Thank you to the kind strangers who stopped in the pouring rain to help me when my paper shopping bag disintegrated.

One stranger offered the plastic bag her bubble tea came in and then apologized she didn't have a second one to give me; tourists who seemed just as devastated as me that the jar of mayo smashed; and a generous young woman, with a Disney Princess sparkle in her eye - she had a hard day herself running late to a new job, similarly caught out by the Metro trackwork, shared her umbrella with me all the way to the bus stop.

She spoke to me so kindly, it mopped up all my pathetic embarrassment.

I may have lost a jar of mayo, but found renewed faith in humanity.