Latest / The Christian Reeve Podcast / Volunteering | The Christian Reeve Podcast | #124 |

Transcript

Volunteering | The Christian Reeve Podcast | #124 | · The Christian Reeve Podcast

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to another episode of the Christian Reef
• 0:05
  podcast. Today's guest is me.
• 0:09
  I'm just kidding. No, it's a discussion based
• 0:13
  episode. I did have a guest for this week
• 0:17
  but unfortunately, that fell through as these things do,
• 0:20
  sometimes wishing them all the best.
• 0:22
  Hope they're safe and well, but I do have topics lined up, you
• 0:28
  know, for Such an instance and one thing I've said in the past
• 0:33
  both of my live streams and in previous podcasts is that I'm
• 0:38
  very keen to do more episodes like this where I talk to you
• 0:42
  and I basically discuss a topic at length and that could be you
• 0:49
  know, my knowledge on a particular topic, my thoughts
• 0:53
  and opinions on a particular topic that I've researched or it
• 0:58
  could just be me sharing stories.
• 0:59
  Which is basically what today is going to be but it's also the
• 1:04
  ultimate test for me. It's you know, testing my
• 1:07
  ability to be able to do this so that I know that you know if I
• 1:12
  don't have any guests for a given period, I can just keep
• 1:15
  the podcast going and you know, I've done a few episodes like
• 1:21
  this I think in total maybe there's I'd say somewhere in the
• 1:24
  region of about 10 or less episodes like this you know some
• 1:29
  of those episodes. AIDS include the hundredth
• 1:31
  anniversary where I kind of looked back over the past year
• 1:35
  of the podcast and try to kind of talk about what I've learned
• 1:39
  during that time, Etc. There was the skateboarding
• 1:42
  episode where I spoke about, you know, my knowledge of
• 1:44
  skateboarding and my experiences skateboarding.
• 1:47
  Growing up the Wrestling episode which for those who don't know,
• 1:50
  massive wrestling fans. So that episode naturally had me
• 1:54
  discussing all my thoughts on Modern wrestling and old-school
• 1:59
  recipes. Thing and how I got into
• 2:01
  wrestling. And this topic is no different
• 2:06
  volunteering is something I've always wanted to do and this
• 2:09
  will sound very silly, but I wasn't sure how to get into
• 2:13
  volunteering years ago. Sure.
• 2:16
  I probably would have done some stuff at school.
• 2:19
  I do vaguely remember. In Primary School putting
• 2:22
  together, a shoebox of things to, then send to someone in
• 2:26
  Africa, and it was like, toys and stuff like that.
• 2:29
  But I never really counted that because it was like a whole
• 2:32
  school initiative thing, and everyone's doing it.
• 2:35
  And I feel like often volunteering is a very personal
• 2:40
  thing. Everyone has their own reasons
• 2:42
  for why they do it and why they continue to do it.
• 2:45
  And for me, I always felt bad that I could never really give
• 2:53
  two people in a meaningful way. Now, I've never really been in a
• 2:56
  position where I've had. Like a lot of money I grew up in
• 2:59
  a pretty The whole household. I mean, we had what we needed.
• 3:03
  We were fine and everything but you know, it's difficult.
• 3:06
  So I never really had like, loads of money, lying around or
• 3:09
  whatever to give people and I know that's not the whole thing,
• 3:13
  you know, it's not like sorry, I'm I'm not particularly in
• 3:16
  myself. Well, at all here.
• 3:18
  I'm still a bit ill and under the weather.
• 3:20
  So I do apologize if my voice is off and if my mind is not quite
• 3:24
  as Snappy as it normally is. But anyway, I never felt like it
• 3:30
  was enough to just, you know, maybe give some people some
• 3:32
  money here and there make a donation to a charity.
• 3:35
  I always felt like I could do more and I wanted to do more,
• 3:39
  but I just had no idea how to get into volunteering.
• 3:44
  It to me, it seemed like something that's very difficult,
• 3:48
  you know, it's about who, you know, Etc and growing up in
• 3:52
  London. I guess I never really looked
• 3:54
  into it as much, you know. I used to be that type of
• 3:56
  person, many, many years, Go, who would write things off and
• 4:01
  come up with, you know, reasons why I shouldn't do something
• 4:04
  with, oh, it probably won't work out, although it probably this
• 4:07
  whole, probably that I didn't actually just go and look into
• 4:10
  it, and this brings us to the starting start of my
• 4:16
  volunteering, which was in 2020. So, somewhere around September
• 4:23
  time, I started looking into it. I started thinking, you know
• 4:26
  what I mean? This new city, man.
• 4:28
  Chester have been living here now, six or seven months at that
• 4:31
  point. Now, it's close to two years.
• 4:34
  We all will be two years in February 2022 of me living in
• 4:39
  Manchester. But at that point in 2020, I'd
• 4:42
  been here for about six months. And, you know, I just really
• 4:46
  like the people here, The Vibes, everything.
• 4:48
  It's basically just, you know, London but a lot smaller and
• 4:53
  controversial. But I think a bit more culture
• 4:55
  and Vibes in some areas not to say, London doesn't have that.
• 4:58
  But there's much more of the Vibes aspect to things and
• 5:03
  culture then there is like, you know, business districts and
• 5:06
  stuff. But there is, of course, that to
• 5:08
  here in Manchester. But this is not a podcast about
• 5:11
  Manchester, maybe we'll do one of those one day.
• 5:15
  This is a podcast about volunteering.
• 5:18
  So let's get to the point, shall we?
• 5:21
  I started looking around at different places and one place
• 5:25
  got back to me and I won't say their name, people could
• 5:28
  probably pretty easily find out about them and stuff, but I
• 5:32
  found a particular place and they were one of three.
• 5:36
  I think that actually got back to me, but they offered me like
• 5:39
  a, they did. I mean, it felt like a into, to
• 5:42
  be honest. And this was back in late
• 5:45
  September of 2020. So I spoke to this guy and he
• 5:50
  Kind of running me through the sort of stuff, I generally be
• 5:54
  doing and, you know, I sort of spoke about the reasons why I
• 5:58
  wanted to do volunteering. I sort of said that, you know,
• 6:02
  at the time I was unemployed, as well.
• 6:04
  So I'd have a lot more time to play with and, you know, I as
• 6:08
  with a job, I was ready and willing to learn and do lots of
• 6:12
  things, which I'm happy to say. I have done since then, and
• 6:16
  we'll get into that later on, but at the time, it was just for
• 6:20
  a bit. Particular position which was
• 6:22
  assisting, the drivers of this particular charity.
• 6:27
  Who I'll explain all the different services and stuff at
• 6:31
  this place offers. But basically what I was
• 6:34
  applying for was a volunteer position to help people driving
• 6:39
  Vans deliver, you know, donated Furniture essentially and to
• 6:45
  collect donated furniture. And so I applied for the
• 6:49
  position. It went.
• 6:51
  Well, got the got the job, the volunteer position, and that
• 6:56
  brings us to October 20 20. Now if you'll recall around that
• 7:00
  time, we'd already been in a series of lockdowns, I'm not
• 7:04
  sure if we were in the tier system at that point, but there
• 7:07
  was a major change that happened.
• 7:08
  I can't remember exactly. Because to be honest, the past
• 7:11
  two years has been of a blur for me.
• 7:12
  It's all a lot has happened. But as as it pertains to the
• 7:16
  pandemic, it's all kind of merged into one.
• 7:21
  So it's a bit weird knowing like, was that 2021 or 2020?
• 7:25
  I don't know. yeah, it's all over the place at least - but
• 7:31
  something major had happened some sort of major shift, maybe
• 7:35
  a new lockdown, heightened restrictions something like
• 7:38
  that. I remember entering the base of
• 7:41
  this particular charity and going up to they're upstairs,
• 7:44
  will the staff were and we were sitting in some sort of meeting
• 7:48
  room with the guy who interviewed me and there was
• 7:52
  maybe me and five or six. Others, first time volunteers
• 7:56
  and everything. We've had the little
• 7:57
  introductory speech and we're waiting to kind of Started or,
• 8:02
  you know, so we'll go from there and he's purposefully keeping us
• 8:06
  in this room because there's a staff meeting going on in the
• 8:09
  main hall and it sounds serious. Sounds like there's a something
• 8:13
  important going on. I've remembered what it is now.
• 8:18
  So it wasn't a major shift or change in lockdown rules or
• 8:22
  anything like that. But there was something
• 8:24
  significant happened which I will get to in a second.
• 8:27
  So he's keeping us occupied while they're trying to finish
• 8:30
  up their meeting. And once they finish it takes
• 8:32
  longer than expected, it's maybe half an hour and eventually the
• 8:38
  CEO and someone also quite senior at the charity.
• 8:43
  Come and walk in the room and they're wearing.
• 8:46
  And none of us are wearing masks at the time, the rules stated.
• 8:51
  I think that you didn't have to wear masks.
• 8:53
  This was not 100% sure but I'm pretty sure it was just before
• 8:57
  the masks thing became fully mandatory.
• 8:59
  It was a bit of a hazy area, but the particular charity that
• 9:04
  volunteering is very strict and has been ever since around
• 9:08
  October 20, 20. Like, I mean, even to this day,
• 9:10
  they we still wear masks everywhere whenever I go there
• 9:13
  and and this is Even during that like the whole of 2021 where
• 9:18
  there's been points where we don't need to wear them anymore,
• 9:22
  the team, the management team has been very adamant.
• 9:24
  No, let's just keep wearing them and just keep protecting
• 9:27
  ourselves regardless, in anticipation of changes.
• 9:32
  Which inevitably, I think there's going to be some more in
• 9:35
  the coming year, not to be negative, but if you look at
• 9:37
  everything that's going on with Omicron Etc and the current
• 9:41
  government, and the way that they move in the manner, that
• 9:44
  they move is pretty. Yeah, that would probably
• 9:46
  heading for another lockdown or tightened restrictions in the
• 9:50
  new year. But anyway, CEO comes into the
• 9:55
  room with another member of staff and they inform us that we
• 10:00
  all need to start wearing our masks.
• 10:02
  So we all have masks on us and we put the masks on, and then
• 10:05
  they proceeded to tell us that they've had their first case of
• 10:08
  covid ever. And now the, you know, the
• 10:13
  person safe persons. Well there, At home but you know
• 10:16
  obviously they have to really tighten things up and make sure
• 10:22
  that everyone is protected and the CEO gave kind of like a
• 10:26
  10-15 minute speech about you know that situation what they're
• 10:30
  going to change Etc. And then she sort of finished by
• 10:32
  saying and it's perfectly understandable if you want to
• 10:36
  walk away. If you don't want to continue or
• 10:38
  to start volunteering with us, we will completely understand
• 10:41
  and no hard feelings. And, you know, is really decent
• 10:44
  of her to lay it all. Out for us and be very
• 10:46
  transparent about everything. And I could tell in the room,
• 10:51
  the mood was a bit of a concern. There was concern in the room
• 10:55
  obviously because, you know, it's a pandemic and people's
• 10:59
  lives are at risk, you know? So of course, you're going to be
• 11:00
  concerned but it was a bit of a shift and I remember, I sort of
• 11:07
  sat there for a minute or two and I think I'd already made my
• 11:10
  mind up at that point. I was like, well, I'm here
• 11:13
  already. And you know, every time you my
• 11:17
  mindset was every time you leave the house, it's a risk.
• 11:20
  If I go to the store, it's a risk.
• 11:22
  If I go to the local park, it's a risk.
• 11:24
  If someone delivers something to my door, it's a risk.
• 11:27
  So how is this any different? The only difference is I would
• 11:30
  be exposed to more people. That's the only difference and
• 11:34
  the way I kind of thought about it at the time and I still think
• 11:37
  this way is that you can only kind of avoid risks for so long.
• 11:43
  Like eventually, you just have to face The music and just put
• 11:46
  yourself out there and take the risk.
• 11:48
  And that was my mindset back then.
• 11:49
  And, you know, again, I really wanted to help people.
• 11:52
  I wanted to be there for people and contribute, especially at a
• 11:57
  time when it was really needed in my mind.
• 11:59
  It kind of made me think, you know what?
• 12:01
  This is probably the best time to start volunteering at a time
• 12:05
  when people were probably quite scared about, you know, going
• 12:10
  out of their house and, you know, scared about everything
• 12:13
  because 2020, you know, So what you will but I'm pretty sure
• 12:16
  many of us were pretty concerned back then, you know, we've sort
• 12:20
  of got used to covid-19 and I don't think people are as scared
• 12:24
  anymore or, you know, we've just kind of moved on with our lives
• 12:27
  but there is always that little element of fear of.
• 12:30
  Well what if I catch it, what if this happens, what if that
• 12:33
  happens, there's always that kind of mindset at the back of
• 12:37
  your mind, mindset, the back of your mind, thought in the back
• 12:40
  of your mind. There you go.
• 12:44
  And that wasn't, that's what went through my head, and I kind
• 12:46
  of felt that my mind's made up. It comes to the next week and I
• 12:52
  turn up and inevitably out of six people.
• 12:56
  I think maybe one to others, you know, continue to show up and
• 13:02
  this is pretty normal to be fair for volunteering, you know, with
• 13:05
  volunteer places, especially in cities, like Manchester
• 13:08
  inevitably attracts a lot of young people.
• 13:11
  And you know, me, Any of them come and go, you know, has an as
• 13:15
  and when because, you know, some of them are students, some of
• 13:18
  them get jobs or just don't have the time, some of them can only
• 13:22
  commit for, you know, a certain amount of time.
• 13:25
  And yes, that's completely fine. There's nothing wrong with that.
• 13:28
  It's just how it is. But the point is, there's a lot
• 13:31
  of turnover. So, maybe if you see part one
• 13:34
  person, one week and then you never see him again or you see
• 13:36
  someone for several months and then never see them again.
• 13:39
  It's a bit weird for people like me to stick around.
• 13:43
  Around for as long as I have because in October of 2021, it
• 13:48
  marked a year of me volunteering and I thought that was pretty
• 13:53
  cool. It flew by I realized it sort of
• 13:57
  last minute didn't even think about it and I was like oh I've
• 14:00
  been here for a year. How about that?
• 14:02
  But When I look at you know a lot of the people that I've met
• 14:06
  over the past year through volunteering, very few people
• 14:11
  have stuck around and that's just the nature of how it goes.
• 14:15
  But I guess my point with with doing this whole podcast is to
• 14:20
  share stories with you to share my kind of story of how I got
• 14:24
  into it. Why I do it, why maybe you
• 14:27
  should consider doing it and also to share my experiences,
• 14:31
  you know, both The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, everything in
• 14:33
  between I wanted to kind of paint a picture of how I got
• 14:38
  into it and you know everything that's kind of happened in the
• 14:42
  beginning, the middle and where we are today.
• 14:46
  So that was how I originally got into it.
• 14:48
  And as I say, I started as what's called a driver's mate.
• 14:53
  So it's basically just an assistant.
• 14:55
  And this particular charity, basically helps the homeless and
• 15:01
  people in poor income families and stuff like that.
• 15:04
  And So, we got a lot of homeless people.
• 15:06
  We got a lot of people in very difficult, dire situations and
• 15:09
  we provide a range of different Services, you know.
• 15:11
  We, we provide, you know, guidance help with, you know,
• 15:17
  DWP and housing, and, and just all sorts of stuff.
• 15:21
  All sorts of, really good resources.
• 15:23
  But other than that, we're also a standard charity.
• 15:26
  So you've got like, your charity shop with its furniture and
• 15:28
  stuff in it. There's a food Club.
• 15:31
  We'll get back to that standard retail store.
• 15:35
  And a few other services. And also, you know, they do
• 15:38
  things like, they feed the Homeless and stuff, they provide
• 15:41
  like a job club. Like lots of really, really cool
• 15:44
  stuff. It's a real nice place to
• 15:47
  volunteer. And that's why I've continued to
• 15:49
  volunteer because I've had a lot of opportunities there in a
• 15:53
  range of different areas and I've really been able to
• 15:56
  contribute in a positive way. And you know I really like being
• 16:00
  able to do that like being able to give back to a city that So
• 16:05
  far has given me so much, you know, I really I really do like
• 16:09
  Manchester I must say. Anyway, that's the position.
• 16:13
  I started out with basically people by purchase Furniture in
• 16:18
  our store and we deliver it to them.
• 16:21
  And all of that furniture is collected from donations.
• 16:25
  From sometimes, it's from companies.
• 16:29
  But most of the time it's from people people like you and me
• 16:32
  who just Decide to donate this furniture to charity and it's
• 16:36
  really decent of them often. We will go and pick up that
• 16:39
  furniture. And now I'm going to tell you
• 16:43
  about that job in detail. So and I haven't even got to all
• 16:47
  the stories that I've got here to tell you.
• 16:49
  But I guess this is important to get to kind of give you a
• 16:53
  breakdown of a lot of things that I do to being a drivers me
• 16:58
  from the get-go. I realized that you need to have
• 17:02
  a lot of experience with Heavy lifting.
• 17:04
  And they did ask me about this when I first started and
• 17:08
  luckily, I do have a lot of experience in that area.
• 17:10
  I've worked in in supermarkets, carrying around heavy wine,
• 17:15
  trolleys, I've done morning deliveries, you're loading stuff
• 17:18
  on and off the van and whatnot. I've worked in Hospitality
• 17:25
  carrying lots of heavy things. I've worked on farms, you know
• 17:29
  just doing really physical manual labor.
• 17:32
  I've never gotten any Vishal qualifications or anything in
• 17:35
  that area, but I've done a lot of jobs that require you to do
• 17:40
  manual, lifting and know how to protect yourself and and how to
• 17:45
  how to do it. You know what I mean?
• 17:47
  And I'm not just saying that. Like, and you know what I mean?
• 17:51
  Like, as if you can turn around and be like, yeah, Chris, we do
• 17:53
  what you mean. I just assumed that, you know, I
• 17:55
  mean, of course, you know what I mean, but yeah.
• 17:57
  Sorry. It's not often that I do videos.
• 18:03
  Podcasts like this where I'm essentially just talking to
• 18:08
  myself and there's no response because normally I'm doing live
• 18:12
  streams and people are responding back or something
• 18:16
  like that. But anyway, I digress, you have
• 18:21
  to know how to carry heavy objects if you don't, you can.
• 18:29
  I mean, I know it sounds really obvious, but it's important.
• 18:31
  You know, you have to know how to, for example.
• 18:33
  I'll pick up a sofa handle, a washing machine handle, a fridge
• 18:39
  handle, a wardrobe, all of these, various different heavy
• 18:42
  things. You have to know how to pick up
• 18:44
  a box, a heavy box. There's a way to do all of these
• 18:48
  things, which I've learned over the years.
• 18:50
  But I would always say it's about technique for anyone that
• 18:56
  thinks, oh, I can't lift heavy things.
• 18:58
  It's too heavy. I don't have the strength.
• 19:00
  I think, and I've learned that it's always about technique,
• 19:04
  everyone has a base strength, which you can improve over time
• 19:08
  through just regularly lifting things, you know, you're going
• 19:12
  to get better just like anything else in life.
• 19:14
  The more you do it, the better, you're going to get.
• 19:17
  And I think a certain degree of it is belief.
• 19:20
  You got to believe in yourself, and I know this sounds weird to
• 19:23
  think about what believe in yourself, in terms of lifting
• 19:26
  things. But yes, you have to trust
• 19:29
  yourself if you don't trust. Just yourself and your body and
• 19:32
  trust that you know how to do this.
• 19:34
  You're going to panic and when you panic, that's when there's
• 19:37
  problems and it's dangerous. But of course you have to know
• 19:40
  your own strength as well. We always often go in groups of
• 19:46
  2 so we'll be a driver and drivers mate and that's how we
• 19:51
  do the job. And often there will be things
• 19:55
  that you you can carry by yourself.
• 19:58
  They're heavy but you can carry it by yourself.
• 20:00
  But a lot of the time we will just you know help each other
• 20:04
  carry those things together because it's less effort.
• 20:08
  That way it's not as heavy. You don't expend as much energy
• 20:13
  and you know, it's like the old saying, work smart, not hard,
• 20:17
  but, you know, sometimes it's just quicker to just lift up a
• 20:21
  heavy. In a cabinet and just move it to
• 20:25
  another location. Then it is to wait for your
• 20:28
  assistant or your supervisor or whatever to come over.
• 20:32
  You know, sometimes it's just quicker but for a lot of things
• 20:35
  we there is no discussion. You absolutely need another
• 20:38
  person to help you things like really, really heavy, wardrobes
• 20:42
  that are like 8 to 9 for whatever washing machines,
• 20:47
  especially heavy and and sofas and sofas very some Times, they
• 20:52
  really like, but most of the time, they're really heavy and
• 20:55
  inevitably the most difficult aspect of this job.
• 21:00
  To be honest is getting these products into really tight
• 21:07
  spaces or up flights of stairs. I don't know if you've ever
• 21:12
  attempted to move, furniture up, flights of stairs, in tight
• 21:16
  spaces, getting in, getting them into Flats.
• 21:19
  I can tell you now. It is very difficult because
• 21:23
  just lifting up, something is one thing and moving it from one
• 21:27
  space to another, that's pretty straightforward, you know, you
• 21:29
  just got to have your base strength, know how to handle it
• 21:32
  and just move it, you know? And you just got take the brunt
• 21:34
  of the wait for the for, however, long until it's done.
• 21:38
  But the biggest and most challenging aspect of this
• 21:42
  particular job is navigating these areas.
• 21:45
  And, you know, there's been many occasions even recently as
• 21:50
  recent as last last week when I did it because I do it every
• 21:53
  Monday, they will be spaces that are surprised that will surprise
• 21:58
  both me and the drivers because we've been doing it for so long.
• 22:02
  Now we're you like, there's no way we're getting that in and
• 22:04
  then but we get a feeling we need to, we need to make an
• 22:07
  effort to try and get this in because there's a chance and let
• 22:10
  there was one here. Go, here's your first story.
• 22:12
  There was a couple of sofas that I was delivering to a place the
• 22:19
  other day and I thought it was just the sofas, but that was
• 22:24
  only half the job, but we've not even been there for like 15
• 22:29
  minutes and we realize we're not getting this so far in without
• 22:31
  taking the legs, off of the sofa, which is pretty common.
• 22:35
  That's, you know, pretty common occurrence that you have to do
• 22:37
  that because the doorways are so narrow, and there's different
• 22:42
  ways to get sofas into into houses and flats and such.
• 22:46
  But often what you have to do is like angle them in a particular
• 22:49
  way. Put them up, right?
• 22:50
  That kind of stuff. But obviously, it will depends
• 22:54
  on how large the Gap is. If it's not wide enough, you
• 22:57
  just can't get it in, but sometimes you can and you it
• 23:00
  will require you to take the legs off and stuff and we got
• 23:03
  off to a pretty bad start. The driver that I was working
• 23:07
  with unfortunately crushed his arm in in the doorway as we were
• 23:14
  trying to put the first sofa through.
• 23:16
  Don't worry he's fine. It often happens that you get
• 23:19
  your arm trap to your hand trapped or Been horrible like
• 23:22
  that. You just have to be careful but
• 23:24
  hey, mistakes happen. So he's sort of resting.
• 23:29
  Now I go tell him to just go chill for a second, have a
• 23:31
  cigarette, just stand there, you know, alleviate the pain and
• 23:34
  come back to me while I'm, you know, basically I've got
• 23:38
  screwdriver and I'm basically taking off these eggs off the
• 23:43
  bottom of the sofa and I finished doing it and then it's
• 23:47
  basically a temp number two, to get the sofas in.
• 23:51
  And he leads it and I'm the one pushing because I prefer to
• 23:55
  generally carry, a lot of the way, I feel more comfortable
• 23:58
  with that and I like to let the driver lead and kind of guide.
• 24:01
  I just feel more comfortable doing that.
• 24:03
  So anyway, he's guiding it in trying to pull it.
• 24:07
  Pull it in. And I'm pushing.
• 24:09
  And I basically, it's like stuck in the Gap, but I quickly
• 24:15
  realized the only way this is getting in, is if I shove it in
• 24:18
  with just brute strength, and this is not me trying to be.
• 24:21
  Oh, what does he think? He thinks he's Superman fixes
• 24:24
  He-Man. No, I'm just saying sometimes.
• 24:29
  The only way you're getting in is by just brute force and
• 24:33
  that's what happened in this instance, it was just brute
• 24:36
  force of me trying to shove this.
• 24:38
  So foreign after about five minutes of doing that, we get
• 24:42
  the first one in and then it's like the slow realization.
• 24:46
  Okay. We've got the first one in now,
• 24:49
  we've got get the second one in and we got repeat the process
• 24:51
  all over again. So we do it the next.
• 24:55
  So for is a little bit smaller, it's not really problematic.
• 24:59
  We get it in no worries. And then and it Miss this
• 25:05
  probably perfectly defines how difficult this job can be.
• 25:09
  So I basically get this large wardrobe off the van and luckily
• 25:19
  it's got wheels. So we can at least move it along
• 25:22
  the street down to the Door, which is only like a minute
• 25:25
  away. And you know, we easily get it
• 25:28
  through the front door. And the first thing that the
• 25:30
  person says, the person, the property owner says is oh, yeah,
• 25:34
  can you get up the stairs and immediately, my sleep driver
• 25:37
  just turns to me and just goes, of course, they went up the
• 25:41
  stairs because of course, and I just laugh, and we both chuckle,
• 25:44
  because we've been in this situation so many times when you
• 25:47
  go in these tiny Flats, when there's barely any space, to get
• 25:50
  it through the front door, let alone up the stairs.
• 25:52
  And I New before I saw these stairs that it was going to be
• 25:56
  narrow. I just knew you just have a
• 25:59
  feeling that these things sometimes.
• 26:01
  I take a quick Gander at the stairs and inevitably, it's
• 26:05
  really, really narrow like unsafe Tower and just to make it
• 26:11
  that little bit extra harder. There's also a banister which I
• 26:16
  don't know why this is the case in Flats, you know, of this,
• 26:20
  when they're this tiny but I guess it's necessary for You
• 26:23
  know, if older people going to live in the property but there's
• 26:26
  like a banister on the middle of the of the of the wall going up.
• 26:32
  Which again, makes it even tighter now.
• 26:36
  Whoever is guiding at the bottom, generally has the easier
• 26:40
  job because you're carrying the weights and the other person is
• 26:44
  guiding it and trying to get it up the stairs.
• 26:45
  They've got the hard job really. It is like chocolate Brothers to
• 26:49
  me to you kind of situation, but very awkward because you're
• 26:52
  trying not to Scratch the walls. You try not to damage, whatever.
• 26:56
  You're trying to get up the stairs and you're trying to
• 26:59
  guide it. Now, the problem was my
• 27:01
  colleague was obviously still in pain from trapping his arms and
• 27:04
  stuff and he wants me to lead. And I think I've only LED
• 27:09
  handful of times because I as I say was like to carry it as
• 27:13
  opposed to guiding it. But you know, I respect him.
• 27:16
  You know, we work well together and I was like, okay, I'm going
• 27:20
  to do my best and inevitably again just to make it.
• 27:23
  It even harder, there's nothing to grip onto.
• 27:27
  We wear gloves, safety gloves that were supposed to wear the
• 27:30
  give us a bit more grip. But basically, if you've got
• 27:33
  nothing to hold, there's no way you're going to, you're going to
• 27:36
  be able to pull it. You know, you can you can
• 27:38
  deadlift things which, you know, always supposed to do.
• 27:43
  But you know some situations you just have to deadlift things and
• 27:47
  you have to use Shear strength and it sucks.
• 27:49
  But that's the only way you're going to move it in this
• 27:52
  instance. Deadlifting wouldn't have made a
• 27:56
  difference at all and I still had to deadlift it a little bit
• 28:00
  just to get it on the stairs like one by one.
• 28:02
  That was basically how we got it up because we couldn't slant it
• 28:05
  and just push it up. We had to kind of do a
• 28:09
  combination of slanting and deadlifting step-by-step and the
• 28:14
  whole time I'm just like it's going to fall.
• 28:15
  It's going to fall, it's going to fall.
• 28:16
  There's no room. There's no room.
• 28:19
  And what basically, what we had to do was deadlift and Twist and
• 28:25
  turn it, and push it into the room to the left of me.
• 28:31
  And I'm desperately trying to push it.
• 28:33
  I can't see what I'm doing because I can't see the floor.
• 28:36
  Can't see how close it is to the door frame or anything.
• 28:41
  And I'm the whole time I'm like, I don't want to drop it, don't
• 28:43
  drop it on my colleague. Like it's, it's a bloody
• 28:46
  Nightmare. And I've been in this situation
• 28:48
  I can't count how many times. It's just part and parcel of
• 28:53
  delivering Furniture unfortunately. but I twisted it
• 28:57
  in with the help of my colleague and we managed to get it in
• 29:00
  somehow and like we were sweating, that was our first job
• 29:07
  of the day and it took us In total probably about 35 minutes
• 29:13
  bear in mind, we've got God knows how many other jobs and
• 29:15
  collections to do for that day. And obviously, the property to
• 29:19
  property owner was really happy with us, like to.
• 29:21
  Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
• 29:23
  You know, we were happy because it's a charity.
• 29:25
  We want to help people. That's why we're there are,
• 29:27
  right? And I can tell how frustrated my
• 29:32
  colleague is because, you know, he's in pain from that injury,
• 29:35
  and he's just like, flabbergasted and hot and
• 29:37
  sweaty. And it's just adds not a good
• 29:39
  situation to be in. And that the property owners
• 29:42
  like oh thank you so much guys and he just turned around and
• 29:44
  was just like, that's all first job.
• 29:47
  Like what More Hell fresh hell is there going to be?
• 29:50
  And inevitably, there was just more and more hell, the rest of
• 29:53
  the day. But you know, we just got on
• 29:56
  with it as best we kids because that's all you can do, you know?
• 30:00
  But that's just to give you a snapshot of what that job is
• 30:04
  like and we'll come back to sharing some more stories about
• 30:10
  me. Assisting on the Vans, because I
• 30:12
  want to kind of talk to you a little bit about the other
• 30:15
  things that I've done at the charity away from the drivers
• 30:18
  meet position. So, when I'd been there for
• 30:21
  about, maybe I want to say, Three or four months, something
• 30:27
  like that. I'd said from the get-go that I
• 30:30
  was interested in doing a lot of different things and I have
• 30:33
  done. So, for example, you know, as
• 30:35
  you guys know I'm a musician, so I've done a few charity streams
• 30:39
  where I've played music to people, even via Zoom, who are
• 30:45
  followers patrons of the charity or clients of the charity, that
• 30:50
  we played live music to them, or we've had people on on the site
• 30:55
  listing. As play and we've managed to
• 30:58
  entertain them. Like I remember vividly one time
• 31:00
  there was a homeless man actually came in and it was
• 31:04
  really nice. We were able to like, you know,
• 31:06
  he was able to sit there. Sit on the couch, feel
• 31:08
  comfortable. We were able to play music with
• 31:11
  and he was able to spectate and join if you wanted to.
• 31:14
  And it was a nice environment. I was really happy that I was
• 31:17
  able to entertain him and make him feel comfortable in that
• 31:22
  space. So that's an example of
• 31:23
  something that I've gotten to do it.
• 31:26
  As well. I often get asked to run their
• 31:30
  food Club because they have like a little mini I suppose, mini
• 31:36
  shop, I guess you could call it, but because of covid is set up
• 31:40
  in a way where you're not allowed into the little shop and
• 31:44
  there's me and another helper who basically get the food items
• 31:48
  for you. And that's just the system that
• 31:51
  we've operated throughout the whole pandemic and I think it's
• 31:56
  protected people a lot you know we're very careful, cleaning
• 31:59
  routines constantly you know wiping over surfaces change on
• 32:03
  our masks checked you're wearing gloves you know all of that
• 32:05
  stuff and protecting the people that come in and you meet a lot
• 32:11
  of people through that who are you know as I say homeless
• 32:16
  Street Homeless or they're in low-income families and you've
• 32:22
  got to use your brain. I mean obviously but you know
• 32:25
  you've Got a kind of think about what stuff is going to be most
• 32:29
  useful to them that especially like, Street Homeless, you know,
• 32:31
  they don't have access to cooking facilities.
• 32:34
  They don't have access to, you know, a lot of different things
• 32:38
  Refrigeration units, for example.
• 32:39
  So you've got to give them fresh food.
• 32:42
  I think my Best Days running and working in the food Club have
• 32:48
  been the days when I've been able to give them free stuff
• 32:52
  because they if you're homeless this particular charity you do
• 32:55
  get Free stuff. But you get a set amount of
• 32:58
  items that you can get. Basically, with the credits that
• 33:02
  given to you. And it can be kind of limiting
• 33:07
  especially if you don't have access to cooking facilities,
• 33:12
  all Refrigeration units. But There's been days when we've
• 33:18
  had like you know, fresh fruits and vegetables free that we can
• 33:21
  give out because you know, it goes out of date quickly.
• 33:25
  So we don't kind of penalize people for that.
• 33:27
  Where is everything else is, you know, has a long life date on
• 33:30
  it. So we kind of treat it as a, you
• 33:33
  know, like a, it's like a standard store.
• 33:35
  Imagine imagine you have like a mini shop but instead, it's in
• 33:38
  charity, you know. So it's kind of running in a
• 33:40
  unique way, but it's for people and just explain a little bit
• 33:47
  more. All the homeless people
• 33:49
  obviously don't pay. They get like a credit at this
• 33:51
  particular place that I volunteer at and they get those
• 33:56
  credits for free and it's equivalent to like I think 20
• 34:00
  pounds which covers the whole shop and everything and they can
• 34:03
  get whatever they want and it's like 10 items.
• 34:06
  And I think for for anyone who isn't homeless, they pay they
• 34:12
  may get a smaller voucher but they still have to pay towards
• 34:16
  it like a little mountain and E5, ER, and they get like 15
• 34:19
  pound credit something like that.
• 34:20
  So it helps everyone. It's and it's figured out in a
• 34:23
  way that it's fair to all, but I've been especially happy on
• 34:27
  those days when I've been able to give out more.
• 34:29
  And for instance I have a story here that connects to this
• 34:32
  particular job that I've done here and there which is there
• 34:37
  was a homeless African guy that came in and we as I say we get a
• 34:42
  lot of homeless, people get a lot of people in dire situations
• 34:44
  but this one stood out To me and I remembered it because I could
• 34:50
  just see straight away. The first time I met him, the
• 34:55
  kind of look of Stress and frustration and fear and upset
• 35:03
  all-in-one. He was agitated, he was
• 35:05
  stressed. You know, I don't even think he
• 35:09
  was really in the right mindset to be getting food, you know,
• 35:11
  like he needed it. But, you know, like when you're
• 35:13
  so stressed out and worried about things that the last thing
• 35:16
  you can do is eat or think about food.
• 35:17
  It was kind of like that sort of situation.
• 35:20
  And, you know, I helped him get things but the whole time he's
• 35:24
  kind of murmuring about our well, what about this situation?
• 35:28
  I don't know what I'm going to do, don't know what I'm going to
• 35:29
  do, you know? And I'm just kind of trying to
• 35:32
  reassure him and get his food shopping done for him and then
• 35:36
  right at the end, he starts confiding in me.
• 35:39
  And he tells me that, you know, he's recently come to the
• 35:42
  country maybe a couple of months ago, something like that time.
• 35:46
  And, you know, he's working with Local councils to find a place
• 35:52
  that he's trying to get up on his feet.
• 35:53
  But he's just kind of fallen on Hard Times, you know.
• 35:56
  And during covid it's even much more difficult and he told me
• 36:00
  that he's sleeping rough at the airport and other places just
• 36:03
  sleeping rough, not knowing what to do, and just very worried and
• 36:07
  concerned. And he said that he'd registered
• 36:12
  for housing and he was waiting to hear back, but he kept
• 36:15
  saying, what am I going to do? Hello Windows.
• 36:19
  What am I going to do? When are they going to be able
• 36:21
  to help me? I can't find anywhere.
• 36:24
  I don't know what's going on. You know what's going to happen
• 36:29
  and I just didn't have the answers for him.
• 36:32
  Unfortunately, I didn't know what to say in that moment.
• 36:34
  I knew I needed to listen and I did and I tried to reassure him
• 36:39
  as best I could. You know, I told him that that
• 36:41
  you're on the system like they're aware of you there.
• 36:44
  They're looking out for you, they're trying to find you a
• 36:46
  place. Try to take solace in that and
• 36:50
  you know, just keep showing up here and keep Trying your best,
• 36:54
  just keep persevering and things will work out and it felt like
• 36:57
  very empty words for me. I you know, I remember he walked
• 37:00
  away and I just felt so helpless and bad in that moment, you
• 37:05
  know, I really wished I could have done something to help him.
• 37:09
  Fast forward three weeks later and he comes in.
• 37:13
  And I don't know if he recognizes me or remembers me.
• 37:16
  Probably not but he's got a bit of skip in his step.
• 37:21
  He's got a fresh haircut, he's looking, he's looking good, you
• 37:24
  know, he's clearly got some new clothes he's looking.
• 37:28
  He's vibing, he's looking good. And he's just in a good mood and
• 37:33
  I asked how he was and he was like, yeah, I'm doing well.
• 37:35
  Thank you. He's just really kind of.
• 37:38
  Yeah, I don't think he remembered me.
• 37:40
  But it made me so happy to see that he was happy and doing
• 37:46
  well. And that's one of the biggest
• 37:49
  kind of classes of volunteering that you get is you get these
• 37:53
  situations where You help people over time and you see them
• 38:00
  prosper and get into better situations.
• 38:02
  For example there was a lady that drop by our volunteer in
• 38:07
  space last week and she'd been homeless and she had a whole
• 38:10
  story. She brought up in a car with her
• 38:13
  friend with a ton of donations, excuse me.
• 38:21
  Sorry still dying from this illness.
• 38:25
  Touch with, I do. she must have had about, I want to say, 50, 50
• 38:32
  packages. I think it was close bits and
• 38:35
  Bobs baby toys. And and food as well, just a
• 38:42
  whole car full to the brim with stuff.
• 38:44
  And she starts talking to some of our staff and she said, hey I
• 38:48
  just wanted to give back. I'm in a bad position.
• 38:50
  Now you helped me when I was homeless last year, and I think
• 38:54
  one of the people there remembered her and they start
• 38:57
  having a long conversation about that.
• 38:59
  And that again, another thing made me really happy to see
• 39:02
  that, you know, Because it gives you hope it makes you realize no
• 39:07
  matter what kind of position you're in over your Street,
• 39:09
  Homeless or in a low-income family.
• 39:12
  And you're hoping that things will get better, they do get
• 39:14
  better, they can get better. You just gotta hang in there as
• 39:19
  best you can. And, and, you know, make use of
• 39:22
  those services that are available out there, such as
• 39:25
  your local charities, because there are people out there and
• 39:27
  services out there for you and places that want to help, you
• 39:32
  know, try not to Lose sight of that.
• 39:34
  Try to remember that. There are always people out
• 39:38
  there that care and want to help you and want to be there for
• 39:41
  you. So that I just want to say that
• 39:42
  and make a note of that real quick, but yeah.
• 39:47
  I see a lot of those people come in regularly and it just makes
• 39:52
  me really happy to be able to contribute to their lives.
• 39:57
  In a positive way to know that I've Put some good into the
• 40:00
  world, you know, it's very easy to take from this world and take
• 40:07
  things for granted to take what you have for granted and we're
• 40:09
  all guilty of it, you know? But I suppose, again, the
• 40:14
  overarching message of why I'm doing this episode and believe
• 40:18
  me, I've wondered a lot whether or not I should do this episode.
• 40:22
  I thought maybe doing this episode would be in bad taste.
• 40:27
  I thought, maybe, you know it. Kind of make it seem like I'm
• 40:31
  trying to Vie for attention and be like, oh, wow.
• 40:35
  Look at me, aren't I good? I did some volunteering Pat me
• 40:38
  on the back, but, and I've had people tell me that.
• 40:42
  No, you should share your experiences as positive, maybe
• 40:44
  or encourage, and Inspire other people to do it and take part.
• 40:48
  And I think this is the biggest reason why I'm doing this
• 40:52
  episode and sharing this with you because I really want anyone
• 40:56
  out there that's listening, who might be interested.
• 40:59
  Door is thinking about doing volunteering.
• 41:02
  Absolutely, please do consider it.
• 41:05
  It will be one of the best things you have to do with your
• 41:07
  life. And the most amazing thing about
• 41:10
  it is, it's always beneficial no matter how small it is.
• 41:15
  Whether you're doing a few hours a week or several days a week.
• 41:18
  You are changing people's lives for the better, and I think
• 41:24
  that's a noble Pursuit. Pop's.
• 41:28
  Maybe one of the most noble Pursuits out there.
• 41:31
  I'm so sorry. By the way, my voice is just
• 41:33
  dying by the minute. Maybe this wasn't the best time
• 41:36
  to do this. But I was determined to do an
• 41:40
  episode today and get an episode out for you.
• 41:43
  And this episode's been a long time coming.
• 41:46
  I actually thought about doing a YouTube series where I would
• 41:52
  discuss all of these and I shelved the idea because of what
• 41:57
  I said before. I thought maybe it was in bad
• 41:59
  taste or maybe it would just not convey the right message but
• 42:08
  there's Lot of experiences that you have through volunteering
• 42:12
  because you meet so many people in so many different situations.
• 42:16
  So many different backgrounds and it really gets.
• 42:18
  You thinking, it makes you reflect on your own life.
• 42:21
  Makes you more grateful for what you have helps you to put things
• 42:25
  into perspective and I think it kind of forces you to get the
• 42:31
  best from yourself. You know, one of the things I
• 42:33
  neglected to mention is that in those situations, for instance,
• 42:37
  when we're working on the vans, There are many situations where
• 42:43
  we probably won't be able to get those.
• 42:46
  You know, that furniture into those properties, but we give it
• 42:51
  our absolute best. We do everything we can to make
• 42:54
  sure we absolutely gave our best effort to get that furniture in
• 42:58
  there because sometimes, you know, you're delivering to
• 43:00
  people remember one guy we delivered to it was literally
• 43:04
  he'd been Street Homeless, maybe a month prior to getting that
• 43:09
  place and he was, he was an older gentleman who was in his
• 43:12
  50s. Maybe you could tell you been on
• 43:15
  the streets for a while and he was So excited to just have
• 43:19
  somewhere to be and to live. He was so grateful and he got
• 43:24
  excited and we were delivering all these things into his room
• 43:26
  and he was like all do you think it would look better?
• 43:28
  Like this? Or maybe?
• 43:30
  I could put something here. And we took a minute, just to
• 43:33
  have a chat with him and and give him some advice about, you
• 43:36
  know, how he could lay the place out.
• 43:40
  Because here's another element to this.
• 43:42
  There are a lot of jobs that you do as part of volunteering.
• 43:45
  But perhaps the biggest thing that you do is, you have
• 43:50
  conversations with people. One of the things that the CEO
• 43:54
  says, at the place that I do volunteering at.
• 43:58
  She says, we're all about giving people their dignity about
• 44:02
  making them. Remember that they are human
• 44:05
  beings and just because they've fallen on Hard Times doesn't
• 44:08
  mean they deserve to be treated with anything other than respect
• 44:13
  one thing. She said that really hit me one
• 44:15
  time because Does these regular meetings and has done since the
• 44:19
  beginning of the pandemic? Where she gives that information
• 44:25
  and updates about covid, all sorts of stuff?
• 44:29
  But she said, one thing you should always remember and I
• 44:33
  think this is important for life as well with anyone that you're
• 44:36
  dealing with whatever situation they're in.
• 44:39
  Just look into their eyes, look straight into their eyes.
• 44:42
  Don't look at their clothes, or, you know, whatever just look at
• 44:47
  their eyes and see the human being see, their soul and talk
• 44:51
  to that person you know show them respect and show them love
• 44:55
  and warmth and compassion and that's something I try to do all
• 44:59
  the time. Whether it's with volunteering,
• 45:03
  with family with friends, whoever, you know, I always
• 45:07
  tried my very best to make sure I'm being nice and showing
• 45:13
  people. My absolute the best side of me,
• 45:17
  no matter what, I'm going through in life because this
• 45:21
  world needs compassion. We need good people.
• 45:25
  You know, the world needs a lot more of that.
• 45:27
  And I think sometimes It's not really appreciated, just just
• 45:33
  how important that is. You think, sometimes the worst
• 45:36
  day you ever had in your life, worst days, you've experienced
• 45:39
  and sometimes someone will come along and just hug you or be
• 45:44
  there with you, sit with you and just make you feel better.
• 45:47
  And that stuff is the sort of stuff.
• 45:50
  You cherish you know forever you cherish those people and you
• 45:55
  cherish those experiences because it reminds you that you
• 45:58
  know there is such a thing as You know, faith in humanity.
• 46:02
  There is such a thing as a good soldier, good person.
• 46:06
  There are things to live for and there are good people out there
• 46:10
  and there were reasons to live. There are reasons to conceit
• 46:13
  continue going on and you know, once you've experienced that,
• 46:17
  share the love. You knows what all those great
• 46:19
  songs are talking about. You got to share the love, and
• 46:22
  share the kindness, amongst the world and and make that one of
• 46:28
  the main things that you do in life.
• 46:30
  Because Well, knows the world needs it.
• 46:34
  Anyway, enough of me going on and on and they share some more
• 46:38
  stories. I want to get this one out of
• 46:42
  the way because it's very depressing and it was the first
• 46:49
  time that I got back from a job and it kind of stuck with me.
• 46:55
  And there's a lot of deliveries that we do through the work that
• 46:59
  we do that. But give you that feeling you
• 47:03
  get back from it and you sit down and you say just you see,
• 47:07
  if you sit and reflect and you start realizing the situations
• 47:12
  that different people are in and you want to help them, but you
• 47:15
  just feel powerless. We were delivering to this
• 47:18
  particular gentleman, who's an old guy well into his 80s, it
• 47:23
  can can barely move you had a walker of, you know, support
• 47:27
  worker the whole works. And he couldn't articulate
• 47:32
  himself very well because he could barely lift his head up.
• 47:36
  And he was drooling and stuff like that, like, he was in Dire
• 47:41
  Straits, you know, it's difficult.
• 47:43
  And we came into this property to deliver us.
• 47:47
  Fur and I was not expecting to be in a position like this.
• 47:53
  It was the first time I'd. Yeah, I'd seen some places that
• 47:55
  were a bit of a state and what not, but this was quite
• 47:59
  alarming. And I walked out feeling that a
• 48:03
  combination of anger and upset and a few other things.
• 48:09
  I walked in with my colleague, we get through to the living
• 48:15
  room and the gentleman is sitting on the existing sofa.
• 48:23
  and, Can I say this? How can I say this in a good
• 48:33
  way? I don't think there's a good
• 48:35
  way. I can say this.
• 48:39
  There was stains on the sofa. Let's leave it at that.
• 48:47
  There were, there was, there were stains on the sofa.
• 48:51
  And no one had clearly clean them up.
• 48:54
  I'm going to save this person's dignity just in case the off
• 48:58
  chance that he ever would be listening to this.
• 49:01
  There's no way that, you know, that would happen.
• 49:03
  But still, I just I wasn't even sure if I share this story but
• 49:09
  those stains on the sofa and I remember the first thing I
• 49:14
  thought was, how can this be? This person has a support
• 49:18
  worker. How is this allowed to happen?
• 49:20
  How is this? Enabled.
• 49:25
  Like I didn't understand I was Shocked and upset and really
• 49:33
  concerned for this man, because I was like, what why is this
• 49:35
  allowed to happen? How is he allowed to be in this
• 49:37
  position now, we're not responsible for that.
• 49:42
  Where we have to report stuff like that and we did.
• 49:45
  But you know, we're not responsible for that.
• 49:51
  But you still feel a sense of responsibility when you go in a
• 49:54
  place like that, our job was to bring in a sofa and move the old
• 49:59
  sofa. But there was nowhere to put the
• 50:03
  old sofa. And we spoke to his support work
• 50:10
  on the phone. And they were very the best way
• 50:15
  I can explain. It was nonchalant like, oh yeah,
• 50:18
  just dump the sofa over there and everything's fine.
• 50:22
  And that was when I got annoyed because I realized, okay, this
• 50:27
  support worker knows set up at this place.
• 50:31
  They know that this man is probably, you know, amongst
• 50:36
  stains and stuff and not comfortable and has to live with
• 50:39
  this and they're allowing that to happen and that God.
• 50:42
  Very angry. And I remembered saying that to
• 50:44
  my to my colleague and I was I was really distraught about
• 50:47
  that, but I remember that a lot of the job was, we had to move
• 50:52
  this so far away but there was nowhere to put it.
• 50:54
  So we kind of like put it upright and pushed it to the
• 50:58
  corner of the room, but it was just obtruding his view like it
• 51:02
  was horrible to just have a big sofa there with old stains on it
• 51:06
  up, right? Just sitting there and what they
• 51:08
  going to do with that, you know. But that's what we were told to
• 51:11
  do. Some did that?
• 51:14
  And then we noticed there was some brackets.
• 51:18
  No. Sorry, there wasn't any brackets
• 51:19
  left. So okay, I should explain.
• 51:24
  So the old sofa had brackets on sometimes.
• 51:28
  When you've got someone who's elderly, they might have a sofa
• 51:33
  that's raised off the ground. And that means that they've got
• 51:36
  brackets that the sofa has been put on and you can adjust them
• 51:39
  upwards and downwards. A quick and but we'd move those
• 51:44
  brackets away and we delivered the sofa in into the property.
• 51:49
  And the guy sat down, it was a really nice new sofa.
• 51:51
  And but we quickly realized is he couldn't get up because of
• 51:55
  the nature of his condition. He wasn't able to get up again.
• 51:59
  So we knew instantly that we needed to.
• 52:03
  Well first of all help him up. I think he went and made a cup
• 52:07
  of tea and he got himself comfortable while we basically
• 52:11
  put the brackets down from the old sofa and then attach this
• 52:14
  new. So for to it and started working
• 52:16
  on it and and I think in total we were there for like an hour
• 52:21
  and my colleague didn't really need my help because it was more
• 52:25
  or less a one-man job. He just needed me to like tandem
• 52:28
  things every now and again slightly move things.
• 52:30
  The basically didn't need me there.
• 52:32
  So I was just there standing there in this really depressing
• 52:35
  Place witnessing all of this and feeling helpless.
• 52:40
  We finally got it done. We worked out, we sat in the van
• 52:43
  and my colleague said, like, is everything, all right?
• 52:45
  And I just told him what I told you guys, which is that I just
• 52:49
  felt so upset and angry at that situation and he said, like,
• 52:54
  yeah, will communicate this information to, you know, to the
• 52:57
  Cherry and to this support worker.
• 53:00
  But, you know, it's not up to us, like, you know, it's up to
• 53:03
  them to sort that out and It made me so angry and upset to
• 53:07
  know that that sort of thing, happens out there.
• 53:12
  And this is not a knock-on support workers.
• 53:13
  Because I know there's so many, I know support workers who are
• 53:17
  amazing people and go out of their way to help people and I
• 53:24
  do, you know, the really are unsung heroes.
• 53:27
  Anyone who works in Support Services.
• 53:29
  Whether that's the for the elderly or children or whatever
• 53:32
  you really are unsung heroes. And I applaud you for everything
• 53:35
  that you do because is a very hard job.
• 53:39
  But unfortunately, there are a small few, a handful of people
• 53:43
  that let everyone down by being neglectful.
• 53:47
  And this is one of those situations and I was so incensed
• 53:50
  by and felt so helpless and honestly afterwards, I wondered
• 53:55
  if I would keep going back, I thought Man, I don't know if you
• 54:00
  because it's at with me for a few days, I went home and I
• 54:03
  really felt concerned about that.
• 54:05
  I, you know, it it stuck around with me like, a bad smell or,
• 54:10
  you know, you know, sometimes you have a bad Nightmare and you
• 54:13
  can't think about anything else. It was exactly like that.
• 54:15
  But it was real, it really happened.
• 54:18
  And I just keep going over and over in my mind about it.
• 54:23
  And I again, you know, like I said earlier, I thought about
• 54:26
  doing a video on it. I felt like maybe it was the
• 54:30
  wrong thing to do, you know, I didn't.
• 54:34
  I don't want to make light of a situation where they're not that
• 54:37
  you could but I didn't want to kind of I didn't want to talk
• 54:42
  about that and, and make content out of it, like, oh, that that
• 54:47
  time when this happened, that felt wrong to me that felt wrong
• 54:52
  and I still feel uncomfortable talking about it now, but I
• 54:56
  wanted to tell this story in conjunction with other stories
• 54:59
  from volunteering, to give you an understanding of what it's
• 55:03
  really like. Because as I said in the very
• 55:06
  beginning, there's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, there's
• 55:10
  Stories, which I'll get to later.
• 55:13
  There's difficult things that happen and then there's the
• 55:15
  worst of the worst and that for me, was probably the first time
• 55:19
  that I went into a property. and walked out and really questioned
• 55:24
  if I was going to continue doing it, ultimately, I decided to
• 55:28
  continue because I thought that it's up to people like myself
• 55:35
  who have the time and the ability to do this to kind of
• 55:38
  suck it up and get on with things, you know, and do my very
• 55:42
  best to help people. You know, it's sitting around
• 55:45
  feeling bad and and stuff isn't going to change anything, but I
• 55:49
  can change things. I can help people by doing
• 55:53
  things for them. And That made me think.
• 55:57
  Yeah, I need to continue doing this regardless of the
• 56:00
  Situation's. I found myself in or whatever
• 56:02
  difficult scenarios I found myself in, it's up to me to do
• 56:08
  my very best to help these people.
• 56:10
  And that's why I kept volunteering from that point
• 56:14
  onwards, I'll share one other more serious situation now,
• 56:21
  which You know, given the previous story, I don't really
• 56:26
  know if it's any better. There's a guy who's a regular
• 56:29
  client of ours who I'll try not to give too many details away.
• 56:35
  what I can say is this person is a hoarder and I've delivered to
• 56:42
  his place. many many times it's the sort of thing where when we
• 56:47
  pull up to the road that where his, his his property is, I
• 56:53
  immediately know where we're going and I'm like, oh no and
• 56:55
  it's, you know, it's always the sort of thing where the driver
• 56:59
  doesn't want to go either and the problem is right when you
• 57:04
  got people that hoarding to this degree, He's a health and safety
• 57:10
  hazard and really and truthfully.
• 57:13
  My personal belief is we shouldn't be selling these
• 57:15
  products to them. We should kind of refused to
• 57:18
  sell them things because we know there's no room for this stuff
• 57:23
  and this stuff could potentially hurt them.
• 57:28
  We do our very best to kind of clear out the situation, you
• 57:31
  know, clear out any old stuff or whatnot.
• 57:33
  But to really clear this property, you need to get a team
• 57:37
  of experts. In there and clear the property
• 57:40
  and it would take probably the better part of the week to do.
• 57:44
  The very first time. I went in this property, we went
• 57:47
  through the front door, normally we go through the back, but this
• 57:51
  first time we went through the front and basically, we were
• 57:55
  supposed to take out an old Surfer and bringing a new one.
• 57:59
  And as soon as I walked into this, gentleman's property, I
• 58:03
  looked in the living room and I saw what I can only describe as
• 58:08
  maybe like seven or eight layers of junk on top of each other
• 58:13
  that went right up to the wall and there was like a tiny bit of
• 58:17
  floor space that this guy was living in because it was
• 58:22
  difficult for him to go up the stairs and everything.
• 58:24
  And he just had this small space for a sofa, but we had to take
• 58:28
  out the old one to deliver the new one and he didn't seem too
• 58:32
  bothered about the old Surfer. He's like, yeah, just dump out
• 58:34
  front and everything someone else will get Of it.
• 58:38
  And I just felt like really concerned for this man because
• 58:44
  it's my first time, delivering to this property.
• 58:46
  I didn't know anything about the situation.
• 58:48
  I didn't know that. We regularly delivered stuff to
• 58:51
  this guy. At this point, I'm just like, oh
• 58:54
  my God, like, is he got as he got to help assistance?
• 58:57
  There's the people know he's living like this.
• 58:59
  I was really worried. And then I started seeing this
• 59:05
  guy in our store. Few times and we kept delivering
• 59:11
  to his place, but we go via the rear entrance and there were
• 59:16
  things there that had been there for years.
• 59:20
  It was a guy, I remember that. I was delivering with who
• 59:22
  doesn't regularly deliver on the Vans but this one time, he did
• 59:27
  just to cover, because he now does a different job, but he
• 59:31
  basically had come with me to the back of the property to sort
• 59:35
  of observe and see if we could actually do.
• 59:37
  If it is stuff because you know, there was a space issue there,
• 59:40
  just wasn't enough space to actually deliver this stuff into
• 59:42
  the property and it meant that we need to remove stuff.
• 59:45
  And every time you go into this property in the backyard,
• 59:48
  there's just old sofas and kitchen equipment, bathroom
• 59:54
  equipment and old chairs. And you know, there's things
• 59:57
  that I've delivered to the property before they have just
• 59:59
  sat there since the day, we delivered them and have moved.
• 1:00:04
  And this guy Who was with me remarked that there was like a
• 1:00:09
  table and chairs in the backyard that he delivered like seven
• 1:00:14
  years prior like no exaggeration.
• 1:00:16
  He years ago when he done the job, the delivery job.
• 1:00:20
  He delivered to this property and he delivered that specific
• 1:00:23
  set of table and chairs which probably hadn't moved since that
• 1:00:27
  day, which is crazy to think about.
• 1:00:31
  I remember one time the one and only time I've actually been in
• 1:00:34
  the property so it's sorry. Like the second time I've been
• 1:00:38
  in but from the back entrance because normally as I say, we
• 1:00:41
  just deliver it to the back and then gets dealt with or dozen.
• 1:00:46
  But we delivered When to move something out of the kitchen and
• 1:00:51
  then bring in the replace, the equipment that was going to
• 1:00:54
  replace it and there was just no room to move.
• 1:01:00
  My colleague was like, hey Kev, you got any space to move back?
• 1:01:03
  And I'm like, no, like there's nowhere and eventually I think
• 1:01:07
  they got the property owner moved a little bit and there
• 1:01:09
  was, we had some wiggle room and we managed to just about forcing
• 1:01:14
  think it was a fridge freezer. Luckily, it was light really.
• 1:01:18
  But yeah, it was just barely any space to get it in.
• 1:01:22
  And I remember just feeling this, like real sadness, just
• 1:01:27
  looking at his diet kitchen and everything about that place was
• 1:01:32
  a health, is a health hazard. And I really don't understand.
• 1:01:37
  Why we don't help him or what the situation is there?
• 1:01:41
  Like I try not to get too involved.
• 1:01:43
  I remark on these things and everything, but like it's not
• 1:01:46
  ultimately, you know, my place or position to do so.
• 1:01:50
  But I don't think that we should be delivering to places like
• 1:01:53
  that. I think if anything the best
• 1:01:55
  thing we can do is to not deliver and to report that to
• 1:02:00
  some sort of authority and say like, hey, this is unsafe.
• 1:02:04
  This person needs help but I don't know.
• 1:02:10
  Let's bring this to a more positive place.
• 1:02:15
  Because it's not all doom and gloom.
• 1:02:17
  There are a lot of and, you know, I covered a couple of
• 1:02:20
  positive stories in the beginning of this.
• 1:02:22
  There are positive X and this is one of the reasons why I keep
• 1:02:26
  doing it because there's times when people are really thankful
• 1:02:28
  and really enamored and happy with you when you're able to
• 1:02:34
  help them out in a big way, one of the very first jobs I ever
• 1:02:37
  did, it was about a month in the first month went to a property
• 1:02:42
  and basically the Mother was at the top of the stairs and we
• 1:02:48
  were delivering equipment Furniture into the living room
• 1:02:53
  and she, I believe had like a bad hip or about back like she
• 1:02:59
  couldn't move very easily and she was at the top of the
• 1:03:03
  stairs. And from what I understand, she
• 1:03:04
  was bed bound, or just not able to move around, but she was able
• 1:03:08
  to communicate with us at least. And she had two daughters, one
• 1:03:14
  of whom was going to say, 12 13 and the other one was probably
• 1:03:18
  about seven and they were really excited.
• 1:03:21
  But here's the thing, the younger daughter is really
• 1:03:23
  excited to see us because she realizes we can take out the old
• 1:03:26
  furniture and bringing new furniture and she's just excited
• 1:03:29
  to see us, you know, she's a bubbly kid.
• 1:03:32
  The teenage daughter. Her demeanor was completely
• 1:03:37
  different. I really have ever seen
• 1:03:40
  teenagers that Looks so adult to me.
• 1:03:45
  I straight away. I could tell that this little
• 1:03:49
  girl. Had to kind of grow up quicker
• 1:03:54
  than her years to look after both her mother and her look,
• 1:03:59
  and her younger sister. It was that kind of situation
• 1:04:01
  where she was almost motherly to her younger sister because she
• 1:04:03
  had to be and even when she was talking to us.
• 1:04:08
  I mean, obviously, she's she's teenage girl.
• 1:04:10
  So she's probably just there's two fully grown adult strangers.
• 1:04:15
  You know, it's not, you're not going to be comfortable in the
• 1:04:17
  situation, but she was kind of on her guard.
• 1:04:21
  Like, just very serious and everything and I was like, okay,
• 1:04:25
  and they needed us to move the sofas out of the place.
• 1:04:29
  So we did, it's pretty straightforward and they were
• 1:04:33
  really happy that we were able to do that for them when we
• 1:04:35
  bought in the new sofas and suddenly the little girl was
• 1:04:40
  bouncing up and down, really happy in the mother was really
• 1:04:42
  happy But then I saw the older sister smile, and she opened up
• 1:04:49
  a little bit and had a conversation with us and was
• 1:04:52
  really happy and that just made me so so happy.
• 1:04:57
  I looked at that situation. I was like you can tell this
• 1:05:02
  girl hasn't really hard. You know, she's she's having to
• 1:05:05
  sort of be strong for everyone. She seemed to grow up faster
• 1:05:07
  than her years, take on more responsibility than a, teen
• 1:05:10
  should have to take on and here's a little thing.
• 1:05:15
  That makes her well, just a little bit better.
• 1:05:18
  Little bit easier, nicer Furniture, you know, older stuff
• 1:05:22
  has been removed and she smiled. And I don't know for sure, but
• 1:05:29
  to me, it was the sort of smile of a person that probably hasn't
• 1:05:33
  smiled a lot in a long time. That was the vibe I got and it
• 1:05:38
  was so nice to see her smile and to be happy.
• 1:05:43
  And I walked away. and, I can't remember if it was me or the
• 1:05:49
  driver that said this, but we sat down in the in the van after
• 1:05:53
  we locked up. And I think I was me at tend to
• 1:05:59
  driver and I just said, that's what it's all about and he
• 1:06:02
  nodded anyway. Yeah, so glad we were able to
• 1:06:05
  help them out. That's just a small example,
• 1:06:09
  excuse me of Some of the, you know, more positive times, we're
• 1:06:16
  able to help people out. Oh my gosh, am I dying from this
• 1:06:25
  cough? And what I've been sick now for
• 1:06:29
  like five or six days and It's just not going any better.
• 1:06:36
  I've taken over profane. I've taken static Sudafed.
• 1:06:41
  See you to feared? Look at my mom cause allergy to
• 1:06:46
  the back of your throat and logy, it's lurking in there and
• 1:06:49
  luggy, hopefully, I get better soon.
• 1:06:52
  I hope this is not ruined your experience of the podcast.
• 1:06:55
  I do apologize for my, excuse me, coughing and lack of a good
• 1:07:03
  voice. Oh my gosh.
• 1:07:07
  I hope I hope I'm able to finish this.
• 1:07:11
  Oh, dear. Okay.
• 1:07:14
  You know, I like to keep these things authentic.
• 1:07:16
  I thought about editing my cuts out and stuff, but I like to
• 1:07:21
  keep things fresh and authentic. This is as it is.
• 1:07:24
  Me sitting in my room talking to you guys about my volunteering
• 1:07:29
  experiences. Oh dear, okay.
• 1:07:35
  The washing machine I've written these that you can see on this
• 1:07:38
  page piece of paper right here. I've got all these different
• 1:07:40
  stories but I thought of in the run-up to this episode that I've
• 1:07:44
  had planned for some time, but I never thought I'd actually do.
• 1:07:49
  The washing machine. Now, I've told this story on my
• 1:07:51
  livestream before, it's one of those days where, you know,
• 1:07:59
  sometimes in life, everything that can go, go, go wrong, will
• 1:08:03
  go wrong. It was one of those scenarios.
• 1:08:08
  It was about 11:00 a.m. in the morning.
• 1:08:10
  Me and my colleague pulled up in the van in a residential
• 1:08:16
  district. Quite close to a main road like
• 1:08:19
  a minute away from a main road and we park in the middle of the
• 1:08:22
  street expecting not to be there any longer than about 10
• 1:08:26
  minutes. Okay?
• 1:08:27
  That's why we didn't fully Park up. 11 a.m. you would assume
• 1:08:32
  everyone's gone to work at this point in a residential area.
• 1:08:38
  So, we just left the van there, in the middle of this
• 1:08:41
  residential Road, we'll come back to that.
• 1:08:45
  So we had to deliver a washing machine.
• 1:08:48
  That's it replacement washing machine because What was it?
• 1:08:55
  We had to To deliver one or or pick one up.
• 1:09:02
  I think we had to I can't remember if we had to deliver
• 1:09:07
  all pick it up. I'm pretty sure we had to pick
• 1:09:12
  it up. Yet was broken.
• 1:09:14
  So we were going to test it out and see what, yes.
• 1:09:17
  We're going to test it out and see if there was a problem with
• 1:09:19
  it because the the client had told us that basically, every
• 1:09:24
  time she tried to operate the washing machine, it would
• 1:09:28
  overload with water. And when we walked in bear in
• 1:09:32
  mind, that neither of us have any official training, or
• 1:09:36
  expertise as it pertains Two fittings Plumbing.
• 1:09:42
  Anything like that? We know nothing about this
• 1:09:43
  stuff. My colleague think he's into 50s
• 1:09:46
  or something. It's called maybe 40s.
• 1:09:48
  Actually he's got a bit of experience but you know, he
• 1:09:51
  doesn't really know what he's doing is just novice experience.
• 1:09:56
  And he remarks that it's probably a problem with the
• 1:09:58
  fitting. It's probably not being fitted,
• 1:10:01
  probably properly and it's not actually that the washing
• 1:10:04
  machine is broken. It's probably there, just hasn't
• 1:10:06
  been fitted properly. but we're going to take it away anyway the
• 1:10:10
  lady then asks us or hey if it's that problem that this is my
• 1:10:16
  colleagues first mistake he shouldn't say anything you
• 1:10:18
  should have just been like okay we're taking this But she asked
• 1:10:23
  us to test out this this fitting see if we could fix it.
• 1:10:29
  Maybe and then we wouldn't have to take it away and maybe it'll
• 1:10:31
  be fixed, right? And obviously, as I said before,
• 1:10:35
  we're always trying to help people out and deliver a
• 1:10:39
  positive experience to people. We want to help people out.
• 1:10:42
  We want to go that extra mile. That's what volunteering is all
• 1:10:45
  about Charities is all about about going.
• 1:10:48
  That extra mile for people because you know, if you're
• 1:10:52
  going Help people out, you should go the full length but as
• 1:10:56
  I reiterate now we are not professional plumbers.
• 1:11:00
  We have no knowledge about washing machines.
• 1:11:05
  We start tinkering with this washing machine or to put it
• 1:11:09
  more accurately. My colleague starts tinkering
• 1:11:11
  with it. and, Immediately. It starts flooding everywhere.
• 1:11:24
  And we can't stop it. We got we sort of eventually
• 1:11:32
  stopped it but what had happened was the pump where the water
• 1:11:38
  comes out. Immediately starts splashing,
• 1:11:41
  water everywhere. It's like Is like slapstick,
• 1:11:46
  comedy, my colleague quickly, grabbed it shoved, the the pipe
• 1:11:51
  into this is the pipe, but that's at the back of the
• 1:11:54
  washing machine quickly, shoved it into the sink.
• 1:11:59
  It's nearby. But the sink is quickly Rising
• 1:12:01
  like because there's already dirty dishes in there, you know,
• 1:12:04
  whatever. It's not a viable.
• 1:12:07
  It's like a temporary quick five-second solution while we
• 1:12:10
  figure out what to do next and I don't know what to do in this
• 1:12:14
  situation. Should I see that?
• 1:12:15
  There's a nearby window right next to it?
• 1:12:17
  I figure. Okay, maybe I can open the
• 1:12:18
  window up and he can shove the pipe out there and the water
• 1:12:21
  will. Okay, it's going to run outside
• 1:12:22
  of the flat because we're at the top of set of flats basically.
• 1:12:26
  But at least, it will go somewhere as opposed to in the
• 1:12:30
  flat. You know, all over the kitchen
• 1:12:33
  floor, which is where it had been going previously, but it
• 1:12:37
  doesn't stretch that far. And this woman comes out of
• 1:12:40
  nowhere with a massive right box that A sort of box that you put
• 1:12:46
  like old clothes in in storage, the storage box or maybe you'd
• 1:12:51
  put like I don't know. It's just a gigantic storage box
• 1:12:56
  plastic gigantic storage box and okay that's going to buy us a
• 1:13:00
  bit more time but but my colleague remarks that it's not
• 1:13:05
  going to last forever, you know, we need to figure out a better
• 1:13:08
  because where we going to put this water comport and sink sink
• 1:13:11
  is full. So where we going to put it,
• 1:13:13
  where we're going to put, this water, bloody Nightmare.
• 1:13:17
  And he keeps telling this woman, you need to turn the water off.
• 1:13:20
  You need to turn the water off now.
• 1:13:23
  Go back to the beginning of this story.
• 1:13:25
  We should have always turn the water off.
• 1:13:28
  That was number one, if we're going to if you get a muck
• 1:13:30
  around with like washing machines or anything to do with
• 1:13:33
  water, turn the water off. Okay, that's number one.
• 1:13:40
  If there's a take away you get from this story that's your
• 1:13:42
  takeaway. Turn the water off.
• 1:13:44
  Anyway we couldn't find it and I'm standing there powerless not
• 1:13:47
  knowing what to do. Because I've helped my colleague
• 1:13:50
  you know we're you know I think at one point I took ownership of
• 1:13:54
  the box with the water while he was trying to help her find the
• 1:13:57
  water, but initially I'm standing there like not knowing
• 1:14:00
  what to do and he's not giving me any assistance because he
• 1:14:03
  doesn't know what to do. He's communicating to her.
• 1:14:05
  You need to turn the water off because it's her flat.
• 1:14:07
  She would know where the water pump is but she doesn't know and
• 1:14:11
  she's like I don't know what to do and she's stressing out and
• 1:14:13
  she's really freaking out and normally I would reassure
• 1:14:18
  someone in that situation and be like, don't worry, we're going
• 1:14:21
  to figure this out but I really didn't know how we were going to
• 1:14:25
  figure that out because I don't know what we're gonna do.
• 1:14:28
  I don't know where the woods pump is.
• 1:14:29
  I don't know where to start looking for that.
• 1:14:31
  I got no idea. I can't figure that again.
• 1:14:33
  I don't know if Plumbing experience.
• 1:14:35
  I haven't zero experience with this.
• 1:14:37
  So I'm literally just by standard standing are not know
• 1:14:41
  what the hell to do. She turns to me while she's
• 1:14:44
  freaking out going, what do we do?
• 1:14:46
  What do we go? And I'm like, I don't know.
• 1:14:49
  I'm sorry, turn off your water pump.
• 1:14:53
  Then eventually my colleague tells me to pick up the the box
• 1:14:58
  and take over the water while he goes and finds the water to the
• 1:15:03
  pump to shut off the valve. I should say.
• 1:15:06
  And I, then I'm sort of standing looking at this massive storage
• 1:15:11
  box. It's really rapidly filling up
• 1:15:13
  with water. It's getting heavier.
• 1:15:15
  I don't know where I'm going to put it and sort of contemplating
• 1:15:18
  like hey can I maybe somehow pour it out the window but Then
• 1:15:23
  I've got figure out a place to put the pipe and already I'm
• 1:15:26
  freaking out because I'm like, what to do, I'm keeping it
• 1:15:29
  myself calm but my I don't know where to put this, this is not
• 1:15:33
  an easy to figure out a situation and then thankfully,
• 1:15:38
  my colleague had found the valve and turned off the water.
• 1:15:42
  And so we all kind of just stop for a minute and just go.
• 1:15:47
  Okay. That's rest.
• 1:15:50
  Let's figure this out. And you know, they my colleague
• 1:15:56
  and the flat owner kind of quibbled a little bit over, you
• 1:15:59
  know, what to do next and everything.
• 1:16:01
  But ultimately, we solve the situation, we took away the the
• 1:16:05
  washing machine. I should add It's a washing
• 1:16:10
  machine. We're in a tiny flat with narrow
• 1:16:13
  stairs. Remember what I said about
• 1:16:14
  narrow stairs? Now, you think our wardrobe is
• 1:16:16
  heavy, that's nothing compared to a washing machine.
• 1:16:19
  And it washing machine is easy to get to a properties heavy.
• 1:16:22
  It's pretty straightforward. Getting it down.
• 1:16:24
  A flight of stairs, though. Dangerous heavy.
• 1:16:28
  Nothing to grip on her hands are wet from the The Barker.
• 1:16:34
  We just had a moment ago, it's really dodgy.
• 1:16:36
  I a several points thought I was going to drop.
• 1:16:39
  Washing machine. And if I would have dropped it,
• 1:16:41
  I would have dropped it on my colleague.
• 1:16:42
  So it was really dangerous and at several points, I really felt
• 1:16:48
  like I was going to drop it. It, you know, it felt like a
• 1:16:52
  weight that Normally wouldn't be an issue for me but because it
• 1:16:55
  was so slippery. I felt I could drop it at any
• 1:16:57
  moment and it was really doing a Wonder on my back really hurting
• 1:17:03
  my back, but we managed to get it down the bottom of the stairs
• 1:17:07
  and we knew we needed to go basically to the van to get a
• 1:17:13
  judgment. Call it a I think we'd even
• 1:17:16
  brought a little what they call it, a truck truck lift, I should
• 1:17:22
  know what this is. There's a little tool that you
• 1:17:24
  used. You slip under heavy goods and
• 1:17:26
  you move them along. It's going to kill me that.
• 1:17:28
  I haven't remember pumped. Look, we had a pump truck, I
• 1:17:33
  think we had it with us already. Remember I said that the van had
• 1:17:38
  been parked in the middle of the road.
• 1:17:40
  Yeah. Well we both forgot about that
• 1:17:44
  because we'd so preoccupied with this nightmare of a flooding
• 1:17:48
  kitchen, we hadn't even considered that, you know, we'd
• 1:17:51
  been there for about 40 minutes and had left this van in the
• 1:17:55
  middle of again. I reiterate a residential Road,
• 1:17:58
  it wasn't a main road. Like in the middle of the road
• 1:18:00
  or something, it was a residential Road and it's like
• 1:18:03
  11:00 a.m. 11:00 close to 12 p.m. so why are all these people
• 1:18:07
  here? But basically I come out of the
• 1:18:10
  flat I'm standing there and there's a woman that shouts in
• 1:18:14
  says lose there's the going because quickly they figure out
• 1:18:18
  that it's where the owners of this fan and he's trying not to
• 1:18:24
  To sort of get into any arguments when there's this big
• 1:18:28
  queue of, I kid, you not like ten people crowded around this,
• 1:18:32
  this van effing and jeffing just swearing at him, like, why are
• 1:18:37
  you in the middle of the road? What the hell are you doing?
• 1:18:39
  Are you can't park here, you can't park there.
• 1:18:41
  So just like really angry. And another thing I should add
• 1:18:45
  is that the name of the charity and the phone, number of the
• 1:18:49
  charity are on the side of this van.
• 1:18:52
  So they've all caught up. And have complained.
• 1:18:55
  I don't know how many times I swearing at the Cherry, like,
• 1:18:57
  get this guy out. Get this guy out of the middle
• 1:18:59
  of the road, what's he doing? Now, they have no idea what
• 1:19:02
  we've just been through. They're just concerned because,
• 1:19:04
  you know, they need to get their cars out which I understand but
• 1:19:08
  you know, I don't think the swearing and aggressiveness was
• 1:19:10
  necessary and their part but I digress.
• 1:19:14
  And my colleague keeps it together.
• 1:19:16
  Very calmly because he has to pull up the tail lift and get
• 1:19:21
  the car started. So the van started also, while
• 1:19:25
  dealing with a phone call from our office, with the people very
• 1:19:29
  angry at us, like, hey, you need to move.
• 1:19:31
  You need to get out of the way and then there's that.
• 1:19:32
  It literally a queue of cars that also had the audacity to
• 1:19:36
  beep at this guy while he's moving the van.
• 1:19:40
  And it's like, he left the guys moving the van.
• 1:19:43
  Like, he's not a magician. So musician, magician, give him
• 1:19:48
  a couple of minutes to sort this out, and then you'll be on your
• 1:19:50
  way. But I guess people, never
• 1:19:54
  necessarily consider a other people's situations.
• 1:19:58
  Some people only care about themselves that my colleague,
• 1:20:02
  kept it together, you know, props to him for doing that for
• 1:20:06
  not buckling under the pressure. I'm not so sure I would have
• 1:20:09
  been as courteous to all the people shouting and screaming at
• 1:20:13
  me, but I digress. And that's how we were able to
• 1:20:17
  get out of that situation and funnily enough.
• 1:20:19
  A week later we ended up me and him on the same job, same place,
• 1:20:25
  delivering, this washing machine up the flight of stairs.
• 1:20:28
  This time, we got it in safe to say that was a very
• 1:20:31
  straightforward, easy scenario. And we actually didn't have any
• 1:20:37
  issues that time, but it was just One of those situations
• 1:20:43
  where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
• 1:20:45
  And all we could do was laugh about it.
• 1:20:47
  Really. It was just crazy and my final
• 1:20:52
  story for today, my final story which happened last Christmas Is
• 1:20:59
  the mother at Christmas. And I was on a van with a guy
• 1:21:04
  who was unprofessional, luckily, he's now left the charity, but
• 1:21:10
  very unprofessional guy who I didn't like, doing jobs with.
• 1:21:14
  And as I say, he's left now and I think it's all for the best
• 1:21:18
  because his attitude does not belong in a charity where you're
• 1:21:21
  supposed to help people. As I say, we always go out of
• 1:21:26
  our way for people. and this guy was just more concerned with I
• 1:21:32
  don't know, get him back to the depot on time.
• 1:21:35
  Getting this lunch. I don't know.
• 1:21:37
  I really don't care. I was just annoyed at his
• 1:21:39
  attitude because it's the only person I've ever worked with
• 1:21:42
  that. Had a poor attitude.
• 1:21:43
  Everyone else was he's awesome. And I've always had good
• 1:21:46
  experiences with but this guy, you know, had bad experiences
• 1:21:50
  with and this is a story that as I think about it is actually
• 1:21:54
  pretty big. So, what happened was?
• 1:22:02
  Withhold to deliver to this property and we're delivering
• 1:22:05
  maybe I want to say like 10 different things.
• 1:22:09
  So clearly this person is just moved in, but we don't know
• 1:22:12
  anything about this property. I immediately see that they have
• 1:22:16
  like these white bars on the side of the doors which I kind
• 1:22:21
  of reasoned is for elderly people.
• 1:22:23
  You know, like assistants bars and you sometimes I've rarely
• 1:22:26
  seen them in London but I see them a lot in certain parts of
• 1:22:29
  Manchester generally. They were on like Bungalows or
• 1:22:32
  Cease for the elderly. So I assumed, okay, maybe this
• 1:22:35
  person is elderly and, you know has trouble getting in and out
• 1:22:39
  the property. What the hell are they going to
• 1:22:41
  do with? Like, I don't know, 10 pieces of
• 1:22:45
  heavy Furniture outside their house, how they're going to move
• 1:22:47
  that in by themselves, what they're going to do.
• 1:22:49
  And I said this to my colleague and he just kept saying, oh well
• 1:22:53
  this is going to make a slow. It's not all problem.
• 1:22:55
  Like you know, they've got to figure that out themselves and I
• 1:22:58
  was like, no, we need to wait until this person comes.
• 1:23:01
  And then we need to figure out. About what we're going to do for
• 1:23:03
  this person. We can't just leave them with
• 1:23:06
  all this stuff and it's unfair, it's not right?
• 1:23:09
  And I was kind of putting my foot down, which is a bit weird
• 1:23:12
  for me, because I'm just a volunteer at this point.
• 1:23:14
  In this situation I have zero Authority in the situation, but
• 1:23:20
  I still felt like I needed to stand up to my colleague
• 1:23:22
  because, you know, it's not fair.
• 1:23:25
  And he listened to me In fairness to him and we waited
• 1:23:29
  for a bit longer and he kept complaining the whole time me.
• 1:23:32
  He was caught, and he finally called the woman.
• 1:23:35
  And apparently, she sounded really stressed and said, I'll
• 1:23:37
  be there in 5 minutes or 10 minutes.
• 1:23:40
  And he said, oh, if she's not here in five, I'm leaving.
• 1:23:42
  And I just get out of this point.
• 1:23:43
  I'm just so annoyed at this guy and I wait, and then I see them
• 1:23:48
  walking down the road and I never forget this.
• 1:23:51
  It was a woman, maybe in a 30s and she's got two sons ones bit,
• 1:23:57
  younger ones, a bit older and she clearly looks very stressed
• 1:24:00
  and I don't know this too. Be the case for certain, but I
• 1:24:05
  think she was a single parent mom, because I remember that
• 1:24:08
  same look in my mom's eyes when she was a single parent Mom.
• 1:24:13
  It's that kind of look of like absolute just stress and worry
• 1:24:18
  trying to get things done. Whilst everything else around
• 1:24:21
  you is seemingly falling apart and you've got to look after
• 1:24:24
  your kid or in this case, two kids I recognize that look, I
• 1:24:27
  just knew that this woman needed our help and I was all for
• 1:24:32
  helping her As that's what we're supposed to do as a charity,
• 1:24:35
  that's what you're supposed to do.
• 1:24:37
  So I was very ready to help this lady and she explains.
• 1:24:42
  Yeah, we've just moved into this property when we walk in there.
• 1:24:46
  Like, it's literally like, it's, there's a lot of refurbishment
• 1:24:49
  needs to be done. There's wallpaper Fallen that
• 1:24:51
  like it's a, it's a sty, but she's just moved.
• 1:24:55
  She just got it. I don't again.
• 1:24:57
  I don't know that she didn't have like a husband there or
• 1:25:00
  something, but she We moved all this stuff up the stairs and it
• 1:25:06
  was really heavy and awkward to get up, but we got it up there.
• 1:25:08
  But there was these two really large packages at the bottom of
• 1:25:12
  the stairs which had nothing to do with us.
• 1:25:14
  But they were really large and they would like but she said
• 1:25:18
  there was no way of her being able to get them up the stairs
• 1:25:22
  and that's when I kind of knew that she's probably a single
• 1:25:26
  parent because if she's got no one to help her get those up the
• 1:25:28
  stairs, then she's probably on her own and obviously she can't,
• 1:25:33
  she's got These young kids but I think they like 10 and 5.
• 1:25:37
  Then I'm gonna be able to help her get these packages upstairs.
• 1:25:40
  Even though they're light, you need some people that are
• 1:25:44
  adults, like to help you. She needs at least another
• 1:25:46
  adults help her, get them upstairs.
• 1:25:49
  And we immediately just, I said, yeah, no problem.
• 1:25:52
  And my colleague funnily enough actually was willing to help
• 1:25:55
  which surprised me, because I thought you'd complain, but I
• 1:25:58
  think because we'd already done that stuff, we might as well,
• 1:26:01
  you know, and we got these packages up the stairs there.
• 1:26:03
  Really light and at em, rented, the lady.
• 1:26:07
  And I saw in her in her face, she just looked so relieved.
• 1:26:14
  And so, so, so happy. That I'd actually, I was able to
• 1:26:22
  help her in that scenario and I just said, hey, yeah, no,
• 1:26:26
  worries that come on, it's no big deal.
• 1:26:28
  Like, this is what we're here for, you know, it's a pleasure
• 1:26:30
  to help you. She was like, no, thank you.
• 1:26:32
  Thank you so much. This means so much.
• 1:26:34
  Thank you. Thank you.
• 1:26:35
  Thank you. And it really just made me
• 1:26:38
  happy, like, in that moment, I realized that this is why we do
• 1:26:41
  volunteering. This is why we help people
• 1:26:43
  because, you know, people aren't always able to help themselves
• 1:26:46
  and your that that Olive Branch that link that thing that can
• 1:26:50
  help people sometimes get on their fee, or just help them
• 1:26:53
  along a little bits there, in a little bit of better the
• 1:26:56
  situation than they were before. And I remember, just as I was
• 1:27:02
  walking out, I was like, yeah, no worries.
• 1:27:03
  It's very Christmas because it was free full days before,
• 1:27:07
  Christmas, I believe and she was over the moon is putting it
• 1:27:12
  lightly. And that's the story I wanted to
• 1:27:15
  leave you with today. If you're considering
• 1:27:19
  volunteering doesn't matter how many hours you can do a few
• 1:27:23
  hours a week here and there. I'd really recommend that you
• 1:27:29
  consider doing it because you're literally changing people's
• 1:27:33
  lives for the better and it will be one of the best things that
• 1:27:37
  you do. Not just for them, but for
• 1:27:39
  yourself because obviously, you feel, you feel better when you
• 1:27:43
  help people. But It's one of the biggest
• 1:27:47
  things in my life, amongst all the different things that I do
• 1:27:49
  in my life. It's the one thing that I can
• 1:27:51
  truly say. I'm most proud of because I
• 1:27:57
  always get the same feeling, I always feel like, No matter what
• 1:28:03
  I do with my life, I'm at least putting some good into the world
• 1:28:06
  through that not to say, I'm pretty bad into the world
• 1:28:08
  elsewise, but for me that feels really meaningful and I try to
• 1:28:13
  find that same level of meaningfulness and everything
• 1:28:16
  else I do. But with this thing, it's truly
• 1:28:19
  a thing that I feel is needed in society.
• 1:28:24
  I think we should all consider doing a bit of volunteer work
• 1:28:27
  here and there even if it's just for a few hours a week, I
• 1:28:29
  honestly feel like there's a lot A value in that.
• 1:28:34
  And I employ you, if you've never done volunteering before,
• 1:28:38
  please consider doing it maybe make it a New Year's resolution
• 1:28:41
  for next year. Something to consider doing and,
• 1:28:46
  yeah, I love volunteering. I think I'll I'll always do some
• 1:28:50
  sort of volunteering but there's my story, there's a few stories
• 1:28:54
  of my experiences volunteering and the reasons why I do it and
• 1:29:00
  why I continue to do it. And like I said, yeah, I
• 1:29:05
  honestly think you should you should consider doing it.
• 1:29:07
  It will be one of the best things that you ever do.
• 1:29:10
  And I hope you enjoyed this episode.
• 1:29:12
  I know it's a departure from what I normally do, but I think
• 1:29:16
  you can expect to see more of episodes like this in the
• 1:29:18
  future. Not to say, I won't be doing
• 1:29:20
  the, the, the interviews because I will.
• 1:29:24
  But I also want to do these episodes too, so I can test
• 1:29:28
  myself and share with you a slightly different version of
• 1:29:31
  the question. Free podcast, but something that
• 1:29:34
  I think might have some value at least, please.
• 1:29:39
  Let me know if there's topics that you wish for me to cover in
• 1:29:42
  the future, more than happy to take suggestions.
• 1:29:46
  And most importantly, I hope you enjoyed this episode.
• 1:29:50
  I hope you got something out of it.
• 1:29:51
  Thank you so much for listening. Be safe, be well, and I'll see
• 1:29:56
  you in the next one.