READER'S OPINION: The people of Portsmouth are so kind

Rarely does one witness so many acts of kindness in one day as on Saturday, February 11, when my wife and I decided to visit Portsmouth to attend a performance of Dreamboats and Petticoats at the Kings Theatre.
The KingsThe Kings
The Kings

Not realising beforehand that it was the day of a Pompey home game, and not appreciating how heavy the traffic can be, we decided to drive down the M275 as far as the Park & Ride and use this.

A wise decision, we thought, seeing the queues on the M275 into Portsmouth.

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The park-and-ride bus dropped us near to Commercial Road, and from there we decided to take a bus to Albert Road – not realising that all the buses were crowded, taking some very good natured (and quite senior) Pompey fans to Fratton Park along Goldsmith Avenue.

My wife can’t see too well and can’t stand for too long, but on the bus a very kind young man, seeing my wife’s discomfort and distress, gave up his seat for her.

Then having got on the wrong bus (No 1 instead of No 2) we were dropped off at Festing Road and had to walk back to Albert Road to get the No 2 to the Kings Theatre, so arrived late for the show.

While at the excellent show, one of the staff at the Kings, using her torch, very kindly escorted my wife to the ladies’ toilet, waited for her, then brought her back to the seat.

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After the show we were faced with standing around in Albert Road in the freezing weather waiting for a No 2 bus to come along, or rather (as we did) foolishly walking along Elm Grove hoping that a bus would come along there.

No bus, but by then my dear wife had become very distressed, so we called into a phone shop in Elm Grove to ask if they were able to phone for a taxi.

The very helpful shop owner, seeing how upset my wife was, went and got his own car and gave us a lift to Gunwharf. What a kind man.

These acts of kindness by people of Portsmouth really impressed my wife and I, and we would like to publicly thank those nameless but so helpful people who perhaps unknowingly helped us to have a good day, despite our bad planning, my wife’s distress and the freezing weather.

Good on you, kind citizens of Portsmouth…

*This letter was submitted to The News by Bob Blackman, of Fareham