yeah...it's funny, but I don't have 1001 happy politician stories bursting to get out, I'll work on that one, and try to be more appreciative.

Travel stories, as we've seen, do lend themselves to this sort of thing...
...such as the time my train home to London from Paris was late and I'd missed my connecting train home. My then-boyfriend slept through my multitude of phonecalls and failed to come to my rescue. Not being able to afford a taxi from the centre of London to the border of Kent, I took a train that seemed to go in the same general direction, but then veered off (it's so hard to tell from those stylised tube maps!) so I jumped out at some very dodgy part of London and was absolutely packing myself until this very nice mini-cab driver, who had actually clocked off for the night and was on his way home, stopped and offered me a ride home for 10 quid. I don't think he realised *quite* how far we were going, but he was being very helpful, and I appreciated it.

Another story that touched me lately was actually the best 'sorry I'm late' excuse I've had in a while - a friend of mine is a doctor and she had a patient that was incredibly distressed about being admitted to hospital because there was no-one to feed her cat. So my friend, risking being late for the play we were going to, drove halfway across town after work and fed this stranger's cat for her. Nice, aye? That's what I call holistic care.

Then there was the time that I lost my house/car keys at the beach and some nice young man drove me home and helped me break into my house in order to retrieve my spare keys, then drove me back to the beach to get my car. Ok, that could have gone terribly wrong .....but it didn't.

And Bryan, the bouncer from the Matterhorn could do with a mention. Living down the road from me for a few years, he always allowed me to hitch a walk home with him at the end of a boozy night. And has been known to escort us ladies through left bank to our cars when there have been dodgy guys hanging about.

There are a lot of good people doing good things out there - it's really cool to hear them get a mention : )