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.

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!