Life Affirming Moments

I've come to the conclusion that I can still blog and not let it affect uni work. As it stands tonight I've got 20 pages of reading for one subject and tonnes for the other but, with both seminars being tomorrow, I don't see myself getting it all done - but I'm going to have a go. The conclusion that I've come to is that I don't have to write loads every time I blog. It's stupid really that I didn't notice this before. Therefore, this is going to be a practice in concise blogging - not really what I'm known for eh?

In the last two days I've had to life affirming moments; or at least moments when I've felt happiest. Both have arisen out of making someone else happy or at least thankful that I was there for them. The first came yesterday in the last couple of hours of my shift at work. It was getting quiet but there was one group of people in the shop affecting any hopes of tranquility. They shouted their way around the shop and picked up a few dirty looks from myself and my tired colleagues. Anyway they got to the till making noise and a general nuisance of themselves - the woman of the group punched one of the 'youths' in the arm when I was serving them. I served them as quickly as my tired arms could and was happy to see the back of them - I wasn't the only one.

The couple behind were of Asian descent which wouldn't have really clocked with me unless the woman said to me what she did. Her opening line was 'what morons' - immediately we were on the same page. Then she told me that the group had been looking at her and her husband in a funny way all the way around the shop. Not expecting this, I reacted the best way I could and said I was sorry to hear that and agreed with her 'moron' comment. I decided not to dwell on it though because she was clearly upset and when I finished serving her I wished her and her husband a pleasant evening to which she smiled and gave a warm 'thank you' to me. I think (or at least hope) that I helped but they both seemed grateful to be treated the way that anyone should be - in short, it was the least I could do.

The other moment was this afternoon when I got off the train. I was feeling reasonably happy today in spite of the aforementioned workload in front of me but I was by no means chirpy. Anyway I got to the bottom of some stairs which an elderly lady was about to climb, laden with a heavy suitcase. I've seen so many people walk on past in that kind of situation so I thought I would break the mould and so I carried this lady's suitcase up the stairs for her. It was much appreciated and I got that same, warm 'thank you' that I got the night before from the lady in the shop.

The moral of the story is that the happiest I've felt recently it when I've helped someone and made them slightly happier as a result. These are small things but if everyone did something like that when the opportunity arose then we might all be happier for it.

Thanks for reading.

Martin

Offside Goals, Football Manager and Susanna Reid

I don't get to write an awful lot these days. Well, that's a lie because I write all the time - just not about stuff that most of my readers would have an interest in. I suppose that I could try it one day, writing some uni stuff here, just to see what the reaction would be. For example I'm just about to set out into the wonderful world of 'offside goals' in property law. To some that sounds interesting but only because it has footballing connotations. I can confirm it is interesting but I can also confirm that it has nothing to do with football. To put it another way: it's a rule about offiside goals that women that study law understand - the antithesis of the rule in the beautiful game you might say.

So with that in mind I feel that I should write about something that will appease the masses. The problem with that is that my life basically consists of university and taking time out to play/watch football - I've already covered those two topics in a single paragraph. My work here is done!