Averages

PasturesNew

Camberley, Surrey - found a woman celebrating her 40th birthday. She had around 14 close friends, which is average.

She has 2 children, is a house owner.
Her husband serves in Iraq, he's away a lot.

She ran the London Marathon, going to pass her motorbike test, going to New York, going to go to a nudist camp for a day with her best friend.

She thin ks average is: female, 40, probably worried about what she looks like, worried about money, fearful of the future, probably not happy but more confident than she was 10 years ago, but not completely happy with her life.

Sounds like she was looking inwards then!

PasturesNew

Off to Ipsos MORI to find out about if the average person is happy.

People who are average are probably happy if they've accepted their lot. Learning to be happy with what you've got rather than striving for more we might be happier.

Kevin - gave up an IT career to become a school caretaker. 17 years behind a desk and he realised that isn't for him.

Being average is great, nobody bothers you, you're not singled out, you read your newspaper, cut your grass, drive your Vauxhall ...

Most statistically average car is the Ford Fiesta.

Davesnave

Average is a bit meaningless though, isn't it?

Where I live, you'll get an average sort of 3 bed semi for about £275k, whereas in some other equally nice places, perhaps off the tourist route, the same place would be £200k, or less.

It's nice, being able to stroll to the theatre on an evening like this, or pass the Royal Crescent on the walk to work, but it isn't worth an extra £75k in my book. Some think it is though.

Anyway, acting as taxi driver 15 mins ago, I saw a distinctly non-average event. As I drove by, 8 men piled out of one of the local hostelries and 6 of them were wearing lilac coloured shirts. They weren't a band and the shirts weren't the same shade, but DD2 spotted it as well, so it was definitely a Phenomenon.

PasturesNew

Average Briton sleeps for just over 7 hours/night
Goes to the loo 6 times a day
Spends 7 minutes in the shower
Receives 3 pieces of junk mail per day
Spends 26 minutes travelling to work
Ogles 8 women per day
Drinks 3 cups of tea a day
Spends 14 working days a year on personal phone calls, emails, web browsing
Owes >£3000
Is caught on CCTV 300 times per day
Works 43 hours/week
Drinks 4 pints of beer and 6 glasses of wine per week
Spends £36 on their supermarket shop
Spends 3.5 years of their lifetime doing household chores

PasturesNew

Next it was off to Liverpool, DJ Pete Price - a radio presenter
Average caller worries about: Crime and respect, immigration and terrorism

nearlynew

It's not about getting what you want -

It;s about wanting what you got.

that is they key to freedom and happiness

PasturesNew

CACI - specialises in geo-demographic profiling
Britain's most statistically average place: CO4, northern part of Colchester, Essex

CACI gave him a list of cul de sacs - so he went off to knock on every door in those areas

Looking promising, the area was very average ... cue him interviewing randoms that live there.

He knocked on over 250 doors and didn't find a single person that matched the average for: age, shape, number of children, car type

PasturesNew

Back to London. 5 weeks into his search and no closer to finding his average person.

Then he realised the media could help him find the average Briton.

He drew up a list of 20 key criteria and contacted the national papers/TV to find somebody that matched them.

A woman from Swindon thought her husband would be average. Peter Williamson ... so he turned up.

Married, 2 kids, sleeps 7.5-8 hours, believes there is a type of God, size 10 feet, works 48+ hours/week, goes to the toilet 6-7x per day, worried about terrorism, he is working class, he is 41 .... drives a Ford Fiesta. He scored 18/20.

PasturesNew

Does averageness = happiness?
His first wife got breast cancer at age 32 and she died, both his parents died when he was 24 and 26. He's optimistic so t hought things would work out in the end .. and now he has this wife/kids.

They sat down to eat spaghetti bolognese, Britain's most average meal.

PasturesNew

Bl00dy pointless programme.... LIR - it's YOUR fault I watched this old tosh!