Week 3 - 15th to 21st December 2013

15th December - Today was the dreaded soft play trip. I wouldn't have minded, but the people we were meant to be going with ended up not coming and then to top it off, when we arrived, we were told that the place was going to be closing early due to a private booking. So £10 for one and a half hours seemed a bit steep. However I smiled through gritted teeth and handed over the dosh. I have to say that once were were in, people were starting to make moves to leave so in actual fact the place was not as horrendous as I thought - plus the children had a blast! On the way out, I said to a member of staff that we had had a great time - to which she smiled in a manic sort of way and jibbered something as she took another swig of her coffee!

16th December - On the way home from our family in the South, we stopped - as usual - at our normal halfway point, to have lunch. After finding a table, battling through the various retail outlets to get something to eat and eventually sitting down - I was wondering how on earth I was actually going to be able to do or say something meaningful today. 6 hours in a car from door to door meant that apart from saying something quite lame to my family in the car, it was going to be quite tricky. So far, no one in the service station had even given me any reason to be anything but just about civil, so you can see my dilemma. Then, salvation! A local group of school kids with their teachers turned up and dressed in santa hats proceeded to serenade us all with some carols. It was lovely and when they inevitably came around with a bucket (not to vomit in), I made sure I told them what a splendid job they did and it had really cheered me up. Job Done.

17th December - Just a quickie today, my craft club had their Christmas lunch. I did not purchase a rude or lame secret santa - as is the normal course of events. I hope the recipient loves it.

18th December - Last theatre rehearsal of the year and I gave a pal a lift and as it was drinks and nibbles, I did some sausage rolls. They didn't poison anyone so as far as I am concerned this was a very nice thing to give to people!

19th December - Coffee in a well known cafe within a well known department store. Sadly one of the elderly customers had a very severe accident in the bottom department. The staff were like a well-oiled machine. Not only did they attend to the 'deposits' in a swift and correct manner but they preserved the dignity of the said elderly person with such care and attention. I was seriously impressed, so I told the manager what I thought. He agreed with me and said that he would make sure my comments were passed on to the team that afternoon.

20th December - You can't beat a bit of Panto and my local one at the moment is Cinderella. I found myself trotting along to this one tonight - with 21 kids. Not all my own - I am not that fertile (or sexually active!)and we settled ourselves in the front 2 rows. We got soaked with a water gun, snowed on by snow and picked on by the Dames - it was fantastic. 'The Princes' Balls get bigger every year' had me snorting with laughter to myself all the way through to the extent that the 4 year old next to me thought I was having one of my 'turns'. Lots of social media feedback was given and bearing in mind I did this after my own kid had decided to throw up the contents of his stomach all over the hall floor when we arrived home - its testament to how good the show was!

21st December - Feeling unwell, I went along with my Theatre group to sing carols in the foyer of the local supermarket. I got concerned when my words wouldn't come out and I was singing 'feck the balls with jowels of dolly'. I retreated homeward and slept off, what I now know was a migraine and not a stroke - Thanks web MD (I am never going to self-diagnose again). By the time I write again (although this blog will appear after the big man has been), I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and no matter where you are or what you are doing, have a lovely time. x x

Week Two - 8th to 14th December 2013

Ah Ha! Gotcha - I bet you thought that this was another of my one hit wonders and that I would not be posting anymore of the niceness that I have been spreading in the world! Well, I was away last weekend and didn't have access to anything I could write my blog on that was bigger than my iphone so I though it best to keep you all in suspenders until today!

Credit for this picture goes to - http://www.fogeygentleman.co.uk/index.htm So here we go -

8th December - I normally snoop about other peoples websites and very rarely leave comments, unless I am particularly vexed or have something useful to add to a conversation. But today I decided to leave a comment complimenting the person about the use of wonderful images.

9th December - Being a school bus driver must be on a par with spending life like a cracked record (repeating yourself all the time), rounding up sheep (rounding up small children), being deafened on a daily basis (with the shrieking of said children) and not one able to clout them around the heads. I told our school bus driver what a brilliant job she does, she just smiled wearily before replacing her ear defenders and getting back in the drivers seat.

10th December - Picked up a bin that had blown over and all the road. Everyone else was just driving past and over it all - normally I would have done the same!

11th December - One of my friends is a splendid gal, she does lots for other people and in fact and in my opinion she is walked all over by quite a few of them. She went off to a local eatery for the evening with her mum - I slipped said mother a few quid to buy my pal a cheeky drink (or two!).

12th December - Spent a good 2 hours having a chat with a friend of mine. I had quite a bit of other stuff to do, but it wasn't as important as giving someone in need, a little bit of care and attention. Yes I was running horrendously behind with all of my stuff for the remainder of the day but some things are worth doing.

13th December - Went to the other end of the country today a-visiting rellies and to get the gifts delivered and do the rounds of sitting with old aunts, drinking their sherry and eating cake. Its a terribly hard job. We spent all day travelling, collapsed in the hotel but still managed a kind word to the rather harassed lady behind the bar who was grappling with the corkscrew! It was going to be a long night for her!

14th December - I now remember why I love living in a rural location so much. The City is bloody hell on earth and I seriously struggled being nice to anyone today. Shop assistants with no more goodwill and cheer than Scrooges left earlobe. Rude shoppers - all elbows, trolleys and buggy's. Apart from one staff member in Poundland - YES - I went into POUNDLAND, and I am not going to be embarrassed about it either. There were queues for queues reaching as far as the eye could see. Plenty of pushing, shoving and bad tempers but I reached the till and this chap was smiley, happy and took an interest in me and how I was feeling. What a nice chap! I left some feedback via their customer services. He made my day a whole lot better.

Week One - 1st - 7th December 2013

Ok Sunday - here we are my friend, it is time to spill the beans and tell you all just how extra nice I have been this week. How, I have attempted to go out of my way to do something a little bit extra for other people and spread a little kindness. Here goes.... Sunday 1/12 I kicked off the challenge in great style and held a party, which I think very well. It was mainly combining two lots of people - a post-production party and also a Christmas get-together. Made sense to me to have both at the same time and everyone seemed to really have a lovely time. Lots of laughs, good food and wine! Shame some people couldn't come at the last minute, a few with good reason, more than a few without. Monday 2/12 During the arduous task of returning the hired glasses from yesterdays party, back to Tesco. I was stood in the queue wondering if indeed I was still over the limit and should I actually be driving anywhere for the next week - there was a lady in front of me. She was on her phone and looking very down in the dumps, I started thinking on how I might be able to shine a little happiness into her life. I saw she had a really lovely dress on, so I complimented her on it - out of the blue, no warning and the smile that spread across her face was priceless. Tuesday 3/12 Sat in my drawer at home, amongst the christmas supplies were 2 packs of cards that you pop a picture of your own in. They were destined to sit there for another year until I gave them to a friend at my craft club to pass on to her daughter to create some nice cards featuring her little boy to send. I would have normally kept them on the off-chance I would have used them for something, sometime. Wednesday 4/12 Gave someone a lift, it was on my way, added another 15 minutes but was worth the effort as we had a nice chat, opposed to me talking to myself in the car (as usual!) and took them home again. Thursday 5/12 Got good customer service today, so fired off an email to the relevant company asking that it be placed on the staff members personal file. Friday 6/12 Local power cuts meant that this was the second day of outage for some people I know. Had some over to fill flasks, get hot drinks, charge their phones, have a hot lunch and to stay a while. Opened the house up when in all honesty I probably would have helped in some way, but not to this extent. Saturday 7/12 Attended a Christmas Fayre and complimented a stallholder on their stall and the goods that were on it. I would have normally just looked and then poached some ideas, this time I bought. Week One done and now dusted. I have to admit that going that extra mile does take a little thinking about, but so far has been worth it. From this week I have seen that sweeping, expensive gestures often are not valued as much and it is the simpler things that mean the most for some people. I am wondering if all this will prove that karma and pay it forward really do exist and I will receive some of the happiness back - maybe the spreading of it will be all I need?

Play Nice Now!

So, towards the end of November I realised that it would have been nearly a whole year since I posted on here. Not very good eh?! To be fair to myself, it has been rather a busy time for me. To be extra fair to myself, I do tend to take on more than I can chew. Sue, a blog is a great idea, but where can I actually get the time to post on the damn thing amongst running the house and doing all of the other millions of things I rope myself in to? Crikey, sometimes I don't even have the time to go to the bloody loo! It struck me, that now I am managing to get on top of things - the house no longer looks like a bomb site (well not all of it anyway), my theatre directing stint is over and yes, although my Uni degree has just started again and the next production rehearsals have begun (I am in the chorus btw!) - I would like to raise this old and crusty blog off out of the grave and start over. And what better way to start but by doing something meaningful? I decided that from 1st December, I will attempt to do something kind and/or meaningful every day for a whole year. My aim is that as the 1st of December falls on a Sunday, this will be the day that I write about the week gone by. So, join me on 8th December to see how the first week has panned out!