Cordial and Kindness
I had to go to my leukaemia consultant on my own in the city because the appointment was at 9am and there was only my husband to take my disabled teenager to her special school. I assumed all would be well because I feel well, and I also assumed that if the blood tests I’d taken 4 weeks earlier in preparation for the appointment had thrown up anything horrific then they would have been on the phone before now and hauled me in. Despite this, understandably the nerves creep in before the appointment. Fortunately, I was right and everything was OK. Good.
When I drove home my next door neighbours were trimming both their own hedge and also my hedge at the front of our houses. You can choose to be embarrassed that they’re trimming your hedge which has grown unruly or you can choose to just be incredibly grateful that they’re helping you. I chose the latter, thanking them for their kindness on what had been a rather stressful morning.
In the afternoon I picked my daughter up from school and took her to Sainsburys to choose a bunch of flowers as a thank you for the kind people next door. Once there, I also decided to pick up some posh squash. I like a raspberry and lemon Belvoir Farms one. It comes in a glass bottle with a pretty drawing on it and feels more grown up than a bottle of orange squash that I’d have drunk when I was 7.
A man came up to me.
“These ones are better,” he said pointing to the High Juice bottles I’d have had as a child.
“Are they?” I asked. “Yes.” he replied “I worked at Astra Zeneca for years and these have 50% fruit in and less sugar – although now we’ve left the EU there’s no Ascorbic acid in them anymore but you can buy that separately and add if in.”
“Can you?”
“Yes, I get through buckets of it each week”
I picked up the blackcurrant. I’m not even sure I want blackcurrant. I don’t know what ascorbic acid does and I only got a B for GCSE chemistry before rejecting science and doing arts A-levels because I’m the sort of person who likes to buy things in pretty bottles with a drawing on them. But I’m so grateful to all the people being helpful today that I buy the blackcurrant high juice. I buy an elderflower and apple high juice too in case he sees me at the checkout desk. And then I also buy the raspberry and lemon one in the pretty bottle – probably because I’ve never liked being told what to do. Still, how wonderful. People are kind and scientists and doctors who make high juice with ascorbic acid in it and who make medicines that knock leukaemia back so much it’s as if you don’t have it at all are utterly, utterly brilliant.
Here’s the flowers we bought for the kind people who live next door above. My neighbour texted me the pic so I could show my daughter how pretty they look on her table. It’s been a lovely day.
Our Summer Sale is in full swing and there’s 70% OFF some of the underwear and 50% OFF some PJs, so do check it out if you get chance.
