» The nicest thing someone's ever done for me

My nan
Died nearly 2 years ago, about a month after I'd started uni. During the run up to this she'd been getting very confused and very distressed and anxious about things that don't really matter, as I'm sure you'll all know old people can do. So there are a couple of stories I'd like to tell all you lovely people about some lovely people who helped her.

Story #1: She'd gone down the road to the shop to buy some milk and could have sworn she'd put the right amount of change in her pocket, but when she came to the checkout she didn't have enough. Now to any of us this wouldn't be a problem, but to her it was very distressing and embarrassing, and she got very flustered. However a very nice gentleman in the queue behind her paid for it. So thank you nice gentleman, it was only a few pence to you but it made the world of difference to my nan.

Story #2: They had closed the post office in my nan's village so she couldn't withdraw her pension any more and chip and pin was just becoming compulsory. However to someone like my nan, who couldn't remember who'd visited her that day or even what time of day it was, remembering a pin number would have been impossible. So thank you nice lady in the bank who helped when mum took nan in and asked for a special needs card where you could still sign for things - you were very nice about it and could see the problem immediately, and again a small thing for you made the world of difference to my nan.

Story #3: About a year before my nan died two men had moved in next door. It was quite obvious they were a gay couple but they were discreet and my nan never mentioned it. They had a rabbit and my nan loved animals, but hadn't been able to look after any since her dog died a few years before. She'd spend hours leaning over the fence talking to this rabbit, bless her! This couple also kept an eye on my nan as she was getting more confused and when she had the stroke that finally put her in hospital they were the ones that realised something was wrong, forced the door and called an ambulance. She eventually died of pneumonia a month later and they came to the funeral, even though they didn't really know her and really didn't have to. It meant more than they'll ever know to my family.
(Sat 4th Oct 2008, 15:02, More)

» Advice from Old People

My old headteacher
when he left gave us a speech. In it he said: "You will be told that your schooldays are the best days of your life. With all due respect, I sincerely hope that they are not. I hope that your best days are always ahead of you."

I was only 16 at the time and didn't really get it then, but since I've realised, isn't that the best thing you could ever wish for anyone?
(Sun 22nd Jun 2008, 15:35, More)

» Unemployed

I am the best kind of unemployed
I am a student. Oh yes, I have it easy. Oh wait - no I don't, I'm a chemistry student. I have anything up to 25 timetabled hours a week, and can easily do just as much again outside. I can work all weekend if required, leave the house and not return until 12 hours later, do 9-5 in lab with no scheduled break. If it needs to reflux for a couple of hours and you have time to grab something to eat and run to the loo, great! If not, tough. While my housemates are lying in most mornings I'm getting up and running off to lectures. Most people do things like this and get paid to do it. Me? I'm paying to do this!

But, when the going gets tough, when my reaction is sitting in the round-bottomed flask and looking at me and going "Oh is everyone else's working? You wanted to get out of here early? You're tired are you? Well tough luck, I'm just going to go the wrong colour, not crystallise and then for shits and giggles I might just explode everywhere so you have to start again, sucks to be you right?!" I think to myself, what else in the world would I rather be doing? Nothing at all. Where else can you spend all day in a large room with some of the best friends you've ever had and some of the most stupidly exciting and dangerous chemicals you've ever had the priviledge to get your hands on and spend all day writing "Titration wank" on each other's labcoats, squirting each other with acetone and occasionally liquid nitrogen and giggling beacuse it says "orange mother liquor" in the labscript? And then going out and getting hideously drunk even though you know you've got to get up stupidly early the next day to do it all again? Where else can I feel like my love of maths and freaky sense of humour, where my failing at being a woman will be completely embraced? Where else is there a group of people who know a ridiculous amount about illegal drugs and how to make them but would never take them because they recognise they're all off their rockers enough already? Nowhere else in the world, ladies and gentleman.

I'm already staying an extra year to do my masters, and then I'm thinking about doing a PhD. Where I will do double the work for about half the pay than if I graduated. I wouldn't have it any other way.

No apologies for length, we have a range of different sizes.
(Sat 4th Apr 2009, 11:06, More)

» The nicest thing someone's ever done for me

Last weekend!
This QOTW is perfect to tell you all about one of the best weekends I've had in a very long time and all about the new and very gorgeous sexy man in my life :D Be warned, vomiting may occur upon reading this!

The new sexy man in my life happens to be a fellow B3tan and I met him with the aid of b3ta - how exciting! He has done a lot of very nice things for me actually, the first being the very first message he sent me on here after I'd bared my soul about some things I find it hard to talk about and was in quite a lonely vunerable place. However, this answer is not about that - it is about the second time we met in person, namely this weekend.

Immediately upon arrival he kissed me on the doorstep (we'd already got to the kissing stage from the first time we met!) and presented me with an enormous bunch of red roses and a bottle of champagne. He then helped me cook dinner, and didn't even get annoyed when I realised I'd run out of vegetable stock and nipped down to Sainsbury's to get some more. We snuggled up to watch a film together and let's just say I don't know how we made it to the end of the film!

Over the course of the weekend he spoiled me rotten. We went for a walk on Ditchling beacon and he treated me to an ice cream and we sat in a pub garden in Ditchling as the sun was going down on a lovely late summer's afternoon. The next afternoon we had a picnic on the beach and just sat cuddling and enjoying the sun for a good few hours, it was utter bliss. He took me to this tiny cocktail bar that I never knew existed before and got me decidedly tipsy on some very tasy concoctions (please, watch your imaginations!) and worried that he hadn't brought his jacket because he couldn't put it around me if I got cold on the way home - not in case he got cold! He met my friends and was lovely, bought them a few drinks and definitely didn't scare them off!

So what are the other nice things he's done for me? He's made me realise I am attractive and not a failure to females everywhere. He took the time to reach out to a lonely, scared vunerable young woman who he didn't know and comfort her and make sure she was ok when he really didn't have to. He can read me almost better than anyone I know and not make me feel guilty about talking to him about whatever is worrying me. He makes me laugh, makes me feel great for being a geek and makes me happier than I have been in a very very long time. The only thing I want out of this is that I can do the same for him :)

Gooiness all over now, no apologies for length whatsoever - he's great with it! :p
(Thu 2nd Oct 2008, 18:16, More)

» What's the hardest you've tried to get dumped?

Thank you b3ta
for having this question put up on the day that my boyfriend dumped me. Great timing.
(Sun 8th Jun 2008, 18:05, More)