What it is all about

Just back home, slightly the worse for wear, from a lovely night out for a curry and drinks with wonderful work colleagues. The restaurant was boisterous with a Christmas do for the staff of The Sandpiper, a new pub in Welton, East Yorkshire. The landlord boomed out that he was giving out awards, one was a bottle of sparkling wine. The winners? The other customers that had to put up with them tonight - us. Nice.

Then we got our taxi home, driven by a Romanian. He wanted to study at the University but was told that his impeccable English wasn't quite good enough and he was advised to do more study and apply again. We gave him all the right contacts (i.e. me) to get him on adult education courses in January. He seemed thrilled. I hope he emails and we can get him going on something good.

One of my friend's sayings when she is down is, "what's it all about?". And this is what it's all about. A bit of generosity, support, appreciation and a hand up to anyone we can give it to. It might not seem much, but it can make someone's day, or, perhaps, as with our taxi driver, change their lives. It goes under many names, decency will do for now.