeling better it’s a good sign.