I was reading an article at http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/6151606/Secret-Santas-stun-shoppers-with-layby-payoffs which reminded me of an incident in my life that made me appreciate peoples generosity.

Many moons ago, i was young and stupid. I had my first child at 18, i married an unemployed bum at 20 and had another 3 children. We lived in a poor area, with a lot of similar minded people, and lived on government handouts, most of which were spent on rent, food, and smokes.
More often than once we begged neighbours or food banks for food, and once we even resorted to slaughtering our pet chicken because we were so hungry.

Eventually i realized i wanted more in life, started to train on courses, and try and get jobs. Hindered by a bum husband who never wanted to work, never wanted to look after the children, and in fact do anything other than rack up more debt on loans.
Eventually i realized i needed to leave husband, and so did. I moved into a better area, and started sorting out my life, in the mean time i was still broke, and had a lot of debts to pay. It was two days before Xmas, i had nothing for the children, i had some expired food in my cupboard i planned to eat for xmas, when i heard a knock at the door.

It was a Repo guy, came to take the TV. I was upset, gutted, and to top it all off, that was one of the payments i was not behind on (there was a mixup). I packed the kids into strollers, and bikes to get out, and walked 4km to a mall. I just needed to walk it off, cool down, and get out of the house.

As i got near the mall. i found a single $1 coin, I went into the mall, and went to the lottery shop, bought a $1 ticket. I scratched it off, and it was nothing at all. I think at this point i had accepted things, so just walked out dejected. As i left, the women in the shop at the counter came up to me and asked me if i was ok, at which point i just explained things had been a bit rough (without going into detail).
Another lady overheard and came up and said “hey, are you looking for some gifts for your children for xmas? We have way to many toys and i was just going to throw them out”

This amazingly wonderful women, turned up on Xmas eve at my house, with a HUGE carload of amazing toys, several grocery bags of food, then left as if it was nothing. I’m still not sure even now how much that meant to me. From then onwards i just move onwards and upwards, got a job, got re-married to a wonderful guy, and life has never been better. But i never forget that women, and i always make a point to try and make somebodys xmas better.

Please, if you see somebody who is in need this season, it does not hurt to give them your cast offs, or a few dollars, some food, or similar.

A lot of people say im inspirational because i lost a lot of weight, to me it was just something i did, like going to the dairy to get bread. I did it for me, not for anyone else, i dont see the big deal as much as others.
If you want some inspiration, then let me tell you about a guy i knew from the weight loss forums.

After loosing several hundren pounds of weight, i think about 200-300, he let felt ‘ok’ about letting a few of us know exactly what he had gone through.
He was laid off from work because he was no longer fit for work, thats how fat he was. Unable to do his job and stuck on a sickness benifit supported by the state. This is when it hit home for him. He decided to change his life, starting with diet of 800 calories of protien, and as much fruit & veg he was hungry for. As for exercise he started with walking. It was the only thing he could do and he wasnt even able to do much of that.
Every morning he got up, slathered both thighs and his belly with butter or oil or something he could find that would lubricate, put on his hoody with pockets in the front, and walked. He started out doing 10 minutes and being puffed and slowly got better and walked longer.
He would always be sweating and hot from the exercise but never took off the hoodie. When he walked he chafed, thighs would chaf, hanging belly would rub, he would be raw and bleeding. This is why he used the oil and butter. Even with it he would often finish in extreme pain. The hoodie disguised the fact that his hands were not just in his pockets, but wedged under his belly holding it up so it chafed a little less so he could go just a little bit longer.
When i read what he posted, the things he went through just to loose weight, it almost made me cry. How can you possibly thing I did such a great thing? look what he went through? its far more hardship than i ever did, i feel lazy in comparison.
This man came from an obese family, and went on to finally inspire his brother to loose weight. That brother died of obesity related problems after only loosing 50-100lb , he simply started too late. He was young and married and had children, his heart could simply not sustain him. It was extremely upsetting for him to watch his brother die, knowing that he was on his way to good health. The hardest part was that his brother passed on the stairs, and they were unable to move him to treat him due to his size.

So if that’s you, then don’t leave it too late. Time to act is now.

Heya

This isn’t spammy much at all, and if you sponsor me ill never show you spammy like things again

I’m doing the 100km walk for oxfam next year, i have 36 hours to complete it and there are 4 in my team. We all start together and finish together, and all do the 100km. We don’t plan on stopping or sleeping and at a guess should be able to finish it in about 24-30 hours if we only stop for breaks occasionally.

I’m happy to put in the hard work, and do all the walking, but the team need to raise $2500 just to be able to do it. Its all about the fund raising! This isn’t an entry fee , this is  fund raising (the entry fee is on top of that!).

Funds raised from the event will support Oxfam New Zealand’s humanitarian, development and advocacy work to lift some of the world’s poorest people out of poverty.

If you can find a few $, or even a few hundy, i would most appreciate it (anything that saves me from standing on the corner begging!)

http://www.oxfam.org.nz/events/teams.asp?a=show_team_pages&eventid=24&teamid=3865

Regards,
Liz Quilty

I believe this will go viral, i love the free thinkers in this world. Nothing wrong with copying people however either, but this had tears in my eyes! (And im totally not a soppy girl)

Just the other day i saw this fantastic Pirate cake a friend made http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluebec/3935487471/

Then today i got emailed the following photos, apparently from a russian cake contest (though this was email so who knows!)