All we hear is, Radio ga ga, Radio goo goo

I was on the Radio today! Yes I was. A couple of bad things happened. One, I told all my friends the wrong Radio Station… oops. And secondly, I didn’t do any shameless promotion. I forgot to mention the address for my blog! Darn, better luck next time son.

I think I also inadvertently completed a RAOK that is coming up later in the book, Smile at the speed camera. I don’t think I was quite smiling it was more open mouthed shouting a word beginning with F…

Fudge of course.

I will class that as my practice run. I will be prepared for when the day comes now.

Random Act of ­Kindness No.44 – Choose a Local shop instead of a supermarket. (Unless you are a shoplifter)

Well I am not a shoplifter, so I don’t have to worry about that. And secondly, I have been brought up in an area where you have no choice other than to use local shops. Yesterday morning, I took some time out from my University work and went over to Talton Mill Farm Shop, to buy some vegetables for the fam. This is local shopping at its best! The farm shop sells all its own produce, which are grown just meters away in the field. It is truly awesome. My whole family are regulars there. We go over several times a week to get some crackin’ fresh veg.

Because this RAOK was pretty much part of my everyday life, I thought I should step up my game for today’s RAOK.

Random Act of Kindness No. 45 – Hide a complimentary note in a book in the library.

And no, don’t worry this didn’t result in any form of vandalism, which the woman on the Radio suggested it might. I very cleverly used my brain and wrote the note on a piece of paper. I didn’t just leave one note, ohhhhh no. I left four. Yes I did!

Now I came up with three, or should I say, I came up with two, and Emily (the wonderful person who suggested I made posters saying, “Smile, today wasn’t so bad”) came up with the other. The fourth and final one was suggested by the landlady in my local pub, the Peacock in Oxhill.

So, without further ado, here are the pictures of my complimentary notes.

First up we have the regular, “Smile, today wasn’t so bad”

Next in line, “Everything will be alright”

Coming in 3^rd place “You’re amazing, remember that.” (A Bruno Mars song comes to my head now).

Fourth and finally, suggested by the landlady and bar staff at the Peacock, “No… your bum doesn’t look big in that”.

Well there we have it. The four musketeers of complimentary notes.

If anyone is interested in listening to the interview I did on BBC West Midlands, have a listen here… William's Wonderful Radio Show!

I am going to pop down the pub tonight to complete RAOK No.46, which is offer, an unsolicited pint to a stranger. So if anyone fancies a free beer, then head down to the Peacock in Oxhill tonight and you might just get lucky.

Happy days!

They love a bit of...park life

­­­­­Random Act of Kindness No. 43 Give a kite to a father and son in the park.

So pop quiz time.

How much do you think a kite costs these days?

How about a ‘power kite?’ (whatever one of those is, seems popular though).

Well let me tell you…

I was in Oxford today, meeting up with a good friend of mine, Polly for lunch. On my way back to the car after lunch, I stopped off at a ‘clown shop’ it wasn’t a clown shop but sold all sorts of juggling, uni-cycle, and other clown-like things. The only kites they sold in there were ‘power kites’. Now this excited me. A ‘power kite’ what on earth can you do with one of those? Will it pull you off terra firma and soar you into the heavens? Well judging by the price tag I would hope it would take me to the moon. £108.99, yeah. Some ‘power kite’ that must have been. This shop didn’t sell any bog standard kites, so I called it a day and left.

When I got home, I gave my friend Ellie, a call and asked if she fancied helping me with a RAOK and meeting me in town. I met up with her for a cappuccino before we tackled this RAOK head on. We decided Argos was probably a good place to start for a standard kite type-flying thing… To my horror once again, ‘power kites’ seemed to be the order of the day. They did sell a low range ‘power kite’ but that was still £30.00. I am going to need to set up a justgiving page to help pay for these RAOK’s. They are breaking my already very broken bank.

We needed to brainstorm. I was in the pub last night and I was being told off for changing some of the RAOK’s. So I was determined not to alter todays, however, I am sorry guys, I just had to.  I couldn’t afford a kite, I had to down grade to something else that can be enjoyed in a park.

PING – there it was.

RAOK No. 43 (Will’s way) Give a Frisbee to a father and son in the park.

That is a reasonable substitute I think. It is like swapping Toby Flood, for Jonny Wilkinson. It’s pretty darn good. So with Frisbee in hand we hit the recreation ground, in Stratford-Upon-Avon, opposite the theatre. We meandered around the park and encountered another issue. There were no fathers and sons playing. There were teenage boys, pumping with testosterone kicking footballs and each other, hormonal girls walking around in extremely short skirts, and the odd couple of people enjoying a picnic. Ok time to adapt the RAOK again…sooorrrrry

RAOK No.43 (Will’s way 2) Give a Frisbee to a group of jolly people enjoying a picnic.

Crackin’.

I approached a group of girls with my nice English smile and offered them the Frisbee. I think they were on holiday, doing a bit of traveling, but they looked like they were doing it in style. They had an immense picnic, massive lumps of cheese, empty wine bottles, olives, crackers, the lot. I nearly asked if I could stay. I did refrain though and instead gave them the link to my blog. They were three lovely girls and I managed to get a little snap with them.

About 30 minutes later, after Ellie and I had had a little summery drink, we walked back through the rec. and saw the three girls playing Frisbee. It was awesome.

So girls, if you do have a look at my blog, leave a comment and let me know if the Frisbee was any good.

Groovey. It was a great site seeing the trio playing with the Frisbee I had just given them. It made me believe they actually appreciated it rather than just think I was a loony English guy, which quite a few people think I am!!

So, to round things up, a standard kite £30.00. Perhaps shop around a bit. Some places might sell them cheaper than Argos. A ‘power kite’ depending on size but roughly 120cm one is £108.99. Again shop around and seek advice if you have any questions.

Very good. Thank you for all the comments and support. It’s good to know you are enjoying this.

The rise of Star William Francis

Random Act of Kindness No.42 – Offer some handy advice to a tourist.

In recent times, I have become a real believer in fate, kismet, serendipity or whatever one may call it. And today really supported my new found faith in fate.

As you are all aware, I am not in London at the moment. University has wound down for Easter, and I go to Australia on Saturday, therefore, spending some quality time with my rents, and the bros before I go. I was therefore slightly concerned about todays RAOK. Not many tourists pass through my quiet village. I thought I would venture into Stratford-Upon-Avon and help out the thousands or tourists that flood the apparent ‘world-class’ town.

But as luck would have it, whilst I tucked into my bacon, egg, and black pudding sandwhich, someone came onto the drive and knocked on the door. I wasn’t going to budge, as the likely hood is it won’t be for me and be for one of my older brothers. But as the youngest, there are some things you just have to do. All my older brothers sat around the table looking at me waiting for me to get up and go. And well, of course I did.

I held the dogs back and opened the door. “Hello hello”.

“Oh hello, sorry to bother you on a Sunday morning but do you know where corner croft is?”

Hang on. Let me think about this. “so, as you asked me where this place is you don’t know right?”

“yeeees”

“Right, so I could call you a tourist as you are visiting the area, right?”

“ermmmm, yes I suppose”

“Crackin’, yeah I know where it is” I proceeded to give him a blow by blow description of where it is. Told him about all the potholes in the road, and the good spots to stop to get a good view. Corner croft is only 2 minutes away in a car but still. I thought I would do my best at offering some handy advice to a ‘tourist’.

“You’re a star. Thank you so much”

A star? I only told you where a house is, where two potholes in the road are, and one viewing point on the way, but hey I will accept that. Star William Francis. That has a nice ring to it, I like it.

Awesome. RAOK No. 42 complete. I am nearly at half a century. What can I do to celebrate making it that far? Hmmm.

Tickets, tickets. So many tickets yet so little time.

Random Act of Kindness No. 41 – If you can’t make it to a gig – don’t waste the ticket. Give it to a stranger.

As much as I wish I did, I don’t have any tickets for a gig. When I opened my book up on Saturday morning, I was kinda stumped as to what to do. Over a cup of coffee I mulled some ideas over in my head. I figured I needed to give something away, that I would use but not today.

I took my cup of coffee outside to get some inspiration from the country air. And there is was, I got it! My chickens came up to me and started scratching around me feet. Ah ha, perfect. I can collect half a dozen eggs, stand out on the road and wait for a car to come by. When a car does, stop it and give them the eggs.

Random Act of Kindness No.41 (Wills way) Give half a dozen eggs to a passerby.

Now not many cars go down our road, so the likely hood is, I will either be waiting here for a while or someone will pass who I know, which would be a shame. Nonetheless still a kind thing. After hovering in the road for about 10, 15 minutes I heard a car coming in the distance. This was my moment.

I stood firm in the middle of the road, going against every thing I have been taught in my childhood. “William get out of the road”, “William always look before you go across road”, “William get on the grass verge”, that’s what my mother used to shout at me every time I went out the door.

Sorry mum, not this time. I am going to do whatever I want. So I was standing there with this car hurtling up towards me. Well I say hurtling, it was probably only going about 30 MPH, but when you are standing out in the road that feels rather fast I have to say.

Like a lollipop lady, I stuck my hand out to stop the car. The guy in the car stopped and put down his window. “Everything all right?” said the guy in the car. He could clearly see I was slightly worried, but most probably didn’t know it was because I didn’t think he was going to stop.

“Yes, yes, everything is crackin’ sir. Would you like some eggs?”

“If everything is Crackin’ do I really want these eggs? Are they cracked? Ha ha haaa”

Yeah he got me there. Nice one.

I assured him they weren’t cracked and I had just collected them from my chickens this morning. He was very chuffed with the offer, so much so he pulled his car to the side of the road and hopped out for a nice picture with me. Marvelous.

Here is the picture.

Gold Joinee Abad, has requested that if any of my RAOK-receivers’ comment on my blog I update you all. And of course I will do. I have also had a request from a guy called Matt for a watch. I am in the process of organising to meet up with Matt and hand the watch over to him in person. I will be sure to keep you all updated and get a picture.

Very good, happy days.

You've got to scratch it, and match it, and spin it around

Random Act of Kindness No. 40 but meant to be 39 – Buy a scratch card and hand it to a stranger.

Proper string vest weather outside today wasn’t it. Summer ventilation. Sadly I didn’t have mine on.

So I popped into the bright lights today of Stratford-Upon-Avon to have a cup of coffee with my maarmy. My trip started off exceptionally well. When I was climbing out my car this lovely young woman came and gave me a parking ticket. She said she had just bought it but can’t stay anymore so gave it to me. Amazing! It was nice to be on the receiving end of a RAOK. I asked if I could have a picture with her but I think she thought I was coming onto her. She said she ‘REALLY has to go, sorry”, never mind. Here is a picture of the ticket any.

On my way back I stopped off and bought a scratch card. It was the first time I have ever bought one. I felt like I should be buying a can of special brew at the same time. Sorry that is probably very rude and stereotypical of me. Because it was my first time I felt like an underage teenager trying to buy alcohol. I didn’t really know what to ask for, or which one I should be buying.

I opted for the one with a chance of winning £250,000. Thinking big. Just imagine if the guy I gave it to won. It would be incredible. The way my day was going so far it was certainly possible. I’m the eternal optimist. I parted with two golden nuggets and walked out of the shop. I spotted this man queuing up at the cash point. What grabbed my attention was his crackin’ beard. I have a bit of a thing for beards. I’m not manly enough to grow one, so anyone who does have one I am very jealous of.

I approached the bearded gentleman and asked if he would like a free scratch card. He accepted and I grabbed a quick picture with him.

He claimed he didn’t know what to do with it. He said “ I tend just to scratch all the stuff but don’t think you’re meant to do that are you? It’s like popping bubble wrap, quite addictive”. Yeah mate just like gambling. Now I don’t know if he genuinely didn’t know what to do with the scratch card or whether he was a gambling addict and just trying to cover it up. I don’t think he was though.

I stood by his side just in case he won and I could ask for some of the winnings… he scratched the bits off he was meant to and sadly – nothing! He didn’t win a penny.

Winning isn’t everything, it’s the taking part that counts. Hmmmm yeah right. Sorry Pedro, if you’re not first you’re last!

Anyhow, I had a nice chat with this lovely gentleman in the sunshine and told him about my blog. I finally allowed him to carry on with his daily antics and get his money out the cash point he was waiting for.

Lipstick, Reggae, and Jedward, who would have put those three together? ...me

Random Act of Kindness No. 39, but meant to be 40 – Buy an unpopular CD single.

It turns out I can’t count. Or read a book. I have accidently skipped a RAOK and hopped to number 40. But no fear, Will is here, so I will just swap them around and do the one I was meant to do today tomorrow. Ya get me?

Whilst I was in the holy city of Stratford-Upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s land I popped into a record store. As I went in I felt rather nostalgic, I haven’t been in a record store in years. And it turns out no one does. I walked to the back of the shop where the CD singles used to be but it was replaced with some funky technologically advanced game consoles, you know the ones – where you stand about in front of a TV screen waving your arms and flinging your legs about and suddenly the little caricature of yourself moves on the screen. Yeah those things. From floor to roof it was filled with them.

Well I had to go and seek some advice. I headed to the counter and asked for the singles chart. The funky girl in the store with a pink streak in her hair and a nose ring pointed me in the right direction. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Now it’s not just me but the singles chart used to be massive right? Well not any more. In the record store they only stock the top 7 singles in the chart. The rest is all done online. Crazy beans.

Well my mission was to buy an unpopular single to support their talent. This just wasn’t possible. The next stage in this pained me sooooooo much. I decided I would at least have to buy the most unpopular single they stock in the store. And do you know who that was? Jedward. Yeah, they are number 7, apparently!

Now bless Jedwards hearts. If they enjoy doing what they are doing then that is great, but I try and stay away from all this hyped up, talentless tat that gets pumped out into society. But I just couldn’t avoid it today. Today was going to be the day I joined in with the masses and gave the commercial machine of Sony and Universal records some money. £2.99 in fact. That’s a pound a track. But, all the tracks are the same, track 2 is slightly longer, and well I think I got a duff CD, on track 3 there are no lyrics. It turns out Jedward, with this single I have just bought are representing Ireland in the 2011 Eurovision. Well crickey if they get more than ‘nil point’ I will jump out of a plane naked. But perhaps with a parachute.

I got in my car and put the CD in quite excited actually to hear what it sounded like. I lasted 25 seconds and had to turn it off. I just couldn’t bear it. So when I got home I whipped my computer out and headed onto the iTunes store and purchased the first song I had never heard of. Number 157 down the list I came across, Gyptian – Hold you. You beauty no need for the 30second preview lets buy that. And you know what, it is pretty darn cool. Crackin’.

After looking this Gyptian up, it turns out he has been around a bit, cranking out some reggae. Nice one, that is a good find.

Here is a picture of the Jedward CD, and a screen print of Gyption, Hold you.

Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair. Spring is here

Random Act of Kindness No. 38 – plant a flower in your neighbours garden without them knowing.

As you know by now, I am at my parents house in sunny Warwickshire, and in the little settlement where they live there is not many neighbours. So I decided to head out of my village and over the hill to a nearby village with a friend. Before I stopped off at a house and dropped my plant off we went to the local pub for a bit of Dutch courage, or, in my case, Cornish courage. I had a pint of the finest Cornish Ale, Tribute. It was B-E-A-Utiful.

Before it was too late we left the pub and found a house close enough to the road with a porch light on in the hope it would help my amateur camerawomen capture it. Sadly, not due to poor camera work, thank you Elizabeth for your help, but due to poor light you cant see it very well. Nonetheless you do see me run up to the house, ding on the doorbell and then run off.

I left a little note inside the pot with my blog address on in the hope they will have a look on here.

Here is the picture and video.

Nice one.

I’m seriously struggling being stuck out in the middle of no-where with horrendous Internet trying to upload videos etc to my blog, so I’m sorry I have been extremely late in uploading my posts.

I thought the Internet here was as bad as it gets, however, I got sent an email today, from a friend in Malawi, Effie – she has been looking at my blog, but the Internet is so poor out there it won’t even upload the videos. So from now on, every time I upload a video I will give a little heads up and write a synopsis of what is in it. Sound good?

Crackin’, beautiful day today wasn’t it! Let’s hope it sticks around.

I just phoned to say... thank you

A-up, it's time for RAOK No. 34. Have a look at the video and see what it was.

Nice one.

Have a good weekend.

"Don't cry because it is over, Smile because it happened" Dr. Seuss

Random Act of Kindness No. 33 – Listen to someone’s problem without immediately comparing it to one of your own.

I arrived at University today soaked to the bone. The heavens certainly opened up this morning in London. I was chatting to a couple of my friends before the lecture, and I told them about my RAOK, and if anyone wants to chat about their problems and have an ear to listen give me a shout.

No more than two minutes later we were on the topic of debt, and the ‘joys’ of being overdrawn. I threw my two pence worth in and said how much overdrawn I was. The conversation stopped and they all looked at me.

Balls – I had just compared their problems to mine. How could I do that? Ridiculous, I had been chatting for only a couple of minutes and already I had failed. I decided to give up and unleashed my fury and poured my heart out about how poor I was, and how I don’t have enough money for this months rent that I have to pay on the 23^rd. They did a far better job at just listening than I did.

After the lecture I had a phone call. It was from a friend who is having certain boy issues. This friend is female. I am going to call her Doris. Obviously this isn’t her real name but as she had confided in me I won’t give away her name. Now this is something I am pretty sure I won’t have any trouble comparing it to my own problem, as I have no significant other. I am, however, in an open relationship on Facebook, and this is with a boy, so perhaps this is deterring all the beautiful girls that stalk my page everyday. I know you are out there…

Well Doris seems to have a way with picking the bad apple so to speak. Her last boyfriend was well, a bit of a weirdo. I didn’t ever see what Doris did in him!! Since that one, Doris has been taking a bit of a back seat and just waiting to see what happens.

Recently she has met this other guy. He is on her course and was apparently really nice. They hung out together, and did what one does when courting shall I say. Doris and this guy who I will call Andre went official. Facebook official even, now that is a statement. Everything was going swimmingly. But then I got this phone call.

Doris was on the other end sounding rather up set. I asked what the problem was and she said Andre, he just ended things with me. “Ohhh dear, what happened? Tell William, I am all ears” I had to put that in there. Well it turns out Andre gave her as she put it, “the whole, you’re amazing, I really like you, but I can’t speech”. You know how it goes, ‘it’s not you, it’s me’. What a douche. She blamed herself and said she had been a fool. I told her not to blame herself. Blame your geographical position. “You’re up north, it’s not your fault” (I don’t mean to offend any Northerners, it was purely trying to make her feel better).

I was all ears and then tried to give her some advice. I did explain, I’m probably not best qualified for this considering my current single status, nonetheless, I persisted. I assured her, that it is not the end of the world and there will be someone else out there. This Andre is clearly not worth it. I then came out with this corker, “don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened”. Now, I heard this saying from a doctor I saw. I had a broken arm and was at the hospital for a check up. My girlfriend had just gone off to University and dumped me. I was what I thought heart broken. He could tell I was upset and asked what the problem was, he clearly knew that it wasn’t my arm. So I told him, he sat back in his chair and with great wisdom said, “as the great Dr. Suess once said,” and then came out with that quote. It has stuck in my head ever since and I left the hospital with a smile on face. From one doctor to another hey.

This was the perfect opportunity to whip out that bad boy. So I did. Doris’ response was perfect. “You know what, you’re right, you’re so right. Since when have you become so wise”. Well I didn’t let her into my little secret but I guess if she reads this she will know.

This RAOK, made me feel great. I had successfully not compared someone’s problem to my own, and I actually managed to deliver some advice successfully.

All in all, what a result.

Forgive and forget

Random Act of Kindness No. 31 – Forgive someone.

Ok, so I hardly ever hold a grudge against someone for very long. I’m a bit of a lover not a hater!

However, talking over a brew with Talulah at her house, she got me to lie on her sofa and close my eyes. She played soft sounds of the sea breeze and waves rolling in. Half an hour later she snapped her fingers whipped me back to reality. Little did I know deep down in my subconscious I still held a grudge, against someone who I went to primary school with 14 years ago.

Back then in school we had a competition to design the front cover over of a book we were making about the little village where my school was. The village was called Ettington. I had developed at the time, what I thought to be, an amazing idea with my 3 older brothers. The title was ‘Ettington Frenzy’. I thought it was very clever as my understanding of ‘Frenzy’ at the time was, wild excitement and was kind of naughty, which, we all were at primary school. I also thought it was a play on words of friends, “these are my frenzies!” is what I used to call my friends – yeah…I was supercool.

So I let my artistic juices flow and came up with this awesome design. My Friend A*** G****** (I don’t think I should say his name, but they are his initials) asked to see my design. I was very keen to show him, as I was very proud of it. I whipped it out of my satchel and showed him. On Friday, the hand in day, he was very secretive about his design and handed it in without showing it to me. I thought nothing of it and carried on with my day as usual, playing hopscotch and kiss and chase in the playground.

Well my world was going to be tipped inside out and upside down after the weekend. The winner was announced. When the teacher read out the name I was disappointed but as a gallant young boy, I was pleased for my friend “Well done A***, you have won” said my teacher, Mrs. Edwards. When she held up his design my world caved in. Not only had I not won (and yes, secretly I was very competitive) but A*** G****** had copied my design. Yes copied it. Not only had he copied it he had even used the same title. Can you believe that?

So, since primary school I have never seen A*** G****** and nor have I forgiven him for copying my design. Since he betrayed and copied me, I have adapted his secretive approach to work, and I hate showing my work to other people, or even discussing it until I get my results back in the fear someone might copy my ideas again.

Yes I have been permanently scared for life because of this.

However, today I have decided to overcome this and forgive Mr G******. I searched high and low on Facebook, Twitter, and every other social networking site I could think of. I came across this man who fits his description, so decided to send him a message on Facebook. Here is this message.

So I feel a massive weight off my shoulders that I did not know was there after doing that. Amazing. I recommend digging deep into your subconscious and forgiving someone also. Feels goooood.

parting with money and blood...

Before I get into todays Random Act of Kindness lets just take a few steps back to RAOK No. 20. Give Blood.

Well today I had my appointment to pump out 450 ml of the finest hemoglobin. This is no ordinary blood. It is high quality premium stuff with a street value in the thousands.

I headed to the back of Rye Lane Chapel at 15.20 with two friends for moral support, Talulah and Rose. I was quite disappointed to start off with because the first woman was very rude to me. I felt like I was doing a good thing. So a little smile and pleasantries wouldn’t have gone a miss.

Nonetheless, I tried to strike up a conversation with the other nurses and lighten up the atmosphere. It was pretty brutal in there. Everyone was either sitting on chairs in lines waiting or lying on beds like it was the last thing they were going to do.

I went off and had my finger pricked to make sure I had enough iron in my blood. I am happy to say, after my rare steak last night, and pate for breakfast I passed that test with flying colours. I asked the nurse who was pricking my finger if she would mind if I recorded it on my phone. Golly gosh, it was like I asked her to lick the blood off my finger. In no certain terms I was told “NO!” I decided to understand this as, no I don’t mind, so I proceeded to get my phone and to start recording. She nearly stabbed me in the eye with her little finger pricking device. I timidly put my phone back away in my pocket.

I was then ushered off to another waiting area where I was provided with a pint of water. I’m going to need a half time on the blood supplying if you make me drink all this… when the nurses back was turned I tipped it into the slops bucket (I’m sure they have a proper word for it like the discard vessel), however, that’s what I called it.

Moving swiftly on, I was popped on a bed and my arm was sanitised, Talulah told them they would need more than that to clean me up. Don’t know what you are on about there sweetcheeks.

Luckily this time I had a very friendly nurse called Marie. She chatted to me and made it all jolly. The needle was stuffed in my arm and I started pumping out some high quality C738H1166N812O203S2Fe (or in other words the red stuff – blood). When the nurse turned her back I did whip out my phone and manage to nab a few pictures. My trusty assistant also managed to get one as well so here they are.

Well just over half an hour later, and a quick wiggle of the needle to get the last little bits out, I had successfully lost my blood donating virginity. Bang Bang. 450ml of body temperature (yes she did allow me to touch it) blood was being shipped off to save someone’s life. What a good RAOK that is.

In other news (yes I have used that line before but I couldn’t think of anything else).

Random Act of Kindness No. 30 - Find the most obscure charity you can – one that probably makes about a fiver a year – and donate a few quid.

So, I had a look at some obscure charities on the Internet and it is amazing what is out there (do I sound like an old man when I say that?), but I ended up donating to something I had been meaning to for a while.

My brother is running the London Marathon in April, and I have been meaning to sponsor him for sometime. He obviously knew this so sent a nice little reminded to all his friends say “hey, please sponsor me”, he is running it in aid of the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB). Quite a worthy cause I believe. He has certainly been putting in the effort with training and has somehow managed to get me involved and signed us both up to run the Great North Run later in the year. He thinks he will beat me…yeah game on sonny Jim. Anyway I went onto his virgin justgiving page and parted with £20 of the finest English sterling. A good deed I believe.

Now, I don’t want to appear as though I am promoting certain things, product placement or whatever, but if you would like to sponsor my brother please click HERE and pledge as little or as much as you like. He hasn’t asked me to do this and doesn’t know I am, so it would be awesome if just a few followers, or Joinees could donate a couple of pound here and there. Awesome, thank you very much.

Very good, well that is RAOK No, 30 done, and 20 finally completed. I hope you are still enjoying my blog and not finding it boring or too samy – is that a word- samy, samie, sammie, samey. Ya get me? It is of paramount importance that ya get me. I think you do. If you don’t let me know.

Nice one. Thank you, check back tomorrow for the latest update in Williams Wonderful World.

Oh also, just before I go, the girl I sent the card to has received it today and sent me a text message, you may think I am making this up but honest I am not. She said “Your card just made my day a million times better! J Love You xx”

Oh yeah she did. Here is a screen print just to prove it. That makes me happy.

If you go down to the lake today, you are in for a big surprise

Right, first up I would like to apologise for the bad camera work. I’m not quite sure what happened. It has gone all stretch and the wrong way round. Whilst editing I couldn’t find the rotate button either so could do nothing about it.

I hope you still get the idea. Maybe turn your head or the computer screen when it goes the wrong way up. That’s what I did. It’s kinda nice. I liked it.

Anyway check out the video and find out about today’s Random Act of Kindness.

Peace and Love \ / (yeah that’s meant to be the peace sign – cool hey)

A crackling good time

Random Act of Kindness No. 25 – If you see an old person struggling in a supermarket, help them do their shopping.

Well those who read my blog yesterday will know I came back to the smell the roses of Warwickshire. Two of my brothers have a rare bread Tamworth pig farm and Thursday is a busy day. One of the brothers was down in London prancing around in make-up and in front of cameras as he is taking part in Britain’s Best Dish. So I got drafted in to make up the work force. I therefore didn’t get to spend much time in a supermarket to help an old person. And I hate supermarkets anyway. So I decided my RAOK for today, would be to help my brothers out for free, for a whole day.

And that is what I did.

BANG BANG BANG BANG. Yep that will be my bedroom door at 6.00am this morning. Nice wake up call from my brother there. Once my eyes managed to stay open by their own accord – after a couple of shots of coffee - I braved the outdoors to go and feed the grunters (as Garry, the main butcher calls them).

This is the mean machine that I fed the pigs on this morning, fully loaded with the feed.

I decided I would take my time feeding this morning. It was a tactic I am sure my other brother uses. The idea is, if you feed the pigs slowly on a Thursday morning, you arrive up at the butchery when they have already got into the swing of things. So I decided to take some pictures to put up on here to show you. This is the view from the gate entrance.

Here is a picture of the oldest sows on the farm Rebecca and Amie, enjoying their breakfast with their little ones. (Amie is camera shy but Rebecca laps up the fame).

This picture is Lucy’s little porkers. This sow was named after my house mate Lucy. It is a great honour to have a sow named after you. Only special people have achieved such status…there is a long waiting list.

After taking my time with the feeding I did, eventually, head up to the butchery. My brother Jon, and Garry were in full swing. I think I had taken just a little too long this morning – oops. Never mind I hopped to it and cracked on.

After mainly standing in front of the vac-packing machine all morning, Garry gave me a crash course on how to tie the sausages – check these bad boy bangers out!

Soon it was lunchtime and as the new boy I was in charge of cracking out some lunch. Freshly made pork burgers, or freshly made pork burgers were on the menu. So I got to it. Molded some minced pork into burger shapes and hey presto, some seriously tasty pork burgers. Crackin’. (Sorry Lakshmi, I promised I wouldn’t use that word again).

Well after a short lunch break it was back to work. Slicing bacon, packing chops, hanging hams, and yes, the washing up. B-E-A-UTIFUL.

I was then told to go and do the evening feed. I also had to do some bedding down so it was a large load on the way to the field. Check out the mean machine this time round…

Rightyo, that was my RAOK for the day. Not the one actually stated in the book, but I am sure you can all understand that kindness starts at home. Who would I be if I couldn’t help my brothers out once in a while?

I also bought a Stratford-Upon-Avon Herald today and sadly they haven't published my letter. I am going to write to them tomorrow and ask jolly well why not!

"My name is Talulah, My first rule of thumb, I don't say where I'm going, Or where I'm coming from"

Random Act of Kindness No. 23 – Pick on your mates – Nicely!

The idea of this RAOK is to pick on a friend but with kindness…

I don’t really have many friends – most of them seem to move away or lead very busy lives so don’t have time to see me. Yeah, think they’re trying to tell me something?! I have one friend though, Talulah. She for some reason seems to be able to tolerate me.

No, No, I’m joshin’ with you. I pay her to hang around with me.

No, No, again, I’m joshin’…

So my day started at 6.30am this morning when I escorted my dearest mother and sister in-law to the airport to go to Florence. I proceeded to carry their bags all the way there, check them in, and waited for them to go through to the departure lounge. I then managed to rush home, jump in the shower and get to University in time for my morning lecture knowing it was going to be a long day.

In the afternoon my friend, Talulah and I went to Stoke Newington to pick up a prop for the theatre company I work for. Here is a list of all the things I did to shower Talulah with kindness:

1.     Topped up her Oyster card with £10

2.     Paid her a complement about her hair.

3.     Paid for her lunch

4.     Put some of her books into my bag to lighten her load

5.     Held her hand as we crossed over the road

6.     I offered to give her a shoulder massage on the bus back home

7.     Bought some biscuits to have with a cup of tea when we get back and invited her in

8.     Laughed at all her appalling jokes

9.      Let her have the comfy chair in my living room

10. Asked if she would like me to cook her dinner and have pancakes tonight.

The whole day Talulah had no idea what I was getting up to. At some points I was a bit nervous because I thought she felt some of my behaviour was a little too friendly. I still haven’t told Talulah why I was showering her with kindness, and she is sitting in my kitchen as I write this, thinking I am sending a few emails. The first she will know about it is when she reads my blog. So Talulah, if you do see this, here is the reason why I was being so kind and thoughtful all day.

Here is a picture of Talulah with Pat. Pat is the ‘prop’ I picked up today.

Also on our little road trip I dropped a little poster off at the place where we had lunch. Here is the picture of that also.

I had best go, because I don’t want Talulah getting suspicious of my whereabouts.

"But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret." Ronald Reagan

Random Act of Kindness No, 22 - Write to an old teacher, and say thanks.

When I first saw this RAOK, I thought I should perhaps write a letter and apologise, not say thank you. However, I thought about it for a while and there was this one teacher who, has stuck in my head since I left school. That was my Psychology teacher. Mrs. Newman, I think one of the best teachers ever.

Back at school I may have been a slight handful; I wasn’t a complete idiot, or rude boy. But, I was very strong-minded, shall I say, and as the youngest of four boys I certainly new how to be awkward.

Nonetheless, Mrs Newman had the measure of me, and always managed to drag the best out of me. She certainly had a good work ethic and made sure we all worked, towed the line and achieved. In our last Psychology lesson, she said something along the lines of, ‘don’t be a stranger, let me know how you are doing sometime’. So I thought today was a perfect opportunity to let her know how I am doing and say thank you.

At the start I was planning just a wee letter. However, I got into it and three pages later I finished the letter with my blog address. Yeah is that wrong to say thank you, but hey check out my blog? Perhaps. Ah well, it is in the post box now. Hopefully she will have a look on here and let me know. I actually feel really good after writing that letter. Everyone should do it. Write a simple little letter to and old school teacher, boss or someone who has genuinely helped you, and made a difference to you. It’s really nice.

Anyhow, the posters. Yes, I made another one today. I wondered whether to drop it in the postbox as well for the postman, but I didn’t have it with me when I went to post the letter. It only occurred to me after. Perhaps another day I will put one in there.

But today, I went food shopping. My mum and sister in-law are coming down to stay at the Peckham Palace tonight as they’re going to Italy tomorrow morning so see the other in-laws. Obviously I am going to be a crackin’ host so I am going to whip up a storm in the kitchen. But before I could do that I needed some food to cook with. Whilst I was in the lovely Morrisons supermarket in Peckham, I popped the poster in with the veg. I thought it was a great idea to cheer up all the fellow shoppers. No one really like shopping in Morrisons do they, so I thought this might put a smile on their face.

Have a look at the picture.

Crackin’. 

Big Ben.

Here is today's RAOK in the form of a video which has been highly requested. I hope it's alright. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Ok so, for some reason it won't allow me to add the video today so just click here and enjoy. Sorry.

I am waiting to hear back from the Stratford-Upon-Avon Herald as to whether they are going to publish my letter, but as soon as I know I will most certainly inform all of you.

And remember tomorrow may be monday, but - "Smile, it won't be so bad"

Donating blood with a smile.

Good afternoon,

RAOK No. 20 – Today, give blood.

So, obviously I can’t turn up at a donor center, stick a needle in my arm and give them a couple of pints. Or however much it is. They probably would refuse my blood at the moment anyway. Anyhow, I went onto the blood donor website and signed up. I am now successfully registered to give blood. Step one, completed. I did a bit of browsing on their website and tried to apply for an appointment on the 15^th of March at 18.00. Now I have a slight inkling that I won’t be able to do it that soon. Nonetheless, I have applied and will wait to hear back from them.

Yesterday, I asked for some suggestions for another RAOK to do today as well as sign up to give blood. Personally, my favourite was suggested by Emily. This is what she said:

“I would like to suggest one, beginning with a story. One day a few weeks ago I was feeling a little down after visiting a relative in hospital. On the walk home I saw some words someone had written on the side of a telephone box. They said, "Smile, today wasn't so bad". I instantly smiled. The fact that someone had taken the time to write, all be it graffiti, an uplifting phrase to everyone had made me smile and I started to feel better, thinking about all the good things that had happened that day.”

Now, this is a lovely story and I instantly knew this was the one I should do. I am now going to start putting one poster up a day in a random spot with the words ‘Smile today wasn’t so bad’. Today I started close to home, very close in fact, on the bathroom door in my house. Reason being one of my housemates has a slight tendency to wake up most mornings in a foul mood and I thought this might just ease it off a bit. I will keep you updated. Tomorrow I don’t know where I will be going but, when I do go I will take one of my posters with me and take a picture of it and post it on here. So Emily, thank you very much for your amazing idea, It is very simple yet a brilliant RAOK.

Now I am not much of an artist but here is a picture of today’s poster. I will improve my artistic skills and poster making in all good time.

In a round about way, I also did another RAOK. I was speaking to my mum on the phone and she is not feeling too great at the moment. Bit under the weather, as it were. Sadly she was so ill she was unable to go and see Romeo and Juliette at the new theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon. She especially wanted to go as one of her friend’s sons was performing, Sam Troughton. Or as Wikipedia have put it; “Sam Troughton is a British actor. He is son of David Troughton and the grandson of Doctor Who actor Patrick Troughton. His younger brother is Warwickshire cricketer Jim Troughton.” Crickey, that’s a hell of a family.

Anyway, instantly I (obviously after giving my mother some sympathy) suggested she sends one of my brothers off into Stratford-Upon-Avon and try to give the ticket away. For free of course. So, off he popped to try and give the ticket away. Half an hour later, I had a phone call from my brother sounding rather pleased with himself. He had successfully given the ticket away to a lovely man called Rob. Apparently Rob, was over the moon with the free ticket, and was thrilled to spontaneously go to the theatre, and as an added bonus - for free.

Well my brother certainly seemed to get the same excitement and pleasure out of doing a RAOK as I do.

All in all I say result!

Coffee break...

RAOK No. 19 - Find old scarves and gloves you don’t need any more and, on a cold day, offer them to the strangers in the street.

Well today was a typically cold February day. It was slightly overcast in the morning but the sun soon came out and the sky turned clear blue. I have been slightly under the weather recently with a cold, seeing the sun poke out from behind the clouds beaming down on Elephant and Castle filled me with happiness and joy. There was still a bite in the air though.

Now those who have been avidly following my blog with remember Tom., or as I named him Darren. Here he is…

Well I ended up buying him a pair of gloves, therefore, I have kind of already completed this RAOK. I therefore, decided to adapt this RAOK, and instead of giving some gloves or a hat to someone, I would buy a lovely cappuccino from the Lavazza man outside my University. In the underpass in Elephant and Castle, more often than not, there is a homeless person, asking for spare change. Instead of giving him some spare change I thought I would give him a heart-warming cappuccino.

I wasn’t sure what the person’s reaction would be, as sometimes they are very rude and shout abuse at you as you pass by. I got my friend to record it for me. Whatever the outcome and the person’s reaction I wanted to capture it.

I didn’t stop and talk to the man, but I told him “I don’t have any spare change but here is a cappuccino for you”. To my delight and perhaps surprise he was very happy with the cappuccino. It made me feel very good, and happy that I had put a smile on his face.

Here is a little video to show you what happened. It is only very short but you can certainly see his happiness. This was actually for me quite a moving RAOK. Perhaps because of my delicate state at present, nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this RAOK.

Have a look at the video and let me know what you think.

Thank you. 

Woop Woop... that's the sound of da police

Ohhh, what's occurin' alright?

So check out this video and see how I got on with RAOK No, 16.

It's a beaut.

Nick Nack Paddy whack give the dog a bone...

Now then, now then.

Random Act of Kindness No.10 - Give a dog a bone.

Check out this video and see what happened.

Here is a little picture of Lola and I...

I am going to go and brush my teeth now... enjoy!