In praise of shop staff

This morning I went into Brigg early to do the last bits of Christmas shopping.  Not presents - I bought or made most of them ages ago - but food.  It's no good for me to go in on Christmas Eve  as people get a wee bit impatient with old ladies on mobility scooters.  That's not how I think of myself but it is undoubtedly how people see me when they are feeling harassed!

Anyway I was in Brigg before eight this morning and my first stop was Lidl.  The chap on the till was chatty and he told me he had started work at six and wouldn't be finishing until four but he still had a cheery word for me.

Then I passed B & M and a man was raising the shutters but he gave me a really cheerful "Good Morning".  It was so cheery that I thanked him and he was kind enough to say that I'd made his day by my own cheerfulness and my "Thank you".  

On to the butcher.  My butcher is of the traditional kind - big blue apron and loads of useful advice.  As soon as I stopped near his shop he was outside pulling down the awning so that my scooter wouldn't get wet whilst I was inside.  And we chatted and laughed whilst I bought sausage made from locally produced pork. home cured bacon and our traditional Lincolnshire Plum Bread.  

It was the same in Tesco and Wilko when I went in there.  The staff were in Christmas jumpers and in great humour.

Retail staff are in for a few days very hard work, the culmination of several weeks hard work.   They will also have Christmas to prepare for their own families just like the rest of us.  I too was in a profession which had lots of extra tasks in the run-up to Christmas but although it was hard work I suspect that I got more thank yous than many shop workers so this is my personal thank you to all those who keep cheerful and look after us,

Thank You!

Friendly February

I'm a great fan of happiness - I hope that doesn't surprise you!

I don't think happiness just happens (!) but I think it's usually a by-product of something else.  I think we need to seek happiness and cultivate it.

I don't think that happiness can be found on-line, but there are on line "helps".  One of these is Action For Happiness.  I've been using the site on-and-off for quite a while.  They promote ten key areas for cultivating happiness, including things like doing kind things for others, taking care of your body - all things which may provoke the reaction, "Well, duh!" but I sometimes need to be reminded.

I've just discovered that each month they produce a calendar - this month is Friendly February - and each day they make one simple suggestion to help happiness along.  (I've put links to help you find the site and the calendar should you feel inspired.  I tried to put the calendar in this post but Blogger wasn't happy.)  They have promised Mindful March, Active April and so on.

Today's action is Send someone a message to say how much they mean to you.  Well, this is my message.

Thank you for reading my blog and thank you especially if you leave comments.  Thank you for your own blogs and the inspiration they give me.  Thank you to the lovely bloggers I've met in real life and those with whom I have e mail or snail mail contact.  And although I doubt whether he'll read this, Thank you Tim Berners Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, who made possible this wonderful method of meeting other people.

Thank You, Ma'am.

I’m not going to press the publish button in this until after 5.30 pm because at that time Elizabeth 11 will become our longest reigning monarch.

Understandably she doesn’t want to celebrate – her long reign is partly down to the fact that her father died so young.  She would also effectively be celebrating the death of her great great grandmother, Queen Victoria.

But I think many of us want to say our own quiet "thank yous” to Her Majesty.  She’s been our oldest ever monarch for quite a while but to see her around you’d never guess it.  Her schedule isn’t as busy as it was but it’s still incredible for a lady of 89.  Today she’s out opening a new railway and doubtless receiving the cheers and thanks of many of her people.

I was born in her father’s reign but she became Queen when I was 15 weeks old.  She has been the stability of my country all my life.  On Sunday I shall use this prayer. 

Almighty God, who hast set our gracious sovereign Queen Elizabeth upon the throne of this realm and given her to surpass all others in the years of her reign: receive our heartfelt thanks for her service to her people, confirm and encourage her in the continuance of the same, and keep her in thy heavenly wisdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who took the form of a servant for our sake and reigneth now in glory with theee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.  Amen

Update on my last post

.  My smile is now a beam!

Cancer

My sister and two of my cousins died from ovarian cancers which indicated that there might be a problem.  I was therefore tested and found to have the faulty BRCA 2 gene, and it was calculated that I had an eighty per cent chance of The Big C in the form of either ovarian cancer or breast cancer.

As soon as I had the genetic results I had an oophrectomy (removal of the ovaries) but it was less easy to make a decision about my breasts so although I was in full panic mode I delayed for about eighteen months.  I had the full support of the consultant who saw me several times in that period, each time examining me and offering enhanced screening or lifelong tamoxifen as alternatives to surgery.

However, an eighty per cent risk felt like, "Would you prefer your mastectomy with or without chemotherapy?" and eventually I decided to go ahead.  I had a so-called "Goldilocks mastectomy" removing not too much, not too little but just right.  This meant that I had reconstruction using the remaining tissue and I need neither implants nor an external prosthesis.  

Today I am going for my annual check, a procedure I am not looking forward to as mammograms are now even more uncomfortable than before.  (Oh yes, ladies, it is possible for them to get worse!)  I am pretty confident that I shall come out with a smile on my face.

But before I go to the hospital I shall be meeting up with a cousin who is expecting to start chemotherapy today for a (non BRCA2 linked) cancer.  

And I am so grateful to the wonderful women who run the Race for Life.  If you are one of them, thank you.  Through you many of my fears have been put behind me.

Thank you.

Note for non UK readers.  Race for life is a national funding campaign for cancer research.  Sponsored 5k runs are held all over the country and are mostly run by women wearing pink.

Public spirited people

Today is much brighter than the weather forecast led me to believe it would be so I went up into Caistor to fetch a newspaper.  And as always that little outing brought me joy.

Roses and sunflowers in July

Geraniums

This fence could be really boring for passers-by but someone has planted roses and sunflowers and placed a bench for everyone to enjoy.

The litter bins have bright red geraniums close by so even the rubbish receptacles look good.

By the doctors' surgery

Post Office

Going to the doctor's doesn't seem too bad when there's a tiny wildflower meadow on the way.

The Post Office is a positive pleasure to visit.

   

Town centre car park

Behind the loos!

And visitors can park their cars in a well-cared for car park.

Even the public loos have a wonderful rose behind them.

.What is truly impressive is that much of the beautifying of our little town is done by public spirited volunteers

Thank you

Thank you for all your very kind comments following my fright on Saturday.  I was out and about again today and I retraced my Saturday route.  Everything was fine and just after I had got past the spot where the problem occurred I saw a friend and was able to talk it through a bit with her so I have chased the demon away.

Letters

I had a telephone call from Bonnie on Saturday.  Her granddaughter had been and had received the letter which I sent her, care of Bonnie.  (See previous post.)

When she first saw it she was a little suspicious.  “I’ve never had a letter in the post before.  Who is it from?” 

“You’d better open it if you want to know that.”  I’d written my surname on the envelope so that Bonnie would know it was a safe letter.

So the letter was opened.

Apparently the little girl couldn’t believe it.  She’s never had a real letter, hand-written to her.  I had made the card myself, and written a very short note thanking her for looking after me at lunch when I went to visit Bonnie.  The letter is destined for her treasure box.

This seems like a good place for a small update.  Back in September I wrote to Tesco to congratulate the store manager on the excellent service which I received from a member of his staff.  http://trundlingthroughlife.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/am-i-caring-or-am-i-just-lazy.html   I never updated you on that one but I had a letter back from the manager saying that the young man concerned had received an “excellence in service” award as a result of my letter.

Writing thank you brings me great pleasure.

Thanks

(Coo, two posts in one day!)

When I was a little girl my Mother told me that a gift wasn’t really mine until I had said thank you PROPERLY.  Saying thank you properly, according to Mother meant you either thanked somebody face to face or you wrote a letter.  A phone call was not enough.

I was never wholly convinced by this theory.  I overheard other grown-ups thanking Mother for my letters and saying that they could never persuade their children to write.  Then later I would hear Mother muttering that other people didn’t make their children write.  One year I suggested I sent back a gift which I didn’t want anyway to save myself the bother of writing.  The memory of the ensuing explosion lives with me to this day.

However, I still place a very high priority on saying thank you but these days I sometimes use the phone.  Sometimes though it is nice to sit down and write a short note.

This year I have actually managed to make my thank you cards as well as write them.  I hope the recipients enjoy receiving them.

Because I enjoyed making them far more than I enjoyed writing those letters when I was a child.

Am I caring or am I just lazy?

It’s been a curious sort of day.  This morning was just housework type things but this afternoon I decided that I had to get this Smartphone sorted so off I went to Tesco Extra in Lincoln where I acquired The Thing about a month ago.

 

I decided to go to the cafe where customers wait to be seated.  Eventually the waitress came and took me to a table in a dark corner.  I declined and said I would rather be seated where I could look over the balcony and watch people in the store.  She said that my mobility scooter and I would be in the way (as presumably shopping trolleys and prams were not).     However I got my own way and I decided that I would write to the manager suggesting that a little disability awareness training wouldn’t come amiss. 

I then went down to the mobile phone department.  The contrast couldn’t have been greater.  The man who served me was courtesy itself.  He sorted out the problems, showed me a few things about my phone and suggested that I make a list and come in again if I needed to.   He was polite and friendly, at no time did I feel stupid or patronised and he was a credit to the firm he works for. 

When I got home I wrote to the store manager to compliment him on the salesman, asking that my thanks be passed on.  After I had written the letter I sat back and reflected.

When I was younger it would have been much more important to me to complain about the waitress but the older me felt it to be more important to praise the young salesman and I certainly didn’t want to do both in one letter because I hope that the manager will show him what I wrote.  Am I becoming pleasanter and more caring as I get older or am I just becoming lazy and unwilling to stand up for myself? I'm not sure.

The Power of Thank You

I went to Lakeland today – no, not the Lake District but Lakeland Ltd, “the home of creative kitchenware.”  Kitchen porn is more like it.  The stuff in there ranges from the incredibly useful and difficult-to-find to the incredibly useless and why would you want to find it.   

I went to Lakeland and had a good ferret around but I made sure I was there early because last time I went I managed to smash a couple of sundae glasses when I knocked into a display whilst riding my mobility scooter. The staff were really good, “Please don’t worry, no need to pay” and I have to say if you’re going to break something, Lakeland is the place to do it as they have the best kit for clearing it up.

They were so good that I e mailed their head office and I sent the staff a thank you card.  I was trundling around (very carefully) today and an assistant said, “Excuse me, are you the lady who sent the lovely card?”

And once again the service was superb.  Several staff members greeted me and I was beautifully looked after. 

It’s the power of thank you.  One assistant told me that my card has pride of place on the staff notice board and thanked me for it.

So my thank you came back to me.  And I came home with a smile on my face. 

Jack

Jack

Jack came yesterday.  You know that thing about I love work, I could watch it all day?  Well, I watch Jack and it totally exhausts me!  Jack is a grafter and he never stops.  He’s been coming to me for about thirteen years now, at first just to care for my (then very large) garden but now as a friend.   He can turn his hand to just about anything.  He was fitter’s mate when my kitchen was fitted and he built the raised bed in my garden.  He has decorated and has assembled flat pack furniture.  He has swept chimneys and pegged out washing - but not on the same day. 

Without Jack’s help my life would be a lot more difficult than it is.  I’m disabled and live alone.  I’m very short on close relatives and without Jack’s help my life would be far poorer.  I pay him but could never pay him enough for the difference he makes to my life. 

His real skill is in gardening.  We have our disagreements but the garden which he and I have created is fun.  It’s got the sound of trickling water, the smell of lavender, the taste of beans, the fun of the swing, and the glory of the colours – it appeals to all my senses!

There can ever be enough Jacks in the world.  He doesn’t just help me; he helps lots of other people too.  To all the Jacks of our world - thank you.

And as a thank you, here are two pictures taken from almost the same point but three years apart.