Stranger in the night

At 10.30 there was a sharp knock on the door which is almost unheard of in these part! Either it was the ghost of Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (we've only just got through all that) or it could be robbers come to tie us up and escape with all our worldly goods (far and few between). But no, it was a very very tall man called Richard who had come in his super 4x4 to look at our oil situation. It was he who had spoke to my mate Jeremy! 'Don't worry I'll be back in the morning with 200 litres for your tank' he said. We sighed a huge how-can-we-ever-thank-you sigh and toddled off to bed. True to his word he arrived at about 10 this morning and popped the oil in for us. Gratitude poured from us like water from a well. We were so, so, so, so grateful and I'm not overdoing it here. With temperatures down to -10 overnight it was getting very, very cold indeed and now we have enough oil to see us through another couple of weeks.

We all know that society has gone to hell in a handcart or so we are told, and that every stranger is just waiting to get one over on you, mug you, rob you and would cross to the other side of the road rather than help. Northumberland isn't like that, we have had so much help from neighbours in the last few days, and here is a man I had never met before, who came all the way from Carlisle with oil for us and would not accept any payment apart from the actual cost of the oil. He runs a breakdown recovery service in Cumbria so if you get a problem you might want to call Richard from County Recovery. http://www.lubester.co.uk/index.html