You may have heard of extreme ironing an internationally recognised sport where competitors must find the most awkward extreme places to do their ironing, well someone sent me an email with various people of different nationalities going about their daily business on their bikes, this could be the new sport of 2007, except these people don't think they are doing anything extraordinary or dangerous, sometimes its a living. I call it extreme biking, these are a few of my favourites :)
When u move into a new house or indeed when u are looking for one, u may check out the local area, the shops the transport and other facilities but what u dont do is knock on the potential neighbours' houses to find out what they are like. This should be included on the estate agents brief on the property, nice house but be careful the neighbours are noisy, nosy, interfering, old, have loadsa kids/pets or all of the above!
We have two houses at the mo, both cul -de-sacs, on one theres a neighbour who mows his mini patch of lawn every day and another who is repairing his clapped out banger which should really be scrapped, EVERY DAY! The house im living in has an interfering old woman who tried to tell me i should take my cat to a vet cos his eyes injured (no less by one of her 50 cats she has in her house). After ignoring her putting vet cards through the post i came home the other day to find my cat had been taken away by the RSPCA cos he had breathing difficulties and an eye injury!! I then had to go get my cat off them and pay for the treatment which is basically eye drops and tablets, im sure the eye would have healed anyway. The point is, not all of us have money to spend at the vet for trivial matters but the fact that this woman felt i had neglected my cat by not taking it to the vet really p****d off! Apart from the eye infection the vet found nothing wrong with it, its a healthy young male, not a fat ugly castrated male cat like the ones she has!! The RSPCA inspector actually queried was i able to look after the cat, this was two days ago im still fuming about it. Where i lived before the area was not as nice but at least the neighbours mind their own business and were actually more friendly than the ones here.
This got me thinking, if she saw my son with a black eye would she report me to the social services, would she call the police on suspicion that we are terrorists? It wouldnt surprise me, the problem is we are stuck with this annoying neighbour only either of us move!
My best tactic is to ignore when i see her, that will do her head in as shes one of them who likes to talk to all her neighbours. Bat Poor!
My bro does a very good impression of his neighbours as he hears them outside in the garden!
I got a txt of a friend this morning telling me that a lady (she kind of knew) her husband had died of cancer yesterday and she couldnt pay for the funeral, could i help. What would your response be? Mine was to txt her back and tell her that i could donate a small sum. End of story. I then decided to text about ten people in my phonebook who i thought may donate some money and within half an hour people were getting back to me and also texting other people and by the end of the evening approx £1300 was raised for this lady to go towards her husband's funeral, and all those who donated have never seen or heard of this lady, yet when she needed them they were there for her. The way people came forward, donating their hard earned dosh, with trust,without suspicion and much questioning really moved me. It restored my faith in the human race, and also made me think about my funeral fund (or should i say lack of it)
You may argue that some people are generous and would donate to a complete stranger no hidden agenda,(it is comic relief today) but the difference here is that these people were giving their cash to help this woman in order to please Allah, for His sake, for His reward. The spiritual reward is much better than any other physical benefit of giving to charity. It all comes down to faith, a person who gives in the way of Allah (fisabillillah) will only see the benefits of his/her striving in the form of good deeds which are only redeemable in the next life. So the trick is being patient and believing in that spiritual reward to allow u to part with your money as you know this money would only have been wasted on some crap u think u need but dont (see Ebay store for more info!)
The devil and your innermost desires will tell you not to spend in charity as you will need that money, what u are depriving yourself of is the benefits of giving in charity which as mentioned are plentiful
I pray that the sister who lost her husband, and her children are able to resume their life asap
I am currently involved in two societies at my uni, the law society and the islamic society. They are both evolving at the moment with the president/chairman of both societies resigning for different reasons! Backstabbing, allegations on the one hand and on the other its a bit of a mystery why they are arguing and what they are arguing over, i think i should ask for my money back from both, as i dont think either society can fulfil their aims and objectives while appeasing all their members, that would be impossible! I always assumed that these societies are a chance for people with some common interest could get together and meet, not fight! Things should be clearer on Monday when both societies hold a meeting and decide how to move forward!
