Cooking for one

Regarding voluntary things, it is supposed to be voluntary, not being pressurised into something that you don't really want to do.

Am not knocking doing things for others, whether it be a charity, a total stranger, friends or family. That is something I believe strongly in, help out when you can, and put yourself out if someone is in need.

There are things that I can and will do to help raise money for certain charities here in Cyprus. I can't help them all, it's just a case of doing what I am able to.

I no longer give financial aid to any UK charities. I was totally sickened by the continuous asking for more, so cut it all off. Actually what was the worst was a childrens charity, which I had written to, saying that payments would be stopped in 3 months, as we were leaving the country. Got a hideous email saying that we were destroying a child's dream. It was a local charity, and it was doing good work. However, that email was pure blackmail, evil and totally wrong. I cut off all funds to that charity immediately, and then stopped other charity funding, without warning them too much in advance. Probably very wrong, morally, but when charities don't have many morals any more, I am not so inclined to care.

My Mother-in-law died just over a year ago. Turns out she had been giving a lot of money to various "charities". When we lived near her, we kept an adept eye on things. Unfortunately, no idea of how much she paid out, but an eye-watering amount. I had already had a word with her, about being careful with online things/telephone calls, not a word did she mention. I do not for one minute think that she had forgotten. Seriously think that she was too embarrassed to mention that she had been conned. Why she did not go to the bank for help is beyond me, as she was quite capable....must have been too embarrassed to admit anything.

Suppose that we all would say that we would do thing differently these days, and we probably would. It was totally different years ago, when a woman was just there, kept her mouth shut, suffered a beating.
Unfortunately, the beating and the rape still happen, as some women do not have the freedom of getting out and about. Thing is, most of us don't don't know, as we keep ourselves to ourselves. We really should be a wee bit nosy if we hear odd things happening.
My parents neighbours...I was a child and in bed early, so knew nothing really, but did hear the neighbour screaming. My Mum has told me that she heard the woman screaming, but didn't want to interfere. Flipping heck...I'd be interfering right away, and meanwhile shouting for someone to call the police.