A Guest Post from Ann Patchett - DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS!

Don`t talk to strangers ! 

Did your Mum ever say that to you when you were a child?  mine did, it put the fear of God in me, I looked upon strangers as if they were all bad people, who would snatch you away from your loving family and do nasty things to you.....it was surely done out of pure Love…but sadly it stayed with me and just as sadly I said the same to my two children years later!

I find it very sad that we live in a time where nobody communicates with each other, not even our very own neighbours, grumpiness on the bus, train, in the street, you name it, people seem to be in their own cocoon.

And yet now, many years later, I have to say that I talk to a lot more people, even if it is just a “Good Morning” or even a smile….it doesn`t cost anything does it? And I am also mindful that for some people that might be their only interaction that day or possible week!

I am a keen walker, and recently I have also taken up cycling.

This week end I have met some lovely strangers, yesterday I went to Hebden Bridge which is not too far from where I live, I decided to go to Stoodley Pike which is a historical monument on top of the hills, I call it my “spiritual home” it is so quiet and I regularly meditate up there to clear my head, on a clear day you can see for miles across the Pennine way, across the Calderdale valley, it is very beautiful and is by far my favourite walk.

Although I started the walk at about 7 in the morning, I saw so many runners and cyclists and walkers, and most had a “Good morning” to say, some kept their headsdown, but most had a cheery smile or a nod. I find that most people will answer back if you make eye contact.

On the way back down from the hills I went for a coffee on the canal at the locally known “Bike Den”, initially this is a bike shop, repairing bikes and selling them, for each bike that is sold, the owners give £10 to their charity, which is great, and some bikes that they can`t sell are sent to Tanzania …isn`t that great that there are people who think about people across the world? (From Everday folk: if you want to know more about The Bicycle Den and their work for charity, take a look at  thebicycleden.co.uk  and their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TheBicycleDen ) They make great coffee too! So a big thumbs up  and thank you to Jo, Toby and everyone at the Bike Den.    

Jo and Toby

I sat outside and by the time I had finished my coffee, there were five of us “strangers” just talking and putting the world to rights, it was stressless and effortless….I hope those people went away as I did and thought it could be a lovely world if everyone just spoke to each other, or even smiled.

Incidently, before I commenced my walk, I parked my car up and got my bag out of the boot and decided that I was parked too far away from the kerb, so I put my rucksack on the path and got back in the car to straighten up, I saw this young girl running towards me who saw my bag on the path and thought I was leaving, Bless her if she did n`t run up the hill at the side of the car waving and shouting, was funny but lovely that a stranger would do that for another stranger, some folk would have just left it and carried on with their business.  So another thumbs up and thanks to a that girl, and although I didn't get your name, hope you see this so you know your efforts were appreciated. 

Today I went on my bicycle ride. I went on the canal at Saltaire which is 10 minutes away from where I live. I cycled from Saltaire to Apperley Bridge, again there were so many people about, who prompted a smile or a “Good Morning” at one point I was pushing my bike as unfortunately I was saddle sore, (somethings have not changed from my childhood!) and a lovely young man got off his bike and asked if I had a puncture? Bless him I had to come clean…but this young man was ready to help me…yet another stranger. Another nameless thanks and thumbs up .     

By the time I got back to Saltaire I was ready for my second breakfast, I locked the bike up to a railing and a lovely lady stopped and chatted, apparently she was a very keen cyclist in her day but due to ill health she only went out occasionally, we chatted as if we had known each other for years, so much so that I asked this stranger if she wanted a coffee, quite clearly she did but alas she had made plans to meet someone else.

I guess the moral of the story is, is if we all made an effort to speak with strangers…. our fellow man, than I am sure that this would be a better world to live in.  So I would like give thanks and many thumbs up to "strangers".

I aim to speak to at least five different strangers each day…is that something you could do?

Ann Patchett

Florist

twitter @annpatchett

A Guest Post from Lora Fountain - JE SUIS CHARLIE

The following was not written as a post but as an email to friends and colleagues, including myself, but is reproduced here by kind permission of Lora:

Dear All,

It’s hard to write to everyone about the last week’s horrific events, and so far  I’ve just been replying to the e-mails as they have come in. Now I think the best thing is to send a group mail so you can try to understand what it has been like here.

“The sign reads ‘I am Charlie, I am a Cop, I am Jewish, I am French, I am Liberty, I am Humanity, I am, I exist!’ ”

The events of Wednesday and Friday affected our neighborhood because they took place within an a couple of kilometers of each other and less than that from my office, the XI Arrondisement it is a traditionally Socialist arrondisement, as well as being an historically Jewish part of town. It affected me and my husband in particular because, as some of you know, he is a cartoonist,  [from Everdayfolk - Lora's husband is the wonderful cartoonist Gilbert Shelton]

Gilbert Shelton's Bastille

 and as the community of cartoonists in France is pretty small, both he and I knew several of those who were murdered in the Charlie Hebdo attack.

Whether or not you agreed with the editorial content of Charlie, the magazine was in keeping with the long French tradition of taking the mickey out of everyone who took themselves too seriously. The editors and artists took pleasure in taking on every holy cow that crossed their path and had been doing so since 1969. Many of the cartoons were in questionable taste, but they could make you think about the subject, whether it was the Pope, a politician or whatever, and the artists and writers were not racists or islamophobes. 

Lora Fountain 

Like most of my friends, I was on the street yesterday afternoon. Appropriately enough, the demonstration went down Boulevard Voltaire, which is named after the writer who said “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.”

 In the part that I saw of the nearly two million people on the streets yesterday, the sense of fraternity and tolerance was very clear. We rubbed shoulders (literally) with people from all over Paris and beyond who felt the need to show their solidarity; there were spontaneous outbreaks of the Marseillaise and applause several times for the police (first time THAT has ever happened in living memory), especially for a group marching behind a banner reading “Police in Mourning”. It was very moving, and I am glad to have been part of it, even though some of the heads of state who attended were not particularly to my liking. But they were just a few and were totally overwhelmed by the numbers of people who really represented France. 

"Charlotte, at five months, was the youngest participant that I saw"

Attached are a few photos.

“Alex, wearing signs ‘Je suis Charlie’ and ‘Je suis Juif”, celebrated his 17^th birthday on Sunday in the streets with two million other Frenchmen and-women.”

 



The past week was terrible, but all the kind messages of support from friends from all over the world made it a little easier to bear.

I wanted to reprint this email here that in all this, Lora wanted to reach out and say thank you - so from Everdayfolk a big thank you and thumbs up to Lora, everyone on the march and cartoonists all over the world who help give us perspective and make us laugh at the same time.

Lora Fountain is Managing Director of

AGENCE LITTERAIRE LORA FOUNTAIN & ASSOCIATES

You can read their blog at http://lorafountainagency.com/

or reach them on twitter @AgenceFountain @Lora Fountain

or Facebook: facebook/Agence-littéraire-Lora-Fountain-Associates 

A Second Guest Post from Kevin Bampton - BABY……

Like the baby this post is later than planned.

My partner Sally gave birth to our fourth child, Elsa, at 4.33 on 6^th May this year.

As ever the Midwives of Portsmouth excelled themselves with their level of care and understanding. They dealt with Sally and me with care, understanding and respect for our wishes. Sally had very specific ideas for the birth and had birth plans for pretty much any eventuality, from the preferred home birth all the way through to an emergency caesarean section.

As with the previous births we have not been straightforward or ordinary in our approach, but after some initial eyebrow raising, and a bit of pushing and talking to the right people on our part, our ideas were honoured and respected.

99% of the people we dealt with were behind us 100%. Thumbs up for that!

Labour was all over the place during the weekend, with contractions coming and going at random intervals and intensities and, with three other children around, ridiculously exhausting. The decision was made by Sally that she couldn’t continue. She was physically and mentally drained and felt she needed a caesarean section.

We contacted the midwives who immediately agreed for her to go in to Queen Alexandra Hospital.

We dropped our other children off at their grandmother’s house and went on to the hospital.

We found she was in a queue for surgery and had several hours to wait before the doctors could get to her. During this time she was in the care of Lisa and (I think) Merida.  They respectfully did their job, not getting in the way or bothering us unnecessarily.

Finally the anaesthetist arrived to discuss the operation with Sally. Our daughter decided this was the moment she would begin to put in some serious effort into being born naturally.

The next hour was the most amazing feat of human endurance I have ever witnessed.  With gentle but firm coaching to my exhausted partner from Lisa and Merida Sally delivered Elsa safely and naturally, to much joy in the room.

A big thumbs up to Lisa and Merida for their amazing care and incredible professionalism.

Elsa was welcomed home by her brother Seth and her sisters Freya and Astrid.

With the cutbacks on staff and resources within the NHS this is a valuable reminder of the kindness, compassion and humanity of the staff who have contact everyday with the people they signed up to help.

These people are why we should resist any attempt to privatise our NHS. 

~~~~

Also, Everdayfolk would like to make an apology; this post is even later than Kevin intended due to a "hiccup" our end.  

Kevin Bampton - Portsmouth 

 http://kevinbampton.wordpress.com/

@Hoodedman_art

no power or heat but the team were on hand to help

You know what they say, it never rains but.....

Sometime during the night, (it turns out at 2:00 am), our power went out so we woke Sunday morning to no heat or power.  Not the best timing for personal reasons since we are a bit bed/house bound at the moment but we called a company called UK Power Networks (think they used to be known as Eastern Power) about getting back on line.

Tina

We'd done all the fuse checks and things like that so Tina, who took our first call was really helpful and nice on the 'phone and said she would check the local status and call us back in ten minutes.  She did just that and said that they hadn't got any sign of outages in the area so does look like just us and would get someone out to us straight away.  So a big thank you and thumbs up to Tina  .

Lee - DST

Within about forty minutes of her call, Lee, the first DST (engineer to you and me) turned up and did some tests. 

He confirmed there was no power at our house so went away to check at the local sub-station.  No, he came back the problem wasn't there so they were going to have to get a team with a digger to dig the street up.

This was only moment where communication went a tiny bit awry.  We were told half an hour but two hours later we called Mark {picture of Mark maybe to follow - fingers crossed} who said he would look into it.  We got cut off and while we were waiting for him to call back I then got in touch with UK Power Networks via twitter.

Well everything took off at the same moment!

The team started turning up in the street; first to arrive were Lewis (on the right - who was in bed with the flu the night before) and Clayton (on the left) from Morrison Utility Services with a digger.  I was a bit worried when they arrived when they started marking up the garden on where to dig but they couldn't have been more considerate of my plants and worked around the "death trap" of a plum tree.   So a big thumbs up and thank you to both and, Clayton, hope your back gets better and Lewis, look after that cold and, don't forget, any time you want to help out at the allotment you're more than welcome!

Lee - twitter

Meanwhile, Mark called back with a very helpful update on what we could expect and when.  Simultaneously to this, Lee on twitter started sending me DMs with really helpful, up to the moment updates.  Thank you both Mark and Lee and

Jack and Mick

At one point there were seven vehicles outside (including the digger).  From UK Power Networks were Mick, (the guv'n - standing), Jack (Sitting down on the job - that's for his kids!) - who has two cats with some problems I recommended Liquid Garlic for - 





and Dave - who I've promised this isn't a dating site.   We also had a very nice man, (who I failed to get his name or picture - shame on me), who must have been a civil engineer or something as he had the local up to date plans showing the other utilities in case they needed to dig outside our property.  Thanks and thumbs up to you all

Dave

Luckily around three o'clock in the afternoon, just as the temperature was really dropping and it was getting too dark for anything, Lee (DST) came back with some gear and they managed to give us temporary power via a "loop" off our lovely neighbour's outside supply.  So a thank you and thumbs up to Lee .

Clayton

Lewis

They all worked on until just after six p.m. when we got back our power.  Great job.  (Big holes left in the path etc but promises for a follow up team to come the next day to fill them all in.).

Have to say, first dealings with UK Power Networks but am very impressed with the level of service and smiles from all. 

Thank you. 

******

   

ps - unfortunately the follow up team to fill the holes who came two days later, (from W**** - you know who you were) weren't in the same class and indeed scarpered without even knocking on the door to check all was okay or doing what they said they would do.

we went quiet

Apologies and a quick update; sorry we've been silent for so long, not least an apology to those who have sent in guest posts but haven't been published yet.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to look for the positive in life while dealing with some "crap" coming my way.  Well the crap kinda won the last few months and although I did come across some lovely people that deserved promoting, I just couldn't find the time to either write about them or edit other people's posts to get them up here.

I'm hoping over the next couple of months I can get back to everdayfolk and hope I haven't lost all the good will in our readers that was building up.  If you're still with us, thanks and stay tuned.....