Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Peapod and I just returned from a trip across the pond to see her parents and some of her friends back home in America.  We had a great time, being somewhat spoiled by her folks  :-)  While we were away we kept our eyes open for opportunities and managed to leave a little kindness behind us on the way.

Coffee and coffee houses seem even bigger over the water than they do in the UK, so one idea we had was to buy some $10 coffee cards and give them out to people as we wandered around the town.  We quickly earmarked two particular people to give cards to. 

Earlier that afternoon we had been to a jeans store to exchange some jeans and the girl there really knew her stuff!  Before we knew it Peapod had a replacement pair and an extra pair of jeans, while I was also buying a pair.  The girl was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and just made the whole shopping process a real joy.  So we scribbled a little note of thanks on the back of the coffee card and went and gave it to her.  We didn’t stick around too long, but she was all smiles saying we shouldn’t have  :-)

Next was another store where Peapod had had another great experience… the girl who helped us wasn’t there when we went back, but one of her colleagues left her the coffee card in her pigeon hole for her to pick up the next time she was working. 

The last one went to a flight attendant on our flight home, just a little thank you for taking care of us all!

As it happens, coffee seems to have been a bit of a theme for the holiday kindness.  Another day, while I was killing time while waiting for Peapod to come back from an appointment I dropped by another coffee house.  As I was paying a municipal worker came in wearing his day glow overalls and was obviously a regular there.  Since I was picking up my drink, I was able to quickly tell the lady to tell him that his coffee was free today and she added the cost to my bill.  He was none the wiser!

Last but not least, we had some breakfast/brunch at a diner one day.  It was a typically friendly diner with helpful and cheerful staff constantly offering more coffee and so on… it was way too much food, but also it was really good value.  So as we were leaving I was able to pinpoint some ladies sitting at another table and ask the manager to get their check too.  It only took an extra minute or two, but soon they would just have a Smile Card when they were expecting a bill for their meal!

Now we’re back in the UK and we're back reading all the inspirational stories on the site! Yay! :-)