A blogger in need

Yesterday, I had a pleasant surprise. A regular reader who's setting up a new business, mustered all her courage to write me an email asking for pointers in writing a business plan. Of course, I was more than happy to help. *You don't have to be afraid to ask me you know. I won't bite!*

In fact, I so want her to succeed in her new venture, I wrote back immediately. It fills me with joy to see young people taking the first steps in making their dream come true. I always admire people like that. Those with aspiration and drive will go far in life. You go girl!

I'm also pleasantly surprised that my blog has allowed me to meet many people from all walks of life. In my two years of blogging, I've fostered new friendships, received a yummy birthday cake (thanks Huier!) and gifts (thanks Karen!) as well as met fellow bloggers in person (Amel, Nikki and Karen!). All these were beyond my imagination when I first embarked on this blogging journey.

It is in my nature to help a blogger in need, if it is within my capacity. So far, I've received nothing but good feedback except for this one time when a reader from across the world (I won't mention where) asked me to ship some foodstuff to him.

I did it immediately even though it was a rather complicated exercise. Our post office does not allow shipping of foodstuff, so I contacted DHL. I highlighted the shipping cost (which is very high compared to the cheap product I was sending) to the reader who said he's willing to pay. After visiting many grocery stores to find that product (it's cheap but not easily available), I finally shipped the parcel out. Due to the weight, distance and remote location of his home, the bill came up to US$190.

It has been many months and I have not received a cent from this person. The funny thing is I was slapped with an additional US$150 surcharge by DHL for extra weight only after the parcel was shipped out. I did not even tell this guy about the additional charges. In fact, I have written off the entire US$340 as bad debt but sometimes it makes me sad to encounter people like this. In case you're wondering, he received the parcel, consumed the product, wrote to thank me and promised to send money.

Well, that's just a remote case. It won't stop me from helping other bloggers in need just because of one unpleasant experience but this time I hope I'm wise enough to suss out the genuine cases.