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?