Jam again

I did a swap just before Christmas and received jam again (it's like currency ;) ). It was delicious with my Christmas cheese so I just dropped the maker a message to tell her how much I enjoyed it. 
I know this is the second time I posted about something similar recently, but last time I did it the lady was really chuffed and we had a nice conversation so I'm all so repeating it with someone new.  

Patties

Husband got the last 5 patties at the stall and as the guy was taking them all out the display for him, someone had come over to drool at them so husband asked if they wanted one & changed his order to 4 instead.

Jam

Yonks and yonks ago someone gave me some jam in return for something I gave her. I rediscovered it the other day and used it up. I just sent her a message saying how yummy it was. Hope the random, out of the blue compliment makes her smile :)

Cakes

Bought some cakes while I was in town, and dropped into my son's work on the way home to drop them off. 
A kindness to me too, it was nice to see him. 

Car park kindness

 Another driver came over to us at the pay machine in the car park to tell us parking's free for December.  There was a notice but it was confusing.

Admin Queen

Took my laptop to the bar last night to help out a friend who hadn't managed to do some pretty vital residency admin yet. A weight off his mind, I think, and I'm getting so practiced at this I reckon SEF should employ me.

Dog food

 Donated a bag of dog food at a car event we attended today. The organisers have started doing a collection for a different charity each time. The chap who was attending the collection shook my partner's hand when he dropped it in 

ACT

Someone has offered the volunteers a  free ACT & yoga course, & a good few of us have signed up.

Mentor buddy asked how I was feeling, & when I said "fragile" replied to take it easy workwise, & that everything would wait.  I told him I was feeling bad not pulling my weights & he reassured me that's the point of being in a team, to cover for each other when we need it.

EFT

 A friend did an EFT session with me today because she knows I'm coming off the tablets.

Friendly concern

Team mates are concerned about a team member who's just separated from his wife.  They've started having their cameras on in team meetings & are arranging a meal out. 

Crystal chips

 

Friend sent me some crystal chips for my latest craft project.  I'm going to make her one as a thank you.

Swings

I discovered this wonderful website this morning, mapping the 'wild' swings of Portugal. Just looking through the site has made me happy. Such kindness - both the builders of the swings, and whoever took the time to map them. 

https://abaloicar.com/

This one is close to home.

Trawling old posts

Our 'swap' group on FB was taken down, but has been resurrected under a new name. One of the members of the old group couldn't remember the details of her swap so I spent ages trawling through all her old posts copying names and details for her (as an admin I can see the old group. She can't).

Agaves

On a day out I stopped by the side of the road for an emergency 'comfort break' and discovered a pile of discarded agave plants dumped there. Being a happy scavenger, I managed to collect them all up :)

I passed on two piles immediately to people I saw, and I've two loads promised to other people. Any left over I'll plant, but at this rate there won't be many :)

 

Setting up #2

It must be the season for it, because today I had the opportunity to help another stranger with declaring their earning. It's not a difficult process at all once you're walked through it, but a steep learning curve.

Shopping

 

Husband walked to the shop to get me milk and made me hot chocolate with it because I'm under the weather today.  He forgot milk on the first trip and so made another one later.

Setting up

A few years ago, when I first went self employed, a friend gave me loads of advice on how to do it. Yesterday I was able to pass that favour on, and detailed the process for someone else. 

As a bonus, I was able to have a really nice messenger chat with someone new and I hope we'll stay in touch. 

Career chat

My son is considering studying mechanics next year. Today a friend very kindly agreed to meet him and talked him through his own experiences of being a mechanic for one of the F1 teams. Son loved it, and it was very helpful. 

Tea Sharing

Offered the rest of my Immortelle tea flowers on a swap group today, but without the swap. 
I've been harvesting other flowers for tea today, so it seemed appropriate to clear the decks and pass on what I'm not going to use. 

My Moderator's Hat

It's been a while since I've been a group moderator, as I reckon it's a pretty thankless task. One of the FB groups I use need an extra volunteer though, so I'm digging out my dusty mods hat. 

Don't shoot the messenger

I went to a friend's house this morning to deliver some news that was very unwelcome. Despite that, she gave me a bucket of pig food and a pumpkin when I left. 

Poppies

A lady posted on a FB group I'm a member of that she has a poppy memorial to her husband. I have about a zillion poppy seeds still to scatter so sent her a quick message to see if she'd like some more 

Money Pool

A lady within a circle of online friends has just lost her husband. Another lady within the group has organised a Paypal Money Pool which will go towards supporting our friend until she is ready to work again. I'm grateful to the lady who has made it so easy for the rest of us to contribute. 

Half a pig

We are very lucky to have an abundance of food. Earlier this week we were able to donate half a pig to a local family, for their freezer (my son and his household took the other half). The young man accidentally forgot to take some of the parts and left them in our fridge. Yesterday my son came and collected them and delivered them to him as he doesn't drive. 

Pig lesson

We've been struggling with some of our pig tasks lately, so I'd asked on a swap group for some help in return for products. We had a lovely couple come over today who want to keep pigs in the future. 

They were a great help, and my partner spent ages talking through with them everything they'd need to know. When they left they had a car full of meat and jam. It's been a nice day. 

Trampoline

Once again someone's kindness has made me smile. 

A lady I've never met in person has given me a exercise trampoline. My partner kindly collected it for me this afternoon, and I sent him with some homemade jam as a thank you. 

Now I'm counting the minutes until I finish work so I can try it out ...  

Sandwich

This seems the silliest thing but it created big smiles so I'll include it. 

There was a day of quite challenging farm activities ahead, but I had to go to work. As I had a deadline to leave and partner needed my assistance, he didn't have time for breakfast (he'd had ALL morning, but that's another story!!). He was as grumpy as a grumpy thing on a grumpy day. So when I packed up and got changed for work I made a last minute decision to work from the house rather than my office which gave me ten minutes spare. I used it to make him a fried egg sandwich.

Anyone who believes a man's heart isn't in his stomach has obviously not met my partner! 

Paperwork

A friend is trying to return to Portugal, which was proving difficult as he's lost his residency certificate and isn't awfully good with paperwork. My partner liaised with the department to get this reissued, then I did the paperwork to get it updated post-Brexit. Hopefully he'll be able to get a flight soon.

Paul's necklace

Months ago we had a volunteer who stayed with us for a while. After he'd gone I discovered a necklace down the back of the bed, a worthless looking thing but it seemed to have a sentimental value. I messaged him, and said I'd hang onto it until he could return. 

It's now months later and it's not easy to travel, so I'll just packaged it up and posted it to him. With an origami peace dove  :)

Proofing

I just proofread a condolences letter from one of my students to her professor's wife. Such a small task for me to do, so glad to be able to help so easily. 

Pig delivery

Some weeks ago a lady came to buy pigs but came with a ridiculously small and overloaded car and there was no way partner and I could have sent her on her way with as many as she wanted safely. She was disappointed though, as with kids and a farm to manage the 90 min drive to our place was hard to organise. 

Yesterday I had a medical appointment not far from her place so I made contact and we were able to save her a journey. 

Crystal posting

My crystals arrived today!  Seller included a bonus one, & just asked for a photo & short comment on her page, so I did.  

Scratch offs

 

Someone I've only interacted a little with on a forum tagged me in a post to say Lidl has some scratch off books she thought I'd like.  Yep :)

Coin collection

Remember the stamps lady? We were chatting about her hobbies and she mentioned that her ex also destroyed her coin collection.

What a great opportunity to pass on the few foreign bank notes and coins we have lying about. 

Stamps not-swap

I've always cut the stamps off incoming mail and saved them up for charity, but I've struggled to find charities locally who still accept them. Sign of the times I suppose. 

So I posted a message on a 'swap' group offering them if anyone wanted them for crafts and got a lovely long message from a lady suggesting a whole list of thing to swap for them and telling me that she had a stamp collection for years before her ex had destroyed it in a divorce. Pretty nasty story. Then she wrote back 2 minutes later saying actually I lived too far away so she couldn't come and get them after all. 

I'm preparing them to post to her, and I've had a rummage through my stash of odds and sods and have found some little 'kindness' goodies to include in the parcel. 

Book share

Last night I started reading a book which a friend thought I'd enjoy and posted on to me. Grateful to have friends who share things with me that they think I'll like. She was kind enough to enclose multiple bookmark choices too :)

I've already identified another friend who will enjoy this when I'm through. 

Ping Pauses Pondering

I was struggling to think of a kindness to write about this morning, and while I was wracking my brains my email went ping with a blog update in my inbox. I read it while I pondered. 

I was a description of a friend's morning routine, seeing to her sheep during lambing season, and it brought a tear to my eye as it was beautifully written. 

Kindness dilemma instantly solved! I wrote her a message immediately saying how much I'd enjoyed it and she wrote back saying how lovely that was to hear and how she didn't think anyone actually read her ramblings. 

Now I follow quite a few blogs but I rarely comment. Maybe I'll start making more of an effort to let the writers know they're being heard. 



In other news, the lady in the electoral office that I sent a card to obviously instantly saw through my disguise of just using my first name as she sent me a lovely email saying the card caused a few smiles in the office and thanking me. Happy to have raised some smiles, even if my cover is blown :)

'Immortelle' tea

A friend seems to suffer with an uncomfortable tummy often. I've dug out some boxes of 'Immortelle' tea herbs I'd harvested and will give them to her when I see her next. Perhaps they'll help (and even if they don't, it's really tasty tea!).

Thank you card

A couple of days ago I posted about a wonderful interaction I had with the lady responsible for voter renewals. I just got a free card offer from Moonpig, so I used it to send her a thank you card. It cost me just the postage, the vast sum of 85p :)

The Memory Hunters

I read this article on the BBC this morning and it made me tear up. You will remember that it's the ten year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan which killed nearly 16,000 people and wiped out whole towns. This story is about the kindness of a team of volunteers who came together to rescue, restore and catalogue family photographs for the benefit of the survivors. 

The Memory Hunters

Voter Renewal

I received my voter renewal by email today but wasn't able to print and scan as requested because I don't have a printer and everything is closed because of covid. When I wrote back to the lady she came up with an alternative solution and was so pleasant and friendly that she deserves a shout out for being the kindest person I dealt with today. 

Landwork

 

Today a friend of my son's came round to help my partner with some pretty heavy land clearance. My son can't help out at the moment as he's recovering from an operation, and we have a legal deadline looming. Very grateful for the assistance.

Crystal grids

I sometimes make crystal grids for friends.  Today a friend made one for me 💖

Surprise parcel

Partner is going to the post office today, so I took the opportunity of parcelling up a gift I've been meaning to send off for a while. Surprise parcels rock. 

Hospital visit

Well yesterday was a bit of a drama. A friend went to the doctor's surgery and ended up being shipped off to hospital for some tests. That's not so weird in this country, but hugely inconvenient.

She was worried about her kids being left home alone if she had to be admitted and mentioned this to the surgery, who went a little overboard and told her they'd involve social services. So I ended up being on red alert to go over and spend the night, as a 'responsible adult'. 

I was just giving up on her being home in the evening and getting my shoes on to head over when she was released. We have a ludicrous situation here where they take you TO hospital for something as simple as an Xray but not BACK so she was then stranded in the city with a potential 100 euro taxi bill, so my partner drove into the city and picked her up very late at night. 

Lunch?

One of my workmates got delayed and instead of joining us at the canteen, he skipped lunch.  I offered to go back over & him something but he was happy enough with the chocolate I'd shared earlier.

Tarot reading

A friend did a tarot reading for me. I am an argumentative sceptic so I really appreciate her doing them for me. I find they spark lots of thoughts. 

Easter suggestion

A friend's mum messaged me asking if I was aware of a local flower delivery company as she wanted to send her daughter some flowers for Easter. I had no idea, so she said she'd buy something from Amazon instead. I was able to come up with an idea of something from a local artisan seller who is struggling because of the restrictions on markets etc and she seems to like the idea. I'll help her with communication and with money transfer, if she needs it. 

Supporting Local Business, one step removed! 

Carrot sticks

When I opened the fridge I saw a couple of little containers of carrots sticks husband has prepared for me.  He knows I like to munch on them and never think to prepare them myself.  He did some the other day too, am especially touched that he noticed I'd eaten the first lot & so prepared more.

Bunny bottles

Remember a while ago I gave my rabbit to some girls who's mum bought some pigs from us? Apparent it's already had a nest of babies. I found all my rabbit drinking bottles in the shed so yesterday when I met a friend of their mum I passed them on. Added some kids audio books and a packet of funky pens too. 

Tarot spread

I created a spread for myself yesterday & today I submitted it as a blog post to someone I know is wanting content, & posted in a friend's group as encouragement.

Cards

A friend of mine sadly passed away and I was in need of cards for his wife. It took me a while, but I found some beautiful cards produced by a local lady (part of my supporting local businesses campaign) but she didn't have exactly what I wanted. She went out of her way to sort out something suitable for me and went to special efforts to get to the post office the very next morning. 

My first card to friend's wife is seriously delayed, particularly as it now needs to travel to the other side of the world, but I hope it will remind her that people are still thinking of her. 

I've just posted a review on the cardmaker's FB page. Credit where it's due! She was so nice in tweaking her designs for me so quickly. 

 

Visit from a friend

My friend's husband is staying in a hospice just now. The wonderful hospice allowed her to take his much loved cat in for a visit as he was missing her. 

https://www.st-michaels-hospice.org.uk/a-purrfect-visit/

Reminders

My friend is still stuck in the UK due to the covid situation. I keep an eye on his house for him and popped over again. He has an excellent alarm system which alerts him to movement, but his camera angles are limited. 

This time I walked the whole property, tracking down where the boar are getting in so he could plan his next moves against them and taking photos of his plants and trees springing back to life. And it was a good excuse to take photos of the local area too. The water level is so high just now!

His cameras give him reassurance, but the photos make him feel at home. 

Webcam

I may have mentioned before that I take an online group language course. I know from my own work how much harder it is to teach to a blank screen, so my little kindness to the teacher is to keep my camera turned on.

Self kindness

 Sometimes kindness is all about stopping the car to take photos of beautiful flowers. 

Books

One of the people in the local FB group has posted free books.  She's left a few boxes of books on a table outside her gate for people to take as they're passing.

driveway

Kindness both in making it look like there's someone at our empty house, & in providing parking for people that need it.  

The people from the business opposite have been told it's ok to park on our drive, & today we let neighbour's visitors park there.

Chicken Guy

I've mentioned before that our 'new' Saturday routine is to support our local restaurants by treating ourselves to a takeaway. There's a chicken van that parks up in the car park of a local shop each Saturday morning which we often use. Last week we phoned in the morning to order our takeaway but they weren't there as the weather was awful.

On Friday night we received a phone call from the guy who owns the shop. He was telling us that Chicken Guy was considering not coming again as he didn't have enough pre-orders. Heads up! 

So we pre-booked and had a lovely chicken takeaway in the Spring weather yesterday. Very grateful to Shop Guy for thinking of us and thinking to call. Yes I know he gets additional business from Chicken Guy's customers so has a good reason for wanting him to succeed, but all our small business owners need to work together in these weird times. 

Free courses

I love free courses and when I was trawling around the net last night looking at them I stumbled upon a couple which friends might enjoy. Passed them on. 

Exercise

 An exercise studio in Dublin is offering the volunteers free membership to their online classes (live sessions & recordings) as a thank you for what we do.

We spend our time looking after others, who takes us of us?  Let us show our appreciation 💖 

CDs

One of the volunteers who worked here years ago is a marvellous musician, and a while ago she ran a crowdfunding campaign which I supported in order to produce an album.

Just recently she messaged me to apologise that it had been so long and to ask where I would like CDs posted to. I had 4 CDs to share, but 5 potential recipients - so she gave me an extra so I didn't have to make a decision :)

The first couple arrived at their destinations yesterday and it feels lovely to share.
 

Feijoada

Dinner last night was a big bowl of feijoada, bean and meat stew.

The lady who runs the restaurant gave my partner a big pot of the stew and some cooked sardines. I guess it must have been the end of the afternoon and what wasn't used would go in the bin. Waste not, want not! 

It was delicious, and very welcome. 

Lego

My kids are older now, and no longer in need of our rather huge lego collection. I could try and sell it, but a lot of it originally came to me via FreeCycle years ago so that would seem wrong. 

So I contacted someone I know in the local council, who has spoken to the local social worker and identified a couple of local families with kids who could make good use of it. 

So happy to know it'll go to good homes. I'll start washing and bagging it tomorrow. 

Agave & Yukka

My neighbour has huge agave & yukka plants growing by the road. She'd obviously hacked them back recently as there were baby plants scattered all over the place. I stopped to pick a few up and to my huge embarrassment she appeared as if out of nowhere. 

I didn't really follow, but 'come back tomorrow' she said. And when tomorrow came there was an animal feed sack stuffed full of more mature plants waiting for me. 

I'll give one to the friend who I recently gave some cacti to and the rest are going along the road. Did you know cacti and succulents make great fire breaks once they get big?

Translation

I've just been calling my 'native speaker' kids to help a friend work out what's wrong with her car. The language she claimed the garage used wasn't in the dictionary, but the kids worked out that was because some of it was informal speech and some mispronounced / heard. Anyway, now she knows. 

Tax time

Yuk, it's that time of year when we have to think about our taxes. And one part of that here is validating all your invoices on the finances website. 

Yesterday I was stuck with one section so my son helped me out by finding me some articles to read through that were helpful. I also posted a question on a local FB group. Someone there replied complaining about a problem I'd read about earlier. She was most grateful for a link that answered her question. 

This morning I got an email from a friend asking about this very same topic. I was able to screenshot the whole process, so hopefully it won't take her as long to work out as it did me! 

Support Local Business Saturday!

 

Support Local Business Saturday has rolled around again and my family loves this new tradition! 

This week the chicken truck we'd intended to use was closed because of the bad weather so we opted to spend more money and get a full on restaurant take away. Blow out! 

Each meal is complete, with soup, bread, a main, salad, a desert and a bottle of wine. The main is the only part you choose. The rest is whatever they include. When I unpacked it, there were two soups? Weird. But when I checked I realised that we had two portions of a fish based soup and one of another. I don't eat fish, and I am so touched that the restaurant remembered and packed me something different specially. 

Meetups

Meetup groups exist because they're created by people who want to meet people, shared interests etc. or just to get to know more people.  I've met some lovely people through them, and appreciate that there are people out there willing to make the effort to meet new people.  Most of the group I'm currently in are people new to the area, which makes for a transient membership, and lots of people looking to make friends. 

I'm thankful for being included in the group, & that people are coming to an online lunch meeting I organised.  

Cacti

Partner will be picking up a few groceries for a friend today and dropping them in. So I'm sending along this bag of cacti pieces to plant as well. She was saying that she'd like some. 
 

Rehoming our Rabbit

We sold some piglets to a couple who came over with their kids to collect them. I gave our lonely rabbit to their kids (with the parents' permission!). I'm sure it'll be happier with more attention and the kids were so excited to have an addition for their mini-farm.

(It probably goes without saying that this isn't actually the rabbit in question!)

Tools

 

A friend is kindly helping us sort out some of the stuff in the house.  Starting with the tool cupboard.  The pink flowery tools are mine, a present from friends when I first got my house.  My first proper toolkit 😍 til then I'd had some of my dad's spares.

The same friends as gave me the tools also saved money from the rent I paid them to buy me things (eg cleaning supplies, kettle, welcome mat) when I moved into the house.  I was staying with them & this was my first house.  I bet they loved being able to shop for me, & being involved in me moving.

I have been spoilt by the kindness of my friends, especially when I've been off sick & suffering.

Cat carrier

Three of our cats had sterilisation operations booked on the same day this week. I'm very grateful for the kindness of our neighbour, who loaned us an extra pet carrier. 

The vet gave us a call the day after the op to check that all was well. I thought that was a lovely touch. 

Pulling together for subsidy help

In this country any financial help you get towards education is based on the scale of 'family allowance' you qualify for. As the kids have barely set foot in the school in person this year I didn't bother applying for subsidies this school year. So yesterday, when I got an email from the school talking about issuing computer equipment to the kids I was woefully unprepared with any of the paperwork.

My son is at home just now so sprung into action for me as I was working all day. He spent ages speaking to various people at the school to find out exactly what paperwork I needed, which was a specific piece of paper issued by social security. He phoned the lady in the local office, who thankfully is a parent at the school and recognised my difficulties. She issued the paper without my being there in person, and my son's mother-in-law collected it on her way home from work. 

Son then managed to get it scanned for me, and I had it emailed to the school by close of business.

To say I'm relieved and thankful would be such an understatement! So many people's kindness working together to help me out. 

Shopping?

My boss asked if we needed anything & said he'd be in town shopping anyway so it's no bother, & when husband was ill & we were isolating one of his workmates asked if there was anything we needed.

Chickpeas

My partner is a fussy bugger, and won't touch chickpeas or most other beans. Last lockdown, we were eligible for free school meals. These came in the form of food parcels, and always contained a packet of beans or chickpeas. 

Today I bagged them all up, together with some other groceries with long shelf lives, and will donate back to the local council for their food bank program. Grateful that we have the luxury of being fussy about food. 

Cat advice

My friend was a bit worried about her cat who was limping. I was able to give her some advice about what to look for and thankfully the cat seems to be improving without need for a vet visit. 
I didn't do anything special at all, but I think I helped her feel a bit more confident. 

(This isn't her cat, but my gorgeous Suburu. Just showing her off)

LDV

I'm the not-so-proud owner of an old minibus which is sitting rotting in my driveway. It's not driven for years but I've not got around to scrapping it. 

I saw a post on Facebook the other day of someone scuppered because they had an MOT approaching and their supply of parts from the UK was caught up in the Brexit / customs fiasco (this model of van isn't produced here in Portugal).

Today she came over and we were able to find some compatible parts which will help her out. 

Japonica

A friend has been trapped in the UK due to covid travel restrictions and has been missing his home here. 

I popped over to check on things, and sent him a photo of the first japonica blossom.

Above and beyond

Today I'm being grateful that my job allows me opportunities to go above and beyond. Students sometimes have issues that are really hard for them but easy for me, and it makes me happy to make them happy by helping. This morning I've been proofreading and editing a CV for a PhD student. It just about melted my brain, but she was so grateful for the help. 

Flood relief

Really heavy rain means that the river at the end of my sister's garden is slowly creeping closer to her house. She posted a photo on Facebook and among the 'Wows' it elicited, there was also a very genuine offer to house her and her family if the water started to threaten the house. 

I joked with her that the man concerned had obviously never met her family :)

In truth though it's an incredibly kind offer, particularly as they're in lockdown there just now. 

Reasons to be cheerful

Time to run up to the office on a frosty morning, and the coffee pot hadn't finished burbling. 
Half way up the hill I hear a yelling behind me. Has the world ended? No, it's my lovely boyfriend chasing me with a flask. 

Feed Delivery

We had a delivery of animal feed due today and weren't expecting it until late afternoon. The guys arrived early, while we were out. Could have been a disaster. 

When we got home, we discovered that they'd left it stacked nicely in one of our trucks, with the bill placed neatly on top to pay another time. 

When the slides don't work ...

I started a new Portuguese course last night and it was awful. And to make life even harder, my net connection was rotten and the teacher's slides weren't working for me.

The teacher did nothing to help, but a friend who was also on the course (the one I prodded in the right direction) very sweetly took a photo of each slide as it came up and sent it to me via FB messenger so I could follow along. 

Advice

On Friday I went to my in person Portuguese course. The teacher is a teacher at the school, so afterwards I asked her for some advice regarding my son's next stage education. She was really helpful and made everything much clearer. 

Today I sent her a quick email to thank her very much for her time and patience. 

Portuguese course

There's a new Portuguese course starting soon that I got wind of and registered myself for. Flagged it to a friend and passed on the relevant paperwork to get her registered too. 

Small acts

Read a friend's application for her, not really a kindness, more a reciprocal favour.

Stopped on my way out of the street to ask a neighbour if he knew whose mail I had, before I chuck it back into the post box.

Gave a workmate some of the things from the hamper that we won't use.

Posted a daily draw in a friend's Facebook group where she's been the only person to post so far.

Chila

 

In Portugal these are called Chila, and they're used to make a delicious jam. These ones were given to me by a friend when she did her harvest. 

I've recently been given another jar of marmalade by the lady at my class, so if I ever get around to making the jam I'll make sure to give one to her. 

Little jobs

Been a while since posted - been in Gran Canaria. Gave a taxi man £20 as he had no work because of covid and had bought no presents for his kids for Christmas. Friend of mine just popped round to mend a table leg which of course was attached to a nice table. Same friend gave me a water colour picture of the front of my house which is so nice. Another person I know just popped round to daughters flat to mend her central heating and taught her how to do it next time. 

Printing

A friend shared a printable she likes.  I've printed one for me & she's accepted my offer to print & post it to her.  & now I just need to find the envelope & stamps...

Volunteering is a kindness, & it's heart warming to see how many volunteers there are gifting their time to strangers.

Lots of my friends are generous & full of doing favours for people.