Should `killing time`..be a crime?

We`ve all done it. I`ve kicked my heels on railway station platforms up and down the land, willing the train to arrive. Gazed distractedly at stuff in shop windows I`d never buy....because I`m too early for the hairdresser. Sat frowning in cold, dark car parks, wondering why my daughters were always the last to emerge from rehearsals. And got angry in soulless, hospital clinics,wondering how to annihilate the estimated `hour`s waiting time` until the doctor`s free.

Yes there are books to read. Yes there`s Twitter to amuse you.But more often than not in those situations, I just sit there getting angry. Killing time.

And then you read something like this on Twitter, from Kate Granger (@GrangerKate ). `I love autumn `, she wrote.`Make the most of this one as may not see another.` With a picture of a beautiful, autumnal tree. A few days earlier, Kate had posted that it would be her birthday soon. ` Really don`t feel much like celebrating,` she said, `but will probably be my last, so should make the effort.`

Kate`s a doctor, and has terminal cancer. I haven`t met her, but I wish I could. She sounds strong, feisty, incredibly bright, and determined, daily, to make a difference in the health service, by improving standards of care. She writes often about the `hello, my name is...` campaign--a bid for health workers to stop and introduce themselves to the patients they meet. I bet Kate, and people like her, would love to have some of the time that the rest of us waste.

The journalist Helen Fawkes @helenfawkesUK is another inspirational woman who also happens to have cancer. Her blog, helenfawkes.wordpress.com records how she`s doing with her `bucket list`--her List for Living. `Zooming down a zipwire, and being driven fast,round a racetrack` are there, and give you a taste of the kind of positive, `make the most of every second` woman Helen is.

I can think, without racking my brains too hard, of four people I know who are facing potentially life threatening health issues. They need time, as well as the right care, to get fit again. I could name other, special people, and I bet you could, too, who assumed they`d plod along until their seventies or eighties, but got taken from us suddenly--in an accident or after a swift, savage illness that no one could have predicted.

I don`t have any answers. I can`t promise that I`ll while away the `waiting` hours writing something worthwhile, baking for a charity event or knitting squares for freezing knees. But I`ll think of something useful. I do know that time is precious. But sometimes, you need to meet someone who`s seriously short of the stuff, to remind you of that.

The best things in life...

....are often free. From heartfelt gestures to the simplest sights and sounds --all of them can make your day.

For me: love, family, friends, good health, a clear blue sky or the sun on my skin are the kind of `free` things that prove life`s worth living.The sound of Shropshire church bells ringing out on a still, cold, wintry night, or the view from one of the county`s beautiful hills on a clear day are pretty special, too.

So too, are kindness, smiles, laughing about nothing in particular with friends or loved ones until my jaws ache, feeling sand between my toes during a day at the beach, or sinking into a warm, candlelit bubble bath when I get home.

And more recently for me, that sense of achievement and surge of energy after finishing a four or five mile walk or run..makes me feel a million dollars, even if I look like a panting wreck. And no gym fees!

Anyway,back to kind gestures-- we just got home to find in our porch a little jar of crab apple jelly, and a bag of courgettes.

They were from Mary-down-the-lane.

She`d popped a bag of runner beans and a couple of courgettes round last week. In return, we picked her some cooking apples, along with some damsons and crab apples, and left them by her door. Today`s beautifully labelled jar was our reward.

We`re now turning some of her veg, and leftovers in the fridge, into home made soup for tonight, and more for the freezer. All `free`, but more than that, a lovely gesture of neighbourly friendship. Juliet (pictured below picking some cooking apples) has reminded me that we need to check out Jack Monroe`s website again--top recipes, for not much outlay.

It makes you wonder though, how much more we could do for each other, trading the fruit and vegetables in our gardens or allotments, baking a cake in return for mowing a lawn; swapping our skills. I know these schemes already exist in many communities. No money changes hands. Does that happen where you live?

The Freecycle and Freegle movement works along similar lines. Not only do they provide a fantastic way to keep your unwanted goods out of landfill, they provide subscribers with all kinds of home items that they`d otherwise have to pay for. We`ve passed on beds, tables, a Hostess trolley, shelves, magazines,clothes, children`s bikes and toys and a couple of sofas in recent years.And we`ve bid for, and received some useful rugs, a cupboard, a couple of dining chairs and some deckchairs in return. What a brilliant scheme!

I`m going to London soon... travelling on £6 tickets (available to all ages)--a fraction of how much they`d normally cost me-- and some of my accommodation is going to be completely free. While I`m there, I`m going to be finding out just whether it`s possible to do London `on the cheap`. From food, to family attractions, to transport, to sampling the capital`s culture.

If you have any ideas, let me know, and I`ll tell you how I get on.

In the meantime....the soup smells delicious. Thanks Mary, and Juliet, and Jack. I`ll go and give it a stir......

COMMENTS:

Ironbridge_AAC Nige ‏@IronbridgeAAC19m

@janemcintyre12 in this materialistic world we live in often overlooked :)

Jake Snr ‏@JakeSnr12m

@janemcintyre12 the skills bank idea never took off in #Lightmoor; but we does has a Games Bank where kids can borrow outdoor games for free