A Little Girl In Need
I was shopping at our little local shopping center the other day and I was just coming back to the underground car park with my bags when I heard a little girl shouting, "Mama, Mama!" I looked around and saw a 4 year-old's head stuck out of an SUV's open backseat window. I went over to ask her what was the matter and calm her down saying her mom would surely soon be back. But she said she needed to go to the bathroom urgently. With no mom in sight, I told her to get out and I would take her to the bathroom (the entrance of which was 20 meters from the car.) She was very glad and ran with me to the bathroom explaining that she was not allowed to get out of the car by herself. Afterwards she washed her hands and I took her back to the car. Still, ... Read Full Story >>
- Posted by pat
- Nov 8, 2013
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A Chocolate Impulse
I had just sat down on the train and opened a bar of chocolate when a really old looking man (probably around 80) sat down opposite with his huge bags. I nodded hello and smiled at him, and then I suddenly thought, why not offer him a piece of chocolate. So I did, and he was quite surprised but accepted the offer and thanked me in many words. He said that people wouldn't usually do this and offer something to a stranger - at least that was what I understood, because he was speaking a really difficult dialect, and the train was loud. Then he opened one of his bags and handed me a handful of freshly picked cherries, explaining that he had just picked them in his garden. I learned that he had four trees and had already given away 100kg of cherries this season! His cherries were really lovely, better than ... Read Full Story >>
- Posted by pat
- Mar 17, 2010
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A Tin of Cookies for the Eco-Bus Driver
Somebody on this site suggested giving anonymous cookies to the people who clear away our waste, and I found that a good idea. So this morning I baked my favourite Chocolate-chip-and-peanut cookies, filled a tin, wrote a Thank you card and had everything ready.
On Wednesdays, the so-called eco-bus stops in our street for 15 minutes so that people can bring their separated recyclable waste (cardboard, aluminium, tins, glass, plastic bottles and other plastics, batteries, styrofoam), and the two or three people working inside this bus are always so helpful, taking your bags to empty them into the appropriate containers.
So today I waited until there were some other people on the bus and the workers would not pay attention to me, I got on through the front door and simply put my tin of cookies with the card sellotaped on top of it on the little ledge by the windscreen, and went on to put my waste into the containers. I was so proud that nobody had noticed. I'd love to have seen the face of the driver when he sat down to drive on and found the tin.
- Posted by pat
- May 20, 2009
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Carrying a Suitcase and Making a New Friend in Greece
I just spent a wonderful holiday on a little Greek island together with my family. One day, my husband and I left the kids with his parents (who were with us), rented two motorbikes for the day and went to the other side of the island to visit a very old and well-known monastery. There we happened to see a French lady who was walking by herself with a cane and obviously had difficulties with the 300 steps that led up to the monastery. When I noticed she had a French accent I started speaking French with her, and she appreciated that, saying that her English wasn't very good. While we were talking it turned out that the next day she was going to travel to the village we were staying at and I was already looking forward to seeing her again there and talking to her again, because I ... Read Full Story >>
- Posted by pat
- Mar 6, 2010
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A Creative Way to Teach My Children an Important Lesson
I have two sons who are 5 and 3 years old. They love to take walks outside and one of the walks we often do is along a cycle path through some fields. This path eventually leads to the local high school, so there is always some litter scattered on the sides, even though the city's cleaning squad sometimes tidies it up. One day an idea occurred to me, I decided to show my children that we could do something to make a difference. The next day, we took a plastic bag and some rubber gloves with us and the children and I collected whatever litter we found on our way. My sons had so much fun, since at that age they love picking up things from the ground (and with the rubber gloves I did not need to be scared they would catch something) and it was a creative ... Read Full Story >>
- Posted by pat
- Jan 8, 2010
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