Doing a good deed

[stui magpie]

Yeah, nice work.

Today I had the chance to repay Karma a bit. Called into the supermarket, old guy at the cashier, 2 women behind him with a load of groceries on the belt, me with mine behind them.

The old bloke is trying to pay for about 8 packers of Arrowroot Biscuits (found out later they were on special) with gift cards, but all the cards had been used. So the poor checkout chick would try to pay with one, swipe the card, put in the pin, insufficient funds, so swipe again, look up the balance, $2. Swipe again, put in Pin again, pay $2 off total, rinse and repeat with 2 more cards while we all waited.

Finally, she's exhausted all the cards and says to the old bloke that he needed more money, he didn't have enough on the cards, so then he starts trying to say to take some biscuits back when I stepped past the women in front of me (one of whom had pulled out her card and was about to offer to pay) and asked the checkout chick how much he owed.

$5.90.

So I handed her a $10 note and gave the old bloke the change. He didn't seem to get what was going on until the checkout chick told him he could put the biscuits in his bag, they were paid for. "All of them?" Yep, all of them.

He was saying thank you, god bless you then wandered off with his biscuits and his $4.10 in his hand.

An Arrowroot biscuit is nice with a cuppa but I hope he had more to eat at home than that.

[think positive]

thats beautiful, but damn sad too xxx well done stu

[pietillidie]

^That's set me up with good vibes for the day, Stui. I reckon these things have a bigger impact on people than we think. And you're right, a bickie with a cuppa is one of life's great pleasures in its own right.

[Culprit]

Kudos to you Stui. All we hear about is how bad people are not about what the good things many do.

[stui magpie]

This one's not me.

Driving home from Toc this morning, on the Hume southbound, around 20 minutes south of Seymour, I'm passing a semi trailer. Cruise control is on so I'm just idling past him, get past enough and about to pull back into the left lane when I see some birds in the middle of the road up ahead.

Ah well, birds, look a bit like pigeons, they'll fly away when I get closer, but as I get close I realise they weren't pigeons, they were a mother wood duck and about six ducklings happily strolling across the Hume freeway from right to left.

They'd just passed the centre line heading into the left lane so I stayed in the right lane, straight past no problems then quickly look into the rearview mirror to see the truck I just passed in the left lane with a 4wd beside him in the right.

Oh Shit I thought, this is going to be duck carnage, but as I watched, both drivers must have spotted them. The 4WD headed toward the right side emergency lane and the Truckie swerved the truck the way Semi's aren't made to be swerved when travelling at 110kmph+ into the emergency lane on the left side, missing the ducks who obliviously just kept waddling across the road. For a second I thought the truckie was going to lose it but after a few wobbles he got it straightened up again.

So to that truckie, I say Well Done Sir (or Ma'am )

[Culprit]

^^It's a worry, driving around Albert Park Lake the Swans love taking cars on. At least it's 40 kmh now so stopping isn't dangerous.

[Culprit]

As my company is doing our walks for "March On", we had an elderly guy jogging in front of our group (5) and he dropped in front of us. Well me team of 5 who I am very proud of went to work. We were chest pumping and putting in the breathing as we are trained to do. This is Docklands near the Wharf Hotel where we had our conference My GM who is in my team was on the phone to 000 as the rest of us tagged teamed CPR until the Ambulance arrived. Whilst doing the CPR they wired him up and when ready they took over. Our Conference was a bonding time together and my GM stood up later and acknowledged how we do not work together on different sites but we still are a team. Last report the guy had several stints put in and wants to catch up with us and say think you.

[pietillidie]

^That's brilliant. Bravo again! What a very literally life-saving skill. And how's that for luck, having a whole tag team of highly trained CPRers behind you when you drop to the turf?!!

[stui magpie]

Little thing, new neighbour across the road has a couple of late teen sons. One has a little 4 door Toyota hatch that looks like a tip inside but what caught my attention when I parked next to it was a whole lot of coins on a flat part in the middle of the dashboard.

I've been meaning to say something for a while, today I spotted both boys out the front near the cars so I walked over and hailed them. Don't know their names, didn't introduce myself, just asked if the car had airbags. The eldest looked a bit suss at me but said yes, so I said, "I've seen you have coins all over the dash, if the airbags go off those coins become shrapnel"

The eldest straight away said Yes, we need to clean that up.

I started to turn away and said sorry for disturbing them, I just wanted to bring that to their attention and he replied, "Don't be sorry, you may have just saved our lives"

I'll take that.

New cars have so much dashboard area that people do stupid things and decorate the area with crystals or ornaments or just crap, they don't think what would happen if the airbags went off and launched that shit at their faces.

[think positive]

Well done and they sound like good kids. I remember having a dash full of damn soft toys! Ugh, I like clean and empty now!

[lazzadesilva]

Well done and they sound like good kids. I remember having a dash full of $$%^%%$ soft toys! Ugh, I like clean and empty now!

I have a few magpie ornaments and small statues on mine. Love them

[lazzadesilva]

DP

[pietillidie]

No specific good deeds, just a shout out again to our little street. The mood and spirits are excellent, and there are now more dogs than ever, which offers more chance for a chat and pat. And the good vibe now extends over a few streets, as people walk through our street to get to the park. We probably know about ten dogs by name now.

Yours truly has made an effort over several years because I've always rated good spirits in the street, something I reckon I learned going back to grandma's street in Oakleigh. It's ironic because you'd think young people might be friendlier in a way, but they're more guarded and less forthcoming, perhaps because they never knew the old culture to which I refer. They also spend more time going out and less time in the garden, which can't help. But if you're friendly when they move in, it makes a big difference in setting the tone.

My wife was definitely more guarded than me originally, because Korea's not really a neighbourly sort of place, but everyone and their dog (literally!) knows her. We started by asking politely for a pat, but now they charge up or pull their owners towards us.

Yesterday we met a new dog, a blue staffie, but I was saying hello from afar so I don't know his name yet. A few weeks ago a pair of Yorkies moved in!

Anyhow, it really is an old school vibe.

[think positive]

i cant remember if your still in england or Ireland? sounds great though!

[stui magpie]

Lemon tree up in Toc is covered in fruit. I've already taken 2 huge bags home and don't need any more so yesterday I called into the Aged Care Hostel and asked the manager if the chef could use any lemons. Yes Please she said so half an hour later I'm back with a Savers bag full to the brim.