Thank you Sheffield Fish Man
Thinking about it, I've met more random strangers that have been nice and helpful than random strangers who've been twats. (And I'm male and ugly so that's not it either)
I digress.

Picture the scene: I'm in Sheffield on a quest to find X-Men 238. Where I want to be is the Sheffield Space Centre. Where I am is...lost.
In desperation I resort to asking random passers-by if they've heard of it. Most hadn't.
Then this black gentleman happens to wander past and overhears my plight. Not only has he heard of the Sheffield Space Centre but he will collect his car then give me a lift.
By my reckoning he took me about three miles across the city centre and dropped me off right outside.
Why "Fish Man"?
That would be the Christian fish symbol in the back window of his car. Clearly a guy who paid attention to the whole "Be nice to people" part of Christ's teachings.
(Not a Christian BTW, but I do try and remember that they're not all mentalists.)
(Big D, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 22:26, 2 replies)

A rose
My Nan pretty much brought me up. My parents worked very long hours to try and keep our family afloat and I didn’t see them much. After my granddad died they decided to move my Nan into our house and she would pick me up from school and feed me and help with my homework and be a mother to me.

She was a fantastic woman. She was Italian and had moved to England before WW2 after a great many of her family were killed. She was as mad as a box of frogs, but, she could never do enough for her family and friends.

When I was 13 the doctors told her she only had a year left at the most. Being from a generation that never gave up - she lasted 2 years. Watching her die that slowly was terrible, but, it gave us all a good amount of time to show her how much we loved her.

Her funeral was at the end of September and it was a very overcast day. After the service at the church we drove to the cemetery and they laid her coffin out next to my granddads. The cemetery was empty apart from some young parents with there two children and those that had came to bury my Nan.

I remember how grey everything looked. The overcast day seemed to have washed colour from everything. The flowers we had placed looked pale. The cemetery, with its oak trees and flower beds, looked drained and limp. The cityscape backdrop looked bleak. I thought to myself “this is not right – for someone who was always so bright and colourful to be buried on such a dreary day is not right”. I started to sob uncontrollably.

I then felt a tug on my trousers. I looked down and it was the little girl who had been playing with her brother while her young parents were tending to a grave.

She looked up with me with her big blue eyes and gave me a single red rose to lie on the grave.

The rose was poetry – it seemed to illuminate the entire cemetery. Its deep red petals almost glowed in the drab, grey field. Such a simple flower made everything seem calm. I felt washed with happiness. Colour had been restored when it was most needed.

I looked into her deep blue eyes and said

“Would you fuck off you little bitch – cant you see I am trying to bury my Nan for fucks sake*


*B3TA edit
( KISS.ME.WHERE.I.POO Signed the sex offenders register on, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 22:02, 9 replies)

My necklace...
My died died about 10years ago and my mum passed on to me his Krugerrand necklace (1oz solid fine gold coin for those who don't know). Only wear it for special occasions and occasionally when I go out.

Anyway... Because the coin is weighty, the clasp on the gold chain isn't strong enough to support the weight. Dancing on a dance floor one night, strutting my stuff under the influence, I didn't feel the chain break and the necklace and coin rolled away under the feet of others.

When I realised it was missing standing at the side of the dance floor I went into mega panic mode. I thought I had lost the one thing that when I wear, feels like my dad is standing by my side.

Not 5 minutes later, a stranger walks up - also rather well gone and just said, "I don't know why but I feel this is yours" and held out his hand with my necklace in his palm.

I have never felt such relief and it was purely by chance it happened. Bought him his drinks for the rest of the night to say thank you.

I know it's not the biggest thing in the world but to me it was one of the nicest things anyone has done for me as most could make £500+ selling it in the gold market although regardless of the monetary value, it's priceless in my eyes!

There are some nice people out there who would never dream of taking something of someone else's. I am glad I would never and always have been like that and that night I'm glad he was too!

Upgraded the chain after. Am a lot more careful of it now.

Length? About 22 inches of pure gold with an ounce of gold bullion.
(Something funny, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 21:49, 2 replies)

Life is Good
This last March I was diagnosed with Lymphoma, a cancer of the blood. Before my diagnosis I was in a pretty shabby state of mind, and felt trapped and unmotivated by the direction my life was taking. All in all in a rather dismal place, which I think contributed to my diagnoses. I had basically exiled myself to a small mountain town, felt very alone, and was depressed enough to bar any thought of improving my situation.

The diagnosis came as quite a shock, as you can well imagine, but there was hope through an intense six months of chemotherapy and the like to prepare for a possible cure - a stem cell transplant. As odd as it sounds, I look at my diagnosis of cancer as a blessing in disguise, a boon that has shown me the innate kindness in every living soul.

Every person of the hospital staff ( of which I spent long stints in) have been absolutely amazing in their dedication and sacrifice in helping others in pain and in need. Friends that i hadn't seen or talked to in a long while teemed around me, helping in any way possible to see me through. It has brought my family closer together as a whole, and for this I am eternally grateful.

Through a life threatening (and indeed life-altering) disease, I have found love, hope, giving and sharing, and a new outlook and direction on life. Inspired from all of this, I am finally going to what I had meant to do years ago - get my bloody masters degree, although not in what I had originally planned.

I look forward to a future where I can help others around the world who are in need, to give back some of the kindness that has carried me through, to try and inspire others as I have been inspired. Sure, I can still be a cynical cnut sometimes, but I have to admit, it could be a hell of a lot worse.

Edit - my transplant is at the end of the month and I am in full remission ( effectively cancer free!) wooyay!

I cannot thank enough all of those around me. I quite literally owe them my life *sniff*


Length - looking forward to another good 60 years or thereabouts!
(goorf, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 21:46, 5 replies)

Everyone who helped my wife over the last year
The nicest thing done for me was by the multitude of people who made sure my wife was still here this year:

Our family doctor who had her in to see a specialist within 24 hours of seeing her.
The medical teams at North Tees, Hartlepool and James Cook hospitals.
My ex-bosses who gave me all the time off that I needed (and who didn't try to kill me when I left earlier this year to start at a new job (and did I feel crap when I had to tell them I was leaving))
Family, friends and colleagues for all the help and wishes.
A special mention for Christine who saw me in my room at work when I was at my lowest, came in and gave me a big hug without saying a word.
Jackie's mam and dad for buying us a new car when ours was dying a death (it was meant to be a loan, but on trying to repay it we were told "What loan? What money?").
To the pms from b3tans.
and Jackie for smiling and laughing her way through it all.
(Tyrion, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 21:34, 2 replies)

Thank you Mr. Car Park man
First day of driving on my own after passing my driving test and I get a flat tyre. Never had to change a tyre before, but thought I'd figure it out somehow.
I'd managed to get the car to a car park, just across from Epsom racecourse.
Got out of the car and took apart the boot looking for what I needed.
Spare Tyre? Check.
Weird spannery type thing? Check.
Jack? erm... shouldn't there be some kind of a car jack in here?
No?
Oh.
It's quite late at night, the car park was dark and looked deserted apart from a few couples doing whatever couples do in dark carparks.
Found a phone box, but nobody home.
Couldn't afford a taxi home. Too far to walk. I had no clue about AA / RAC type things at that point in my life and I figured those services were there for emergencies only and would have felt daft calling them for something as silly as a flat tyre. So I went back and stood in the cold staring at the flat tyre for a bit.
This man suddenly appeared next to me and said "What you need is a Scissor Jack"
Thank you, but there doesn't seem to be one in the boot.
"Give me a minute"
Then he went off knocking on all the car windows until he disturbed a couple who happened to have a Scissor Jack!
Not only that, he jacked up the car and changed the tyre for me too!
There was a pub nearby and I was going to buy him a pint for being so lovely, but he went to return the scissor jack to its owner and then vanished before I could even thank him.
Wherever you are... Thank you!
( BUTT FART is currently addicted to Improbable Island, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 21:23, Reply)

Mysterious samaritan
After my fiance left me four years ago I went through a stage of getting horribly drunk, both in public and in private. On one occasion I flounced out of the pub and staggered off down the road in my stockinged feet, boots in one hand. To get to my flat you had to walk through town and then down a dark unlit country road leading to the wilds of Shropshire. I blacked out for a bit, and when I came to I was being given a piggyback down the unlit road by a complete stranger, who carried me all the way to the door of my flat and left me slumped in the doorway. I must have managed to tell him where I lived.

I was so lucky, he could have robbed, raped and dismemebered me and thrown the giblets in the river Severn. So thanks, unknown, unseen and unthanked stranger. You were a true star!
(Lady of leisure, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 21:18, Reply)

This was fairly recently
Moved in with a load of girls when I moved back to uni as my last housemates kicked me out, and each of my new housemates has been really nice to me in one way or another.

What really touched me though was the fact that S made me a cup of hot chocolate without me asking and brought it to me when I was violently ill (Not from the usual student stuff of binging on alcohol and then sicking everywhere as I've not had a drink for 7 months now) and dying in bed. She also texted me last night as she "saw my bedroom light on and was wondering if I was okay" (This was at 1:30 am)

And a friend of mine has lent me the latest Terry Pratchett and bought me lunch on multiple occasions when I've been skint and had no food.

This has happened over the past month, which has restored my faith in humanity a lot from February's events (Which I can't be bothered to go into detail here unless people want them.)
(Ghost Atreides enjoying incontestable health benefits on, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 21:15, 2 replies)

My Ex
She gave me a key to her place so I can go and visit our cats whenever I want.
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 20:54, 13 replies)

This summer I travelled to the north of Norway on my motorbike
and broke down just inside the Arctic Circle. The only bike workshop I could find within 200 miles was f**king useless and didn't seem to want to have the time of day for me. I don't know if it was because I was forrin, or what.

But a customer at the shop happened to be a member of the Bodo Motorcycling Club, and took me to their clubhouse, let me use their workshop, and gave up his afternoon to help me.

Bikers rock.

They even trusted me to spend the night in their clubhouse. An incredibly nice bunch.

In return, I helped a Swedish biker in distress on the way back. He was a proper hairy club biker with a knackered old Harley, who didn't speak a word of English. Through mime we established that he was out of petrol, so I syphoned half my tank to his. He was incredibly grateful, especially as I refused payment; the way I see it, if all bikers help each other, we're all square.

Now, if only everyone would stick to those principles without a common catalyst, like owning a motorbike, or being from the same country, or knowing the same secret handshake... the world would be a much nicer, fluffier place.
( Peregr1n @peregr1n, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 20:46, 5 replies)

Fast Show
"....and I was rummaging around in the attic and I found the original copy of the Bible. Which was nice."
( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 20:44, 1 reply)

How I became an engineer
For those of you who've been reading my bleatings for the past bunch of years, much of this will be familiar. But for the rest of you lot, I'll go into details.

Let me start out by saying that, despite having an adequate level of intelligence, I've always been a crap student. I've never been one for getting an A in my classes- I'm more in the B range at best, most of the time. Add to this the fact that at the age of 18 I had no earthly clue as to what I wanted to do in life... well, I needed to figure that out, didn't I?

So at 18 I went to college for electronics. I had a pretty good idea of how to work with electricity, so it seemed logical. That is, until I got to AC circuits and Boolean algebra and a few other things that made my head asplode. I plodded along, knew I would never make it, and quit.

The next few years were spent doing menial jobs and being flat-ass broke. I've chronicled some of those times here already, so I won't get into details.

At 23 I was convinced to try forestry. Newly married, I went to school to become a lumberjack- well, not really, I wanted to be a park ranger. Still, one of those guys who spends all his days outdoors wearing wool and being rugged. Only thing is, park jobs are next to impossible to get unless you want to work on Staten Island or some such, or unless you have a Master's degree. Forestry jobs of the sort I wanted- research into reforestation- also required at least a Master's, and would have you start out picking up pine cones for minimum wage. Also, Nurse Ratched didn't want to move away from upstate NY as all her family was there. So I did the only logical thing- I went into land surveying.

Only problem with being a surveyor: if the markets are bad, no one wants their property surveyed. We starved a bit for a time, until I got the idea of moving to Virginia and doing civil engineering as a draftsman. So off we went.

Well, if you don't have PE after your last name (Professional Engineer), you ain't shit. I found I was in a dead-end job with crap pay and bosses who liked to dump blame down onto those below them- namely, the drafters.

Not nice.

About the time I realized how utterly fucked I was, my grandmother died at the age of 102. While I was sad about this, her mind had been gone for a decade or more, so it was actually a relief- I mean, imagine the smartest person you had ever met becoming a vegetable. So while her death was a blow, it merely meant that her body had finally joined her.

The thing is, Grandma only had two kids- Mom and her brother. Her entire estate was divided between them. As both she and Grandpa had been doctors, and Grandma had invested heavily in the stock market in the early 1980s, when she died in 1997 she was a very wealthy woman. So Mom got this whopping windfall.

What did she do with it? She offered to send me back to college. What did I want to do?

Holy shit.

Mom paid my tuition, my books, and made up for my lost income. All I had to do was study. So I selected mechanical engineering.

It was five years of fucking hell, with Nurse Ratched hating that I was in college while she worked- she thought I was taking a four year vacation- but I ground through it. Nearly failed out during the divorce, got lousy grades, seriously contemplated suicide, but somehow I made it despite my ex. And Mom supported me through the whole thing.

My home life is still rocky as hell, but thanks to Mom I have a job as an engineer and can afford a decent house for my kids and food. Had Mom not invested what must have been about fifty grand in me, things would be far more dire about now...

I don't know that I can ever pass that act of kindness on to my kids, but if I can I certainly will.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 2 Oct 2008, 20:44, 7 replies)

I'm going through an endless rough patch
When I was 17 I got diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and basically had to give up college due to my health. I then spent the next year trying to get better and go back, only to get very ill again and have to leave.

In that time I met Justin, who has been an amazing friend to me. When everyone else decided I was too much effort to come and visit and take care of, he visited regularly and never once complained that I couldn't go out and do crazy things. One evening things were looking very bleak and I was feeling absolutely awful, when Justin told me that I was an amazing person and that he felt lucky to have met me.

I cried after he said that.

I also cried when my parents told me the only thing they really wanted for christmas was for me to better.

Things are still bad on the CFS front, and mental issues are bubbling up on the surface, but I still try my hardest to treat everyone with the kindness they deserve. Just like my parents, my brother and Justin have been an amazing support to me.
(Sneakerdoodle "Have a cup of tea and toss yourself off", Thu 2 Oct 2008, 20:42, 6 replies)

I got hit by a car riding my bike.
The driver just shouted at me out of the window calling me a useless cunt for being in the road (I had done nothing wrong, he actually drove into me).

However a rather nice lady was walking past, and she started raving at this guy from the pavement (She'd seen the whole thing) he shut up, and then she picked me up as I was having that grey pain where everything goes numb, asked if I was ok.

To which I said that I couldn't feel my arm properly, she then walked me to the hospital (It was just round the corner) and waited with me until I could get seen by a nurse.

Thankyou kind lady, I hope you hated that cunty driver as much as I did.
(Maccy Divided by 0 on, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 20:37, 3 replies)

A few years back
I was seeing this girl at work. It was a bit of a shit situation as she was seeing someone else at the time, I know, I'm not proud, but what can I say, I loved her.

Anyway, it all came to a head as these things do, and they broke up, the other guy was pretty gutted about it, but as I said, I really loved this girl.

Anyway, turns out this sick bastard decides to get his revenge by putting fucking chilli peppers on her rampant rabbit. A fact we only discovered while I was using it on her. I was fucking distraught, I though she was moaning in pleasure so I was pushing it in further. Horrible business.

Anyway, I hear you asking, what has this got to do with nice things? Well, after that little display I didn't feel guilty any more about giving him the AIDS.

Which was nice.
(Bazongaloid, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 20:32, 22 replies)

A helpful crutch
Many many long years ago I was at a party and we were messing around, playing football and drinking copiously while playing silly pranks on each other.

During the game someone shuck up behind me, hooked a leg between mine at did one of those funny silly throws that landed me on my arse.

All very well but my left foot got stuck in a root, my whole body went over but my knee downwards pretty much stayed where it was and made an interesting POP i bounced up in blinding pain and again it went POP.

A few minutes of hobbling later and it was ok so carried on playing then head for home, but feeling a little bit stiff.

The next morning, oh my lord. my left knee was roughly the same size as my thigh, and purple. that didn't look good, what was worse was that I could not move it at all. oooh bugger.

Hmm, everyone was out so I dragged on some clothes while lying on the floor and limped my way towards the doctors.

35 minutes later I had gone about 400 metres and had to stop twice for a bit of a cry. A couple of builders working on a house noticed me in some distress, took an arm each and carried me about a mile to the doctors, when I came out about an hour later needing to go to hospital one of them was still there, he got me to Saffron Walden in a work van and collected me in the afternoon and got me home, can't remember their names but boy was that a very helpful act of kindness.

Turns out the two POP noises was me disclocating and then relocating my kneecap, and I had mashed the ligaments in spectacular fashion.
(Halfy By light alone, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 20:28, 3 replies)

I was under the misconception
that coming later was a good thing.
( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Thu 2 Oct 2008, 20:28, Reply)

In a shopping mall in Dubai
I found a mobile phone and called the owner, a local Arab.

He was instantly suspicious and thought I would demand lots of money for it.

He turned up mob-handed and I just smiled and said 'You can always trust a Scotsman' and handed it over. He was stunned.

I have the hope that this single act of kindness will spread.
( BadBadman saw an incorrect comma placement on, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 20:20, Reply)

I met a friend of a friend today
within five mins of meeting them, I had already agreed to give them a wireless router.

beat that!
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 20:04, Reply)

I'm lovely
On finding someone's credit card on the floor in a nightclub, I not only picked it up, but on getting home found them on facebook, and told them where they could come to collect it.

Well, not before ordering myself a crate of lube.
(Merrep, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 20:03, 1 reply)

Three years ago
While working a crappy telesales job for a man who I did not like very much at all, I fell pregnant.

I was (and still am) unmarried, living at home and studying part time. Pregnancy was not on the plan.

I was very depressed and considering ending the pregnancy when my boss asked me what was up. I told him.

He immediately changed, we sat down together and he told me about his life, his son whom he had never met and how being a parent meant so much to him, even though he had never met the child.

"That life is wonderful, the closest you will ever come to a miracle" he told me.

I think if I had not had that talk I would not have my amazing son. That was an act of kindness which changed my life.
(MissButterfly can't help herself, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 20:02, Reply)

Many People Have Done Nice Things For Me....
For instance, Big Girls Blouse listened to me banging on about my depression and awful job for 3 solid months last year.
Thanks BGB!
(Vic Flange, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 19:51, 4 replies)

Too much to say, really.
This QOTW has got me thinking. The first quarter of this year was absolutely fucking awful.
Dads cancer diagnosis
The arm injury
The breakup
Losing mum

Throughout it all, other than the Mothers Day story posted below, nobody did anything exceptional. BUT........
My friends helped with grocery shopping and furniture buying when I couldn't move my arm.

My fishing buddies still included me in events, even though I couldn't fish for 6 weeks. And cracked jokes when we raffled off filet knives.

During the break up, just having people ask me if I was ok and how I was handling things. Friends coming over to my new apartment with vodka and cheese. And housewarming gifts.
My boss and his wife on Valentines Day buying me flowers and chocolates so I didn't feel all alone.

After mum died, the number of PM's I got from members on here. The PM I got from Spikeypickle a couple of days ago. Just my friends taking me out for dinner, and helping with the service arrangements in the US.
My fishing buddies arranging to take me fishing to take my mind off it.
Getting flowers from a cancer website mum used to go on, and I had to join to break the news.

Little things, but little things that I'm extremely grateful for. They got me through bad times.

And now that life is getting better....friends taking me to the airport 'cos I can finally go home. Being invited to an exclusive fishing trip up in the Sierras. Being offered the free use of a captained charter boat for mums ashes. Everyone coming to the pub Tuesday to meet my twin brother...and ragging on him because he doesn't look like me!

Silly, little nice things that people do, but mean a lot and make my life a much better one than I could have imagined.

So to everyone, members of b3ta, lurkers, and the rest of the world. Thank you for being there.
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 19:50, 1 reply)

Well...
I am a man of many, many bad habits.

I drink, I smoke, I yell at inanimate objects when they fail to please me, and I swear like a squaddie who has just trapped his balls in a desk drawer. My friends have variously described me as "a music Nazi", "a film snob" and an "angry, angry man", while my mother has accused me of ruining every Christmas since 1997. As well as possessing a sense of humour that would shame a b3tan, I am a Guardian-reading, vegetarian, bleeding-heart liberal and all that entails.

After a number of years I have somehow conned my way into a supervisory role at work, where my management style could best be described as shouting at people and waving my arms, and where I have attempted to instigate a policy of making team members wear tiny paper hats with childish insults written on them if they make mistakes. (Regrettably they still refuse to sing the loyalty song I wrote, or to salute the badly drawn picture of myself I pin to the wall when I am out of the office).

In the past I have mistakenly given my 83 year old grandmother drugs, directed the son of the vicar for the area's largest church to both goatse and 2girls1cup, and have very nearly superglued my glasses to my face. When stopped in the street by people trying to collect money for worthy causes, in order to avoid contributing I have been known to claim that I am unfortunately an "enormous bastard" who hates whatever they are collecting for, one time even going to far as claim my Grandfather was killed by a whale to justify my alleged hatred for them.

...In spite of all this though, and no doubt despite the protests of his wife with whom I have never seen eye-to-eye, two years ago today I received a phone call from my best friend informing me of the birth of his first son, and asking me to be his Godfather.

Thanks Ed.

And Happy Birthday George.
(Frank., Thu 2 Oct 2008, 19:41, 3 replies)

I was crap at football in school
As I hated to play it bored me silly. But as my best mate loved it, I agreed to take part. As a goalpost.

For the next weeks worth of playtimes, I dutifully stood 2m away from someones jumper, while my mates played the actual game.

Then I was off sick for a while and came back to find the ungrateful twunts had replaced me with a plastic cone from the games cupboard.

so much for a thankyou.
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 19:37, Reply)

No idea if this qualifies
Others:
Fell in an ice-cold lagoon, fully clothed and somewhat the worse for wear, so: baked, half-canned, having fallen in backwards, utterly disorientated, pitch black, ice cold, clothes now weighing me down like millstones - I start taking on water and struggling to break the surface. My friend Mark without a moments hesitation dives in (being a bit the worse for wear himself) and drags me to the side. Quite simply the closest I've ever come to expiring. I honestly owe the guy my life.

Me:
The worse for wear yet again, on the way home; I encounter two blokes and a girl on Dumbarton road in Glasgow, having just been set about by some utter ned scum. Girl appears to have been punched in the face, and one of the blokes is out cold in the middle of the road with a contusion the size of an apple on his forehead. I pick him up and carry him to the Western Infirmary down the road (saturday night - ambulances tend to be in short supply around then oddly enough). Make sure he's seen to by the triage, head on my way.

Nothing exceptional - I should imagine 99.9% of the people here would do the same.
(mymilkshakebringsallthemongstotheyard poison hearts, poison minds - joining hate, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 19:36, Reply)

My step-father is a huge pain in the ass but........
Throughout my life I've always just muddled by and never really achieved very much. I've been to university but dropped out and done crap office job after crap office job and not worried about the future. I could never afford to buy my own house or learn to drive or anything like that. I just partied and had fun and figured my life was crap and that was all there was too it.

About 6 years ago my step-father took over and bought his boss's engineering business. At this time I had spent a couple of years with depression and panic attacks and was just starting to get much better and think about employment again. He asked me if I wanted to run the office for his business, doing wages, accounts etc. Although I had worked in offices for a long time, I had never done any book keeping or serious stuff like that. I started and the previous boss's wife trained me up to do everything she was doing in the office. When it was time for the transition for my dad to take over then the stress started and it was hell for a period of a couple of years while he learnt his way and I learnt mine.


I did also have to learn to drive as I was living quite a distance away. He paid for my lessons and bought me a small car when I had passed. (I still can't believe I passed my test at all let alone first time).


It's been 6 years now and the business has grown and I have become much more confidant and good at my job. I'm still crap at accounts so have a book keeper come once a month to sort everything out properly and produce reports for my dad. Last year he helped me buy my first home at the age of 43 and has helped out my sister who is in much more of a bad way than I ever was.


He may be a pain in the ass and sometimes makes me want to punch him in the face but quite frankly if it wasn't for him then I don't know what kind of crappy life I would be living now. He didn't have to help me the way he has and although I've had to put up with a lot of his crap I am so glad he gave me a chance to improve my life and achieve everything that I have.


Adrian I thank you.


Anyone tells him I wrote this and I'll kill them.
( girlinthehole, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 19:28, 5 replies)

This may sound odd to anyone but me.
Earlier this year I lost my oldest friend to cancer. It hit me kind of hard and it dawned on me that in the last 5 years I've lost 4 friends (2 to cancer, one to suicide and one to annorexia). My brain kind of went a bit screwy because I figured that at the age of 25, I shouldn't be losing so many people I love, especially since they were all around my age. As the spiral went deeper, my depression turned into what can only be described as madness. I pretty much convinced myself that I was some kind of grim reaper who somehow causes those he loves to die. I felt as though my entire past was dying with my friends and I was freaking out. Apparently I was also freaking out people at work with my increasingly erratic behaviour. But I was convinced my past was vanishing and pretty soon I would do too. If you think that sounds stupid, please read the title of the post.

Anyway, one morning I come into work and my friend Laura came in with a WH Smiths carrier bag. I opened it and inside was a copy of Short Circuit on DVD. She said she got it because she remembered me saying how much I loved that film the first day I met her. Just that gesture of acknowledgement at my past reminded me that while I've lost a lot of people, there are still people very much alive and well who love me and I love them back. Like I said, I probably sound like a nut but had it not been for that bargain bin DVD I probably would have snuffed my own candle.
(GONEism, Thu 2 Oct 2008, 19:20, 6 replies)