Sometimes we get ideas from what someone else has done and we can emulate to make a difference in the lives of others. Dave and Andy gave me the ideas of supporting others that were elderly etc etc closeby (can't say I've done it as such but did knock on for my 2 elderly nieghbours earlier in the week, who don't seem to have much family about... they didn't answer though which is fair enough).

Anyway, you know the age old saying of, "the more people you make happy, the happier you'll be" (or maybe you don't ). So the rules are...

Nothing too complex (could be a simple smile or not overbuying and hoarding or giving summat from your shopping basket to someone that could do with it)...

I’ve enquired at work if we can use the company cars for the NHS volunteer appeal. Hopefully I can contribute around here when I’m not at work.

Also gave our 89 year old neighbour a bolloking for going out shopping this morning, she’d run out of cigs and brandy so was heading to Morrisons. (Hard as nails, she’s run about 5 pubs) We tried to persuade her into letting us go instead but she was having none of it, but she did promise she’d let us know next time.

Went to Tescos (the smaller local store) and gave the trolley a good wiping with the stuff they had available and the cloth. So hopefully that'll be clean for a short while for the next person at least (we tried not toiching it much and after habing cleaned it the nice man at till gave me some alcohol gel for my hands)...

Then (this was after coming out of the bigger Tesco sorry, the smaller one had run out of oven pizza) after leaving the other Tesco, me and the little un noted the lad sat outside smoking a fag. Had a Costa cup (raising money) on floor next to him. Asked him if he'd like a packet of Pringles. It looked like he was pretty amazed we'd asked and accepted the offer. So off went a sterile (well clean from out POV as I'd used either back of my littlw finger or a tissue for the keypad when paying and it hadn't touched owt else except the inside of a carrier.

Felt good, yea definitely. Probably felt better for me/us than it did for him

Personally, very little today - I've been at home working, or at least trying to. But last week we (OK, my partner actually) put notes through all the doors on our street (9, not counting ours, obviously) with our numbers and an offer of help. This evening the family across the road messaged to say there was a present on the doorstep... a box of eggs from their chickens (which I had no idea they had!). Properly made my day, if not week, especially since we only moved in a few months ago.

I've been trying to do what I can to help the small businesses that I'm not able to use at the moment. It strikes me that cash flow is likely to be the main problem for a lot of them. An old friend was asking people to support her partner's small coffee roastery. I don't actually need any coffee at the moment, having a bought a kilo bag a month ago, but so I suggested they put a "gift voucher" option on their web shop - I'm happy to bung them some immediate cash and then hope they're still around when I need some coffee. I suggested the same to my local roaster (who's a keen rider, albeit of the gravel variety ) as well.

In a similar vein, my barber posted on Facebook that he was shutting, so I asked if I could pay him for a chop now and redeem it later. He declined, despite making clear I was serious, but I'm sure there would be businesses who would really need this.

I volunteer regularly at a pop-up cafe where we serve meals from "waste" food, and also have a "market" of food we haven't turned into meals. It's pay-as-you-feel so popular with some of the less fortunate in society. There's a lot of food going spare as a result of cafes and restaurants closing, which is crazy at a time like this, but of course our cafe's shut, so later this week I'll probably be distributing some to people who are self-isolating by bike. Maybe ask your local food bank if you can do the same, and get some exercise into the bargain?

TheNorthWind... sorry, when I said Andy I was meaning yourself... I got your name mixed up with another lads. I toom lesson from your putting them notes through the letterboxes and lead me to knocking on the 2 opposite door nieghbours doors...

Hopefully the thread keeps giving us each ideas of little things that make decent impacts

So I loves my chicken and leek pasta goes shopping last week grabs myself 4 packets, has one for tea that night the wife says someone on FB was after some for there daughter who was disabled but loved the same pasta so I said to the wife C'mon lets go and drop em off then 3 packets to keep the kid happy, good deed done that night the parents were made and a little shocked that someone would come calling with them. Keep up the good work people stay safe

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 12:54 am TheNorthWind... sorry, when I said Andy I was meaning yourself... I got your name mixed up with another lads. I toom lesson from your putting them notes through the letterboxes and lead me to knocking on the 2 opposite door nieghbours doors...

Hopefully the thread keeps giving us each ideas of little things that make decent impacts

No worries, Shaf - partly my fault because I never did get round to contributing to your real names thread. Must make amends.

Anyway, it's made me genuinely happy to know that you've seen that and paid it forward, so to speak.

Chapeau to the other purveyors of good deeds on this thread, keep them coming.

I'm gonna claim this one...

https://alpkit.com/blogs/foundation/ada ... GBB,OTEO,1

They're offering (as before but now seem to be branching out and reminding us that) some startup cash to support anyone helping out in the Covid19 situation. Examples of who's eligible contained therein...

Today I was part of leafletting our town with offers of help to those stuck inside or with no internet.

It was a weird experience as have to be conscious that leafletting could be distribution. But how are you going to find out if you have no internet...

So very self conscious about gloves, hygiene and distancing.

Tomorrow I'm shopping for Pam who needs milk, cat food and a fascist propaganda rag.

There's a great community spirit here. It's so fecking annoying that it takes a virus to bring it out.

Dave Barter wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2020 7:16 pm Today I was part of leafletting our town with offers of help to those stuck inside or with no internet.

It was a weird experience as have to be conscious that leafletting could be distribution. But how are you going to find out if you have no internet...

So very self conscious about gloves, hygiene and distancing.

Tomorrow I'm shopping for Pam who needs milk, cat food and a fascist propaganda rag.

There's a great community spirit here. It's so fecking annoying that it takes a virus to bring it out.

That's amazing Dave. Keep it up. I asked Dave and John opposite today (they were chatting to each other but socially distanced... one lives upstaits and the other downstairs in the flat opposite) who are both in their 60s or 70s (they look good for age and John looks like the chief out of the Last of the Summer Wine crew), that if they needed shopping then to let me know. Both had already been and done their shopping but said they'd bear it in mind

booked for my 2nd platelet donation, just got to go into Birmingham centre to do it. Not really a virus related thing, but donations are drying up and demand isn't....

Did the 8 o’clock clapping thing on the doorstep, we had whistles, fireworks and trumpets

Great turnout here, quite humbling

Stayed indoors for the 12th day in a row, because I'm sick, and not a tw@t.

Dave Barter wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2020 7:16 pm Tomorrow I'm shopping for Pam who needs milk, cat food and a fascist propaganda rag.

Ooh, that's a tough one isn't it? Don't think I could bring myself to buy a copy of Cycling Weekly, even on someone's behalf, either

booked for my 2nd platelet donation, just got to go into Birmingham centre to do it. Not really a virus related thing, but donations are drying up and demand isn't....

I can't donate again til the end of April, but you reminded me to take my iron tablet, so consider that another good deed.

Richard G wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:19 pm Stayed indoors for the 12th day in a row, because I'm sick, and not a tw@t.

You're a superhero Rich

Shewie wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:03 pm Did the 8 o’clock clapping thing on the doorstep, we had whistles, fireworks and trumpets

Great turnout here, quite humbling

Well it worked. Since SalsaSimon (sorry ) mentioned the clap I immediately thought I need to try harder to book a shift. So calledy agency to book me into one 40 miles West of me (as the crow flies) at an ITU. Unfortunately that didn't work out as they weren't answering the phones to whoever from my agency was trying to book me in. Then I remembered 'the clap' again and looked frantically for another shift that I could help with. Found one down towards the Midlands with a 2 hour drive. This one didn't need too much complexities to get myself in as it wasn't a critical care area. Unfortunately (or fortunately as they hopefully found a nurse that was much closer and faster to arrive) before I managed to click 'book me now' someone had taken it.

Had to retire to finishing off my freshly built rear wheel with some sandpaper in the rim channel in prep for making it tubelessed in the morning...

The clap works it seems

Spent a couple of hours packing the food boxes at the food bank with the kids. Distancing and elderly volunteers in isolation, means they're struggling to get boxes packed. As a family (of 5) we could ignore distancing as only us on that shift, and got loads done.

On a totally different note, I've been helping digitise rainfall records https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co ... t-52040822
Each sheet takes about a minute and the results will help with research into climate change, flooding etc

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:50 pm You're a superhero Rich

In all seriousness, assuming this doesn't kill me, I'll be volunteering for the NHS as soon as I can get an antibody test.

I'm basically unemployed right now, and sitting around the house doesn't seem like the best use of my time.

Big thanks for all supporting the NHS, my wife finished her shift at 8 tonight
And was overwhelmed by the number of people in their gardens out to clap
As the shift changed

slarge wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2020 10:57 pm booked for my 2nd platelet donation, just got to go into Birmingham centre to do it. Not really a virus related thing, but donations are drying up and demand isn't....

All I ever wanted to do was donate platelets, but I didn't get on with the anti-coagulant. It all went wrong on about my sixth platelet donation and I was out of it for about an hour as they stuffed everything back into me and had my legs pointing at the ceiling, horrible. Got a whole blood donation on the 9th, just wish I could give with more frequency.

https://www.blood.co.uk/

Just went to post office. I was first in line to walk into the shop but there was at least 2 people I clocked from window of door. So I stood back and mentioend to people behind me to try do same... suddenly we had a nice socially distanced queue of about 5 people. Had i walked in then so would every one else... Just thinking outside the bix and also explained to the chap I'd let in front how important it is (and that am in NHS) to take responsibility ourselves before the measures get stricter and stricter.


[Edit]. Just to add as I'm not sure what other people do. I usually use a small peice of tissue to press the keypad on the bankcard device. Then when leaving the shop I discard the tissue appropriately on a bin. This time I didn't use tissue or the back of my index finger. I use my small finger as normal but then quarantined it by curling it over and not touching owt until I got home and washed hands...

Mrs-voodoo has finished paying off her Mac book (god knows why she didn’t buy it out right and avoided the added costs of monthly payments oh yeah, she went shopping with her brother in law who loves Apple and has the debts to prove it -20K worth at 25 years old - so she a) bought a Mac b) got it on an over inflated APR!).

Decided over the weekend that we’d donate the payments that we now don’t have to the local food bank but by god, they make it hard for you. You need to print off a direct debit form via their web, fill it in and hand deliver to the local food bank God only knows why they don’t except an e-copy! So, now we don’t have a printer, so will have to wait until the wife is in work, then wait to hand deliver it to them at a socially acceptable distance.

My mind boggles!

Baked a butterscotch banana cake yesterday. Chopped it in half and dropped some round at our friends in the village. They run a local fruit and veg shop and have been rushed off their feet getting boxes out to the elderly and vulnerable. They also gave me the bananas, so it was the least I could do...

I think me and BobCatMax might have just created the first (although I think there are a few items in circulation already if you know the right person/people) BearBones kids loaner bike...

Its a (well its in the classifieds and its a Gary Fisher and its lovely and been in the famoly for almost 10 years now... ever since my eldest was a wee lad) nice bike and owes us nothing as its had 3 kids grow up on/with it. It was a used bike and I think I still remember the day we went and collected it from Rochdale.

Who knows, it might even make its way back to us one day whilst its doing its rounds and might even have found some custom bikepacking bags onto itself by then...

Anyway, Max will be taking it and the rule is that once yer done with it then you out out an ad for someone elses little un to makw good times/memories on it... You have to have more than one rule I suppose, so the other one is that it gets moved on, as much as one is able, in a form thats better than how it came to us!!

Thats just 2 rules. Surely can't be that hard right

An excellent scheme