The occasional downside of being a do-gooder
I'm always trying to do the right thing and, if in doubt, I always try to be kind (although sometimes that is hard, I grant you).
So, for example, last weekend I called an ambulance for a man who had passed out at a bus stop. It would have been easier to walk past and go for supper but I remember learning about the Bystander Effect at university. Essentially, you are more likely to be helped when there are less people around because we tend to assume someone else is going to deal with the problem. But on many occasions, no-one has called the emergency services.....
One of my bugbears is the amount of litter dropped on our lane. Northgate School children seem to be the main culprits, aided by the Co-op for providing the shop they visit on the way home from school and the local council for not providing enough bins (although to be fair to them, they did provide one but it was blown up. Yes, really).
On Tuesday I was walking home from a close friend's Dad's funeral, feeling quite nostalgic and heartened, when I saw lots of McDonald's wrappers that had been thrown from a car into the bushes. I walked over, chatting to my friend and wham - my legs went from under me and I landed sideways in the mud and on the tarmac. Shocked and embarassed I hobbled home - with the wrappers in hand - before I realised my shoe was full of blood and my skirt was sticking to my leg.
Turns out my friend isn't great in a crisis so she pretty much hopped into her car leaving me to negotiate getting into the house, letting the dogs into the garden and then trying to wash the dirt out of the quite significant wounds without leaving too much blood on the floor.....
Four days on and I have a dressing on my knee, a sore arm from my seventh Tetanus injection and I am cautiously eyeing up my FitFlop sandals, blaming them for not having sufficient grip on the sole.....
I did, however, pick up a piece of rubbish last night.
Carefully.
So, for example, last weekend I called an ambulance for a man who had passed out at a bus stop. It would have been easier to walk past and go for supper but I remember learning about the Bystander Effect at university. Essentially, you are more likely to be helped when there are less people around because we tend to assume someone else is going to deal with the problem. But on many occasions, no-one has called the emergency services.....
One of my bugbears is the amount of litter dropped on our lane. Northgate School children seem to be the main culprits, aided by the Co-op for providing the shop they visit on the way home from school and the local council for not providing enough bins (although to be fair to them, they did provide one but it was blown up. Yes, really).
On Tuesday I was walking home from a close friend's Dad's funeral, feeling quite nostalgic and heartened, when I saw lots of McDonald's wrappers that had been thrown from a car into the bushes. I walked over, chatting to my friend and wham - my legs went from under me and I landed sideways in the mud and on the tarmac. Shocked and embarassed I hobbled home - with the wrappers in hand - before I realised my shoe was full of blood and my skirt was sticking to my leg.
Turns out my friend isn't great in a crisis so she pretty much hopped into her car leaving me to negotiate getting into the house, letting the dogs into the garden and then trying to wash the dirt out of the quite significant wounds without leaving too much blood on the floor.....
Four days on and I have a dressing on my knee, a sore arm from my seventh Tetanus injection and I am cautiously eyeing up my FitFlop sandals, blaming them for not having sufficient grip on the sole.....
I did, however, pick up a piece of rubbish last night.
Carefully.
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